Zionism

And everybody said, amen. Well, fill up your coffee, say good morning. Say happy spring. Good morning. It’s the only way I can start.

Is it Can I turn this down a little bit? Where do I go? Brian. 1234, check. 123412.

That’ll work. How about that? Down or up? Is it better here or here? Check.

123. Alright. Last last week, I had to fiddle with the remote with the AC unit and I had the clicker and on Tuesday at young adults, they were all making fun of me like, oh, no. Dad’s got the remote and he’s trying to like work the TV, so I appreciate the generational humor at my expense. Helps keep me young.

I mostly appreciate it. Alright, guys. Let’s see where we are. Once again, Israel is in the headline, so it works that we are in a series of conversations talking about Israel. And last week at this service and at the 11AM service, I mentioned that I feel like like we’re we’re coming towards the end of this series of conversations.

We’re we’re not there yet. There are a few things that the Lord has for us to cover, but but I feel like we are like, we’re we’re we’re getting there. And what I would like to do today is for us to warm up getting in the word by turning to a couple of verses to once again create an opportunity for our hearts to get synced up with the Lord’s heart. And so this is the first place that we’re going to turn. If you have your bible with you this morning, let’s turn to the book of Romans.

We’re gonna look at Romans 11 verse twenty eight and twenty nine, and we’ll put it up here on the screen. Let me just read this for you really quickly. Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the good news, and this benefits you Gentiles. Raise your hand if you’re a Gentile. That’s all of us.

Yet, they are still the people he loves. Who is the he in that sentence? Sentence? God. He loves because he chose their ancestors, for God’s gift and his call can never be withdrawn.

That verse is often used about Christians, and it’s great. It preaches great for that verse to be about Christians and for you, but we should never ever forget or neglect context on which that verse is saying. That the context of that verse being said has specifically, implicitly, directly to do with Israel, God’s great love for them, and his commitment to them, even if they are what of the good news? Enemies. Our tendency with relationships and with people is to be like, if you are good to me, then I’ll be good to you.

If you’re a good person, then it’s easy to be good towards them or think good thoughts towards them or wish them well. How do you wish somebody well that is an enemy? That’s kind of literally the most basic point of the gospel. But this verse speaks of God’s great love and his commitment to the nation of Israel and to you. Let’s look at one more passage as we stretch out, limber up here.

Psalms one zero five verse seven and eight. We’ll put this one up on the screen as well. He always stands by his covenant. The commitment he made to a thousand generations. The commitment that he made to a thousand generations.

Oh. Just a thought maybe. Alright. Good. That’s the one that I was thought you were gonna go to.

Alright. Psalms one zero five seven and eight. He always stands by his covenant. The commitment that he made to a thousand generations. This is the covenant he made with Abraham and the oath he swore to Isaac.

He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree and to the people of Israel as a never ending covenant. What’s included in that covenant? I will give you the land of Canaan as your special possession. Did you know that there are over 250 verses specifically in the bible that tie Israel to the land where Israel mostly exists and lives in now. We’re gonna talk about the land soon, but we have to talk about a really important term today.

And so if you’re taking notes, can write at the top of your notes. We’re on week six. It just seems like it’s flown by so fast. Right, tribe fam? Yes.

We’re gonna we’re in week six, and we’re gonna talk about this idea of Zionism. Zionism today. Zionism, I don’t know what you’ve heard or what you’ve read or what your understanding of Zionism is, but that’s really important for us to talk about. Zionism in the larger conversation of America and certainly around the world today, the word Zionism is for some people in some demographics on par with colonialism, imperialism, Nazism, fascism. Like, just put Zionism in the in the same category category as as as as all all of of those those other other isms of words.

And so in the same way that in the same way that the rainbow has been hijacked by an ungodly movement and ism. Whenever I see the rainbow, I think about God’s promise and his goodness and his faithfulness, and it doesn’t matter who waves that flag around. God is the ultimate definer of words and terms and phrases and meanings and signs and symbols, and I just choose my I just choose to align myself with him and and his promise. In the same way that Zionism has been purloined or or hijacked to create a negative connotation, why not today? We, as a tribe fam, define Zionism and take back that word and appropriately use it in the context that it was designed for God’s purpose and God’s glory.

