Who Is Israel?

Thank you for joining us on the livestream today. Okay. Good morning. As we get started this morning, I wanna share with you a quick current event. Maybe for some some of you, you caught this on the news depending on what news you watch.

Probably most of you missed it and you’re not a bad person at all for having missed this. There’s always all kinds of things going on. But this this past week, on January 26, there was a really important bow that was tied that brought about the conclusion in the end of a really long ordeal. And do you have the picture of this police officer? This is Ran Gavili.

I’m mispronouncing his name terribly. He is a police officer in Israel. And on October 7, he was killed in Israel by Hamas terrorists defending his kibbutz, and his body was taken into Gaza. And for over eight hundred and some odd days, His family and his loved ones and his friends, had no idea where he was. His his his status, was he alive, unalive?

There were reports that he had been killed, but his family had held out hopes that perhaps he was, still alive. And on January 26, based upon intelligence reports, the IDF, conducted a body recovery operation and a cemetery in Northern Gaza and recovered his body and brought his remains home to Israel, and he was the last hostage taken captive captive on October 7. So all of the hostages that were taken on October 7 have finally been returned, and Ran was recovered at a cemetery. When I heard that word, I thought like, okay, a cemetery. We all know what cemeteries look like, but this was not that kind of a cemetery.

There was no was no grass. There was no big trees with squirrels playing in the trees. There was no tombstone marking his grave. It was not a mass grave, but it was a cemetery filled with jumbled bodies and the IDF had to painstakingly, at times, on their hands and knees, digging with their hands, remove bodies, and doing forensic tests, DNA tests on all of the remains. And the report says that they dug through hundreds of bodies to identify this one body and then and then bring it back to Israel.

And there is a interesting moment. Perhaps you saw the headline that the last hostage had come home. Maybe you saw that. Maybe you didn’t. It’s okay.

What you most likely didn’t see were the hundreds of IDF soldiers that were involved in that specific operation, and once the body had been positively ID’d, their response to the recovery of their last brother to bring him back home to Israel. And there was, some video that was captured of that moment and I want to to play that video for you. It’s just one minute long, but notice the reaction of the soldiers at how the moment that Rand was identified. And we’ll queue up the video, press pause, and then make sure the volume’s good, sir. Yep.

Oh, that was fast. Yeah. That was literally the fastest anyone’s ever done in. There you go. Alright.

They’re always singing. I haven’t had too much experience with with with, like, Jews. But last summer, remember, there was a group of IDF soldiers that came out that we hosted, and they must the time the short amount of time that I was around them, they must have broken into song like like 10 different times. One of the days we were hiking up Cody Peak, you ride the tram up and then you sneak around, tag the summit of Cody Peak, come back down, ride the tram down, and then it blew their mind. The the base of the tram was higher than their highest point in Israel, Mount Hermon.

And so they get to the top of the tram. We hike out around Dacoti. There was one guy, who had issues with heights, and he was shaking like a leaf. And they were, like, doing like guys do, making fun of him, goading him, poking him and they and then they grab him, drag him up to the summit and he’s like holding on to the earth for dear life and then they like hoist him up and he’s like screaming at them and but like but like we we did this together and they broke out into song and they’re holding each other just like this and then they like threatened to throw him off the top like guys do. And, it was his birthday, and so, like, for his birthday, we’re gonna throw you off the cliff.

It’ll be really fun. But then they sang happy birthday, but they were they were huddled up and singing and singing and singing, and there’s a song for just about every occasion that you can imagine. So once again here, as the news spreads among soldiers in this particular moment that we’ve got a positive idea, we found him, and we’re gonna bring him home. The soldiers huddled together, and they begin to sing. It’s pretty amazing.

What were they singing, though? I I don’t speak Hebrew. I don’t know. But I saw on a on a thread that I’m on, somebody translated the words, and I I just thought it was beautiful that they were singing and holding each other, but the words are even more powerful. Here’s a snippet of the words.

This is what they were singing and I confirmed this. I believe in the coming of the Messiah. And even if he tarries, I will wait for him until he comes. I believe in the coming of the Messiah. And even if he tarries, I will wait for him until he comes.

