A Story Still Being Written

Welcome to Tribe’s podcast. Hey. We just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you’re ever in Jackson Hole, we’d love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person.

To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Alright, you heathen. Brian said just gently call them back, so I thought I’d start with that. Good morning, guys. How many how many of you have been part of Tribe before you guys started meeting at the Virginian?

Yes. So you guys really appreciate this. It’s like, isn’t this super cool? Do you not appreciate it? How many there’s not many churches that you go to that has a moose head on the wall.

I’m just saying there’s not too many. For you guys, you guys don’t appreciate this. It’s beautiful. It’s iconic. It’s super cool.

So good morning. It’s a blessing to be here. I won’t introduce myself for those of you who know who I am. If you don’t then just don’t worry about it. But I’m just good friends with the hunters.

I’ve written a handful of books and work with some different ministries in The Middle East, and that’s, you know, really my passion. So I came, we were trying to figure out the timing, and I was here and spoke at tribe in the summer of twenty twenty two. So is there anyone in the room that remembers what I talked about? Yeah. So I was no.

I was talking about I was I was yeah. What else? You’re always talking about the same junk. I was talking about endurance. What’s that?

Yeah. Yeah. How Donald Trump is the savior. So, I know exactly. No.

I I was talking about endurance. We’re working through Hebrews and enduring unto the day. Okay? So that was the summer of twenty twenty two. And if you treat my personal story, if you don’t know, the past four years, four years my wife has just been really, really sick.

As a as a family, we’ve just gone through just incredible trial. We’ve had a better year this year, which is is positive. Really grateful for that. But then, so after like a few years of just some of the most difficult trials that I’ve ever experienced, a year and a half ago, I I had one of my closest friends, ministry associates for about a decade, pastor in the underground church in Iran, found out that he had been unfaithful to his, wife for a few years, and so we had to fire him. And that was real painful, but then I found myself suddenly in just this horrible snowball avalanche of ministry scandals.

And so this past year, I’ve had two very close friends and ministry associates for a long time, you know, that are out of ministry. And then on top of that, I don’t wanna say spiritual father, but, I moved to Kansas City thirty years ago as a young 22 year old kid excited about the Lord. You know, I just come to faith a couple years earlier and to be part of, the school that was under a guy named Mike Bickel. And, he wasn’t really my spiritual father because it’s not like I was ever close. Like, my my spiritual father was my father.

Okay? The fisherman, redneck package delivery guy who was an alcoholic until he was 50 and he got saved. And for the rest of his life, he very sloppily loved Jesus, loved his family, and worked hard and loved people and so forth. That’s my spiritual father. But in terms of, someone that impacted me more than anyone.

So within a matter of months, two of my closest friends, ministry associates, my spiritual father, You guys are here in Jackson, you know, then there was like the Robert Morris thing and doctor Michael Brown and just boom, boom, boom, and like 15 other names. And it’s just been incredibly disorienting and challenging. And I find that oftentimes when it comes to our faith, we we have both intellectual arguments in terms of why we believe what we believe, but there’s also emotional arguments. There’s really a there’s quite a difference between emotional and intellectual arguments. And I find that when it comes to people leaving the faith or backsliding, or even coming to faith, it’s actually much more of the emotional arguments.

It’s not someone just, like, gets caught on some intellectual issue and they decide, you know, okay, I’m going to it’s usually trials, it’s difficulties, it’s challenges, and the emotions, and the testing that comes with that. Okay? So I’m not gonna talk about all those things, but I just wanna say this past year, okay, two things I’ve been experiencing at the same time. One is all of the junk in my own life that has been incredibly challenging, like, legitimately as a, you know, as an author, you know, itinerant minister and all that, like, I’ve it’s I’ve been challenged in some really serious deep ways. But at the same time, as all these things are happening, we’ve had all of the events of October 7 in Israel unfolding on the world stage right in front of us.

And, I was in Saudi Arabia on, October 7 when that whole thing happened two years ago. I mean, you know, you’re, you know, to 2023. And, it was just as someone who visits Israel regularly, has gone there, you know, has relationships there for decades, it it was one of the most shaking, heartbreaking, disturbing, like, things that I’ve ever experienced to actually watch and subject you watch some of what happened, the inhumanity. Not only that happened on October 7, the barbarism, like you’re like, how could humans do this to other humans? I don’t care how badly you don’t like you you you’re treating them worse than animals.

And then to see the response of the of the the globe to this barbarism, Hundreds of thousands of people overnight in the streets, not protesting the invasion, the murder, the rape, the the animalism, the barbarism, not protesting that, but protesting the people who were attacked. And I’m just like, what madness is this? So it’s just like really painful. And if you’re Jewish in particular, it’s one of the most disorienting moments. It’s like, what is wrong with people?

Is there like a collective insanity that comes over people? Like, we just want some place in the world where we can raise our kids and our families without someone killing us, and somehow that’s not an acceptable hope and expectation. It’s just like, are we not, you know, as Jews are, and I’m not Jewish by the way, is, are we as Jews not people like everyone else? Why are we treated different than everyone else? You know, my daughter, a few years back, she was a sophomore and she goes, Dad, like, she goes, you know, in my school, she goes, all my white friends say racism is bad.

All my black friends say racism is bad but they all pick on the Jews and tell jokes about Jews and they’re all racist toward Jews. Why is that the only kind of racism that’s just fine? And, you know, I was like, that’s a fantastic question, you know, you’re you’re kinda gaining on this. So here’s let’s get get into it. And the world, your life circumstances from here until the return of Jesus, in all likelihood, is gonna throw you some gut punches, some head kicks, some suplexes.

