Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240303 - Israel's Darkest Hour: Lessons From The Life of David - 1 Samuel 30:1-9

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#20240303 - Israel's Darkest Hour: Lessons From The Life of David - 1 Samuel 30:1-9 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word, recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co To learn more about the many resources
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available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Good morning, everyone. What a joy to be with.
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You always love being with Ed and Marie.
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I love them very, very much. And he's of course, headed off.
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They are headed off to a pastor's conference in Tucson.
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That's where I first met him. I'm not a pastor, nor do I play
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one on TV, but I love. I love them and I love this
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congregation. It's been a while since I've had
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a chance to be here. You may know that we though I
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would born and raised in the United States and with my the
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rest of my family. We made aliyah about 10 years
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ago this month actually. That means becoming dual
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citizens. We're still U.S. citizens, but
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we're citizens of Israel too. It means we get to vote twice.
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It's like living in Chicago really.
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And so that's fun. Some of you are from Chicago and
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you know, but that people get to vote early and often there, but
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and you know, it's, you know, when I told my sons, we have
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four sons, Caleb, Jacob, Jonah and Noah.
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And 10 years ago when we were getting ready to to do this big
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move as God was calling us to, to relocate our entire life from
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Washington, DC where we raised the boys to Israel.
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Yes, it was a great adventure. But I did tell the boys, listen,
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just to be clear, you know when we get there and you reach
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military age, you will be drafted and you will need to
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serve. And it's not like, you know,
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joining a gym or something. You know it's not optional.
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You have to serve and you may get called into a unit that has
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to fight. You may have to.
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You may end up laying your life down, down for your country.
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Now I said and and one of the boys said that'd be awesome.
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And I was like, OK, he's young, but he has at least the heart
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for it. I said.
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Now Dad, just to be honest, Dad is not going to be drafted.
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Dad's old, Dad's fat, Dad's blind.
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My feet are flat. The only reason they would draft
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me is if they need a hostage. Now at the time, that was funny
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and it's no longer funny. I mean, you shouldn't feel
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guilty about laughing. I told you, you know, in the
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spirit of the humor and what I what I said at the time.
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But but the truth is we are living through Israel's darkest
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hour. October 7th was the singularly
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worst, most horrific day in the history of modern Israel. 76
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years ago, almost in May, 76 years ago, Israel was
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prophetically reborn right 2000 years, more more than 2000
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years. Israel did not have sovereignty.
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Jews did not have sovereignty in the Promised Land.
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It was controlled at the time by the Romans and then later by,
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you know, others. And we all know that you know
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the basic trajectory of history. The Ottomans controlled it for
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hundreds and hundreds of years under Muslim rule, the British.
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But God said one day he would bring his people back from who
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were scattered all over the world and he would rebuild the
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ancient ruins and he would make the deserts bloom and he would
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give Israel's sovereignty and and and let us resettle in our
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ancient homeland that he gave us when he made a promise, a
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covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the sons of
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Jacob. And he kept that promised.
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Most of the church didn't believe that promise was was
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literal for much of the 2000 years of the church age.
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Martin Luther didn't think that. Augustine didn't think that most
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Christians for 2000 years, Christian leaders, pastors,
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priests, they did not believe that God literally meant he
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would resurrect the sovereign nation state of Israel.
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But it happened on May 14th, 1948.
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That was almost 76 years ago. But in those 76 years, though
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we've had repeated wars and traumas and terrorist attack,
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nothing, nothing has been as bad as October 7th.
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And it's raised the big question where is God?
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Where is God in Israel's darkest hour?
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So I want to start to work our way through that, but let me
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first sort of paint the picture of how bad it's really been.
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And it's church. It's Sunday morning and it's
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Christian radio, if you're listening on Christian radio.
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And so I I as bad as I'm going to paint it, it's worse than I'm
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explaining, OK, just have to trust me on this.
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On October 7th was a Saturday morning, it was a Shabbat, it
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was a Sabbath. So you know Saturday is Israel's
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Sunday, Sunday, right? This is the day that is the only
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day we get off. We don't get a two day weekend.
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We only get one day off. And for some who go to
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synagogue, it's their day. Those of us who go to church, we
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go on Saturdays. And it was also a Jewish
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holiday. Simchat Torah.
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I mean the joy of the Torah. The Torah is the first five
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books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, we would say in
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Greek, the five books of Moses, that God handed down to and
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through Moses to the nation of Israel, right on Mount Sinai.
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And that's a day that actually commemorates that this is a good
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thing, that God gave us his word, that he spoke to us as a
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nation. Now, that's not to say that even
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most Israelis read the word of God or believe it or embrace it
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or the God who wrote it. Like that's that's a problem.
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And we're going to talk about that.
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But, But this is a day that you honor it, that you celebrate it,
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or at least you know your neighbors do.
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This is the day that Hamas decided to invade southern
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Israel with more than 3000 terrorists.
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Now it happened to also be the 50th anniversary of the worst in
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sneak attack invasion in the history of modern Israel, which
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was 1973. The Yom Kippur War, where Egypt
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and Syria attacked from both directions on Yom Kippur, the
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day of Atonement, our highest holy day in the Jewish calendar.
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And it was a war that almost LED us to use nuclear weapons
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against our enemies. Israel does not officially
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acknowledge that we have nuclear weapons up to this day.
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But according to foreign sources, I have to say as an
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Israeli, this was this was a big debate and if you get a chance
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to see on Amazon Prime or Netflix, whatever it is, the
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movie Golda, it's about Prime Minister Gold in my ear, the
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only woman Prime Minister in the history of Israel so far.
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And she was on the IT was her watch and she got blindsided.
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But she rallied the country to fight back.
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And Moshe Dayan, the defense minister, says we've got to roll
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out the nuclear weapons because this is it.
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This is the end of Israel if we don't do that.
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And there's AI think the scene's not long enough in the movie
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Golda, but but it's in there. And I commend that to you
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because you can see in a movie that just came out a few months
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ago the pain of a country under attack.
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I will also just note, as a side note, that Golda my ear, Where
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did she live right before she moved to Israel?
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Denver, Denver, Co You can even go to her house.
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I encourage you to do that. So anyway so we're there.
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We were we're celebrating Sincatura.
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We're it's a Shabbat. It's quiet.
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Yes we're we're remembering with big ceremonies and things this
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50 years ago we got invaded but nobody sees this invasion
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coming. 3000 terrorists come in and they murder 1200 Israelis.
