Prayer and God’s Faithful Love: Isaiah 49 and 62

Uh we do want to also welcome those watching online. We are streaming these. So hey hello to all you watching online. We got people watching from uh all over the world uh particularly all over our nation. So we say hello to those on YouTube and Facebook. And we're grateful you're here. Here's the structure of the night. As I shared with you earlier, this is way more casual. In fact, we could bring up the house lights so that we could read our Bibles. And uh this is an opportunity for you to shout back at the end of our time. Uh it'll be just a short time in the Bible tonight looking uh at Israel in the Bible and then I'll show you some uh pictures of my time in Israel earlier this year and it will be one of the very spots that we'll stop on on our trip in Israel. So if you're interested in going, there's still space. Uh I believe there's uh 25 people

signed up right now, not including Kara and I. So we got at least 27 of us who are heading to Israel next year. Hallelujah. So, uh, is anyone here signed up to go with us? Let's go. Hey, we're going to get to know each other well. So, praise be to God. It's going to be a really, really, really good time. And at the end of our time here, we'll just share a little recap. And that that's how we've been doing this. I realize I met some of you already who uh have not been at our previous nights. We're doing these once a month. So, I'm going to give you just a a small recap. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because it is available online, but if you're taking notes, you can go back and study it yourself. The best way to study scripture is with scripture. It's not with the preacher telling you what to believe. Uh, but it's for you to open up your Bible and get familiar with the

Bible. So, I'm just going to do a brief recap. If you've not been here, I would take notes if I was you, and then you go get in the Bible and study this for yourself to see even more. So, just a real quick uh recap understanding where did Israel come from? Well, Israel is God's ideal. In fact, we really first get the idea of Israel introduced with Abraham in what we call the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis chapter 12 when God is speaking to Abraham and he actually talks to him before his name was changed. And he says,"Abram, I want you to look at the stars in the sky. That's how many kids you're going to have. That's the lineage you're going to have. That's the legacy you're going to have." And God gives us a glimpse of Israel through this man Abraham, this covenant. And he tells Abraham, "At those who bless you, I'll bless. And those who curse you, I'll curse." And of course,

he was speaking forward to this promise of Israel. And we looked last week at these three really important covenants. And covenants are promises that have to be kept. And with the three covenants were the Abrahamic covenant that we read about in Genesis 12. Then we later looked at the Mosaic covenant which came out of uh God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt to Israel. Now, how'd they get there? Well, Abraham's grandson's name was Does anybody remember Abraham's grandson's name? Come on, this is a pop quiz. Abraham's grandson. Jacob. He actually had two. It was Esau and Jacob. Uh so Abraham's grandson Jacob was on a journey really running from his brother Esau. He was afraid.

And on this journey he met a man, an angel of God. Can you believe this? An angel of God. And Jacob wrestled with this man begging for a blessing. He would not give up on this this this wrestling match all night long. And when God asked him his name, he told him his name, Jacob. And God told him, "You'll no longer be known as Jacob. You'll be known as who?" Israel. And so his name was changed. So quickly we see this Abrahamic covenant start to be fulfilled. Abraham has a son named Isaac. Isaac has a son named Jacob. Now Jacob goes on to have how many sons? Do you remember? 12 sons. We would later know these as the 12 tribes of Israel. This will get a little bit confused with with Judah uh

and his two sons that he ended up having with Timar. But we see 12 tribes of Israel. These 12 sons and their families all end up in Egypt. And over a long period of time, in fact, multiple centuries in Egypt, they grow to over a million. So now you go from one man Abraham to a family that's over a million. Yet they're not in what we know today as modern day Israel. They're in Egypt. So God raises up a deliverer. What's the deliverer's name? Shout it out. Moses. He He raises up a deliverer named Moses. And this is where we get the second covenant, the Mosaic covenant, which is found in the book of Exodus, chapters 19- 24. When God makes a covenant with his people, he doesn't leave them as slaves.

He reminds them of the promise that he made with Abraham. And he lets them know that he has good plans for them. And that's where he gives them the Torah, the instruction, the commandments of God. Do you guys remember what mountain it was that he did all this on? Mount Si. He does this on Mount Si. And it's on a journey from Egypt to this land that God had promised. In fact, God promised that land to Abraham. So, here they are now on a journey. And God's made a Mosaic covenant with his people. Now, if we just fast forward from Moses about 1500 years forward, on the very night of the Passover, just just moments before Jesus would be betrayed and then beaten

and then crucified, Jesus on that very night in the middle of the seder meal says, "I'm leaving you with a new covenant." The new covenant was not so new. It was actually prophesied by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel that God was going to give a new covenant. Now, this is incredibly important and this is just a brief recap because that covenant would include all people that believe in Jesus get that great inheritance of the Abrahamic covenant. Someone should shout amen there. That that is God's faithfulness. And so we've looked over the last 3 months of the importance of Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11 when Paul, who's in a a Jewish Israelite, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, is simply arguing that God still has a plan for Israel, but in that

plan, he's also included Gentiles. So if you're non-Jewish, God's got a great plan for you. He grafts you in to the family tree. And the tree, do you remember the tree, the the type of tree that Paul likens this to in Romans? Anybody remember? There's lots of them in Israel. Olive tree. He says because of the disobedience of the Jews, those branches were removed where now the Gentiles get to be grafted in. But does that mean that God no longer has a plan? And I've I've told you about the importance of understanding this is not replacement theology. It's a very dangerous belief that has snuck into the western church. Replacement theology says that because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave that now