I’m trying to get into some old school WWF. The holy spirit is gonna give you a Jimmy Superfly snooker off the top rope Promise you. And and and hurt you, life is going to beat you up. Your faith is gonna be challenged. As painful as it’s been to watch all of this horror with Israel, this is the weird thing.

This is sort of the it has strength nothing has strengthened my faith more this year than watching what what is the poor that is on unfolding with Israel. Because when I look at the scriptures and let me just say this, when it comes to prophecy, yes, people can people can misinterpret the Bible and they can interpret it in quite a variety of ways. But this is this is like this is what I do. I live for the past thirty years just staring at these texts, these scriptures. And I believe that I do understand the story that the Bible is telling, according to its own terms.

And what I’ve watched unfold this past year in so many ways has just said, like, emotionally, everything in me has said, just take a break, you know, just, you know, find a job, go to Bluegrass Festivals, love your kids, just kinda check out. Like, that would just be so much easier emotionally. But then on the other side, looking at all the stuff with Israel, it’s like God’s saying, no. No. Listen.

Now is not the time to check out. If anything, now is absolutely the time to press in, to pay attention, to lock in, like, unqualified. And so I just wanna try to communicate a couple of these things that I’m seeing that hopefully, you know, you who are not just peering into these things constantly, like I’m very much a sort of a one track, individual that you’ll see it and it will strengthen your faith and it will also the application is it will lead us to respond in a proper way, toward everything that’s happening. Okay. So let’s just start out this way.

When, you know, sort of in a broad way, when we’re looking at biblical prophecy, when we’re looking at I’ll even say the gospel itself. The gospel itself is a story. It’s a narrative. Okay? And it’s a story that’s told from the beginning of the bible to the end, and it’s a beautifully crafted story.

It’s amazing. Like, one of the things that absolutely convinces me that the bible is inspired is the the the incredibly intricate ways that the story is woven together. When you really study the story, you’re like, there is no way a human orchestrated this whole thing the way it’s woven together. And the more you peer into it, the more you see it and you’re like, this book is clearly divine. But the story itself, to simplify it, it’s a story it’s it’s a classic tale of paradise restored.

The story that the Bible tells is a story of God. In the beginning, he created everything. It was good. It was amazing. And then you have the fall.

And immediately at the fall, the Lord declares, the serpent’s there, which is Satan. And the Lord declares to the serpent. He says someone’s coming, and he’s gonna crush your skull. You’re gonna nip at his heel, you know, kind of like a prophetic foreshadow, a hint of the cross, he says. But as a snake, you’re gonna be nipping at his heel, he’s gonna crush your head.

And that’s actually the first promise in the entire bible, prophetic promise of the coming of the Messiah, of Jesus. And he’s referred to as basically the snake crusher. And the most consistent way that Jesus is or the Messiah is actually described throughout the Old Testament, throughout the entire Bible is as a warrior. And the king the king of Israel and as a warrior who comes back to defend his people and reestablish paradise. God himself will restore paradise, will restore Eden, and he will restore the kingdom of David.

So imagine a combination of Eden and the kingdom of David, mix them together, and you’re beginning to get a picture of what the biblical prophets in the Bible actually describes in terms of where this thing is going. Our ultimate destiny is not some ethereal detached existence in the clouds in heaven forever. Our destiny is in glorified resurrected bodies on the planet, on the earth, paradise restored. Okay? We get to eat stuff forever.

We get to taste things. Alright? We’re not ghosts forever. Okay. So that general story has features, it has a form, it has a shape, so to speak.

You know, you’ve got main themes and and elements of the story. You’ve got, at the end of the age, you’ve got this guy that we call the antichrist. He’s basically just a a deceptive dictator that emerges at the end of the age, you know. Because you say the word antichrist and people outside of the church like, that’s weird. And you’re like, is it really that weird that we believe that some real horrible dictator might emerge?

Like, like, that’s never happened before. That’s basically all the Bible’s really saying. I mean, yes, there’s there’s a little bit more to it with some supernatural stuff. So you’ve got that and then the skull crusher, the Messiah, the king of Israel comes back and kills him and reestablishes the throne of his father David and the know and, you know, the the from Jerusalem, the knowledge of God goes forth to the nations. He says, I will extend peace to the nations like a mighty overflowing river.

The knowledge of God will cover the earth. But this this, Christianization, I don’t even like that word Christianization. Let’s just say, you know, God impacting the entire globe, it emanates from Jerusalem, from the the restored throne of Yeshua, of Jesus when he returns, the son of David. So with that said, that’s a key feature, component, a part of the story. So throughout Israel’s history, whenever she defeated one of her major enemies, that often is purposefully by the authors of the Bible or by God through the human authors, are framed as a prophetic picture of the ultimate final fulfillment.

Okay? And by the way, yes, please guys, any questions, just raise your hand and otherwise, I just keep talking. That’s that’s my problem. It’s my big weakness but I’m, I wanna, I want this to be, open discussion and I’ll try to I’ll try to remember to do some prompts. So as an example, I wanna look at just show you an example so you can kinda see what I’m saying.

Because this when you understand this, it helps you to understand, like, the the the minor prophets. Usually you read the minor prophets, you’re like, I don’t understand what I’m reading here. Once you understand the big story, you understand these basic, then you read the And then you’re like, oh my gosh, like, this whole section of the bible that never made sense to me. It’s clear. It’s just talking about the restoration of all things and how it’s gonna go down and so forth.

So here’s a beautiful, example. So Trinity, I’ll have you start at slide 14. So here is the passage, the fall has just happened back in the garden, and the Lord says to he makes this declaration to the serpent. He says, someone’s coming. We don’t know much about him, but he shall bruise or crush you on the head.