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That one day it was literally the that more Jews were were
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murdered on that one day, October 7th, than on any day
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since the Holocaust. As a journalist with All Israel
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News, our sister site All Arab News that we started 3 1/2 years
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ago, that Ed mentioned. Why?
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Because I was going to have an aneurysm every single day
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looking at the horrible bias coverage of the mainstream
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media. Not all, but most.
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Against Christians, against Israel, against Yeah, truth,
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right? Media doesn't understand the
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difference between a man or a woman or a marriage.
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How are they going to get every other basic truth correct?
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So they don't and they don't care.
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And so I was either going to my head was going to explode or I
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was going to do something about it.
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So 3 1/2 years ago we started all israel.com and all Arab dot
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news Y to provide actual professional journalistic
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coverage of what's happening in Israel and the region and the
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world as it affects Israel and the region and it and to and to
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to do the opposite of every single thing that the mainstream
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media does. And I hope that is a resource
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for you. And so as a founder and editor
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in chief of that, but also in that role, but also in the role
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of the founder of the chairman of the Joshua Fund, this
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ministry to Israel and her neighbors, I went and visited
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those communities and and covered the war from the first
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hours. I also know that about a year
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and a half ago, two years ago, the head of TBN, Trinity
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Broadcasting Network, a network that I did not watch growing up
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but has changed significantly, become healthier and very, very
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interesting and effective. The head of that ministry, Media
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Ministry based in Dallas, his name is Matt Crouch.
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He asked me to come to Dallas for spend half a day with him
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and he said listen, I love all Israel news.
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It's so interesting, it's so helpful.
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Let's make a weekly prime time television show based on it.
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I said, Matt, bless your heart. You know, I got a face for
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radio, dude, I don't think you want me on television every week
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in prime time. But he said, look, do you
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realize, Joel, that in the 75 years of Israel, at that point
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nobody, no television network in the United States or worldwide
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had ever created a prime time television news and analysis
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show from Israel? Like, really?
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He said no. And certainly not from a
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biblical worldview, Certainly not from a Jewish believer in
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Jesus who, you know, has a relationship with the Prime
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Minister of Israel and and has spent hours and hours and hours
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with the king of Jordan and the president of Egypt and the Crown
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Prince of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and the
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leaders of Bahrain and Morocco. You have, God seems to have a
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sense of humor. He's opening these doors for
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you. And you have a perspective that
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I think would be useful in prime time as a show for helping
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people. And we didn't know this was
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coming, but we believe in the prophecies.
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We believe that we are going through birth pangs, right?
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Contraction relief. Contraction relief.
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We have four sons. I did not experience those
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contractions except in my hand right now.
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I'm not saying it's the same moms don't don't get, don't
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start a riot here. I'm just saying I understood
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that the contraction was coming when my wife would squeeze all
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the blood out of my hand. Now she was going through much
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worse pain. I get a but I was watching that
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monitor and saying Lord Jesus help me come Lord Jesus,
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American Atha. And then it would go up, up, up,
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up. And then it would peak and it
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would go down. Right?
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This is what Jesus is talking about.
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It's not that the world's going to be in horrible situations
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every moment of every day until he comes.
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No contraction, release, contraction, release.
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But as you get closer to delivery, as you get closer to
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the arrival of the one you're waiting for, in this case,
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Jesus, Malakha, Olam in Hebrew, the king of the universe is
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coming to my city, Jerusalem, to reign over the entire planet.
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Amen. Those contractions are going to
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get longer and more painful and the release times will get
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shorter and and that that that rhythm will intensify as you get
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closer to to the arrival, right. Well, I believe COVID was a
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biblical contraction. I believe Ukraine and the
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invasion by the czar of Russia. Now Vladimir Putin, the most
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evil man on the planet, that's a contraction.
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I'm not asking you politically how you see it.
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I'm telling you prophetically, this is the worst ground war
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since World War 2. It's a contraction.
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But Israel, we felt like we were in a release moment on October
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6th, right? We under President Trump.
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I mean, I don't want to get political here.
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I just want to say that I, of course, I created the greatest
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peace treaties in the history of the Middle East.
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I mean, there have been only two before me and you know, that was
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Egypt and Jordan. But but under me we had four.
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You know, Abraham Accords, one of the greatest things I ever
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did. I'm just saying, great, you
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know, so having a little fun here because this is a sober
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topic. So you know, so we're going to
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try to enleven it a bit unless spoonful of sugar makes the
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medicine go down. This is a hard message.
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So where we're going, but, but yes, we had, we had suddenly had
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peace trees with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and Morocco
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and Sudan and and we thought we were about to sign a peace
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treaty with us, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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That's how relaxed and comfortable we felt on the 6th.
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And then came the 7th and I as a journalist as the head of Joshua
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Fund of course and and and the Rosenberg report I went and
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under rocket fire. You can go back and look at
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these shows. We're under rocket fire.
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You can see them exploding over my head.
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We're covering the war we're I'm interviewing survivors of the of
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the savage butchery. I'm I'm walking through the the
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burned out ruins of Israeli farm communities and little towns and
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villages that had. Just.
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Where where people had been set on fire in their homes, alive
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and burned to a crisp. Where mothers had been shot in
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the face, murdered in front of their children.
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Where children had been murdered in front of their parents.
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Where Holocaust survivors who would come to Israel to finally
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be safe, were burned alive in their homes.
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Where women were raped and sexually assaulted beyond
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belief. Where people were beheaded.
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I've seen. I was invited to come and see
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the actual classified video of Hamas terrorists wearing GoPro
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cameras. The Israeli government has
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compiled about a 45 minute version of this to show to to
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key leaders that you just can't just go to the Internet and
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watch it. But they want people who just to
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see it for themselves. Some of it, some of it.
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It is horrifying. I I I'm not going to describe it
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to you here, but I'm telling you this has been our life for the
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last four and a half, almost five months.
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And a few weeks ago, after asking for two months praying
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for an open door, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman invited
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me and another Christian journalist to actually go into
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Gaza. And in a few minutes I'm going
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to show you about an 8 minute video of going into the the city
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that's the most intense fighting right now.
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When we got there, machine gunfire all around us, bombs
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exploding. You're going to hear, you're
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going to hear a buzz at times that's drones watching over us
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to make sure terrorists don't kill us.
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But I'm there with the general who is commanding the forces
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that are fighting to win that section of Gaza.
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And then they take us into the very Hamas terror tunnels.
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Where the This is a tunnel that no other journalist had ever
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been in. And I'll describe that.