if you believe in Jesus, what's really important to God is the church. Israel and that Abrahamic covenant, that Mosaic covenant th those were old testament. That's no longer necessary because now there's a new covenant. So, we no longer have to really worry about what's said about Israel and this land and the people. And that's really dangerous because God's promises are true. And you're going to see that more carefully tonight. You're going to see that God still has a plan. In fact, Paul uses such extreme language when he's talking about the Jews. He said, "I would lose my salvation for all of them to be saved." And you actually see God's plans in the book of Roman is that all of Israel shall be saved. And so now we're leaning into history. We're longing for

that moment that God is going to work with all the nations. And we see that God continues to prove himself. So So what's happened over history? What what do we see with Israel? What here's what we see very clearly is that God gives this covenant to his people, but over the course of history, we see that his people are known in in the language of God in the scriptures. His people are stiff necked. They're stubborn. He he created the commandments so that they would not be like the other nations. And what do they long to be like? The other nations. They see these man-made gods made out of wood and uh out of metal and they say, "This is pretty spectacular. We can't even see our god. Maybe we should worship your god." And they see the sexualization of of religion. And so they're very drawn to all these false

religions. And so over the course of history, they continue to rebel. Yet God is continually faithful. So God sends judges. He sends priests. He sends kings and he sends prophets all to point his people back to him. And over the course of time, as we've looked at over the last few months, they still continually rebelled. So God had to hand them over to judgment for the simple sake of of education and discipline to bring them back. And so we looked at the different uh exile periods with the Assyrians and the Babylonians

and the Greeks and then eventually the Romans which leads us up to the time of Jesus. Those times are really important to see because one might look at those exile periods and say where was God in that? And that's what we're going to look at tonight. Where is God when you can't see him? when you can't feel him, when your circumstances seem to be completely uh absent from from from where God is. And so, we see that God was faithful even to the end, even when his people were unfaithful. Now, why is Israel important to us? I'm going to try to tie this in a little bit, and I want you to see why you should have a love for Israel and his word. So, let's pray together. Lord, would you help us to understand your word more clearly, even the simplicity of what we're going to look at tonight? I pray that it would be profound so that our hearts would align

with yours. That we would long to love what you love and long to be loved uh by you. And I would actually say it's in the that order that you love us and then we love what you love. So Lord, give us your heart. We pray in Jesus' name. So I want to uh share with you Isaiah 62 6 and 7 says this and and I I want to break this down so you understand what the prophet's saying. God is speaking through the prophet. He says on your walls oh Jerusalem I have set watchmen. Now when you go to Jerusalem there's the old city of Jerusalem and there's this really cool ancient wall that is totally surrounds Jerusalem much like the fortified ancient walls of old. Now, this wall has been rebuilt many, many times because the city's been destroyed and rebuilt

upon and destroyed and rebuilt upon. So, it's really cool that you actually get to see the stones over the ages being rebuilt. God is speaking and saying, "On that wall that's meant to protect your city, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen." The Hebrew word for watchmen here means to look out. It means to spy. It means to intentionally look. I've set watchmen on the wall all the day and all the night. They shall never, everyone shout never, never be silent. Now, when God says never, we've got to take God at his word and say, "Is he serious about this?" Too too many times, we take God's word lightly because because we often use words with exaggeration. Have you ever done that with somebody else? You always and you know that's just really not true. They don't always do whatever that

is you're accusing them of doing. Well, when God says always, he means always. So, so the watchmen, they're meant to watch when? All day and all night, they shall never be silent. Now, this is the theme for our tour is that we would be watchmen on the wall. So, when you sign up for the tour, it's going to ask you a little check box. Do you want to be a watchman? This tonight, you're going to better understand what this means. You who put the Lord in remembrance. So if you trust in the Lord, if you remember God and what he cares about, take no rest and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Let me just read that again.

So if you remember the Lord, you're meant to be a watchman on the wall and you're meant to go to God. do not give him any rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. That's pretty awesome. Here's what that means. You just bug God and you keep bugging God until this is fulfilled. As the psalmist says, you should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And when God says it, you should probably do it. Now, some would argue this is Isaiah the prophet. This is 700 years before Jesus was born. Come on, pastor. Was he really talking to us in 2025 in Bend, Oregon?

Most of us are Gentiles. So, was he really talking to us? Actually, Isaiah was talking to the prophets of his day. A prophet that would speak forth God's word. A prophet that would be bold and look out and see when people are not living the right way. This is not talking about literally going on top of the wall and looking out for the enemy. Because what would a a watchman do? Here's what a watchman do. They would look out for an enemy. And if there was an enemy, and you know what the watchman do? Would they would warn everyone with their words? They would warn, "Here comes an enemy." And if they warned them in time, what would the people get to do? Protect themselves. They would be forewarned. They would have an opportunity for safety, for life, for preservation.

So the whole object of a watchman is to look out to keep everyone safe, to keep them alive. Or as was the case with good news. If you saw someone leaping and praising and jumping and skipping and dancing, oh how beautiful it is of the feet who bring good news. So the watchman looks for the bad news and the good news. But particularly in their day as a prophet, when you're hearing the words of Isaiah, you're meant to warn the people that when something's off, you've got to tell them it's off. Because if they don't hear the word, if they don't do what you've told them, what happens next? Destruction. You get attacked. You're doomed.

Now, was this for the prophets of old? Absolutely. But what we see with God's promises are really important in Christ with this new covenant. We take God's promises and we're able to apply them to our lives today. This is important that when you read the Bible, you don't separate them and say, "Oh, well, that was for the people of old. I I'm only looking at what's in the New Testament." If you've ever heard anyone quote Jeremiah 29:11, it goes really well on a mug or maybe even a bookmark to put in your Bible. It says, "For I know the plans I have for you, thus says the Lord, plans to prosper you and plans to give you hope and a future." Now, if you understand that chapter in context, it's while God's people are in exile in Babylon, and they're absolutely miserable.