You’re gonna bruise him on the heel, but he’s gonna get you on the head. Very unfair. Okay? That’s the coming of the Messiah. And then skip forward two slides.

You have this story hundreds of years later during the period of the judges when Deborah and Barak are called to fight against this guy named Sisera. Sisera is the bad guy. He’s the commander of the heathen that live in the land. They’re now in the land of Israel, the land of Canaan. And Sisera is the commander of the people who worship Baal, and they go to fight him.

And it ends up, if you guys remember the story, Sisera ends up, he’s exhausted, he hides in the tent of this gal named Jael, and she, gives him a bunch of yogurt and curds so that he goes to sleep, and then she drives a tent peg through his skull and hammers him into the ground and kills him. It’s every, like, tough chick out there is like, JL’s my gal. There’s actually, I was on Etsy and there’s a shirt that someone made. Speaking of a couple of that. And it has a, speaking of what?

Something, I was on Etsy. Yeah, as I tend to be. I was skimming through Pinterest and, anyway, it’s a t shirt that has a skull on it with a big spike going through it and then it has some flowers around it and it says it says biblical womanhood. Anyway, I just super cool. Okay.

So here is, I’m sorry. Skip forward Trinity. Yep. Judges five to the next slide. And so this is where it memorializes Yeah.

Right there. Judges five. This is where it memorializes JL killing Sisera, and I just love this. She reached out her hand for the tent peg. Like, it’s like in detail.

Her right hand for the hammer. Then she struck him. She crushed his skull, smashed his head. What is the first prophecy that describes the coming of the Messiah? He’s the head crusher.

Here you have her crushing his skull. She shattered his temple. Now get this. Go to the next slide. Now we’re looking at Zechariah.

Zechariah is one of the latter prophets way, way, way later. And Zechariah is talking about the coming of the Messiah. We know he’s gonna come from the tribe of Judah, and look what Zechariah says. So now you understand how the Hebrews were interpreting these historical victories over their enemies. It was a picture, a prophetic snapshot, a type of the ultimate final coming defeat of the Antichrist.

And it says, the Lord of the Lord of hosts has visited the his flock, the house of Judah, so the tribe of Judah. We know that’s the tribe the Messiah is gonna come from. And he will make them like his majestic war horse or his horse for battle. Like, just awesome statement, you know, like, get the right translation. That’s a put it up on the wall.

From them will come the cornerstone. We all go oh that’s Jesus he’s the chief cornerstone from them will come the tent peg Jesus is the tent peg Jesus is the skull crusher So you see in a in a prophetic poetic way in history, okay, these historical enemies, they are echoes along the way to the final ultimate fulfillment. And that is how the Hebrews interpreted these things. When they saw things that happened that that reflected the story of redemption, that the entire Bible’s telling, the story of the the restoration of paradise, when they saw echoes, they would say, this is that. This is that which the prophet spoke of.

That does not mean that they said this is the final ultimate fulfillment. They just go, look, this is an echo along the way to the final ultimate fulfillment. So the prophets are often prophesying through events in their day or in their near future, but they’re always pointing toward the final ultimate completion of these things, the end of this wicked age, the coming of the Messiah, like for real, the establishment of his kingdom on the earth. It’s everything is pointing toward the ultimate fulfillment. So now watch this.

Watching the events of October 7, the scriptures are crystal clear. Okay? You have this concept called the blessings and the curses of the Mosaic covenant. When Israel entered into covenant with God at Mount Sinai, God said, if you obey me, all these things, it will go well with you. I’ll bless you.

You’ll have peace with your neighbors. Your crops will be blessed. You know, you’ll you’ll it’s it’s mostly stuff that an agrarian society would appreciate, like, I’ll give you rain in due season. You’re all you know, you won’t have locusts and blight. You’ll have peace with your neighbors.

If you don’t obey me, you’re gonna have warnings. He says there’ll be a sudden calamity, 09:11, October 7. And then he says, eventually, most of you will be killed. Like, the Lord lays this out in Moses. He says, most of you will be killed and the few that are left will be exiled among the nations.

And then he says, but from there, you’ll remember me and I’ll bring you back to the land. Like, very specific. It’s not these are this is not general prophecies. These are like really specific and here’s what’s crazy is when you look at Israel’s history, this has happened to them multiple times. Really, you could say two complete times, but you could even say three times.

This has never happened to another nation in the history of the world ever. And yet they have these scriptures in which they claim to have this encounter with this God who said, if you obey me, you’ll be blessed. You’ll be in the land. If you don’t, here’s what’s gonna happen. It has happened to Israel in their history, demonstrably, multiple times, something that’s never happened before in the history of the world.

And that’s not something that you can manufacture. That’s not self fulfilled prophecy. Then say, hey, let’s prove that this book is true. Most of us will get killed. You know what I mean?

Like, let’s do a holocaust. You know, like, that’s just not how it works. So first of all, just to look at the fact that in, you know, for me, like my parents’ lifetimes, Israel was reestablished, the word of God was fulfilled, and they’re in the land. But the Lord says, if you obey, if you don’t obey me, if you don’t obey me, then here’s what I’m gonna do and so I’m gonna step back trinity go to slide nine this is deuteronomy four Moses says, the Lord your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God and that he’s saying, look, guys.

God says, I actually care. Like, when you love me and obey me, when you don’t, I actually care. Like, it hurts his heart. There’s emotion there. And then the Lord says, this is how important it is to me.

When you become the father of children, you become a father and then you become a grandfather and you’ve remained long in the land, God says, this is what’s going to happen. When you guys enter the land and you act corruptly and you make an idol, you start actually worshiping other gods. You actually go so far. You don’t just it’s this is not just like, hey, you know, Corey hasn’t been coming to church lately. This is like he’s at home bowing down to idols.