Why does anybody else get to define words and terms and phrases? Let’s just let God be the last person to have the last word on these things. So today, we’re just going to define Zionism, and it’s really important if we’re going to talk about that word, it’s really important to look at the history of this word and where did this word even come from. So the word Zionism comes from the word Zion, and it’s just in its most basic usage. Zion is another name for Jerusalem, and it incorporates Jews and all of Israel.

So in the book of second Samuel, David is taking a Jebusite city, and that is the first time you can look this up. That’s the first time that the word Zionism is used, and it’s used in reference to the stronghold of Zion. Zion takes or excuse me. David takes that city. He establishes his capital there.

He moves from Hebron to this fortress of Zion, and it is today what we know of as Jerusalem. The word Zion is used many times in scripture and most often, it’s used by the prophets and it is most often associated or given as a pet name for Jerusalem or Israel. If the prophets if God is speaking through the prophets and he uses Israel, sometimes it is a name of affection given to Jerusalem as Israel. Sometimes, it is used in terms of correction, but think of Zion as a pet name for Jews, Israel, and Jerusalem in its most basic use, Zion. Another word for Jerusalem.

Now if you add the ism to the end of Zion, the ism makes it a movement. Fascism? Well, how about a positive ism? What’s a what’s a positive ism? Patriotism, even that.

Optimism. I like patriotism. I like patriotism. Optimism. I’m putting y’all on the spot.

Realism. So anything with an ism, it can then become a movement. So Zionism implies, it’s like the difference between speed and velocity. Right? Speed and velocity.

What is speed compared to velocity? It’s it’s best to understand speed in the context of velocity. Science people? You There you go. Right, Steve?

Velocity is speed in a direction. There you go. Okay? So so if if Zion is speed, Zionism would be velocity. Right?

Okay. Alright. Alright. Alright. That that illustration just really did not land for anyone in this room, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Okay. Here we go. We need doctor no. Come on. Give me his name.

Oh, Rylan. Yep. We need doctor Rylan Grace to explain the speed of light to us. Okay. So Zionism in its most basic form, I don’t think that I have this on the screen, but Zionism is a nationalist movement by Jews.

It is a Jewish nationalist movement. Alright. Let’s look at the history just really quick. The term was first introduced in 1890 by this guy named Nathan Brinbaum, and he was a a prolific writer and very involved in public discourse in Europe. And as a European Jewish nationalist movement, he was promoting agricultural resettlement of the Ottoman controlled area of Judea.

So he was writing from Europe, and he was talking about the area, the region of the Middle East that we now know of as that we currently know of as Israel, and he was a strong proponent of bringing Jews from across Europe and around the world to resettle in what at that time was an Ottoman controlled desert scrub land, arid and not fertile at all. It would be like calling people to develop agriculture right outside of Las Vegas or Reno, Nevada. Like, come on, it’s gonna be great. But it will be a it will be a dry piece of dirt, but it will be our piece of dirt. So he began using that term Zionism as a movement for agricultural resettlement of that part of the region.

Okay. Alright. Interesting. However, there are many Christians, some of them with a large platform that say the inception of Zionism is tainted and poisoned because a strong advocate and original financier of the movement was a Rothschild. Everybody say, oh.

Well, what has what has just happened in that statement would be what I call a logical fallacy, and I’ll walk you through that. We’ve gone from science, now we’re going into speech and debate. It’s a well rounded message today as we talk about theology. So I I I’ve given you my previous pastor, my former pastor’s example of a logical fallacy with a poodle. Right?

Alright. Well, here it is again. So we’re standing around with our our friend and our pastor living in Oklahoma, and he actually came to Tribe. He was at the Virginia, like, last year or so, maybe you remember him. Doctor Alex Hamayan.

So Alex and I were standing around with his family and some neighborhood friends come up to us, and this big curly dog comes bounding up to him and he’s petting the dog. And he goes because I have to say it in the exactly same way that he says it with his southern accent. He goes, what kind of dog is this? And the lady goes, it’s a poodle. And he’s petting the dog and the dog is licking him.

He’s like, no, it’s not. And she’s like, it is a poodle. And he goes, I don’t like poodles, but I like this dog. And we’re like, Alex. See, we all laugh.

He was absolutely convinced that that was not a poodle. Curly hair, the long bound I mean, 10 out of 10 people would say that’s a poodle. But because Alex liked that dog and he does not like poodles, therefore, can’t be a poodle. Can you see the logic is sound but completely inaccurate? I do not like poodles.