They're in a foreign land. They don't understand the language, and they're they're forced to do labor because they are the slaves in this land of Babylon. That's where their names were changed. Remember the stories like in in Daniel with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo. Those are their slave names. We now look back and call them by their slave names. And God speaks through Jeremiah and says, "Listen, while you're here, go ahead and prosper. Get married, have kids, make homes. If I could put it in our vernacular, go ahead and bloom right where you are. Have life where you are. Are your circumstances bad?" Yeah. But can God work in your circumstances? Yeah. And God says, "You're going to be here for 70 years." And then right in the middle of this, God says, "I know the plans for you, and they're better than your plans, and they're going to be

good." So were was that message in Jeremiah 29:11 for us today in 2025? Originally, no. But because of Jesus Christ, we can say that what he did in the days of old, he's still doing today. So when we're in our Babylonian exile of our days, when you find yourself in the place you don't want to be, maybe because you got yourself there, God doesn't give up on you. He doesn't leave you in your mess. So the God that got the Israelites out of Babylon is going to get you out of the place you're in today. So when God says in Isaiah 62 that he set watchmen on the wall, what do you think God's looking for today? Watchmen on the wall. He's looking for some people that will look out in the day that we're living in today and that will warn people of what the truth actually is.

That we will let the world know the truth that Yeshua has come. He's the Messiah or the way we say in English, the Christ. He is the saving one. So, we see God's promise is that there would be watchmen that are going to look out. And if we look at the spiritual sense of what this is looking looking like today, God's looking for those that will prophetically speak into this generation that will speak God's promises that we will take God at his word that Jerusalem will be a place of praise. And God is not just calling Old Testament prophets. He's looking for leaders today. He's looking for those who are willing to wake up and be watchmen. How do I know that's

true today? Well, the very night Jesus was betrayed, do you remember where he was when he was arrested? Anyone shout it out? The garden of Gethsemane. And when we go to Israel together, we will go to that very same garden. And there are olive trees there that are actually more than 2,000 years old. So, you can be guaranteed that the very place you're walking is the very place Jesus was when he was praying minutes before he would be arrested. And while he's there, he's he's he's recognizing the seriousness and the fate of what's about to happen right in front of him. And he brought three of his closest disciples, Peter, James, and John. And when they get up there to

pray, and Jesus is is crying out, and he's sweating blood with this troubled spirit, what are Peter and James, John doing? Peter, James, they're sleeping. He comes back and he wakes them up and he goes back to prayer and he comes back again and what are they doing this time? Sleeping. So he's like, "Come on guys, work with me here." He comes back a third time and what are they doing? Sleeping. And so Jesus says this in Matthew 26:41, "Watch and pray." This is the same language that Isaiah the prophet speaking on behalf of God says this is not your time to sleep.

And of course they were physically sleeping. But when we read the Bible, we want to constantly look at it through a spiritual lens. What is God really trying to say here? As I shared with you this morning in John 13, when John notes that Judas left and it was night, I don't think John's just telling us the hour for a time stamp that Judas left in the in the night. I think John's given us a glimpse of something greater that's going on here. Something dark is going on here. And when Jesus says, "Watch and pray." Do you think he was only talking to Peter, James, and John? It's necessary that you see that God is calling us to rise up today and not be spiritually asleep. Because if you are the watchman on the wall and the enemy is coming and you're asleep while you're on duty, that means that we could be taken out.

Your family could be taken out. The city could be taken out. The church could be taken out. The church has been slumbering and sleeping for too long. Would you agree? It's time for us to wake up and take Jesus at his word and be watchmen and pray. Okay, look at what it continues to say. That you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Have you ever felt that about yourself? Like, I know what I want to be doing with my life, but I'm not doing it. And Jesus says, here's here's the cure. You've got to change the discipline and desire of your life and start watching and praying. It's not going to happen through good intentions. I've had many

of good intentions that turn into months, years, and even decades sometimes. And you never become the person you want to be because sometimes you just got to be the watchman that says, "I'm going to have another cup of coffee so I can stay awake." And I'm spiritually speaking here. Maybe that cup of coffee is the word of God or somebody in your life that you can iron sharpens iron. And so here we have God is looking for watchmen for such a time as this. Is anybody in agreement with that today? Shout amen if you agree. So God's looking for watchmen and he's looking for watchmen that that are going to long for Jerusalem to be established and make it a praise on the earth. And you're going to see the importance of Jerusalem in just a moment. The prophet Isaiah shares the heart of God. And he he's going to show the length at which God's going to go. And this is this is the only text we're going to look at tonight. And I

pray God will give you some revelation so you say it was worth getting out tonight. So uh Isaiah 49. Did you bring your Bible? Isaiah 49. Go there. Isaiah 49. uh if you have it, we're going to go right in the middle of Isaiah. So, we're not going to start at the beginning. We're not going to be at the end. We're going to go right to the middle of Isaiah. Uh the verses will be on the the screen, but we're only going to look at a few verses. Right in the middle of Isaiah in verse 13, we have what's called the servant songs of Isaiah. Isaiah four times in this book has these servant songs, and they're going to be similar to what you read in the Psalms, or the best way I could put it, the equivalent of what we do as a church. It's the songs that we sing in the morning. These are praise songs to God. These are adoration to God. It's is giving God glory. So So the prophet is actually speaking forth to God's people

saying, "Praise God with the song." It's like what we try to do on Sunday mornings. This is what we do. That God is worthy of praise. And that if we're going to receive who our God is, then we're going to give to God what's due him. And that naturally is song. So let's go to Isaiah 49. And I'm going to read verse 13. And all we're going to cover today is through verse 16. But I I I hope God will give you something great here so that you understand his heart for Israel. And then boom, it's going to blast right back into your heart of how much he loves you. So here here's the servant song. Verse 13. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exalt, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