Quick question. Why do you think they if you were to try to walk, not even a mile, let’s say half a mile, in their shoes, why do you think that song came up out of their heart? I have I have an idea. I don’t know any of those guys. I have an idea that I’ll share with you, but I’d love to hear from you.

Why do you think that song came up out of their heart? And Corey may be hatching the mic. So Corey’s running the mic today. Congratulations. It’s a mic.

Lanisha. My first thought was about funerals, and funerals here in America, and I just thought about a funeral from my own family. And one, a lot of black people do not call them funerals. We call them celebration of life, so they are not dead. And that’s why I thought of this.

Definitely, if they know Christ in this standpoint, we know we’re gonna see them again. We’re not sad or mourning. We’re excited even if us seeing our loved one again takes years, takes us to die, or if Jesus comes back, and we get to see him right then in the clouds for him as well. It’s like our brother, we are not getting to hug him right now, but once the coming of the Messiah, we’re gonna be back with our brother here again. So let’s sing and not remorse, but expectation.

Yeah. Yeah. Let’s let’s recalibrate our hearts in this moment. I’ll add to that. Oh.

No. No. B, you’ve got the mic. Okay. The other thing that I was thinking about was just like in like this kind of situation, it’s like, you can’t really put your hope in this life, like when this kind of thing is happening, and so proclaiming the hope for what is next is like the natural and important thing to do.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. As soldiers, if you kinda think about the past few years of their lives, I’m sure it’s been some of the more challenging as a IDF soldier to be engaged in such a hot conflict. So to think about how when the messiah comes back, and feel free to add scriptural clarity to this, that no more Jewish blood will be shed when Jesus comes back to conquer. Yes. That’s that’s a hopeful hopeful thing to hold on to.

100%. 100%. Now they would not call him Jesus because they don’t know their messiah as Jesus yet, but someday that will change. Yes, please. Yeah.

This was just a quick this was just a quick one. Know. I was like, it’s a quick one, but there’s a lot of comments. Think this is pretty valuable. What what stands out for me is just like the bringing of exiles home to the promised land.

Yeah. Which is like, that’s the entire narrative of the bible, is God bringing his people out of exile and into the promised land. So for them to recover someone who was in exile and be able to bring them home, is just a shadow of what the Messiah is doing and is going to do. That’s good. That’s good.

Yeah. More song. More singing. Yeah. I’m not trying to make a moment.

I’m just thinking. You’ve heard me say this a lot. I I I like to organize my very scattered thoughts in terms of a Venn diagram, which I do have today. But there’s a lot of overlap. There’s a lot of crossing of circles, common ground shared in circles between the Christian faith and the Jewish faith, putting our hope not in in the temporary the what we see in front of us, but this concept of eternity and the restoration of all things.

Within the heart of every observant Jew is knowledge and a yearning for messiah. And it’s just really cool to see them expressing that faith in that moment. That was not a church service. Those were not all observant Jews, but it was just a really powerful moment. As we get into today’s conversation, I do need to start I wrote out a little something that at I guess we’re already past the beginning of our conversation, but I want to say this as we get into today’s conversation.

I have a growing relationship with some Jews and rabbis in this town, and what I say today may rub their fur the wrong way. I don’t intend any offense. However, I will not stand in judgment before any of you or any of them. For any observant Jew who hears the conversation today, I hope you hear my honor and respect for your faith and heritage. Alright.

Got it. Got it. What is he gonna talk about? Alright. Let’s put up the title of the conversation that we are going to have today.

We are in week three of Unbreakable, and we’re having a series of conversations about God’s unbreakable promise to a chosen group of people called Israel and their incredible resilience throughout the nations of the earth for as long as they have been called a people. And this week of week three, we’re going to tackle this question, who is Israel? For some of you, this question may seem irrelevant. Like, why are we why are we talking about this? For others of you, this question may seem as though it has a very simple answer.

Who’s Israel? Well, duh. Israel is Israel. End of story. The reality that we have seen and some of us have wrestled with to one extent or another is that there the reality is it is more complex than simply pointing to a place on a map.

It is more complex than simply pointing to a person by the way that they look or by pointing to a place where they worship. And if you remember last week, which I showed you a quick little video between a Republican senator Ted Cruz having conversation with Tucker Carlson. How many of you either have seen that clip before or remember that from last week? Okay. I’m not gonna play the clip so that we can keep moving forward with today’s conversation, but go back.