I like this dog, therefore, that can’t be a poodle. Next time he comes out to visit, we should all like have like poodle paraphernalia on us to give him a heart to and and just see if he notices. Okay. So in a similar way, we’re talking about the roots of Zionism. In a similar way, there is a logical fallacy at play that was slipped in right at the beginning in an effort, what I would believe, in an effort to discredit and to throw off kilter at the very foundation the whole idea of the movement of Zionism.

And I’ll say it again. It has been said that the inception of Zionism is tainted and poisoned. Therefore, the entire movement of Zionism, some Christians would say, is invalid and should be rejected because at the beginning, there was a man, he was a baron, a Rothschild, that put a lot of money effort and energy into getting the movement of Zionism off the ground, and therefore, it’s tainted. What do you have to contribute? There’s a mic in the room.

Well, I would just say, okay. Great. Rothschild. So? Like, isn’t that so like God to use enemies sometimes or imperfect things to create his plan.

Mute her. Mute her. Mute her immediately. Mute her immediately because once again, you’re racing ahead. So here’s the bad logic.

The bad logic goes like this. The Rothschild family is evil. Some would even say it’s part of the Nephilim agenda. The Rothschild the Rothschild family is evil. The Rothschild family was a strong advocate and financial backer of the early Zionist movement.

Therefore, the entire Zionist movement is tainted and evil. Can you see the the the logic? As tight as the logic is, it’s a logical fallacy because it’s inaccurate. Now, let me just say this, I am certainly willing to concede that there could be some could have some neffy odor in in that. Sounds great.

However we’re about to get to the however. Yes? I I had to Google it cause I didn’t know what a Rothschild was. We were BB? You learned of who BB was last week.

You’re learning who a Rothschild There are other people in the room that don’t know what that is. It is a wealthy Jewish noble banking family. Many people say have connections to the Illuminati, global world order, like secret behind the scenes string pulling type folks. Yeah. So thank you.

So thank you, Bethany, and and you are welcome for once again just this horizon and expanding, broadening of your intellectual education. Here’s the but or however. Let’s pose this question. Would God ever use immoral men or corrupt governments to accomplish his righteous purpose? Why am I in a room full of sane, rational, reasonable I am so blessed.

I am so blessed to shepherd this congregation of sane, rational minded people. Now, I’m being a bit hyperbolic in my exaggerations, but you would be surprised at probably even in this room how much of a narrative you have bought into that is based on a logical fallacy when it comes to this concept of Zionism, even though right now you are operating in a reasonable, rational mind. The logical fallacy is so articulate articulate and so subtle and so convincing that even right now, there could be a cognitive dissonance in your mind between the rational reasonability that you are experiencing right now and then when you go and open your phone tomorrow morning or check-in on social media or listen to the news, that that there can be disconnect between the rationality that you’re experiencing right now and the mindset that you may have six other days of the week. So let’s let me ask this question again, and then let’s answer it together. Would God ever use immoral men or corrupt governments to accomplish his righteous purpose?

What would you think? Yes. And somebody even said he does it all the time. Let’s look for a biblical precedent for this happening. And before we get into the example that I would like to highlight, what comes to your mind of an example?

Ella raises her hand, if we could get Ella the mic. Yeah, for sure. Wow, that was so fast, thank you. Salad. Salad.

Joseph, because his brothers literally sold him into slavery, and then God was like, no worries, I’m with you the whole time. And then, like, makes him pharaoh’s second hand so that he can, like, literally save his brothers later in life. His brothers were so naughty. And God’s like, I’ll use that. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. When the lord hardens Pharaoh’s heart in the seven plagues.

Yes. And what does god say of pharaoh? What does God say about pharaoh? He is my what? Servant.

He goes so far as to say. Jesus. Like, the Jews and the Romans killed Jesus. I had actually someone yelling at me one time being like, the Jews killed Jesus. And I was like, thank God.

Because he wasn’t killed. He wouldn’t have risen from the dead and we wouldn’t be saved. Yes. Yes. I mean, I would be willing to concede in this circle that even the Jews were naughty and were used by God.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Still are.

Not saved. Alright. Let’s talk about a guy. Let’s talk about it about a guy named King Cyrus. King Cyrus.

King Cyrus was from the first first from the fifth century BC. King Cyrus was from the Persian Empire. That word that I wrote down in my notes is now leaping to the forefront of current events. There’s a difference between the flag of Iran, cool flag, alright, cool, and the flag of Persia that is resurging back into prominence because the people of Iran now have an incredible opportunity in front of them to reshape the destiny of their country and to reclaim the century old beauty and brilliance and rich heritage and culture of the nation of Persia, what will happen remains to be seen. But this guy, king Cyrus, he was an idol worshiper, a pagan, demonic idol worshiper.