Now, let's let's keep this verse up here while I just explain this for just a moment so we can see this. The the prophet is simply saying our proper response to God for who he is and what he's done for his people should be what? Shout it out. Praise. Have you ever looked around at people in the church and wondered like, I don't think you've met God yet. Come on, somebody. when I met with Pastor Peter from Uganda just last week and he was contrasting the American church with the African church and he was saying we've got the best music and the best uh you know uh sound and we've got everything going. Then he says you look around at the people and they're just not engaged and we miss what's actually in the

scriptures as my wife's been teaching me with the women's Bible study that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of celebration. It's it's not a kingdom of depression or come in and just look dignified and let people know that you you got it all together. There is something about sobbing once in a while or celebrating with a hoot and a holler or clapping your hands. And and I'm not saying just going through the motions or doing what someone else is doing. I'm simply saying respond to God. And in this case, it's responding to God for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. Now, here's what Isaiah says. If you don't sing, who's gonna sing for you? The earth. Creation's gonna cry out. Now, we live in such a beautiful place.

I love Ben because it's beautiful. And at least we can look out on a even on a cold day and see a sunrise sometimes and just say, "There's got to be a God. He's faithful." Or or after the the cold that we're starting to get and you see the snowcapped mountain, there's got to be a God. something's crying out or you see the the the leaves changing color right now in the fall and they they go from green to yellow to to amber to to red and you got there's got to be a God. They're crying out. They're showing us there is a God and he's a creator and he does beautiful things. And if you don't praise him with song, don't worry. The earth will do a good job. We don't need man-made things to see that God is worthy of praise. His creation does it for us. Isaiah 43 points it out that we should sing for joy because the heavens are doing it.

The earth is doing it. And we ought to respond to who God is. He's comforts and he's compassionate. Now, that should be enough, right? I I sometimes wonder why is Central Oregon not saved yet? Just look at the mountains. What a great God. We'll have a time like we just had with Andrea and say there's this anointing when you praise God through song. Why isn't Central Oregon saved? I I just think God's done everything he needs to do for Central Oregon to be saved. Yet, we know Central Oregon is not saved yet. Am I right? And I'll tell you why. Because people don't change just like God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I just want you to know, cultures change, technology changes, but people's hearts, they're actually the same now as they were 2,700 years ago when Isaiah said this in verse 14. But Zion said, now let's keep this verse up for a moment so you understand Zion. Zion means the mountain of God. When you read Zion, particularly in the Old Testament, it represents the city of God, the people of God. Here's the cool thing. When we go to the Mount of Olives and you look over at old Jerusalem, you see Zion. It's an actual hill that the temple was built on. But Zion represents the city of God. And what's in the city? People. So when we see Zion, we're not talking about the literal hill.

This is a picture of the people. All right? So when you see Zion, just picture the people. I almost want to picture Bend or Central Oregon for Central Oregon said, "Okay, maybe we just say the state of Oregon." The state of Oregon said, "The Lord has for forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me." Now, this is in the context of the Babylonian exile. So, the people look around and they're far from home. The people look around and they're slaves. They look around and what do they do? Instead of praise God, they murmur, they mumble, and they complain. Aren't you glad that we've come so far from Isaiah 49 verse4 or 14?

Literally, Isaiah is calling them to praise. Come on, let's praise. And they're like, nah, God's forgotten us. I mean just look at our circumstances here which is so important that we understand that when when we can't see it with our eyes when we can't feel it with our emotions when we can't hear it with our ears it does not neglect God's faithfulness he's still God he still sits on his throne and although at this time God's people these are the Jewish people who are under his covenant they can not see it. And the reason I'm pointing this out to you tonight is I want you to see the heart of God. Because if you see God's heart here, you're going to see it here.

And if you get it here, it's going to go here. And you're going to care about what God cares about. And you'll still love Israel. Because do you think God says, "Oh, fine. I'm so done with these people. Let's just take care of them again. Let's wipe them out again. Let's just take out our thumb and our mighty right hand and wipe them out." Do you think that's what he does next? No. And I I just there's two beautiful moms that are here tonight with little babies. And I just want to say here's God's heart. It's the heart of these mamas. We got one over there and we got one over there. Y'all came out and you could have stayed at home, but you came out with your babies. And here's here's what God says. You're defiant and disobedient. My heart for you, my love for you is like a mama to a baby. Look at verse 15. Can a woman

forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet God says, "Yet I will not forget you." And we've had three children in our house, and now there are these grown humans. But they didn't start off that way. When our son entered the world, he was our second. My wife tells this story all the time, because this just goes to show you this scripture. He would not sleep unless he was on her chest and he could hear her breathe. So if you remove him off the chest, you get this crying like put him there. It's like quiet. So my wife would just lay stiff as a board in bed with a newborn son rested on her chest. Was it because that was

the most comfortable position? No. It's because he was comforted and she loved him even to her discomfort to show him love. Here's the thing about newborn babies. All three of my kids came into the world crying. Come on. They didn't come into the world obedient. They didn't come into the world talking. They came into the world crying. And for the next year, you're trying to figure out why are they crying? And the number one thing that a mama does when their kid starts crying is you nurse the child. You've got to be hungry. And most of the time it works. Very few mothers will hear their child crying and just get over it. One of the hardest things is to just let them cry, to let them sleep. And God says, you know that love that a mom has for the son. And by the way, the reason I use my son as example is I think there's a special bond between a mama and a son.