Okay? Like, it’s this has gotten really far. Like, sorry for picking on Corey. It’s better than picking on a stranger. What’s your name, ma’am?

No. Just kidding. They make an idol in the form of anything, and they do that which is evil in the sight of the lord god to provoke him to anger. God says, I call heaven and earth as my witnesses. Can you imagine being in court and God says, your honor, I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against this person?

And then he says, this is what’s going to happen. You will surely quickly perish from the land that you’re going, over the door and to possess it. You won’t live long on it, but you will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will take the few that are left, and they will scatter you among the nations as prisoners of war essentially. Right?

This is just throughout Deuteronomy and Leviticus, you’ll see this statement that’s being made here multiple times. This is really clear. I want this is, like, so difficult, but I and I it requires so many qualifications. I wanna go to the next slide. This is the NOVA Festival, the day of the attack.

The entire festival revolved around if you go to the website, it revolved around that was at night and then during the day, this Buddha. It was like a big blow up Buddhist statue. Now I just wanna say, first of all, I’m not saying those kids deserved what they got in any way, shape, or form. Like, I I’m a weirdo. I like I said, Bluegrass Festival.

Like, I love music festivals. Like, I like going and dancing like an idiot. I get it. I identify with kids. Just whatever.

That that does not call for being slaughtered and murdered and raped. But when you look at the words of Moses, it’s and you look at what’s unfolding in the earth, it’s really hard not to say Moses, the Lord through Moses said, when you make an idol, you’ll be utterly destroyed and then you’ll be scattered among the nations. And in a small prophetic way, what we’ve seen this past year, it is a prophetic picture. It is an echo along the way of the ultimate fulfillment that’s coming. Okay?

In a in a in I wanna be clear right now, we as Christians, as followers of the Jewish Messiah, our mandate, and I’m giving you the end of the message, more than almost anything else in the world is to stand with the Jewish people in this hour. Okay. So I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m saying here as as this being an indictment. The point is Israel as a nation is not an overwhelmingly nation that’s committed to the Lord. It’s a very secular nation, and the covenant that they made as a people with God, you can see these things being fulfilled.

Now I wanna go back to the antichrist. Let’s get back to the antichrist, shall we? Judges five, Zechariah. Okay. Skip forward two slides.

Keep going. I’m sorry. I’ll tell you, Trinity. 21. Go to slide 21.

This is brutal. This is rough. After a year, the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, the guy who was responsible for all of this, he ended up finally getting killed. Okay? He the guy that they were looking for, all of a sudden, we get this picture.

Go to the next slide. It’s, I mean, it’s a little bit more of a close-up, but this is the guy that caused all of this trouble. This is the guy that mobilized the entire IDF. This is the guy that led to hundreds of thousands of people protesting in European and American cities all over the This is the guy who started it all. I wanna look at Isaiah 14.

Isaiah 14 is one of the most important passages in the entire Old Testament that talks about the antichrist. Yahya Sinwar is not the antichrist. He’s not Sisera, but like Sisera, he is a picture of the antichrist. Here is a passage from Isaiah 14. It’s talking about the antichrist.

It’s a passage that strangely like, it starts out talking about the king of Babylon, and then it just bleeds into talking about Satan. And then it just bleeds into talking about the Antichrist, and you almost don’t even know where one ends and the other starts. You go, why is that? Well, because Satan and the Antichrist are basically the same. The Antichrist is just Satan’s human sock puppet, for all intents and purposes, you know.

I’m gonna persecute you. Sorry. I always do that. Okay. So the Lord is rebuking Satan and he goes like, look, you think that you’re this great king.

He goes, all the kings of the earth, they they have royal burials. They have sepulchres. All this. He goes, you you you wanna be great. You wanna ascend and be like God.

He goes, no. But here’s what’s gonna happen. And he says, you will be thrust down to hell, to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. Those who see you will gaze at you saying, is this the guy? That’s the guy is this the man who made the whole earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who turned the whole world into a desert of wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not allow the prisoners to go home?

Like, I looked at that and I’m, you know, I’m just looking at this picture. I’m like, God, could you make it more clear? Yahya Sinwar’s life dies, the guy who refused to let the prisoners go home, who extends the war, who refuses to negotiate for peace, which is what humans do. They try to find a way that people don’t get killed. He was looking for a way that more people would get killed because that is what is motivating his ideology.

And then he says, all the kings of the earth, they lie they when kings die, they lie in royal sepulchers. He goes, they each have their, you know, royal graves. He goes, no, but you’re thrown out. You don’t have it. You’re like a worthless branch, a rejected branch, one translation says, covered by those slain with a sword.

Like, just in a rocky pit of bodies, in a rocky pit like a trampled corpse. You will not join all these other kings in a in a glorious burial because you destroyed your own land. You killed your own people. That’s exactly what Hamas did. They are willing to sacrifice their own people in order to win the hearts of the world who believes it’s all Israel’s fault.

It’s exactly what they do. As, Golda Meir said years ago, the Palestinians will have peace when they learn to love their own children as much as they hate the Jewish children. And the reality is the the mind virus of radical Islam will radical religion, I don’t care, any radical, like, fundamentalist Christianity can distort your brain, but fundamentalist radical Islam is a mind virus that leads people to become inhuman animals. And so here again is just another picture. I’m just like, every day I open the news and I’m like, yep, like this you’re in heaven kinda winking.