He worshipped the Akkadian god, Maraduk. And the religion of, to just use a really basic term, Zoroasterism, was a vile, detestable, pagan religion. And he was the leader of the country and he was the high priest of the religion during that time. So in our in our country, with our system of government, we don’t it’s it’s a foreign concept to us to be the national leader and the lead pastor. Like, we don’t our government is not set up that way, but still many governments around the world today marriage of national leader and, like, head religious leader.

Right? So that’s how it was with king Cyrus. He was worshiped as a god and received the worship of the people. Are you picking up what I’m putting down that this guy was a bad dude? He was not god honoring.

He he worshiped a vile and detestable god. The religion was a pagan Yahweh hating religion. But what Zoroasterism? That’s the so so Zoroasterism could be found today among the catalog of religions, but it has its roots all the way back to Marduk. In college or in high school, did anybody ever read the Epic of Gilgamesh?

That’s the same time period, that’s where that comes from. You can get it on Spotify, just type it in, Epic of Gilgamesh. And if you have it’s a very interesting read to listen to it today from a little bit different perspective. But anyways, this guy was nasty. What did he do?

How did God you there goes the epic of Gilgamesh right there. Look at what God did under his direction. Ezra chapter one. You can turn there if you would like. Ezra chapter one verse one through four.

Oh, there might not be a slide for it. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Ezra one one through four.

You’re not in trouble. Records that king Cyrus makes a decree that the Jews can return to their ancestral land and rebuild their temple. So if you read in Ezra chapter one verses one through four, King Cyrus makes a decree. The Jews that had been removed from Israel as a form of God’s chastisement against them. Alright, Israel.

You’re getting a time out. That had, according to God’s timetable, had come to an end. He moves in King Cyrus’ heart. In King Cyrus, in Ezra chapter one, it’s also recorded, I believe, in second Chronicles as well, a couple of places, but the exile return. Exiles return back to their homeland, and king Cyrus gives them permission and letters of authority to build, rebuild the temple.

Could you imagine if just by t o j decree you already know where I’m going. Like like, it’s been long enough since a Christian church was built in in Jackson. It’s been over twenty five years since the Christian church in Teton County has had a new space. I mean, we are the first church in that long to buy the to when we bought the TMC, we’re the we were the first church in over twenty years to to to buy anything. And imagine just the TOJ coming to us and being like, it’s been far too long.

I decree. Says Mark Newcomb on the town councilor. I don’t even know if he’s still on there or not. Yeah. Alright.

New prayer. Christian church should have a new place to meet and and we’ll pave the way and remove all barriers and occupancy limits and parking restrictions. And what were you gonna say, Bethany? I just have a question. So you’re so Cyrus, the Zoroastrianism, that was the religion of Persia at the time, or I didn’t The roots.

Get the connection there. The roots. So King Cyrus is an evil, wicked, pagan, demon worshiping king. Well, what well what was that religion? I’m just trying to give you some foundation or a a box in which to put well, what kind of demon?

Was he worshiping Baal? Was he worshiping, like, Enkidu? Was he worshiping Middle Eastern and gods? No. No.

No. I’m just trying to give you a box in which to put his vile, detestable religious practices could be traced to what today we would call Zoroasterism. There you go. So Ezra chapter one, king Cyrus does something incredible for Israel. And here is what God has to say about that vile and detestable detestable pagan worshiping scumbucket.

Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28. Do we have that one? Alright. Let me just read it to you. Write it down, and if you would like to, you can turn there.

Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28. This is a good one worth turning to. Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28. When I say of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. He will certainly do as I say.

He will command, rebuild Jerusalem, and restore the temple. What does God say about king Cyrus, this nasty, imperfect wretch of a man? He calls him my shepherd. We’re painting a picture here. Flip one or two pages to the right, Isaiah chapter 45 verse one.

This is what the lord says to Cyrus, his anointed one, whose right hand he will empower? Before him, mighty kings will be paralyzed with fear. Their fortress doors will be opened, never to shut again. I understand that this verse may seem a little bit of out out of context. What’s he talking about?