I know moms love all their children the same, but to their sons, there's just like a bond. It's it's a special bond. My son and I, we love each other, but there's something with a son and a mom. And God says, you know, that bond, well, my love for my people is far greater than that. And you can cry all you want. You could whine all you want. And that will not stop me from loving you. That's God's love for Israel. Like a mama. We often think of God as the father, but in this illustration, he's saying, you know, the heart of a mom that came from me. That's my heart. And my heart is even greater than that mom. And he says, I know there's bad moms out there, but just delete those and just think about the best. I'm better than the best.

Now, this is important for us to see because although the word love is not mentioned here, I think it's really clear that this is a deep love. This is not a love that needs to be verbalized with a mouth, a child knows they're loved when they get nursed. What should our response be when God provides for us to know he loves us? Do we need him to tell us? Well, he's demonstrated his love for us in this. You didn't earn it while you were still this sinner. Christ came to this earth and died for us. Now look at verse 16. This is as far as we're going to get tonight and then we're going to wrap it up and then I'm going to share a little place in Israel. Then God says, "Behold." Everyone shout behold. Behold. Every time you see the word behold in the Bible, it's meant to

capture your attention. It's there on purpose. It's intentional. God is about to show you something super important. The prophet Isaiah says, "Behold, I have engraved on you the on the palm of my hands. Your walls are continually before me." Now remember this is during the Babylonian exile. So how are the walls in Jerusalem right now? Destroyed, unfortified, broken down. and of all the images God could give to Israel. He says this, "I need you to know how much I love you. Your name is going to be on my hand." And the word here is engraved in the English, which doesn't do justice. Today, you might think of like a tattoo.

Like when someone really loves their spouse, instead of getting a ring, they tattoo their name on their ring finger. Or maybe they'll tattoo it on their hand. Tattoos are uh an outward expression of something that's permanent. That That's not what engraved means. It's not paint. The the word literally means carved, like a hole. So, I'm going to carve you with a hole in my hand. That's how I'm going to show you. I mean, already mostly adults in the room right now, but that whole process of like a nursing baby and a nursing mom, like that stuff can hurt. That's hard. I mean, that's like a that's a it's a difficult season to go through.

But then God like ups the ante and says, "Okay, the nursing mom thing, I hope you got that, but now we're going to go even further. I'm going to tell you how much I love you. I've engraved you. I put a hole on the palms of my hands. Who Who do y'all think the prophet was was talking about? Shout it out if you know. That was more like a whisper than a shout, but it's all about Jesus. He's referring to the Messiah that's going to demonstrate his love for his people. The Messiah is going to do something here. Now, if you're just reading this and you don't understand the context of the crucifixiction, which is a Roman torture device that leads to death, how in the world would God use a pagan government to fulfill this prophetic word

except for he's God and he knew what he was doing and he had a plan from the very beginning. And he says, Israel, here's how I'm going to show you my love. Now, we don't see the word love here, but God is really clear here. He says, "I've engraved you on the palm of my hands and your walls are continually before me." Now, when you go to Israel, which I hope you'll join us in Israel, you'll see that Christ was crucified right outside the walls and they they'll take you to where they suspect Goltha is, which is now just a bus stop and it's really loud and there's all kinds of buses that that are taking off from different locations right at Goltha where Christ could have been crucified. And if you turn and you look, you see the walls of Jerusalem. So if Christ was crucified there, he probably would have been looking at the walls of Jerusalem.

But God is saying in this moment, even when your walls are destroyed, even when your walls are broken down, even when it looks like it's not fortified, I am continually looking out for your defense. I'm looking out for your safety. I'm looking out to protect you. and I do that with the holes that are in my hands. That's a wild picture of the love of Jesus. You may have gotten yourself into this situation through your sin. Now you're sorrowful because you thought I forsaken you, but I'm going to go above and beyond and I'm going to demonstrate my love for you. In Lamentations chapter 3, the prophet Jeremiah, who's known as the weeping prophet, he wrote a whole book about

weeping, lamenting, lamentations. He says in chapter 3, even in the worst of times, here's who God is. The steadfast love, Lamentations 3:22, the steadfast love of the Lord never, someone shout, never never ceases. His mercies shall never again, never come to an end. His love and his mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Now, was Jeremiah just saying that for the Israelites who are in exile? Come on, somebody. His love never ends. So, either this is true or it's not. So, either God still has a heart for the Israelites today or he doesn't. And I'm just going with he does because I'm

going to take God at his word. He's never failed me. His word's going to last forever. Praise be to God. So the question of God's love is if if God still loves Israel and he did it through a hole in his hands and he's looking at the walls, then could it be that God still loves them today? And the only way we'll know that is if we've received God's love in our hearts today and we understand that God loves you so much. He brought you into this plan. He loves you that much. And if you've missed the last several sessions together, I wish I can go back into it, but for the sake of time, I'm going to skip over this. God loves you so much that he gives you the same great inheritance that he promised Abraham. Some of us don't believe that because it's too big. But if you would just step out on a starry night and say, "I'm a part of that family