Listen to week one. Listen to week two, and here we are in week three. In week two, I played a short clip where Ted Cruz is going on and on about, like, those who bless you, I will bless. Those who curse you, I will curse. And Tucker cuts him off and says, when you say you, are you talking about Israel?

And Ted said, like, yes. I’m talking about Israel. And then Tucker Carlson just asked a really simple straightforward question like like, who’s Israel? And then is is it the modern state of Israel? Is it the geographical place?

Is it people? Like like how and and bless his heart, old Ted Cruz got all tripped up and kind of flustered. I am not having this conversation as my attempt to answer if I were in an interview with Tucker Carlson. This is not a rebuttal to Tucker Carlson. However, that clip in that podcast brought up a really a really valid and interesting point because many people of great influence, if they can control the definition of Israel, it allows them to operate with their agenda of Israel, whatever that may be.

And so what I am attempting to do is to lead us in a conversation. I think we can cover a lot of ground in in just one conversation today. Why are you smirking like that, Phil? Oh, when my kids would preach my sermons back to me growing up, dad, start to the finish. I told him.

So this is this is the direction that we are going this morning, and as I have said at the beginning of every conversation that we have had, if you have questions about this, if you have conflict about this, if you’re experiencing turmoil, if you have disagreement about this, I put my phone number up here on the big screen and it goes on the livestream each and every single week. Why don’t you don’t call me because I won’t answer. But text me, we’ll talk, we’ll go get coffee, and we’ll talk. That’s for you Steve. Generationally, I know you’d get it.

So as we continue to get into today’s content, why don’t we continue the warm up by looking at just a couple of passages as we continue to see God’s heart for Israel? And you can turn there. Probably the best thing to do would be to just write this address down unless you have really fast Bible fingers, and you can you can write it down and along with the top of your notes today, this is Unbreakable week three, who is Israel? Jeremiah chapter 31 verse three. Fast fingers.

Gretchen, well done. Looks like you get to read it. Jeremiah chapter 31 verse three. It’s up here on the screen as well. We’ll wait a second.

Okay. Okay. What grandmother was that? The Lord has appeared of old to to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you.

Amazing. In the NLT says to myself. Mine just says, have drawn you. Long ago, the Lord said to Israel, I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. Remember when we were doing our word studies during COVID, and one of them was the god kind of love and unfailing love?

Hasid. That’s right. Hasid, a special kind of love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself. If you want to know again, we’re gonna work on defining Israel.

But if you want to know if you want to stay in step with God’s heart, you should probably work on developing God’s thoughts about everything, including what does he think about Israel? Here is one of so many verses that express God’s heart towards Israel. I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself. One more for our warm up.

Zechariah chapter two verse eight. You can write it down. I’ll put it up on the screen here. Why don’t I read it for you? This is what the lord of heaven’s army says.

After a period of glory, he sent me against the nations who plundered you. For he said, anyone who harms you harms what? My most precious possession. The apple of his eye, the very center part of his eye. Now here’s something that’s interesting.

As any good father does, he disciplines his children and Israel does not escape the discipline of the lord. God can use any number of mechanisms to discipline his child, and sometimes he uses another nation to be the instrument of his discipline, ransacking the city of Jerusalem, taking people into captivity, removing them from the land. But then here’s interesting is if any of those nations as an instrument of his chastisement steps out of bounds, goes too far, god steps in and says to that nation, you went too far. You forgot your place and your role, and you forgot who Israel is to me, and now you’re gonna get a spanking. Like when you there’s a well, I’ll let this example come tumbling out and we’ll see how well we like it.

When you’re watching your child in the stands playing the sports ball game, and they do something not great as a player. And the coach gets after them, calls a timeout or subs them out, and lays into them, you’re like, well, yeah. Yeah. But then there’s that line, and hopefully as a parent, of us have ever, ever, ever seen a coach do this, but then there’s a line where you’re like, okay, yeah, get them coached. Oh oh, careful careful.

Oh, overstep. Now I gotta have words with similar way, as an instrument of discipline and chastisement, God has from time to time used the nations. But the nations have a history of going too far and overstepping their role and their bounds. And God’s like, now we’re gonna have have a conversation because you forget. And then that’s where this verse comes into play.