Like, if we pay attention to the words like Isaiah 14, Yahya Sinwar is not the final guy, but the final one is coming. It’s coming. Let me hit one other issue and then I wanna get to the, wrap up the application. So slide 25, Daniel 11 is another chapter that’s one of the big towering prophecies in the Old Testament that’s so important. And in Daniel 11, just to simplify, talking about the time period in history after Alexander the Great died.

And after he died, his successors were fighting for his empire. There was about thirty years there that they were fighting and you end up with these different dynasties. And after about twenty years, you really have two major dynasties. One is in the North, it’s called the Seleucid dynasty, and and the other one is in the South called the Ptolemaic, it’s in Egypt. In fact, just skip to the next slide, it’s a map, Trinity.

So, Daniel 11 is dealing with the time when that’s what the Middle East looked like in terms of the empires. You have the Seleucid in the North and Israel’s pretty much right in the middle. Israel gets caught in the middle between these two big empires or dynasties. And the eighth king, okay, the eighth king of the Seleucid dynasty was a guy named Antiochus Epiphanes. Horrible, horrific guy.

He ends up invading Israel, makes Judaism illegal, you know, being Torah observant was illegal. He ended up killing, I wanna say, like, 60,000 people, exiled another 60,000. Brutal brutal dude. He is the primary type of the antichrist in the entire bible. He is the most significant picture of the antichrist, either him or Nebuchadnezzar.

And in Daniel 11, he’s called the king of the North, and he’s a picture of the antichrist. So the antichrist is called the king of the North and he he’s in conflict with the king of the South. Okay. It’s a little bit technical here and we’re covering a lot in 30. Go to this, go to this next slide.

This is Netanyahu at the UN, yep, a couple months ago, like, two months ago. And amazingly, his chart say the curse and the blessing, the blessings and the curse, which is, again, if it’s when you look at the passages that talk about the blessings and the curses, those are the passages that make the events of October 7 in this past year, like, you go, oh my gosh, this is so like, biblical prophecy is unfolding with specificity right in front of us. And those are the terms that he used, but he’s referring to the nations right now that are emerging as the Middle East is changing. He’s referring to the nations that are actually friendly to Israel versus those that are adversary and hostile. You have he he has right there on the curse, the hostile nations, Syria, Iraq, Iran.

On the blessing, he has Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and, The UAE, and Egypt and Jordan. Okay? Because Egypt and Jordan entered into peace treaties with Israel a long, long time ago. More recently, we had The UAE with the Abrahamic Accords and so forth. Well, then, go to the next slide, just a couple weeks ago, all of a sudden, this guy emerges who’s a former, like, Al Qaeda leader, and he overthrows Bashar al Assad, who’s one of the most long established dictators in the Middle East.

And all of a sudden, one of the most pivotal nations in the Middle East is now controlled by a Sunni terrorist organization that’s trying to pretend to be peaceful. Okay? And okay. What this means geopolitically is that Turkey has basically just taken over Syria. Because this group is basically a proxy, a junkyard dog of Turkey.

So go back to the slide of Netanyahu. To the curse, add Turkey. Okay? So Turkey would be just above Syria. That’s the new map that has emerged.

Benjamin Netanyahu holding up signs, quoting Moses, literally has a picture of Daniel 11. He’s like, this is the new Middle East right now. And then and then since then, it’s evolved even more to where I’m like, the the geopolitical landscape as described by Daniel, thousands of years ago, like, think about this, a week before the election, all of the best AI algorithms, think tanks, they could not tell us who was gonna win the election with with, certainty. The weathermen can barely tell us the weather a week out. Right?

Two thousand five hundred years ago, the biblical prophets are naming things that are in the news this week. Well, they just got lucky. Well, what about this other? Well, they got lucky there too. Well, what about the well, that that also was lucky.

Like, at a certain point, how many points of luck, how many coincidences do there need to be before you go, oh, wow, this book actually is inspired. So I’ll I’ll just say, you know, again, I know this was almost like a little technical. Is this making sense? Okay. Here’s my one question.

I just invited you all to interact. Does what I said make any sense? Yes. What how then should we live? Like, what does this mean for us right now?

Obviously, Brian can do 13 series of sermons on how we should live. One of the biggest things right now for me, this past year dealing with these guys that set themselves forward as leaders in the church, apostles, godly men, and they’ve been sexual predators, like their entire ministry. And then you see the pattern in all of these ministries. It’s you get oh, okay. So let’s say you get some woman, young gal, she joins a ministry, she thinks this guy is, like, basically in between her and Jesus.

You know, he’s like an apostle, he’s this godly, And then he starts lying to her and telling her, God told me this. God told me my wife’s gonna die and you’re gonna be my new wife. And they go, really? God told you that? Like, that spiritual manipulation and abuse of the worst form and then he begins, you know, eventually after whatever, you know, ends up using her.

And then ten years later, twenty years later, she gets up the courage and she speaks out and she says, yes, I participated, but that man did this to me. That man twisted my brain and then the entire church, her home, the congregation, the house of God attacks her and says, oh, you’re probably a floozy or this or that or you, you know, and and then says and they protect the predator. The entire Bible is focused on the underdog and the little people and the, you know, the little ones. And I and I’ve been looking and I go, this entire church system is defending the hotshot, the big guy, and demonizing the little ones. Like, this is so the basics of our faith is we are people who first of all, we are the underdogs.

We are the foolish ones that he chose according to the world. And we are supposed to be people who stand up for and defend the underdogs. Right? Like, this is basic. And so when I look at what’s happening with Israel right now, they are the single most hated, persecuted, hunted, murdered minority people group in the history of the world.

No one has come close. And, yes, you go, but that flies in the face of popular stereotypes. Yes. They’ve been very successful people. That does not do away with the fact that they have been the single most hunted, hated, persecuted people in the history of the world.