and everything that's God's is mine because I've believed in Jesus and I'm a child of God." And I love how Paul, and this is the last scripture I'm going to share with you, Paul says to the Gentiles, he says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." And I am believing for such an hour as this, that those of you who are here tonight that God is rising us up to have the same spirit of Paul, that we would be watchmen on the wall. And we too in our spirit would say, "I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation. To who?" to everyone who believes first to the Jew because this was God's plan and his plans never fail. So the first plan is Jews, God's always had you on his mind. Even when you were stiff necked, even when you said God failed you, he loved you so much. But it's no longer just for

the Jews, which it is to them first, but also even to the Greek, which means the Gentile, the non-Jew, which means something should stir inside of us and say, "We're a part of this plan. We should love Israel. We should love the Jewish people." And I've just got to preface again, and I've prefaced this every single time we've gotten together. It does not mean we agree with governments. When we say we stand with Israel, some people are going to come against you with the lies of, "Oh, genocides and look what they've done." But let me just remind you, it was Hamas that started a war on October 7th, 2023, coming in and raping women, burning babies, beheading people, and then capturing Israelis, and taking them over to Gaza. And that's

been this way for two years now. And then when the world tries to say, "Oh, Israel is is full of genocides." They're just wanting their people back. And what you're seeing on the news is not the truth. I've been there. I've even had conversations with some of you that are saying, "Well, how can you trust the people that are telling you, I've met with soldiers. I've met with the prime minister of the US there. I've met with the mayor of of Jerusalem. I've been I've actually gone to Gaza. I I went to the very farming villages that were attacked. And it's in this place that I I could simply say this that we don't have to agree with how Prime Minister Netanyahu is leading or whoever will be the next prime minister. But we do have to love Israel and we do have to stand with Israel and we have to believe God's best for Israel.

And if anyone there is more anti-semitism in our day than ever before. We have to be aware of this because the devil wants to destroy the Jews. Why? They're God's people. He's always tried to destroy them. And even today, we saw it in Manchester just this week at a synagogue celebrating Yam Kapur, the most holy of their uh holy days. Two more Jews were killed right outside their synagogue. There there's no way we can't say that right now. There's more anti-semitism than ever before. That's because the devil's not happy. He knows his time is short and we've got to stand with Israel. And when people often think of Israel as being 100% Jewish. Here's the interesting thing about Israel. It's 24% Arab. And

the Arabs that live in Israel absolutely love it. It's like the diversity in America. We often think of America as a Caucasian, but if you look at the diversity, it's absolutely awesome. And the people that love this country make this country great. And the people that love Israel make that country great. And it is an absolutely awesome country. I was speaking to some folks beforehands and it's really fun to go to a place that has been used for thousands and thousands and thousands of years when our nation's just about to celebrate our 250th birthday. [panting] So, as we were talking like when you drive by quickly and say, "Oh, yeah, that's where David slayed Goliath." And your bus is going 60 miles an hour past the side. Like, no, no, no, no. I want to see it. You just don't have time. a week and a half to see it all. But it's all right there. It's all right there in

that place. So, last month we got together in September. Do you guys remember how weird that was? It was like hail and rain and then the power went out and uh we had like two lights working and most of them were flickering like a strobe light the whole time. Was anybody here last month? I mean, it was crazy. And then this morning, I was thinking that and I said it and all the power went out in this building this morning. There's just something about this day whenever we talk about Israel. I didn't even know it went out because thanks to Mike who's the electrician here and thanks to Cali who's my assistant and also overseeing production right now. They've prepared it that when our power goes out in the whole building, we still have power because of a a battery. Uh that was part of the whole changes we just did in the remodel. So, thank you all for helping get this change happening. I think the devil's trying to slow us down. But last month, I shared about the temple steps.

Uh these are the southern temple steps and they're really cool because we know for a fact that these would have been the same steps that Jesus would have stepped on. And I shared with you how they're different lengths because many this would have been where the majority of people would have entered into the temple after traveling a great distance for the big feasts. So if you got a million people coming up this way, they would have all come this way. And so each of the steps are different lengths to slow down your rhythm and your pace. So you just don't go up the stairs with familiarity. One step might take two or three steps, the next one might be one step, the next one might be two steps. So it slows you down with the rhythm before you enter into the place of worship. Isn't that cool? Well, I forgot to share a quote that I just I I want to share with you. I had it in my notes, but I forgot to share it with you. Do you remember um do you know who Neil Armstrong is? Uh where did he go in 1969? Shout it out.

The moon. He is the one that famously said this is uh one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. Right? It's like this awesome like this guy is so profound. How cool is that quote? Forever we're going to say this man stepped on the moon and he said that well after he went to the moon he went to the Holy Land and he was on the southern steps and this is this is what Neil Armstrong said. He asked the rabbi are you telling me these are the exact steps that Jesus would have stepped on? And the rabbi is saying, "Absolutely, these are the steps." And Neil Armstrong said, and I quote, "I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon." Now, I want to show you the seriousness of that because last time we were here, I showed you a picture of me laying down on those steps just weeping and balling like a baby. There was something sacred and divine being at the same place that more than likely would have been where

Peter preached the first message in Acts chapter 2 on Pentecost. We often think he did it at the upper room, but there's no way that 3,000 people would have been at the upper room, but at these steps, this is where the rabbis would have preached, if you had a message, you would come to these steps before you entered the temple. And I want to just the these are those very steps that that we're going to go to as well. It's the same steps that Neil Armstrong went to and said, "I would rather be here than on the moon." So, come on. That's pretty cool. All right. Here's another place I want to show you is that we're going to visit. This will be on day four. is in Galilee also known as Tiberius. Uh do you guys know who Tiberius is? He was Tiberius Caesar. So he was the emperor during Jesus life. Very significant. Uh Luke notes him very significant figure.