For this is what the Lord of heaven’s army says, After a period of glory, he sent me against the nations who plundered you. So the nations went too far for he said, anyone who harms you harms my most special possession, precious possession. So this week, as we get into the conversation today, we’re going to take a swing at trying to answer this question, who is Israel? And I thought what we would do is examine three different distinct, special facets of Israel’s identity. In the same way that we are a triune person, we are a spirit, we have a mind, we live in a body, and all three of those come together to constitute our personhood, I am open to there being more facets in the Lord’s definition.

If you look up in God’s dictionary under eye for Israel, how he defines Israel, I’m very open to there being more than three facets, but what we’re going to look at is three facets. My goal is I hope that this will bring some clarity for you and invite you to build upon the ground that we cover today with your own consideration, brow furrowing, prayer, and digging. So let’s look at this first facet of Israel’s identity. What is Israel? What makes a Jew?

This first component that I’ve I have identified is what I would call sovereign election. God chooses a people and binds himself to them. He picks among all of the people groups, among all of the nations of the earth, among the distinct flavors of people and nation. God goes like this. These people.

When he put his finger on these people, who specifically was the first person that God said duck, duck, duck, duck, goose? Abraham. What? Yes. That’s even better.

I was gonna I was gonna let it slide with Abram, but yes. Hold on. Let’s let it go somewhere. Alright. Terah, but His daddy.

Mhmm. So God pulls out this guy, Terah. Terah gets partway there, and then, like, he’s like, I’m I’m I like it here. God calls his son Abram into a a new land out of his homeland, and then God begins to reveal himself to him. God blesses Abraham.

Abram, and then his name becomes Abraham. And then God reveals himself and his covenant. He makes a promise to these people. Sovereign election. God chooses a people and binds himself to them.

These verses, I think, will be up on the screen. Probably the best thing to do would just be jot the address down, and then you can come back and unpack this. Underneath the first facet of who is Israel, sovereign election, Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse two. God is speaking and says, you are a holy people who belong to the Lord your God. Of all of the people on the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

Holy does not mean better than or perfect or flawless. Holy means what? What two words? Yes, Chris. Or what did you say?

Set apart. Holy means set apart. Set apart. You you may or may not be able to to see this, but there’s still some winter trees along the hearth here. And there’s one, two, three, four, five, six.

They’re all pretty much identical, little bit different heights. But if I wanted to take one of these trees and make it holy, this is all I would have to do, set it apart. I make it distinct and unique, separate from another. It’s not, like, intrinsically more amazing. I have sovereignly chosen this tree.

I pull it out from among the others that are like it, and then I say, this tree is holy. It is set apart. Sovereign election, one more verse. Ezekiel chapter 16. It’s up here on the screen.

You can turn there, and I invite you to write it down. The entire chapter of Ezekiel 16 is, woah, I mean, it it is. It’s intense. But verses four through six say, on the day you were born, God is speaking, and he’s speaking to the nation of Israel. No one cared enough to cut your umbilical cord or wash you and rub you with salt or wrap you in clothes.

No one had the slightest interest in you. No one pitied you or cared for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field for you were despised on the day you were born. But I passed by you, saw you lying there helplessly kicking about in your own blood. What incredible, powerful, vivid imagery.

As you lay there, I said, live, and I repeated it, live. Among the nations of the earth, there is there is a disproportional amount of favor favor per capita on Israel, but no other nation among on the earth has this description about them. And if you continue to read Ezekiel 16, it is it is it’s scathing. It’s scandalous. It’s embarrassing.

It it leaves if you were the object of this description, it leaves you naked, vulnerable, exposed with nothing to hide behind. But these two verses, among many, illustrate the first facet of what I am defining as Israel. First, God’s sovereign election. It is a group of people that God has sovereignly chosen. That’s the first aspect facet, if you will.

The second one, people of genealogical descent. There’s a bloodline component to this. Genesis chapter 17. So go to the next slide, Joe. Genealogical descent.

Genesis chapter 17 verse seven and eight, God is speaking. We covered this verse last week. I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you from generation to generation. Bloodline. This is the everlasting covenant, not to be replaced, not to be cast aside or done away with or forfeited.