And every you know, they have songs. They’re like, they tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat. I mean, you know, before Passover.

It didn’t work. You know, like, every generation is like a new effort. Someone else comes along, whether it’s the Christians or the Muslims or the Russians or the Romans, like someone new. And we have failed miserably. Like last round, World War II, as the Church, for the most part, overwhelmingly, most of us, yes, there were some that did good, that risked their lives, that stood for the underdog, most of us, what we did as Christians, when people saw their neighbors literally being dragged out of their homes into the streets, they politely closed their curtains and stepped away.

And so, you know, me personally, I I I learned about the holocaust, like, the first time when I was in third grade. It was, like, one of these weird moments as a kid that I learned about and I, like, still to this day remember thinking, how could they have let this happen? How could anyone have let this happen? And it was like I got the answer and it was because they did nothing. They stood back and did nothing.

They were silent. And I in third grade, I said, god, if I ever live in a moment in history when when that evil rears its head again, I’m not gonna shut up. I’m gonna stand up. And I believe that, you know, we all can look back at World War two and say, like, you know, Christians fail, but we would do better. And then people go, like, do you wanna know what you would do during World War two?

What are you doing right now? That’s it. Whatever you’re doing right now, that’s it because we’re here again. And it’s just like nothing has gripped me more with this need to stand with Israel. And, you know, we as Christians, we love to get together and talk about, oh, like, listen, like, you guys, you silly Jews don’t understand your Bible.

Let me explain it to you. You know, we all know the term mansplaining. I’ve come up with a term called Gentilesplaining. Like, we just think we have it all figured out and listen to me you silly Jews, and we haven’t even taken the time to stand with them in their most painful, perplexing hour. Unless we’re willing to do that, then we have no right to start trying to tell them what they need to believe at the most central core, essential part of who they are.

Right? We think, oh, hey, you know, and listen to like, it’s insane. So this hour, I’m gonna, end with a verse from Jesus is all of it discourse. The final slide, Matthew 24, I’m not gonna read the whole thing. When the disciples asked Jesus, explain to us the end times, right in the middle of it, he referred to the little period right before redemption, right before the return of Jesus, he referred to it as the period of birth pains.

He described his birth pains, and it’s well understood that the people of God, that Israel and the church, those that are grafted in, that we worship the God of Israel, that we would suffer a period right before redemption that it they liken to birth pains. Now we’re in this together. We’ve seen many echoes along the way, but there is one final real season of birth pains and we very well might be, like, just at the front end of that. Birth pains are real whether or not we’re in them yet or just on the other side. I’m not sure yet.

We’re getting there. With all of this understood, looking out at the world, you don’t need to understand the bible to know that humans are being treated horribly. It’s time for us to stand up, to count the cost, and believe me, it hurts. There is loss. There is pain.

You will lose relationships. People will hate you. You can get attacked. When you stand with someone and simply say, this guy and his family have a right to exist, to raise their kids in peace somewhere without being killed. People will attack you for that.

And it’s all evidence of the fact that the bible is true and satan is very angry. I always say, you know, if God is done with Israel, someone forgot to tell the devil. I’m gonna pray and then I’m gonna call up Brian for, some prayer and ministry time. So Father, if for this hour that we’re in, this this, painful hour as we look out at what the global Jewish community is experiencing right now, terrified. Where am I going to send my kids to college?

Even in The United States, where will my kids be safe? As we sit back as a spiritual community and we try to wrestle like what should we do, we just ask that you would give us your heart. We don’t have to understand it all. We ask father that you would take a drop of your heart, that warrior that’s in your heart, that defender that’s in your heart, that that one that fights for the cause of the underdog and the little one that stands up for the oppressed and the needy and the forgotten and the afflicted, those that are suffering, the downtrodden. You’re the God of the little ones.

We ask that you would put your heart into our hearts. Let this house be a house that reflects your values. Let us be a people who defends the cause of the orphan and the widow and the rejected and the hated. Let us be a people who don’t look to the big platforms and all of the sensationalism and the hype that’s all around us that just as a humble people, we do our best to love you with all of our hearts and as an extension of that, that we would love our neighbors as ourselves as if they’re our own family members. So as a house, we lay our hearts before you.

We lay our hearts on the altar. Father, we say, here we are. Pour your hearts into us. Give us the strength. Give us the clarity, the moral clarity to be a people who lock arms with our neighbors, to defend the cause of the, afflicted that we would be more like you, father, that we would be your ambassadors and your children, your representatives.

So we commit these things to you in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen. You take a moment and just talk to him from your heart. Jesus. Jesus.

Jesus. Jesus. Thank you for your great, steadfast, enduring love demonstrated throughout the generations towards Israel. And, Lord, if you are loving and steadfast and faithful to them, despite all that they have said and done, Oh, there’s hope for my soul, Lord. Thank you for your demonstration of faithfulness and love towards me.

Now you take a moment and in the stillness of your heart, just connect some dots or allow the Holy Spirit to connect some dots between God’s covenant relationship and enduring steadfast love demonstrated towards Israel, and that same expression of enduring love towards you. You know where you’ve been, what you’ve done, how you’ve messed up. Have you, even if in your heart, been rebellious, that He still loves you. With your great love will you conquer our hearts, God. Your word says, with one glance of your eye, you have ravished my heart, my beautiful one, my bride.

When we even think about thinking about him, he’s just undone. Cast the gaze of the eyes of your heart towards him this morning. Return to him. Put aside your rebellion. Drop your excuses.