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You'll see it in a few minutes. But my point is, God has given
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me a vantage point to see this horror and to talk to Israelis
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who oh, hello, my cup runneth over.
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Sorry, I think I just baptized the stage.
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But anyway, anyway, Israelis are not just grieving.
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We are grieving, and we are. We have.
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The first few months was weeping until we had no more strength to
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weep. 400,000 Israelis were called up to go into war
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overnight. Grieving.
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But not just grieving. Angry, Bitter, Baffled.
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Confused. Where is God?
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Where? Where is God in our darkest
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hour? Lord, where did you go?
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Moses? Israelis don't know the Lord
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personally, but even the Orthodox Jews are like, this is
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it. This is what we get.
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I have an Orthodox Jewish friend.
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Where's a kipa? Religious.
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He's so angry. He says he I can't pray anymore.
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His wife says no, honey, you have to pray.
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You have to ask God for for help and encouragement.
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No, I can't pray. I don't know what I believe
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anymore. And he's not alone.
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Israelis are not just grieving, they're confused.
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They're angry. Where was Where was God on the
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7th? And where is God now in our
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darkest hour? And I want to unpack that
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question and the only way to do it is to go to the scriptures.
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This is not the first time Israel's been attacked.
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It's not the first time a sneak attack.
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Not first time Israelis have been taken hostage by or captive
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by by enemy forces. So how have other people handled
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it And where was God then? So turn into your Bibles, if you
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would, to First Samuel in the Old Testament, first Samuel
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chapter 30. First Samuel chapter 30.
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And as you go there, I'm going to give you a little bit of
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context so you understand where where the story picks up.
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This is, you know, so David is going to be the king of Israel,
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right. He was anointed by the prophet
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Samuel many years before. But but and after that, right,
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he he kills Goliath and he becomes the hero of Israel,
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right? And he the king, King Saul loves
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him so much and he's so impressed with this young man,
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his courage, his bravery, his faith in God that he that he
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gives him. He gives David his daughter
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Mihal. And by the way, her name is
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Mihal. I hear many pastors say,
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Michael, No, no, it's Mihal. That's in Hebrew.
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And because otherwise it sounds like David married Michael.
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What? What?
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What's what's going on in this marriage?
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This doesn't sound healthy. No.
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You know, I mean, there was a lot of problems in that
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marriage, but not homosexuality. OK, So just Mihal.
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So anyway, so David now, not just a soldier and a commander
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in the Israeli army, he's beloved by King Saul.
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He's a son-in-law of King Saul. And then Saul gets jealous
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because the women of the country, first of all, David's
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very good looking and he's very heroic and he's rugged and he's,
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you know, he's the hero of Israel.
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So they're out there. The women of the country are
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singing, Saul has killed 1000, but David has killed his 10s of
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thousands. And Saul's like, I don't think
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that's going to work. He was.
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He was he. He became jealous and he turns
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against David. You know, the story starts
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trying to kill him and then he And then David has to flee.
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And then a massive manhunt. The entire Israeli army is
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hunting down their top commander for years.
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This doesn't go on for a few days or a few weeks.
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It goes on for years. Bible prophecy or rival scholars
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think that it's somewhere probably between 13 and 15,
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maybe up to 20 years was the hunt for David.
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And in this time, David, who was acting in faith for most of it,
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just runs out of gas and he gets despondent and he turns against
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God. He he, he just abandons God and
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he goes so carnal and he becomes so backslidden that he leaves
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Israel and decides the only way to be safe is going into
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Philistine country. To go where where does he go?
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He goes to Gaza. He joins the Gaza Philistine
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army. He appeals to the king of Gaza.
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His name is Hakish and he says, listen, Claw hates me.
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Can I hang out with you guys? And I'll help you in any way you
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need. And the King's like, yes, OK,
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wow, that's quite a conversion. Yes.
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And but nobody wants David and his mighty men, 600 mighty men,
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to live with them. So he.
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So the king of Gaza, the king of the Philistines, gives a city to
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David and his men and their families.
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Their families. Right.
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And it's the city of Ziklag. And where is Ziklag?
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It's right on the Gaza, Israel border.
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OK. Now, by the way, the
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Philistines, where does the name Palestinians come from?
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It comes from the Philistines. It's the same word.
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If you say Palestine in Arabic, you're saying Palestine.
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If you say Palestinians, you're saying Palestinian now
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ethnically they're not connected at all.
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But the Palestinian Arabs, Muslims have just decided to
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adopt that name. They live in the same place as
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the Philistines and they've just decided to adopt that name and
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and many of them, not all but they but many certainly Hamas
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leadership hates Israel and wants to wipe Israel out today
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like the Philistines wanted to wipe us out back in the Bible
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Times Now just to show how lost David now is how far from God he
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is. Is he a man after God's own
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heart? He had been.
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He will be not right now, for a year and four months, he's
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living in on the Gaza, Israel border, serving the king of
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Gaza. And now on this particular day
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in Chapter 29, the king of Gaza, the king of the Palestinian or
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the Philistines, is going to go and do their largest attack
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against Israel, up in the Jezreel Valley, up in the, like,
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near Armageddon. OK, I do encourage you to sign
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up for this trip to go with Pastor Ed and Marie and the team
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to go in the fall. Look, I I trust Ed.
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And I know that if he sees that it's not safe, he won't take
23:13
you. We live there and we are
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encouraging people to come, but not right this moment except on
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leadership, delegation, solidarity missions.
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But all that to say, I want him to take you.
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I want you to go and see the land and meet the people.
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Because it's one thing to stand with Israel.
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It's another thing to stand in Israel and to divert from the
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Bible, just for a moment, to quote Woody Allen, one 190% of
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life is just showing up, just coming to see the land.
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But also meet believers and meet Israelis who've been traumatized
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through this, this horrible year, this darkest hour.
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This is going to mean a lot. You have an opportunity just by
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your presence, much less your prayers and your worship and
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your and your, your love for Jesus in the land.
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You're going to have a real impact.
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The only people that are coming are evangelicals, and it's
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touching Israelis right now. But I also want you to go up and
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see Armageddon, Mount Megiddo, and I want him to drive, at
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least drive by the Armageddon. McDonald's.
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Like what? No.
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They're literally about 10-15 years ago, they opened up a
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McDonald's right around the corner from Armageddon.
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And you're like, why? Well, I don't know why, but I
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think that somebody in. I think it's Carol Stream.