What what’s going on? But here’s the main point that that that does not detract away from you not with you not having the greater context, it’s okay. You still get the main point that I’m trying to make here and that is intended by the text. What does God say of king Cyrus? What does he call him?

His anointed. Now let’s go back to the original premise and then question. The original premise is that Zionism is a nasty word because it’s a nasty movement. It’s a nasty movement because the very inception of it was tainted by a Rothschild, and the Rothschilds are evil and connected, if not founding the Illuminati. Therefore, the what Christians would say, the entire Zionism movement is unseparated with unholy mixture, and therefore, you gotta throw the whole thing out as a Christian.

In its most basic, we’re gonna work towards reclaiming the definition of Zionism. Right? Then we looked at just one example of God using an imperfect and in this case, downright nasty individual to accomplish his plan and purpose after we’ve already thrown out a couple of examples of God using imperfect people to accomplish his will. And here is what God says about king Cyrus. Cyrus.

He is my shepherd. He calls him his anointed. Now I hope that for some of you that are well, I hope that all of you would be thinking very critically about this. And this is the this is a real point of theology that you need to wrestle with, and I’m not expecting anyone to come to terms with it right now if it’s a big deal for you. But how does a righteous and holy god use, I won’t even say imperfect, I’ll say a a a wretched, a wicked man to accomplish his holy purposes?

How does he do that? How does how do you reconcile your understanding of the nature and character of God, what he thinks about and how he deals with wicked people, and the end result of that. There are lots of Christians in America and around the world that have swept the movement of Zionism off the map for one of two reasons. One, because they have allowed somebody else to define the terms, and they have made they have defined Zionism in a negative, imperialistic, colonialistic, land grabbing, greedy Jew frame of definition that would discredit it, or they if you try to go to the roots of Zionism, it has it has connections, and there is the fingerprint of a Rothschild on that, and the Rothschilds are evil, therefore, all of Zionism is swept off. How do you reconcile that mentality, option one or two, with what we just read about God calling King Cyrus, a shepherd, my anointed one?

If it is challenging for you to reconcile, I am thrilled because that means that you fully grasp and understand the tension that needs to be worked through. Listen. This is worth writing down, and I think we might even have it on the screen. God’s sovereignty is not compromised by the corruption of his instruments. This is very, very, very important for you to grab a hold of.

God’s sovereignty is not compromised by the corruption of his instruments. Is God allowed to judge and to smite in this life an individual? Let’s say smite. Like, is he allowed to? Why?

Because he’s God. Is God now this is a huge question, and I understand if you are like, it’s hard for me to answer. I understand. Is God allowed to smite or to judge an entire people group? You said yes with your mouth, but your head shook no.

That was a little confusing to me. Is he allowed to? We’re gonna get to, he doesn’t know. This is huge. This is huge.

Why is he allowed to? The answer is because he’s God. Is God allowed to judge and to smite an individual? Yes. Because he’s God.

What grants him the right or the authority to smite or to judge an individual? There you go. He created them. And when you create something, you have ownership over it. The the basic right of private property.

It’s where we get it from. It’s because God invented it. Human creation is his private property. He is allowed to do with it whatever he wills, whatever he chooses, nor is he obligated in any way to owe, a, the rest of the universe an explanation or or, justification, nor the objects of his creation. Now let me ask you a very real question.

Would anybody wish that God would run his decisions by them before he executes his will? Yes. All of us. Thank you for answering honestly, collectively. Everybody say thank you, Amanda.

Why are you doing that, God? Why did you do that to me? Why did you do that to my dad? Why did you do that to to this coastal city? This is really, really important because it has profound far reaching applications for individuals and for entire people groups and nations.

Jacob. And and and if you’re like, this seems really broad. It’s a it we’re gonna get more condensed and processed. Just say I think the opposite of that, which I think is important. You only you can’t be in the middle of that topic.

Either you believe god is sovereign, is in control, and can do whatever he wants with what he’s created, or the opposite of that would be, I’m god, and I can decide how things go. Two men enter. And that’s the only two choices you have. Two men enter, one man leaves. This is this is a battle to the death in the Thunderdome.

Is it your will or is it God’s will? You don’t get to say, well, I I think that he is wrong. No. No. No.

And not kill God. God must be killed in order for you to survive an exit. I know better than God. Does God how about this? Let’s step on some more toes.

Does God have the right to commit genocide? Yes. There’s an off ramp for you here. There’s an off ramp for you here. And I’m not talking about right now in this moment that you need to get up and leave.