Run to Him. Thank you, Jesus. Just talk to Him from your heart. Lord, how we love you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your great love, your patience towards us. Lord, we also antagonism towards sin and evil in all of its forms and manifestations. When we return to you, you don’t take our sin, you don’t take our rebellion, and just say, Well, it’s okay. You don’t just sweep it under the carpet.

Because if our sin is not punished, then you are not just. And if you’re not just, you’re less than perfect. And if you’re less than perfect, you cannot be God. You must punish sin and our rebellion. The most complex and complicated problem in the history of the universe requires the most brilliant solution, unfathomable by philosophers and scholars and cult leaders.

You sent your son as a man to pay the price for our sin and rebellion so that the righteous requirements of the law could be perfectly fulfilled in the sacrifice of your son, that your wrath would be appeased, So that with full integrity, you can open your arms to welcome us home. Oh, you’re so smart. I love how you’ve done that. Thank you, Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Today we have worshiped the Lord with singing. We have worshiped the Lord by honoring and deeply considering the word that was preached. Let’s worship the Lord one other way by bringing our tithes and offerings to him. And just before we do that hold on. Hold on.

Pause. I gotta look up a verse. Hold on. Where is it? We literally talked about this.

Yes. Got it. Sometimes when I sit here, and, we’re having a conversation, sometimes there it will be as if I see a picture in my mind’s eye, and this happened with you last week or the week before last. But sometimes it’s as if the congregation that I’m looking out over, they just kind of become black and white. Now you’re special, wonderful, and unique just like everyone else.

But like it’s like it’s like all of you go black and white and then there’s somebody that looks that appears as if they are in color. And and I have walked with the Lord long enough to know, like, oh, the Lord wants wants to show me something about that person or group or or family or something. And then I say, okay, Lord. What do you have? And sometimes, he will show me something about a person, and it’s just for me.

Sometimes it’s for me to share. And the best way that I can describe it is as it’s as if he gives me a glimpse of his heart and and a summary of his interactions with that person. Right? And so we’re about to go into offering in announcements the next way that we’ll worship the Lord, and all of you went black and white, sorry. And then Elisha just stood out to me in color.

And I feel like the Lord put this on my heart to share with you. We’ve talked about it here at TRIBE recently, but in Psalms 27 verse eight, the passage is, My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me, and my heart responds, Lord, I am coming, eager to meet with Him. And I feel like the picture that the Lord put on my heart to share with you, Elisha, is that there is great outward increasing favor on your life. You, at school, your place of ministry, at the church that you that you go to in Riverton, friends and family, and it is, you’re seeing it and others see it. But the Lord says it’s only because of the quiet, still secluded intimacy that you have cultivated with me.

The Lord says, I have heard every single time in this in in the quiet place, in the secret place where you have cried out and said, Lord, I give you everything. My life is yours. I want more of you, God. He’s heard every single cry and He’s writing it down. I hear You, Son.

I hear You, Son. And the relationship that You have cultivated in intimacy now will begin to bear fruit in the natural. Yeah? So a couple men right here, Jay, like these three men, just come lay a hand on Elisha’s shoulder. Let’s pray for him, and then we’ll get back to what we have.

I’m gonna be still for just a moment, and maybe these words would pray over. These men would pray over him. Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you.

Jesus, in a world, Father, where so many people are concerned with the outside and the outward appearance. Thank you for Elisha Vetter and the investment that he’s made in the inner life that nobody sees. Lord, thank you for placing within him a hard cry that yearns for you. And I feel like the Lord would say, I hear you. And this is my this is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased.

And as the results of investing in in stillness and quiet and intimacy and isolation, that you’ll begin to see more fruits of that out in the natural. Thank you for the favor that is on his life. We command a blessing over Elisha better. In Jesus’ name, amen. So I guess if you want a word, sit in one of these three seats next week.

I I don’t know. Out of an expression of telling the Lord, I love you and I trust you, every week we create an opportunity here at Tribe for you to worship the Lord by bringing a portion of your finances to surrender to him. And we tell him, Lord, thank you for all that you have done in our life. Thank you for all that you are doing. And by way of telling you, I love you and I trust you, I surrender a portion of my finances.

And that is called the tithe. And then anything that you give above and beyond, a tithe would be an offering. And there are a couple of ways to do that. If you have cash or check, you can drop it over there by the Christmas tree that’s still by the swinging saloon doors. There’s a little box there.

You can also go to go to Tribe J H Dot Com, and there’s a link for for giving you can give that way. Most people are generous through their smartphones, And if you open up a new text to 84321, you can type in any amount, press send. If it’s the first time that you’re giving, you’ll be sent a little link. You can enter your bank card information. It’s as easy as texting a friend.

Why don’t I pray over the offering? We’ll share a couple of announcements with you, and then we’ll get out of here. Lord Jesus, thank you for being good to us. Thank you for the jobs that we have. Thank you for the financial resources that flow through us.

We want to be good stewards of your financial blessing. And by telling you we love you and we thank you, we surrender a portion of our finances back to you by tithing to our local church, whether it’s tribe or the church that you are visiting us from. God, I ask that you would receive these tithes and offerings. You would use them to make your name famous here at Tribe in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region, and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Thank you.

In Jesus’ name, everybody said. Amen. Joel, thank you so much for bringing the word. It really threw me a curve ball because, in our conversation, I thought that he was going to be the subject that he was gonna be preaching on this morning was should we should we baptize the Nephilim pilots of the orbs that are on the East Coast? I don’t know why he didn’t go with that message.

Maybe next week. We have a board member here who probably can drill down into the bylaws to see if according to the bylaws, I’m actually able to, officiate a Nephilim wedding. I don’t we have to check with the bylaws on that. So Joel Richardson, you can go to his website joel’strumpet.com. Is that correct?