24:27
I can't remember where exactly. It's anyway somewhere in
24:30
Illinois, near near Chicago. They have the headquarters for
24:33
McDonald's and somebody must have been going.
24:36
Listen, I don't know, but I hear there's a prophecy in the Book
24:39
of Revelation. They say all the armies of the
24:41
world are going to converge on one place sometime in the not
24:46
too distant future. There's not any restaurants up
24:50
there. What I recommend to the board is
24:53
let's open up a McDonald's, because you know they're going
24:55
to need to eat all these armies, right?
24:58
And now I don't know if they'll be loving it at that moment, but
25:02
I think the fries may be a little overdone.
25:03
I don't know if they've actually read the text of how bad it
25:07
goes, but anyway, they have set up an Armageddon McDonald's
25:10
there and I encourage you to see it.
25:14
OK, so all that. All right.
25:16
So now the state, you said. So David's going to join the
25:18
Philistines and go attack Israel.
25:21
He is supposed to be the king of Israel.
25:23
That's what he's being prepared for.
25:25
That's what God is preparing him for over all these years to get
25:28
him ready to be a good king. Not Saul, but God sovereignly
25:33
blocks David from being part of that attack.
25:35
Why? The way he God does it.
25:38
And you know you can read it for yourself in 29, but it's the the
25:41
Philistine general's like, no, there is no way we are going to
25:45
go fight next to David against Israel.
25:49
The the easiest way for him to reconcile with Saul is to kill
25:52
us all from the back when we go into battle with him.
25:55
You know, I don't know if you remember Dana Carvey back in
25:59
Saturday Night Live days and 80s, nineties when he was doing
26:02
impressions of George HW Bush, President Bush.
26:04
And he'd be like Nat gain a debt.
26:07
Nat gain a debt wouldn't be prudent.
26:09
Not at this juncture. Very scary.
26:12
You know, So I think that's what was going through the mind of
26:14
these, these philistine generally not gain a debt.
26:18
Not not gain a debt. And I know for some of you,
26:23
you're too young. You're like, I don't remember
26:25
that. Well, do you remember Bill
26:27
Clinton? Is that is that a little closer?
26:29
Oh, no. OK, maybe not.
26:30
All right. Well, anyway, we're able to move
26:32
on. We'll go back to CHIMP.
26:34
I know. You remember him, you know.
26:35
All right, So, anyway, I digress.
26:39
So, so now we pick up with Chapter 30.
26:42
So, so the Philistines, our generals say to the king,
26:46
there's no way we're working with David.
26:48
And And so the king is like, look, David, you know, you've
26:50
been loyal to me, but you got to go home.
26:53
You got to take all your men back home because my generals
26:56
just aren't having it. OK, So that's where we start in
27:01
first annual Chapter 30, verse one.
27:03
Then it happened when David and his men came right from the
27:07
north to Ziklag on the third day.
27:10
By the way, it's about a 75 mile journey they're making.
27:12
So they're they're they're marching with all their gear
27:15
about 25 miles a day. OK, now these are mighty men,
27:19
but they're tired. They've gone 75 miles.
27:22
And when they get there, they see that the Amalekites, another
27:26
huge horrible historic biblical enemy of Israel that live in in
27:31
the Sinai desert, in the Negev desert, they have come and made
27:35
a raid on the Negev and on the city of Ziklag, right on that
27:39
Israel Gaza border. And they'd overthrown Ziklag and
27:43
burned it with fire now in God's sovereignty by blocking David
27:49
from attacking Israel, which would have been horrible and
27:52
sinful because he's supposed to be the king of Israel and it
27:56
will be someday. But he also sent him back to
27:59
Ziklag, because this is to see this in real time.
28:05
So what happens? Ziklag is overthrown with and
28:07
burned with fire, and the Amalekites took captive the
28:12
women and all who were in the city, both small and great.
28:16
They didn't kill anyone, the text says, but they carried them
28:19
off and went on their way. They took the entire city
28:22
hostage and and took them away. Now David and his men knew this
28:26
because there weren't any bodies, unlike the bodies I saw
28:30
all along the that border between Gaza and Israel, those
28:34
bodies at all. There were no bodies.
28:36
Everyone had been taken captive hostage.
28:38
Verse three. Sorry, sorry.
28:41
Verse four. Then David and the people who
28:45
were with him, his 600 mighty men, they lifted their voices
28:49
and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.
28:59
Have you ever been in that moment?
29:04
Maybe you lost a child. Maybe you lost a spouse, a
29:09
parent, a brother or sister. You know, your own parents,
29:13
that, that, that, that send you into such grief that you could
29:16
barely imagine recovering from it.
29:19
Maybe it was a divorce. Maybe it was a betrayal.
29:23
Maybe it was a bankruptcy. There's 1000 different ways we
29:27
can be sent into this type of grief, and I have no doubt that
29:31
all or the vast majority of you have experienced that type of
29:35
grief. Those who haven't, you will.
29:40
And I think if I scratch just a little bit under the surface,
29:43
some of you are grieving almost that badly right now.
29:48
That's where they were. I've never, I had, never.
29:50
I've dealt with grief in my life, but never, I've never wept
29:54
as hard as since October 7th. And grief doesn't just happen in
29:59
those early days or weeks. It doesn't.
30:03
By God's mercies, you can contain it, somewhat, control
30:07
it, start to heal from it, but it will well up when you least
30:11
expect it. And that has been happening for
30:13
the last almost five months with my wife, with me, for our entire
30:16
team, all my colleagues, entire nation.
30:22
So what happens? David's two wives have been
30:26
taken captive. I'm not going to get into why
30:29
does he have more than one wife. It's a different study for a
30:31
different day. But it gets worse for David.
30:36
This is as bad as it gets, but it actually gets worse for him
30:39
personally. Why?
30:40
Verse 6. Moreover, that's not something
30:43
good. You don't want to see the word.
30:44
Moreover, when God is listing out a series of horrible things
30:47
that are going on in your life. Moreover, David was greatly
30:53
distressed because the people, his men, his team, his army
30:58
spoke of stoning him, right? They were so angry that that the
31:04
text here says all the people were embittered.
31:06
It says bitter of soul. They're physically exhausted
31:09
from 75 mile marches. They're emotionally spent and
31:14
devastated, despondent, and they are spiritually angry.
31:19
They are bitter and they're turning all their bitterness on
31:22
David. David's their leader.
31:24
David's not walking with God, and disaster has struck them.