Even if one party is unfaithful, the maker of the covenant remains faithful to the covenant. I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you, and I will give you the entire land of Canaan. I wanted to really desperately include a fourth aspect that involved the land, so maybe give me a couple of times of preaching this series through, and in ten years, I’ll may have another take another run at this. Yeah. So he’s just gonna teach it over and over for ten years.

So you better get it the first time around so that the Lord’s like, you did good, son. You can move on. I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you, and I will give you the entire land of Canaan where you now live as a foreigner, and to you and to your descendants, it will be their possession forever, and I will be their god. So we have a component of genealogical descent, bloodline of Jewish people, and the land is set aside for how god defines a Jew. This is where some people try to move Venn diagram of who is a Jew and who is not because they try to define who a Jew is exclusively by bloodline.

And it’s those arguments fall short by trying to define Israel exclusively by bloodline alone because we have examples of Jews being Jews who ain’t got Jew blood in them. Look. Think about this. King David, is he a Jew or not? Is this is a seemingly simple question.

Is the the answer is simple, and there’s more to it. Is David is king David a Jew? Of course. Yes. King David is a Jew.

And would you let me? I’m so excited. Yes. I know. I know.

Alright. Alright. Alright. Okay. So let’s do I don’t I don’t have it like graphed out for you.

I only have so many illustrations and videos today, so I don’t wanna overwhelm you. But we need to look at David’s family tree just really quickly. If we’re defining who a Jew is by bloodline alone, uh-oh, we run into problems with David. So David’s mom and dad, who is David’s mom? We don’t really know her name.

Who is David’s dad? Jesse. You can read all about this. Now who are Jesse’s parents? Who is Jesse’s dad?

Boaz. Boaz from what famous book of the bible? Ruth. Now what about Ruth? Who is who is who is Jesse’s mom?

Ruth. Is Ruth a Jew? No. What is Ruth? Scandal.

King David’s grandmother, not a Jew. If we are looking exclusively at bloodline alone see, this is why people try to shift the definition of a Jew in order to say things that are untrue and disparaging about the nation of Israel because there is a very popular line of thinking talking that is a you don’t have to get too many steps down it before you’re on a slippery slope to antisemitism, and we talked about the dangers of antisemitism before. But if you can define a Jew as only somebody by bloodline alone, well, it’s been how many generations and how many how much intermarriage and intermingling is there, and the bloodline of Israel is so deluded. Nobody can really tell who’s a Jew anymore these days at all. Therefore, anything nobody’s a Jew.

First of all, my response to that is, don’t you think God is smarter than 23 and me, ancestry.com? Like, he knows. Number one, he knows. Number two, if you try to limit the definition of a Jew by bloodline alone, then you must, by family tree, eliminate David as a Jew and nobody would do that because it doesn’t make sense. So being a Jew has to be more than just bloodline alone.

That’s where I’m I’m going with this. And who is a popular descendant of King David? Fast forward. Jesus. Jesus.

So does that mean that Jesus wasn’t a Jew? Let’s see what Jesus himself says about this. Does Jesus claim to be a Jew? You don’t have to turn there, but John four twenty two. These are the red letters in your bible.

Jesus is speaking and he says, you Samaritans know very little about the one you worship while we Jews know all about him. For salvation comes through the Jews. Jesus is identifying himself with the Jews as a Jew. John chapter four verse 22. So listen.

I I don’t know if I have this in my up here on the screen, but I have it in my notes. Bloodline is a sign of continuity, not exclusively of covenant. Okay. I’ll say it again. Bloodline is a sign of continuity, not of covenant, which brings us to the last one.

We have sovereign election, genealogical descent, and then finally, covenantal faithfulness. And these are what I Covenantal faithfulness. There it is. This is what I would call an observant Jew. Covenantal faithfulness.

Exodus chapter 19 verse five and six, God is speaking and he says, now if you obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among the peoples of the earth. For all the earth belongs to me, and you will be my kingdom of priests, a holy or, what are the two words, set apart nation. Or Chris Bates, distinct. Never forget it. Exodus nineteen five and six.

So there is an aspect or an element of what makes a Jew covenantal faithfulness. Whether you are Romanian, Moroccan, Ethiopian, American as your ethnicity, and your bloodline for a long way back. There’s an aspect of what makes a Jew, who is Israel, that involves covenant al faithfulness. Now if we were to think ahead under covenantal faithfulness, who could be included in that aspect of being a Jew? Yes.