No. No. No. But I don’t know. Maybe.

But for you to deeply consider, if you’re following Jesus, who is god and the son of god, and then proper name of god is Yahweh that you serve, the creator of heaven and earth, the god that you serve has committed acts of genocide. And if you want a broad brush stroke, is he a genocidal god? That’s the god that you serve. You need to come to terms with that. If you try to defend it, dance around it, justify it, you will be thrashed by those who who do not like the notion or would mock you as a person who follows a genocidal god?

Yes. We’re gonna land the plane here today. Okay. I guess this is like maybe a bigger conversation, conversation, not for now, but but a lot of people will say, God didn’t cause those things, he allowed those things. Are you making the suggestion that he, that that is his action, is, like, is genocide or whatever versus giving Satan a, like, ground to plan on?

He can do it either way. One of the way that God executes judgment I should say this, prosecutes judgment, carries out judgment. One of the ways that God prosecutes judgment can be by direct action, either sovereignly or through his instruments, which we’re gonna get to in a moment. Another way, I would suggest to you a more dreadful way that God prosecutes judgments is by withdrawal. Look at Romans chapter one, two, and three.

God gave them over to a depraved mind. How terrifying that God would send his prophets and his messengers and the conviction of his holy spirit. Don’t go out into the street. Don’t go out into the street. Don’t go out into the street.

You’ll get hit by a car, argues and argues and argues. Don’t go out into the car and then at out into the street. And then at one point says, I’ve done all that I can. You are an autonomous being that I created with free will. You’re gonna do what you’re gonna do, and there will be consequences.

I would say that the the removal of God as a form of judgment is more terrifying. The bible talks about, I believe it’s in in maybe second Timothy. You can Google this. I would invite you to, and please correct me. That their conscience conscience becomes becomes seared.

Seared. Google. Bible conscience seared. Where is that? Right church, wrong pew.

First Timothy. First Timothy four two. Their conscience having become seared. So I wanna get back to I wanna get back to this idea of a genocidal God and and and sometimes he does it sovereignly without. Sometimes he selects instruments of his judgment.

The flood of Noah. The water was his instrument of judgment. What about using the nation of in of Israel as an instrument of God’s judgment? Yes. If I was if I was a new believer, this would be really, really really hard.

If you were trying to convince me that I should serve the Lord, as the kids say, I would low key not wanna serve a God who feel who feels kinda ping pong, oh, he just does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and people are like, yeah, he sure does. That wouldn’t attract me. So Certainly. I’m was saying as a mature believer, I think the more that you study the word, the more you spend time in the word and prayer and all this, you just learn God’s character and nature. And things like this, as hard as they are still to swallow or understand, actually do start making a little bit more sense because you know his character and nature.

In some stuff, I still am like, god. That feels contradictory. Like, where should I turn in the bible to see? But I but I know you, you know, is where I always end up. When I read stuff in the bible or hear stuff like today, and I’m like, that’s actually just really hard.

But we all know that god is a god who saves, and and his character has never shown anything less. And everything that he does is for our good, and it’s so hard to understand. But my encouragement, especially if you’re newer to faith, is just to spend time with him and spend time in the word because it does start to make more and more sense as much as our little finite minds can, his character and nature, because he never violates his own character. I love that. You you said something a a moment ago.

Contribution? Because it needs to be tied to what Amanda just said. I was talking about the the two sides of the coin. Like, either you believe God is sovereign and in control. Yeah.

Or you believe that you’re your own god, which is what a lot of the world believes. And they think that they should be in control Yes. As opposed to let god. And I would say kinda to her topic, I actually like that god is a god of justice and a king and he is in charge and he like, I love that I’m on that side of it. I know that I’m a part of his kingdom.

And as Christians, we god is on our side. He does all things for the good of those who love him. So we don’t have to worry about his wrath as Christians coming on us. He brings wrath to the world. And to me, I love the justice god.

I love god and justice, and that means a lot to God does what he wants because he’s God. That’s what it means by he is sovereign, but he is not arbitrary and capricious. He operates according to principles, values, and rules that he himself established and never violates or breaks to tie those two comments together. Who does that? Who does that?

There’s no one like our god. How many of you have said, I’m only going to scroll for three minutes, and five minutes later, you’re like, wow. He is sovereign. He does what he wants. He answers to no one, and he establishes boundaries for himself and has never once broken or violated those.