31:28
Now at least they're there, but that's not the way they're
31:32
seeing it. David, God, David is now in the
31:37
lowest place in his entire life. He gets to some other bad places
31:42
later, but this is the lowest ever.
31:46
And you say, well, where is God? Well, God's still right there.
31:50
It's not God who has moved. It's David.
31:55
It's not God who's been unfaithful.
31:57
It's David who's been unfaithful.
31:59
You're like, but he's the man after God's own heart.
32:01
Yeah, but he wasn't perfect and he bailed on God and he forgot
32:10
there are consequences. I don't think this was a
32:12
judgment. This is this isn't God burning
32:16
his city down. This is Satan burning the city
32:19
down. This is the enemy.
32:20
But David seemed to forget that if you leave your shepherd,
32:26
there are savage wolves. There are ravenous beasts trying
32:29
to kill you and your people and your family.
32:32
David's the one who teaches us because God taught him.
32:36
The Lord is my shepherd. Not just ours personally, but
32:40
the nation of Israel. The Lord is my shepherd.
32:43
I don't need anything. I don't need to worry about
32:45
anything because he'll take care of me.
32:47
He'll feed me. He'll protect me.
32:49
He'll. He'll lead me to water.
32:50
He'll lead me into green pastures and make me lie down
32:53
and rest. He'll lead me beside quiet
32:55
waters. He'll restore my soul when I
33:00
walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
33:02
I don't need to fear evil because, look, you are with me,
33:05
Lord. Your rod and your staff, they
33:06
comfort me. David had forgotten all of it,
33:11
and he didn't understand that if you, if you wander from your
33:14
shepherd, you're going to get attacked by wolves.
33:19
If you join the enemy, you make your family vulnerable men, if
33:26
you are not walking with the Lord, if you're drifting, if
33:29
you're wandering, if you're an outright rebellion, it's not
33:33
just you that's going to suffer. You're the shepherd of your
33:37
family. Do not leave them unguarded.
33:41
Do not leave them on guarded because there are consequences.
33:48
There are consequences to sin. This is this is where David is.
33:56
David has two choices now. Fully abandoned.
33:59
God forever. Or turn back, Repent, apologize,
34:06
beg God for mercy, and admit everything you've done wrong.
34:11
Those are lessons we can learn today.
34:13
I don't know where you are, but if that's where you are, this is
34:18
the answer. And what?
34:19
What does David do? He does the right thing.
34:21
Finally, it's been a year and four months.
34:23
This text tells us of outright rebellion and drift, but now he
34:28
does the right thing. But David strengthened himself
34:31
in the Lord, his God. Now, the text doesn't say how,
34:35
but we know enough about David's life to know what he did.
34:38
He went back to Psalm 23. He went back to these truths.
34:42
I have a shepherd. He does love me.
34:44
He does care for me. He wants to feed me.
34:47
He wants to give me water. He wants to protect me from
34:50
ravenous beasts and savage wolves.
34:52
He loves me. He will provide me.
34:54
He will guide me in the path of righteousness for his name's
34:57
sake. So David goes back to first
35:00
principles. He goes back to the Word, the
35:02
Word. He didn't have a Bible that he
35:05
could whip out. But the Lord has spoken these
35:07
songs through him and he knew them.
35:11
And he begins and we can just see it.
35:14
He's turning back to these basic truths about who God is and
35:17
about who he is and the promises God has made to him and that God
35:20
has. It's not Where is God?
35:22
God's right there. Where's David?
35:25
Right? We see this in Genesis when God
35:28
says where are you? Adam is God didn't go anywhere.
35:32
He's still walking through the garden.
35:33
He wants this relationship with Adam.
35:35
It's Adam who's hiding and Eve. And so David turns back and he's
35:41
and he's and he's repenting and he's praying and he's he's he's
35:45
admitting and he's asking for forgiveness and he's singing
35:48
these songs these psalms again and he's and he's letting the
35:52
Lord restore him. But that's not all.
35:57
Then verse 7, David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of
36:00
Hymnlech, please bring me the Ephid.
36:03
The Ephid was a religious Jewish religious garment that that was
36:07
used in religious ceremonies. Now David is not a priest, but
36:11
he has used this before and it's been OK in his particular role.
36:17
It's basically he's trying to do a He's not just personally
36:20
repenting. He's sort of formally going
36:23
before the Lord and saying I'm submitting to your law, to your
36:29
your spiritual process of repentance.
36:32
And and I'm worshipping you and I'm, I'm, I'm all in, Lord, I'm
36:36
back. Help me, please.
36:38
Without you, I'm lost. All is lost.
36:45
So Abiathar brings the ephah to David and then David does
36:50
something else. He's not just repenting.
36:51
He's not just worshipping. He's not just strengthening
36:53
himself In the Lord. Now we ask God for guidance for
36:57
wisdom. Verse 8 David inquired of the
37:00
Lord and he asked two questions. First is A a directional
37:06
question and then is is a a. Is it going to work?
37:10
Question. The first question is, shall I
37:11
pursue this band? What band?
37:14
The band of terrorists that have just come and burned the city to
37:18
the ground and taken all their wives and children.
37:22
Should I do it? Is it worth it?
37:24
Right. Like he just practically.
37:26
Should I go do that, Lord, because I don't want to just do
37:29
my own thing. I've been doing my thing for a
37:31
year and four months. It has been disastrous.
37:33
I've lost all my possessions, all my, you know, spiritual
37:36
relationship with you. I've I've I've lost the respect
37:39
of my men. I've left all my possessions, my
37:42
wife. I'm not making another decision
37:45
on my own. It's not working.
37:49
What do you want me to do? Should I pursue?
37:52
And then he asks, shall I overtake them?
37:56
Like, is it going to work? Is it?
37:59
Is it worth doing? I'll do it, Lord.
38:01
But could you also tell me, will you give me success?
38:04
And does God say, well, you know, you had your chance, buddy
38:08
boy. Not going to happen, Not going
38:10
to do it. No, he says He he responds he's
38:14
he's always wanted to respond to David's repentance.
38:16
And he does. It's beautiful, the Lord says to
38:20
him, verse 8 #1. Yes, pursue #2.
38:24
You will surely overtake it. You're going to find that you
38:27
know they don't have GPS, they don't have satellites, they
38:30
don't have spies. They're going to go and find
38:32
this enemy in the desert someplace.
38:35
It's not easy to do. And 3rd the great promise, and
38:40
you will surely rescue all of them.
38:43
Well, David is now gone from the lowest to the highest.