Uh he's the second emperor of Rome. So very very very very powerful person. So he kept naming everything after himself. For example, when you go there, the Sea of Galilee is also known as the Sea of Tiberius. There's no arrogance there. I'm just name everything my name. Uh so Tiberias is also known as Galilee. It was a home base for Jesus. And one of the places we'll go in Galilee, we'll go to many. I already showed you the Sea of Galilee, but let me show you um did you already put uh this is Capernaum? Thank you. This is Capernaum. It's called the town of Jesus because this was his home base during his three years of ministry. Now, where was Jesus raised? You shout it out. Nazareth. So, he's raised in Nazareth, but he primarily during the three years of his ministry, he stayed more in Capernaum than any other place.

So, this is on the Sea of Galilee. It's a fishing village. So, it wasn't known for its its major wealth or anything. It's a it's a fishing village, but this is where Jesus recruited some of his most major disciples. I call them major disciples because it's where he recruited Peter and Andrew and James and John. All of them were fishermen. And what did Jesus say of them? Now you're going to be fishers of men. This was all right here in Capernaum. So let's go to the next one. There's what's cool about Capernaum is there's these runes where you get to see the size of the houses. If you ever think your house is small, you're going to see the homes in this day were tiny. They were just uh little rooms. In fact, the roads were tiny. They didn't need multiple lane roads. In fact, they were

they were really they were not roads at all. They were pathways in between the houses. So, you can see the Sea of Galilee behind the town there or also known as the Sea of Tiberius, which by the way, it's a freshwater lake. Um, it's just called a sea because it's a big lake. But let's go to the next picture. So, these are um this is uh a fifth century synagogue. More than likely, it's older than fifth century. It could have gone back to Jesus day. So, it's very much right in line with what synagogues would have looked like in Jesus' day. The reason that's important is that you actually get to see the pillars and the style and the architecture of what synagogues look like in Jesus day. If you go to the next picture, you'll see these are the the seating places that you get to understand how synagogues worked. In

synagogues, they didn't sit in rows where they look at the back of each other's heads. They would sit on benches on the opposite side of one another so you see one another. In fact, synagogues today are still designed in such a fashion that you look across from someone. And the whole point of this was that when Rabbi is teaching in the middle of the synagogue on the floor and you're staring at him, you're staring at people across from you. So if something looks off with your brother across from you, immediately after synagogue, you can go over and say, "Hey, what's up? I see on your face something's wrong. I mean, it was built in community right here. Now, synagogues were simply a byproduct of being in exile. So, God created this this method that they could still get

the teaching of God's word, still be in community, and they could look at one another. So, this is it's just kind of cool to see the ruins of Capernaum. Let's go to another image here. Um, this is actually just an image of like what the town would have looked like. You see the big building behind right there? That big building behind is a Catholic church. built right on top of Peter's house. So, you see how small the houses are? They're really small. Let me just run back here and just point here. This would be the size of a house right here. Are you seeing this? So, we know that this is Peter's house. And from the very beginning of probably the fourth and fifth century, it became a sacred site known as St. Peter's home. And they built on top of this uh a place of worship. Now, let's go over to you'll see it more closely. Here is as Peter's house we'll go to the next one is uh

this oh this is uh spanned out so you could see it more clearly. Uh Peter's house is underneath that Catholic church. Now if if you want to know how significant Peter's house is this is where Jesus did one of his miracles. Remember which miracle it was Peter's mother-in-law. She had COVID and uh Jesus he cured her of COVID right away. She just she just got right up and started serving. It's like the coolest story. It's like she has a fever and Jesus touches her and she goes right back to work. This was that home. This is more than likely where Jesus would have stayed when he was in Capernaum is at at Peter's house. I I think there's a picture inside, but maybe not. We just go to the next picture. This is inside. So, this is Peter's house. Uh I know it doesn't look like much, but this is 2,000 years later. So, this is after much excavation, much preservation. Um

this is the best we have. And Peter's house would have been pretty big of course for all the kids and for his parents and then uh for Jesus. And this is Peter's house that you'll get to see in Capernaum. Do we have more pictures? I don't remember. I gave the whole um um this is Oh, this is actually looking out from Peter's house. You have a perfect view of the synagogue, which is kind of cool. You have a a perfect view of the lake on one side and the synagogue on one side. And I just know it's Peter's house for that reason. He loved the word and he loved fish and um it's just it's a it's just a cool image like putting yourself in that picture. Now Jesus did a lot of things in um Capernaum. You know who else he called in Capernaum? Do you remember uh the tax collector? What was his name? Matthew also known as Levi.

Levi the tax collector was called in Capernaum. So, you got to when you go there, immerse yourself in the story and you've got to see the tax booth and you've got to see Jesus walking up and looking Matthew in the eyes and saying, "Follow me. Let's go." And you got to you got to picture Peter the fisherman looking at the tax collector being like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Wrong guy. That's not who you want on our team. This is the town that we get to visit." Now, what's crazy about these tours is it's like so iconic and we read about it all throughout the scriptures and we spend about 15 minutes there uh because we see so much on day four, but it's going to be absolutely awesome. What else did Jesus do in Capernaum? He healed the centurious servant. This is the Roman, the Gentile that came to Jesus and and and Jesus says, "I I'll go and heal." And the centurion says, "No,

no, no. Just say the word and my child's well." This this happens all in Capernaum. Oh, this is also one of my favorite stories. Do you remember when there was a crowd that couldn't uh and and their friends couldn't get their paralytic friend to Jesus? So what' they do? They broke through the roof, brought their friend down. Jesus forgives his sins, disturbs and upstre the religious people and he says finally uh he says fine, fine, fine. Uh not only do I forgive your sins, just to show you who I am, get up and walk, you know, and everybody's like baffled by Jesus. That's in Capernaum. Now what also happens in Capernaum? They become stiff- necked people. [snorts] So Jesus curses the town and simply says, "Hey, I did all these things and yet you still don't believe."