Yes. Gentiles. Yes. Us. Everyone who’s not Jewish.

Yes. This is beautiful, and this is also partly why I had to give that disclaimer. If you were an observant Jew and sitting here hearing this, understandably, their definition of a Jew probably is is different. Although I did run we’re gonna we’re we’re gonna distill this down into a sentence or two definition. I did run it by several of my Jew friends, and they were like, yes.

That was my interpretation of the tone of their voice through text message. But included in this covenantal faithfulness could be us. Now many of you, as we started this series, have been like, well, well, well, well, now now wait a minute. What about Christians? Well, so let’s look at those two passages as we begin to descend in altitude.

Galatians chapter three verse seven verse seven. Paul is speaking. Is Paul a Jew? Yes. You’re probably like, oh, wait.

I don’t know. Who’s a Jew? Who’s not a Jew? Yes. He’s a Jew.

He’s a Jew. He’s a Jew. Adam Sandler Adam Sandler wrote a great song about that. Galatians three verse seven. The real children of Abraham then are those who put their faith in God.

That’s why I chose that phrase, covenantal faithfulness. Who are the real children of Abraham that get in on inheritance and promises of Abraham grafted in, if you will? Those who put their faith in God. Since we’re in Galatians, let’s look at one more passage in Galatians. Galatians chapter three verse 29.

And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. This verse probably is pets the fur of an observant Jew really hard in the wrong way. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. Not in place of, not superseding, not because the other forfeited, but I would say in addition to.

Here’s what a lot of pundits or talking heads or people who have things to say about Israel as a vehicle to push their agenda, force into categories, that a Jew is made up of either race or religion, that being a Jew is either belief or it’s biology. No. No. No. No.

Being a Jew is either identity or obedience. But the Bible and God’s heart refuses those reduction statements. Israel is chosen before believing. They were born before obeying. The nation of Israel was born before obeying, judged for unfaithfulness, and preserved by promise.

Until the Holy Spirit refines my definition, how about this as a definition for who is Israel? Israel is a covenant people elected by God, historically embodied by Abraham’s descendants, and sustained by covenantal faithfulness. In that definition, there could be room for the modern state of Israel, but a Jew is not the modern state of Israel. There could be room for geographical boundaries and conversations within that definition. There could be there is latitude and room to to talk about bloodline and inheritance, but I tried to to Lord, help me, like, weave these things and components and aspects together.

I’ll read it one more time, and then we’ll end with a picture. That Venn diagram’s coming, so just hold on, Amanda. Israel is a covenant people elected by God, historically embodied in Abraham’s descendants, and sustained by covenantal faithfulness. That is a lot. That’s a big mouthful when somebody asks you, well, who even is Israel?

You’re like, hold on. This my best attempt at this. Now let me illustrate this to you visually. Now I tried really hard. Come on, Chad.

Fix this. But he just couldn’t do it. So so you have sovereign election, and it’s very difficult to describe if you’re only listening to the podcast. I’ll do my best. Just jump over to YouTube to to see this.

But I have a Venn diagram here with the convergence of three circles. And the first circle is sovereign election if you move clockwise to covenantal faithfulness and genealogical descent. And notice that all three of these don’t overlap perfectly so that if you are one of them, then you’re automatically all of them. That’s not necessarily true, and you might be able to either see flaws or additional insights from this first pass at this Venn diagram. But who is a Jew?

It’s the intersection of all three of these, that all three components, to some extent, must be present. Just because you are an you are an observer of the Jewish faith and you do all of the religious things, that doesn’t necessarily make you a Jew. No more than walking in your garage makes you a car. Genealogical descent. You can come from the bloodline of Jehoshaphat himself.

But if you lack covenantal faithfulness And what if you were picked by God? There’s still the component of free will at work in a person’s life and heart with their choices and actions. What did Jesus say about this? Or John the Baptist. I can raise up sons of Abraham, children of Abraham, from these stones.

How many of you know stones don’t have DNA? But then as we get into the center, the Bible describes a remnant of people that are of genealogical descent, of sovereign election by God, and express covenantal faithfulness. And he’s like, they’re described as a remnant. Within a subset, they are their own subset. And I tried really hard not to put Christians in the, like, the middle of this that’s very solipsistic of Christians when we’re talking about Israel, and this would probably be more for petting the wrong way for my Jewish friends.