38:47
Now he goes out and he tells me, listen, you know, I blew it, but
38:51
God's with us. Follow me.
38:53
If you don't want to come with me, fine.
38:54
But I'm going and God's going to give me success.
38:56
And the guy's like, all right, we're in.
38:59
Now there's many other challenges and many other
39:01
interesting twists and turns in the text, but but for our
39:04
purposes this morning I want to wrap that part up by saying God
39:08
keeps his word because God is our prayer hearing and a prayer
39:12
answering God. He keeps his word.
39:16
If he makes a promise, he keeps it.
39:17
We make a promise. Maybe not so much but but he's
39:21
not like us. Thank God.
39:24
And it says here in verse 18 that not only, I mean ahead of
39:28
it, you'll see the the the fight.
39:30
And they they they find them. It's it's amazing.
39:31
It's miraculous. They find the enemy, they
39:34
slaughter them. They give everybody back.
39:36
Verse 18. So David recovered all that the
39:39
Amalekites had taken and rescued his wives, and nothing of theirs
39:44
was missing. Whether small or great, sons or
39:46
daughters spoil or anything that the the bad guys had taken for
39:51
themselves. David brought it all back.
39:55
It's beautiful. A few minutes or a few days ago.
39:59
Maybe David is the lowest point. He's in rebellion against God.
40:04
And people are like, where's God in this?
40:06
It's not God who moved. It was David and the men who
40:09
moved, but now that they're. That they at least that David's
40:12
back in the right relationship. He is leading and God is leading
40:15
him and David is faithfully following and we see success.
40:19
Now we have a movement in Israel for the since October 7th called
40:24
the Bring them All back Now movement.
40:28
This this dog tag that I'm wearing and most Israelis are
40:30
wearing them. Just to remind us, we had 240
40:34
hostages being held by evil, wicked people in those tunnels
40:40
under Gaza. And we have to focus on them.
40:43
Yes, we have to fight Hamas. Yes, we have to defeat them.
40:46
Yes, we have to liberate Gaza from this reign of terror to set
40:50
ourselves free from them ever doing it again.
40:53
But also to set the the Palestinians free from this
40:56
horror show that Hamas has reigned over them.
41:00
And we're wearing these dog tacks to remember.
41:03
But we're also as believers reminding ourselves.
41:05
In fact we just launched through All Israel News this past week a
41:09
social media campaign hashtag set the captives free.
41:13
Bringing them home now is a is a message to the government.
41:16
While you're fighting Hamas, prioritize bringing the hostages
41:21
home. OK?
41:22
Don't sacrifice them. They didn't do anything wrong.
41:25
They were sleeping in their beds on Saturday morning 7th.
41:28
It's you blew it. Government by letting that
41:31
border be so penetrable. You need to do everything
41:37
possible. Not surrender, obviously, but
41:39
make a priority to negotiate and it may be painful concessions
41:42
you've got to make. But bring those hostages home.
41:45
Half of them have been brought home already.
41:48
Miraculous to me, I think. And I believe that's the answer
41:50
to prayers of millions of followers of Jesus all around
41:53
the world. Because Israelis don't know God
41:56
personally and so they need us to intercede anyway.
42:01
So, but we also have to pray, we have to appeal to God in Isaiah
42:08
61 that he will set the captives free.
42:13
Because if the Israeli government could have done it by
42:15
now, they would have done it. They've gotten quite a few out,
42:17
but that's because God did it. But but there's still 134 in
42:21
those tunnels. So here's what I want to do.
42:23
I'm going a little bit long. I apologize, but I want to take
42:26
you into those terror tunnels. I want to show you some video so
42:29
you can understand that what we're actually facing.
42:33
And then right after, without a break, you're going to see a
42:36
short video on this appeal for people all over the world,
42:40
certainly here in the Denver area, the Aurora era area, to to
42:45
pray Isaiah 61. And then I'm going to wrap up
42:47
with just a few last thoughts and then we're going to pray.
42:49
But let's roll the video. Let me take you.
42:51
Let me take you inside Gaza. It's Joel Rosenberg for all
42:58
Israel news. We're right on the border of
43:00
Gaza and about to head in to Khan Yunus, the largest city on
43:04
the southern border, southern section of the Gaza Strip, where
43:10
we'll be speaking to Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss and touring
43:15
some of the places that Israel has done some of its most
43:18
intense fighting. And I'll be briefing you along
43:21
the way right here for all Israel news going into Gaza.
43:25
With me was Chris Mitchell, the Jerusalem Bureau chief for CBN
43:28
News and my TBN cameraman, shooting material for the
43:32
Rosenberg Report. The destruction we saw was
43:35
apocalyptic, Hundreds of houses destroyed or severely damaged.
43:41
Why? Because every single one of them
43:44
contained Hamas fighters, weapons and ammunition.
43:48
The IDF took us into the very center of Han Yunus, the city
43:52
where the fighting has been so intense for the last two months.
43:55
They took us into newly discovered terror tunnels never
43:59
seen by reporters before long narrow, hot, humid and deep.
44:04
The tunnels went down 25 meters, some seven stories about 75 feet
44:10
below Han Yunus. We were led by IDF Brigadier
44:13
General Dan Goldfuss, who's in charge of the fight to secure
44:17
Khan Yunus, hunt down Hamas leaders and liberate hostages.
44:21
The general was with us every step of the way, and he took us
44:23
into the very epicenter of evil. Soon I was standing in one of
44:27
the very cages where at least 12 Israeli hostages were held up to
44:32
very recently. I have to say it was a surreal
44:35
moment to wake up in Jerusalem and then in a few hours later to
44:39
be standing in this epicenter of evil.
44:41
It was hard to process. But that wasn't all.
44:44
Next to the General showed us the quarters were senior Hamas
44:48
commanders, very likely including Yaya Sinwar, the Hamas
44:52
terror master in Gaza, where they worked, where they slapped
44:57
8 and where Yaya Sinwar commanded this war for the last
45:01
four months. The general told us directly he
45:04
believes Sinwar was in those very tunnels and was clear that
45:08
these Hamas leaders had been forced to leave quickly once the
45:11
IDF came surging and fighting into the tunnels.
45:14
And in each section, the General explained what we were seeing
45:18
and answered our questions. If anybody in the world needs
45:25
evidence for the horrific actions that the terror entity
45:33
Hamas has done, you're in it. You're in this evidence from
45:39
this place over here. At least three hostages were
45:46
released, at least three hostages were released, and at
45:49
least three hostages spent time in here.