What does this have to do with Zionism? Yes. I I mean, yes. There yes. I gotta land the plane.

The most basic definition of Zionism is simple. Jews and Israel have a right to exist. If you believe that, you might be a Zionist. In its most basic definition, Zionism is a belief that Jews and Israel have a right to exist. Now if we wanna ex that’s easy enough to write down.

If we wanna expand the definition, let’s say it this way. Zionism is a movement to secure and maintain a safe homeland for the Jewish people as a nation grounded in the conviction that Jews have a legitimate historical, legal, and religious claim to their ancestral land. There is a lot to discuss and debate with that statement that we won’t get into today, but just meditate on this for a moment. If you agree with that definition, you might be a Zionist. I’ll read it one more time, and then we’ll taxi into the gate.

Zionism is a movement to secure and maintain a safe homeland for the Jewish people as a nation grounded in the conviction that Jews have a legitimate historical, legal, and religious claim to their ancestral land. Now when you get into a conversation with somebody that would be an anti Zionist, it’s really important to define terms. You can’t allow well, I I I shouldn’t say allow. It’s unproductive for the two of you to have a conversation about Zionism without ever defining terms. You’re just apples, apples, apples, oranges, oranges, or the apples and oranges, apples and oranges, nobody gets anywhere.

You have an intelligent conversation. It’s important to define terms. I have suggested to you a very reasonable, defensible, historically broadly accepted definition of Zionism. And if you and if this is a bit much, reduce the definition of Zionism to this. Jews and Israel have a right to exist.

Now what’s this got to do with me living in Jackson Hole? The article just came out in Cowboy State Daily. Once again, Teton County, the wealthiest county in The United States and around the world. What’s it gotta do with me? If God can use a wicked king like King Cyrus to accomplish his righteous and holy will, and if God can use an admittedly imperfect people and nation like Israel, you will never ever ever hear me say that Israel is perfect and flawless and faultless.

You’ll never hear me say that. But if God can use wicked kings and imperfect nations to accomplish his righteous and sovereign will, what can he do with you? What has he done with you? Give Jacob earmuffs real quick. Psalms one thirty nine verse five from the Passion Translation.

It’s just so good. Psalms one thirty nine verse five. You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way. In tender kindness, you follow behind me, protecting me from the harm of my past. Of that verse, what is the requirement of righteousness, right standing morality, good character, and behavior required of us?

Nothing. This is part of the sovereignty of God. He smites who he gonna smite, and he loves and cherishes and blesses who he’s gonna love, cherish, and bless. Psalms one thirty nine verse five, you’ve gone into my future to prepare the way. And in kindness, you follow behind me, sparing me from the harm of my past.

If God can use imperfect Israel to accomplish his will, there’s hope for you. And that old dirty devil would love to tell you that your past, your mistakes, how you’ve messed up, how you’ve blown it, how you’ve not been perfect disqualifies you from being used by God or being loved by God or being cherished by God, and that’s just a lie of the enemy. And the more you that you grow to believe that about the truth about yourself, out of the overflow of the heart, the mind believes about others and about entire nations like Israel. They ain’t perfect. They’re far from it.

There very well could be nefarious and corrupt agencies at work in the modern nation state of Israel to conduct selfish, nefarious goals. Meh. Maybe. But that does not change God in his nature and character. So, Lord, we thank you and praise you for your sovereignty and for your goodness.

I do wish that you would run some things by me for my approval at times. But I love you and I trust you. And just like Peter said, when Jesus turned to him and says, hey. Y’all wanna duck out too? I’ll own the claim that I’m a god of genocide.

I’ll own that. And he turns to Peter and says, you wanna duck out too? And then Peter says, but where would we go, lord? You have the words of life. Mhmm.

The old Christian hymn, though none go with me, still I will follow. And another old hymn, all else is sinking sand on Christ, the solid rock, I will stand. Help us, Lord. Help us, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Let’s do some wrestling real quick. Hint, you’ll get a lot further in life if you just submit. Let him pin you. Let him pin you. Jesus, help us.

As Brian was talking at the end there about how the enemy would love for us to live in our path or love to hold our past over us and hold us with weight. I think as we talk about these wretched kings and go all the way to the other side of the spectrum, I think the other tactic of the enemy that is not holding our past over us for those who have been believers a long time is telling us that we’re good. That we’re we’re fine. We don’t need like, of course of course, God would use me. Like, of course, he’s gonna do great things to me because I’m awesome.