It’s just my first attempt at this. But they’re in there. If there’s any like dissonance for us thinking about this of like, okay, well like how are Christians in the middle of all three of like, I’ve done 23 and me and there’s no Jewish blood in me. Like, Jesus, we are covered in his blood. We are we are holy.

Sovereign election, he has chosen us to be holy. And we are called into this covenant relationship that we can be faithful in. And so through Jesus, that grafting in process, like, we fit into that middle part. We don’t take the place of. We are only able to be there as Paul says, like, we’re not above them.

We’re grateful that they exist and that we get to be a part of that, like, relationship with God through through the Jews, through the Israelites. But just that there’s that, like, a little bit of dissonance in me, so just thinking that, like, Jesus is that all three for us. Like, he gives us and shows us that we get all three of those things. Yeah. With trepidation, I say, take a picture of this.

Maybe not post it because I don’t know that I’ve seen this anywhere else and and but I don’t know. Maybe post it and you have some good discussion, but maybe consider it for yourself. I was just gonna add, like, to that just that, like, we’re adopted. And so, like, when you’re adopted, like, 23 and me doesn’t show that you are related to your parents, but you are their child. Yeah.

And that’s really what Galatians three is all about, the difference between the law and the spirit. I have so much. I have all of this. I’ll try really fast. Okay.

Should do a podcast or something. Should do a podcast. Do wanna be a guest? No. Not for I’m too scared to talk about this outside of our tribe fam.

Anyway, could talk about that later. Just okay. I have lots of thoughts. But Pick your top Yep. Yep.

Yep. One. Or three. Really fast. But I think that, like, I keep going back to what the word says.

Right? And that it is evergreen. It’s living. It it doesn’t change. God doesn’t change.

The world does. And so, like, just in Genesis 17, he said, I will make an everlasting covenant. In Genesis skip one, two, three. I don’t know. He already prophesied Jesus coming.

He already that was already he knew Jesus was coming. So in Genesis 17, he wouldn’t have said everlasting covenant if it was going to change after Jesus. Yeah. He would have said until the time. Yeah.

And he doesn’t say that. Yeah. And then I think land might play a little bit of a part because he spends so much time talking about the boundaries for each tribe and for the land. And I don’t think that anything is in the bible without reason. And the same I don’t I’m not saying to change it.

I’m just saying I do think that that’s there’s something to that. Just like how in Matthew, Jesus’ bloodline, he names Rahab and Ruth. And there’s a reason that those two are in Jesus’ bloodline in Matthew because he wants to call attention to this issue. And We’re gonna get all of them. Yeah.

And as adoption, my beautiful, smart, wise, intelligent husband, if you’re listening, I’m so I’m talking so nice about you. He said the other night that when you do, when you are adopted, you’re not like a parasite that takes over your parent, your new parent’s blood and like wipes it away and then they take on your like, you know what I mean? Like, you get grafted in. So there’s that. I’m trying really hard to, and then last, I think, like, this is really good and I wanna just make a disclaimer that I don’t think that we’re I think this goes back to what Isaac was talking about last week, but like, yes, the remnant is the, like, intersectionality of all three.

But we are still called to love and support all people so that we can provoke them to jealousy and then they can move from the covenantal or the genealogical or the sovereign into the remnant. I I don’t think that this I just wanna make a disclaimer in case anyone hears this and says, oh, so I’m only called to support the remnant. We have to we this goes back to what Isaac was saying. We have to love all people because the goal is to bring them in to the center. Yeah.

Wonderful. You did really good with the last word last week, so have it in Help us bring our seat backs on their full upright position, our tray tables into its locked spot. Whatever Steve says as he’s coming in. Steve, what do you say as you’re coming in? What’s he say?

Hold on. Hold on. It’s gonna be a wolf of your eye. Perfect. My last word last week that Brian and I, he gave me a look.

I don’t know if anyone saw it, like, oh, you have that. Then he was like, you’re right. That was fine. That was that was good. But I think I’m sitting back there, like, Brian is obviously, like, super passionate about this.