45:53
So if the world needs any evidence at all, if anybody
45:57
needs any evidence to the horrific action that was taken
46:02
by Hamas, we're in it again. Can you describe what's above us
46:08
right now? Above us is 25 meters of ground
46:13
gravel houses. We've been walking and walking
46:17
and walking and walking. We've changed the neighbourhood.
46:21
We're in a different neighbourhood that we entered.
46:23
We'll have the ability to go back, I would say somewhat
46:33
doubtful privilege of walking back through the tunnels all the
46:38
way out to the merge to the upper world, and this is where
46:42
the hostages were held. How many hostages were held in
46:45
the sun? Maniton and I'm.
46:53
Doing the usual. So at least at least 12 hostages
46:57
were held, at least 12 so we only identified.
47:02
Three that were held in here. That's why we're saying three
47:04
names. I'm saying three were released
47:06
from the ice. OK.
47:08
We're not giving any other names.
47:11
Do you understand why? Yes.
47:12
Do you describe 2? Yeah.
47:14
Has this ever been done? This has never been done, as far
47:17
as I know, in the history of the world or the military of the
47:20
world. It's the first time we are
47:23
living it day in, day out, learning day in, day out, making
47:27
mistakes, moving back, moving again, synchronizing between
47:33
over top, down, under, trying to maneuver, trying to have an
47:36
effect on each other, moving quickly underground, slowing
47:40
down, flanking underground and Overground.
47:43
And it's all connected with each other.
47:45
It's complex. It's a challenge, but as the IDF
47:48
has always done and the 98 Division has always done, we
47:51
meet that challenge. We put our minds together to
47:54
meet that challenge. The challenge is ongoing and our
47:57
mission is to dismantle the Hamas, bring back our kidnap and
48:05
and bring security to the State of Israel.
48:08
Did you specifically have to your fortune, have to fight into
48:11
this tunnel, or by the time you got here, had Hamas fled?
48:14
We fought in the tunnels, not only one tunnel in the tunnels.
48:19
We fought in the tunnels. We fought to take ground
48:23
underground. And yeah, that's part of what we
48:27
did. And that's part of the
48:28
difficulty evident to such a horrific action that this
48:38
horrifying care entity, as Hamas is, has taken.
48:43
And if we look around and I've asked many questions about the,
48:49
you know, the price that Gaza hanyunas pays the houses, yeah,
48:57
definitely there's a price that has been paid.
49:00
But. Look around you.
49:02
We've walked in a tunnel, it's under this neighbour and we've
49:05
walked and walked almost a kilometre.
49:12
We walked around and we found a compound, another compound,
49:14
another compound. We found weapons.
49:16
We found a cage. We.
49:18
Kidnapped. We're in it.
49:21
Kidnapped civilians, women, children.
49:23
One year old child was in there. We are fighting a just war.
49:32
On the 7th of October we were attacked.
49:34
A savage attack. And this is a just war.
49:38
And we will win this war with patients and with stubbornness
49:46
from every meter over ground and underground.
49:50
And my message to the world is patience.
49:53
But the. Fighting here is not only
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between Israel and Gaza. This is a fight between the free
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world, the world that believes in freedom and human rights and
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humanity and life to terrorists who believe in death and build
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death and death and death. It's been an extraordinary day
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walking through Moss terror tunnels, actually standing in
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the cages where Israeli hostages were held.
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So I'm released 3 but so many, 136 are still being held.
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We've got to continue to pray. We're going to pray for the
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redemption of of this, of this land, both Israelis and
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Palestinians. We're going to pray for the
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liberation of Gaza from Hamas, from the reign of terror of
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Hamas. We've got to pray for,
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obviously, the liberation of the hostages.
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We've got to pay for victory. And we've got to pray that the
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Lord gives wisdom to Israeli leaders to know what to do next.
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What do you do next, even after we win?
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And we will win, and we will win soon.
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But where does it all go next? We keep reporting on this.
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For All Israel News, I'm Joel Rosenberg in the Gaza Strip in
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Khan Yunus. Before October 7th, we in Israel
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were painfully divided. We rarely agreed on much because
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we're Jews. We're Arabs, secular and
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religious, left and right. Even more Where would be
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Israelis praying the same prayer?
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But now, after October 7th, we're united that we want our
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hostages back home. Isn't it not time for all of us
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to pray the same prayer? In the Hebrew scriptures, the
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Lord says to the prophet Isaiah that the coming Messiah would
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one day pray this prayer. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
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me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the
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poor. He has sent me to bind up the
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broken hearted Le quo le schwim d'Or to proclaim freedom for the
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captives. Schwim is the Hebrew word for
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captives or hostages. It's the same word in the
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Biblical Hebrew as it is today in Modern Hebrew.
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Schwim the la serim kachkoa and released from darkness for the
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prisoners, Le quo schnatklatso na donai to proclaim the year of
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the Lord's favor. This is the prayer that we need.
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We absolutely need the Lord to bind up our broken hearts in
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Israel's darkest hour, with so many hostages still in those
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Hamas terror tunnels, and we need to plead with the Lord to
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set the captives free. Would you join us in praying
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Isaiah 61 every single day? This is the prayer that Jesus
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prayed when he read from the Isaiah scroll in that synagogue
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in Nazareth, beginning his public ministry.
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So whatever language you speak all around the world, let us cry
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to the Lord. Please, O Lord, have mercy and
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set the captives free and. Postitia Wiznikov L'ico L'eshuim
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Draw. Set the captains free.
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L'eshuim draw. We serve a prayer hearing and a
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prayer answering God, a God who loves to answer the prayers of
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His people. So we invite you, those who
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stand with Israel, to join our prayer.
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Would you write or record your prayer with the hashtag, set the
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captives free and post it on your social media to mobilize
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your family and friends to ask the Lord to set the captives
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free? We stand together as one as we
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pray. Oh Lord, please set the captives
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free. I want to just close with some
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encouragement. As I mentioned earlier, most
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Israelis don't know the Lord, and so they don't know how to
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pray. They don't have a personal
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relationship with God. They don't know the Messiah of
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Israel. They don't know their shepherd.
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And so we need to be the prayer warriors.
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We as Christians all over the planet need to be the
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intercessors for Israel, but not just Israel, also for the
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Palestinians who are suffering. I do believe that is judgment.
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I believe in the case of Israel, it's it's it's the prophecy of
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Isaiah 99, what we're going through.