Joel’s trumpet. You can go to joelstrumpet.com. He is, a much bigger author than he led on. He has authored some books with the titles of Islamic Antichrist, Middle East Beast, When a Jew Rules the World, Mystery Babylon, Sinai to Zion, and Mount Sinai in Arabia are just some of the titles of books that he’s written. So you can go to Amazon or wherever you buy or listen to books, you can check him out there as well.

At the end of service, he’ll be around. Also this evening, he will be invited to share for just a moment at our monthly gathering on the town square in support of Israel. How many of you have been to one of those gatherings before? They are they’re they’re they’re they’re something. It’s I would you’re all invited, and I would encourage and implore you to to come and be a part of one of those gatherings.

Your attendance and appearance does not mean that you wholesalely, across the board, condone the actions of any one person or any one group because it’s impossible to do that. I think a lot of people are afraid. They’re like, well, who’s perfect? Nobody’s perfect. So we’ll just get that out right from the front.

Nobody’s perfect. Your appearance, your attendance sends a beautifully strong message to our local Jewish community that as they are surrounded by enemies around the world and attacked and persecuted and your your your appearance says you’re not alone. And you will be surprised at how many people from the Jewish community that attend these gatherings that just tell you thank you. Like, wow. I I I had no idea.

And what we do is it’s it’s not a rally. It’s we intentionally call it a gathering, and there are members from the Jewish community come, and our purpose is twofold. Number one, to call and to continue to raise awareness that Israel is facing a seven front war right now still to this day. We we the the news cycle is so short and quick. Is it a is it a bomb cyclone storm in the East Coast?

Is it a quademic? Is it orbs? Is it Tesla trucks? Brazil, like, ah, and, like, Israel just gets just dropped out of the news cycle. But I tell you what, the people in Israel have not forgotten about what’s happening in Israel.

Number one, Jews around the world have not forgotten about what’s ongoing in Israel. Jews in this community have not forgotten. And so we stand with Israel when we gather. That’s number one. And then number two, we join our voices calling for the release and the return of still over a 100 unaccounted hostages being held and separated from their friends and family and loved ones.

So that’s what we’re there for. And now we also go to build relationships, say hello, introduce yourself to them. There’ll be lots of strangers there. And that is the the the first announcement, the 5PM. 5PM on the town square.

Dress warm. Okay. And it only goes about thirty, forty minutes? Yeah. Yeah.

Also, there are opportunities to serve if you call tribe home. We don’t do, like, a membership process here. Like and maybe some of you are like, how do I sign up? I wanna become a member. Like, like, let me do the membership thing.

That’s just not really what we do. Sorry. But if you want if you want to call tribe home, just like in your home, as a member of the family, you help set the table, you help cook the meal, you help clean up after the meal, you help do the dishes. Similarly, there are opportunities for you to be a part of our tribe family and call yourself a member of the family by serving here at tribe. There is a whole setup team.

We transform this place from a bar. LaNeisha’s walking around early, splashing holy water on things. We we we take we take it down from a bar. We set up this setting. There’s our production team that comes in and sets up this.

It seems like really simple. It’s on purpose, but there’s a lot that goes into it. We have a whole environment in the conference room for our tribe kids that needs setup, and it also needs tribe kids volunteers. And then at the end of this, we gotta turn it back into a bar and be consecrated, if you will. Shake the dust off our feet and walk out the door.

And so, if you are if you would like to call tribe home, then be a part of the family and serve. So, is Adam in here? Where’s Adam? He’s probably out patrolling the halls. Would you go grab him?

So handsome as his hair grows out longer. You wanna present him? Yeah. Yeah. Wait.

Is he single? No. Oh, no. No. No.

No. He’s in a okay. Yeah. Yeah. No.

I won’t. I was joking when I said There he is. So Adam, coordinates our greeters and ushers. And so at the end of service today, you can go to him and say, like, sign me up, coach. He puts a schedule together, and it would be so awesome to have your help, setting up and and tearing down, Lanisha, right here.

Wave your hand. She’s, she leads our prayer ministry team. And at the end of the service today, over by my new friend, Elijah. Elijah? Over by Elijah, Lanisha will be there.

If there’s anything that you need prayer for, she would love to agree with you in prayer. Also, Kelsey is in Tribe Kids, and if you would like to serve in Tribe Kids, just talk to Kelsey right there. And Nancy and Goodies. Nancy and Goodies. That sounds funny.

I should explain that. So Nancy coordinates and often brings our little yummy treats, And so if you’re like, oh, like, I don’t wanna stack chairs, and I don’t really like kids, but I get it. But if you’d like to bring some some breakfast tasty num nums, you can see Nancy. She’ll get you on the schedule for that. Did I get everything?

Lord Jesus, I pray for our tribe family. Thank you so much that Joel Richardson and his family are a part of our tribe family. Lord, we command a blessing over Joel and his ministry. In many ways, he has been the only person that has responded to your call to stand in the gap, to stand in the breach in the wall, and call out truth to huge global ministry organizations and calling them to repentance and calling them to tell the truth, And that places a huge target on his back. Jesus was Jesus, would you bless him?

Jesus, would you anoint his words? Would you anoint his ministry? And thank you for his ministry to us today. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe fam here today. Help us to be like Daniel 12 that says, many who are wise in those days will shine bright like stars.

Use our lives to shine bright like a star in this valley to the nation of Israel and to our spheres of influence. We thank you so much, and we love you, Jesus. Would you just tell him in a whisper, I love you. Jesus, I love you. Thank you for today.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God. And everybody said Amen. Amen. I love you so very much. Have a great week, and remember, happy birthday, Lissy.