This is where he’s spending his time. It’s where the Lord is directing him right now. And so if you walk in here and you’re like, this is great. This is we’re getting into God’s word. Israel’s important to the Lord.

And then you’re thinking, why does this matter to me? Because you might have been in that first grouping of, like, I don’t really care. I’ll just Israel’s Israel. Great. Let’s move on.

But I think it’s it is super important for times to come, for one. Super important as the days get darker. We all know Jesus is coming back. Jesus is a Jew. He’s coming back to the land of Israel.

So there, Israel’s important to us as believers. If that was it, that’s enough. But also, this is a huge part of God’s character, his covenantal relationship to us. If I don’t wanna believe in a God who would leave his first child and only care for his adopted child. So I think it’s also important for us to recognize the nature and character of God that when he makes a promise to you, Jana, he doesn’t break it.

When he makes a promise to Israel, he doesn’t break it. And I think that’s why it’s important for us as believers to know the place in the heart of Israel to the Lord. Not because of, oh, how does that apply to me? But how does that apply to God and who he is? Period.

And as Ian said, oh, I can see myself in there, in this Venn diagram. Good. That’s the idea. Not in place of, not superseding, but along with. Why should we care about Israel?

Israel’s story is our story. Lord, help us. Help us. Help us. How about an abrupt shift?

Amanda. I I think you do that. Every week when we gather together as a local church, we see that we bring a portion of our hard earned finances, and we call it our tithe. Above and beyond that is our offering, and we tribe itself gives offering to many different places. I think we’ll have that up at the end.

But it’s a good thing because it’s all the Lord’s anyway. Right? It’s all his, and we have the privilege and the honor of partnering with him and stewarding it well. These are the places that Tribe sends offering to. Not to mention just those stuff that we do here locally and among our tribe family.

But let’s just pray together as a tribe family. When we bring our tithe and offering, it’s just like us talking about Israel is one big component of the Lord’s heart, well, this also helps us to stay calibrated with the Lord’s heart when we bring our tithe and offering. Because sometimes it feels really hard to just give money to a church, even if you like it, even if it feels philanthropic, whatever. But it’s more than that. When you bring your tithe and offering to church, it’s more than just a generous donation, which is great and has its place.

There’s something supernatural about it when you’re in obedience to your heavenly father. And so let him speak to you every time about what to give, how to give, is it easy, is it hard? That’s between you and him. So you pray that I suggest you pray that every time you come with your tithe and offering. So let’s, just pray as a tribe family.

And, Brian, come pray out. Heavenly father, we love you and we trust you so very much in every area. Help us, father, as our hearts are being calibrated to yours each and every day in both big and small ways. The things we learn at our local church, the things that we talk to our friends about, our believing friends, the things that we wrestle with, and the things that we just, listen and hear from you in our quiet time. Let us be so calibrated with you, father, that we don’t miss anything you’re asking us to do, big or small.

We thank you for your never ending faithfulness. We thank you that, just like we talked about in worship today, Lord, when we listen to you, when we really, really turn our hearts towards you, and it’s more than just words. You are always speaking. When we slow down enough to really listen, you’re always speaking. So help us in this area, not just of our tithe and above that our offering, but just every area of our life.

Help us to listen to you better as we do our natural act of calibrating our heart, and you do your supernatural part, which only you can do. We thank you for it, and we just thank you just for this town that we get to serve. Thank you for Jackson, and for, like we say, the uttermost bounds of the earth, father. You are not limited by human resources, but you are such a loving heavenly father. You let us partner with you.

That’s a really big deal. So we say thank you. Thank you that every single penny that comes into drive tribe now and always, you will be pleased with how it’s been. We love you. We trust you.

In Jesus’ name, amen? Amen. Check the fridge for announcements, Brian. Stand up. Let me pray for you.

Thank you for your endurance today. Lord Jesus, thank you for spring. No. Don’t don’t know. Don’t know.

I don’t know. We thank you in all seasons as confused as we may be about what’s happening with the weather here. Lord, I ask that you would give us a great week. I command a blessing over our tribe fam, everybody here, everyone listening to the podcast and the livestream. Lord, we tell you that we love you.

Give us a great week. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, in the immortal world words of Steve Wilson, hang on, and you got this. Hold on. Hold on.

You got this.