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Yes, a birth pang, Matthew 24. But in Isaiah 99, I'm sorry, I'm
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sorry, Amos 99, Amos 99, God says I will shake the whole
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House of Israel among the nations.
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That's what's happening. This birth pang is shaking the
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whole House of Israel to our core in Gaza.
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I think it's different. We're we're dealing with Genesis
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chapter 12, verses one through 3, the Abrahamic covenant, where
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God chooses Abraham to make a people and to be a blessing to
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the world. But he says to Abram, those who
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bless you I will bless, but those who curse you I will
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curse. And sadly, for 76 years many
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people in Gaza have been cursing Israel, and there are
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consequences to that. I'm not saying everyone there is
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guilty, but even those who are guilty, God still loves them.
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Sorry Saul, who became Paul. He was a religious terrorist who
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hated the church, a religious fanatic, arresting and killing
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Christians. But God saved him radically and
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he became he becomes the greatest apostle in in human
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history. So I have great hope for the
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people of Gaza, but right now they are reaping what they have
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sown. But we should have compassion on
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them. We shouldn't rejoice in
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judgment. God is sovereign and he there
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are consequences. But we are commanded to love our
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neighbors, to love our enemies. And so we should be praying that
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yes, Gaza should be liberated from this wicked regime of
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Hamas. And then may the Lord bring in
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thousands of, ideally Arab, Palestinian, but maybe other
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missionaries to preach the Gospel and plant churches and
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let everybody hear there is a God, there is a God in heaven,
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and he loves you and he wants to redeem you.
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He you've sunk into the lowest place, but he wants to liberate
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you and do a great work at the same time.
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We need to pray for the people of Israel.
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Yes, that our our actual captives, physical hostages are
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set free, 134 of them. And we want to breakthrough any
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day, any moment, any hour. Pray, pray, pray, Do not give
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up. Pray like in First Samuel 30.
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God said yes and he released them all.
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We don't have a promise that we'll get them all back.
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But don't give up. Pray and and look to these
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scriptures, but also pray that the Lord would start open the
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eyes of the Israeli people. And this last encouragement, I
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wish we had more time for this. But just to say, you know, Lynn
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and I both, you know, as a reporter, but also, you know,
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we're the founders of the Joshua Fund.
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We are traveling the whole country from the northern border
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of Lebanon, which is actually intensifying more and more
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attacks from Hezbollah. That may be a much larger war in
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2024 coming up very soon. Hopefully we'll be done by
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November, but we don't know. So we'll have to see, but, but
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we got the war in the South, we got the war in the north.
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But Lynn and I are traveling from the top of the country to a
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lot the bottom of the country, meeting with ministry leaders,
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pastors and ministry leaders that the Joshua Fund supports
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just to hear what are they seeing?
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What are they doing? What is God telling them?
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And they are reporting the first few months, grief, horror, all
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that we were going through, but now the last two to three
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months, openness, openness that they have never seen before.
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They say every single person we talk to wants to talk about is
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their God and who is he? How do we know him?
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Many, not all, want to talk about the Bible itself.
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What does the Bible say about who God is and how we can know
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Him? And some, not all.
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It's like a funnel. Some want to talk about Jesus,
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want to talk about Yeshua. This is the most open season as
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God shakes the nation. Some people are saying I need
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God. Some are saying where's God?
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I hate him. They're bitter.
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They're bitter in their spirit, Pray for them.
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But others are like, I'm a sheep that has wandered.
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They're not using that term, but they know they're lost.
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And they're saying maybe I need to get back to God.
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I need, I need to find God. I don't know how.
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God is moving. God is moving and that's what
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I'm here to report today. And that's that's the calling
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that my Lord put on my life. I've been traveling in and out
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of Israel for 37 years. We've been citizens for 10, and
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the Lord has used us to set up the Joshua Fund, all Israel
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news, all Arab News, and now the Rosenberg Report.
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Why? To be resources for you to to
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give you a way to understand what's happening and why it's
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happening and how we may make a difference.
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And then to actually make a difference in the land.
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To invest in the local believers so they can be the hands and
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feet of Jesus, so they can be lighthouses in the darkness.
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And that's never been more important than in Israel's
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darkest hour. Let's pray, ABBA.
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Father, thank you for your mercy.
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Thank you that when we are in our lowest place, when we've
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drifted from you, we've abandoned you.
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You're still right there. You're right next to us.
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Waiting, urging, pleading for us to turn around and come back to
1:00:00
you. You did it with David.
1:00:02
There are lessons here for us, whether we were focused on
1:00:05
Israel or not. There are people in this room
1:00:08
who feel angry at you. They feel like you have
1:00:11
abandoned them, when the truth is they don't know you.
1:00:18
They don't know you the way they should know you.
1:00:19
But they can find you. And this congregation, the
1:00:23
pastors and mystery leaders here, the laypeople can help.
1:00:28
The lost find the shepherd. We pray that would happen this
1:00:34
morning. We pray that would happen in the
1:00:35
days and weeks ahead. And we pray you would set our
1:00:37
captives free, physically, emotionally, spiritually.
1:00:43
There's healing that needs to be done.
1:00:45
Lord, it's unbelievable. But you love your people and you
1:00:50
love Israel's neighbors so much that you're letting the
1:00:54
epicenter be shaken seeing this birth pang pang unlike anything
1:00:59
we've ever seen in the modern age.
1:01:02
You didn't start it, Satan started it.
1:01:05
But what man has planned for evil, you are turning for good.
1:01:09
Strengthen your your body in the in the epicenter so that we can
1:01:14
be your hands and feet. We can be the voice of hope and
1:01:19
comfort, that we can be lighthouses in the darkness.
1:01:24
We love you, we trust you, and we know we're heading towards a
1:01:28
a Romans 1120 sixth world where all Israel one day will be
1:01:35
saved. Show us our place in this
1:01:39
spiritual battle and may we be found faithful.
1:01:43
Blessed is congregation and use them for your glory.
1:01:46
In the name of Yeshua Ha Mashiach.
1:01:49
Jesus the Messiah. Melekha Alam, the king of the
1:01:53
universe. And it's his name.
1:01:55
For your glory, Lord, that's in your name, we pray.
1:01:59
Thank you, Father. Amen.
1:02:01
Thank you. Bless you.
1:02:03
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
1:02:06
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
1:02:09
For prayer, call us at 87730. Grace, that's 877-304-7223.
1:02:19
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1:02:22
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1:02:27
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1:02:31
Worship Jesus this week.