Right? And we do that. And that’s our that’s our prideful nature, and the enemy would love the second that we have released the things of the past that he holds over us. The next trick he’s gonna try to do is push you the other way. And one of the best ways that we can keep from that is, like Brian said, just submission.

In every area of our life and in small ways, how do we continue to submit to him? And so as we get into praying over the tithe and the offering, it is just such a practical way to submit to him, to just lay a small portion of our lives and and Jackson, let’s be real, it’s a big portion of our lives down at his feet to just say, I I am nothing if I don’t have you doing this. I can’t do this in my own strength. And just utterly relying on what he has for us. So bow your heads and pray with me.

Father God, we need you. We need you so much. And I just pray against any any sort of pride that we might feel in our hearts, that we have learned enough, spent enough time in our Bibles every week for years and years to to say that we are good, that we’re covered, God, because we are we are as wretched as the wretched kings and nations we have talked about, God, because all have sinned and fallen short of your perfect standard, God. And if you are a God of justice, that we have no place in heaven with you without the blood of Jesus. So God, we lay all that we have down at your feet.

And specifically with our tithe and our finances, God, we sacrifice this little piece of us to make space for you, God, that we make less of ourselves so that you may increase in our lives, God, and that that would show up in every area of our lives, God. So work in our hearts today, God, because it’s all yours. It’s not just the 10%, God, but it is all yours. So work in our hearts for what you would have us give of our time and our talent and our treasure today and as we go about our weeks, God. We pray this all in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Just like every good family, all the important announcements are on the fridge. And if you have never given here, we have a new number. It’s not new. I guess we’ve had this for a while now.

It feels new. It always feels new because it’s harder than 84321. But that’s the amazing thing about contacts in a phone. You don’t have to memorize phone numbers anymore. So you could send a text to (833) 369-7847.

Just type give and the dollar amount, And you can also give online at tribejh.com or the lockbox in the back or the black box down outside. I don’t think we have any big announcements today. Ladies bible study this week, 06:15PM, Wednesday here. For those who don’t come on Tuesdays, there’s a young adult bible study that meets here Tuesday mornings at 07:00AM AM. Motivated.

Show up at 06:45 if you wanna like hang out. It’s a hard start at 07:00 so that we can all get out and get to work on time. Brian, you wanna come bring us out? Thank you, Connor. Just before you go, quick update.

You know, we’re always on the hunt for our next home. And sorry. Keep you in suspense. Sorry. That was not intentional.

We have found a good option. But nothing is sure yet. And and without telling you too much and getting our hearts unguarded, we have 1,200 square feet at the TMC that’s split between two floors, so we get to squeeze into about 600 square feet for this meeting space. The space that we are looking at is in the town of Jackson City Limit. It’s not over the hill or hither and thither across the countryside.

It’s countryside. It’s in the town of Jackson, and it’s got 4,000 square feet. It’s got good parking. The building would need very few updates. It is for rent, and it is a long way to go and a lot of TOJ hurdles to jump through.

And there’s a lot that could happen that would, for us, in good conscience, cause us to be like, we’re we’re out of the deal. There’s a lot that could happen with the other party that could say it’s not a good deal for us. But of all of the years of our hunting and searching and hopping over fences and sliding open windows and making appointments with realtors to, like, look at space. This is the best option that we’ve come across in a very long time and would take us a long way into the future. And so would you please be praying with us as a tribe family that that God would be in the midst of this, that he would open doors for us, that we would have favor with the landlord, and that we would have favor with the town of Jackson to be able to get approval to make this place street legal for us and that his will would be done and that he would help us guard our hearts and and and and.

Please stand up. Let me pray for you as you pray for tribe. An incredible space for tribe kids. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are sovereign. Thank you, Jesus, that that you are in control.

Lord, just like we talked about months ago, two men enter, one man leaves. As we step into the arena of our will versus yours, help us to just lay down and submit and surrender to your sovereignty, to your goodness. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every person here. If you are married, grab the hand of your spouse or put a hand on their shoulder. There you go.

Find each other just really quick. I command a blessing over the marriages in this room. Thank you, Lord, for the spouse that you brought to their spouse. And I just ask for healing and wholeness and beautiful, wonderful matrimony. In Jesus’ name, we pray these things.

And everybody said, amen. I love you guys so very much. And for anybody that was empty handed, Lord, give them a spouse. In Jesus’ name. Have a great week.

You got this.