Now, I was kind of shocked. I was I was just there in June of this year, 2025, and since the war started in October 2023, tourism is really down. And we were like the only bus that was in Capernaum. So, we got this whole village to ourselves and I'm over here like shaking the, you know, tour guide saying, "Why aren't more people here?" Well, this site is not sacred at all to the Jews because Jesus isn't their Messiah. So, why would they care to come visit this place? It's only sacred to those of us that call Jesus our Messiah. And I was just shocked because there just wasn't a whole lot happening there that day. But I'm like, how cool is this? I can just picture what's happening here. One last thing that Jesus did in Capernaum, and we studied this in John chapter 6 after Jesus fed the 5000 on the other side of the Sea of

Galilee. They they landed here and then he gave that whole sermon about, "I am the bread of life." Remember that in John chapter 6, people didn't receive it so well. They're like, "Gross. Are you telling us to eat your body and drink your blood?" And he's like, "Yes." And they're like, "I don't want to follow you any longer." That's that's in Capernaum. So it's pretty iconic place. I want you to go there with with me. U this is the place that Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9 is that iconic scripture that we always read at Christmas for to for unto us a child is born. You guys remember that scripture the government will be on his shoulders. Well if you go a few verses up the very first verse of Isaiah chapter 9 verse one says that the Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles

and he will do it in Galilee. Where's the heart of Galilee? Capernaum. It's right here. So, we see the prophecies fulfilled through Jesus in Capernaum. I would love to invite you. Um, the trip is starting to fill up. So, uh, don't wait. Let me just give you some information how to do that. You can go to our website and on our website, you can simply go to events and then it's got a little bit of information. There's a link to click. Uh, if you want a brochure, it says download brochure. You just click the link. It says put your email. The moment you put your email, it'll um email you uh like a 25page brochure. Uh there have been some who have been coming on these first Sundays of the month, Bible prophecy nights. And particularly those who are watching online, you can download it online because I know you can stream so you can

download it. But some people have asked, well, I'm not good with the computer. I don't want to download something. Can I get a paper copy of the brochure? We have 20 paper copies of the brochures here tonight if you want to take one of those. Now, I'll tell you, it's the exact same brochure that you would download. Um, so if you just want to see it, it's online and you don't have to take the paper, but if you're like, I just want to take the paper. I want to read through this like a book, then you can grab one of those. It's at the Next Steps booth on the way out. We've got some new NextSteps booth and the new uh new here table. Did you guys see those this morning? Uh, pretty cool. Arena's brother built those and uh excited just to see some fresh stuff happening. Uh but if you want to grab a paper brochure, you can. Let me just go over some really quick details and I won't spend a lot of time. The dates September 28th through October 9th. We will be

there in some holy days. We will also be there on the first Sunday of October, which is pray for Israel, which means we're going to join with other Christians and we're going to worship in Israel with some of the top worship leaders of our day, including Christian influencers. They just had the same trip that we're going to be participating on uh this weekend. It was absolutely awesome. Very intimate, very powerful, and I'm looking forward to worshiping with you. Now, we're just going to join them for that worship set. Everything else that we'll do on the trip will be just journey. Uh I mean, we'll run into other people, but it'll be uh our tour guide and your pastors, and we will be leading worship, just us on different sites like Mount Carmel or uh out on the Sea of Galilee and so forth. um the the trip total. When you see there, there's

two different trip totals. There's uh land only and there's air. Landon only means you're going to purchase your own airplane tickets and meet us and Tel Aviv at the same time. Why would you do that? If you want to use airline miles and you have enough miles to do that, or you want to upgrade to first class, uh this is for a regular uh class seat. So, if you want to upgrade, you get the land only and you'll buy tickets on the we'll give you the details of the flights. Now, the flight goes from Redmond to LA, uh, LA to Tel Aviv. So, it's a pretty simple flight. Um, it is going to be very, very long. Um, but when we get there, we just get going right when we

land. So, we land in Tel Aviv and right away you'll see some cool things. We'll stay our first night there right on the Mediterranean Sea which is absolutely beautiful. Um it's it's just a great way to start the trip. Um then we go from Tel Aviv up to Galilee. We stay in a brand new resort. Absolutely beautiful overlooking the Sea of Galilee. We'll stay there two nights. Uh we'll see all of the sites, not all of the sites. We'll see a lot of sites in Galilee. Then we'll head to Jerusalem for the remainder of our time. We'll spend many days in Jerusalem. So when you see that there's the air and land package, uh there's or there's just the land package only. Uh the cost of this trip is for double occupancy. So if you are a

married couple, that's per person and you share a room. If you would like to upgrade and you're a single person going on the trip or you're going by yourself, there would be an upgrade fee to have a single room. So that's the way it works. If you are uh wanting to go with a friend, then the two of you would room together. So, just to be aware, I've had a lot of questions about what happens if there's an emergency and I can't go. You would be refunded all of your money minus $250. So, it requires a $1,000 deposit to reserve your spot. $1,000 deposit. If you cancel in three weeks, you would get $750 back. you would not get $250 back. We have to start planning the trip, which means the travel agency is going to be reserving our airline tickets and

they it's non-refundable for them. So, that's just the way it works. Um, so if if you do choose to cancel, you get your money less 250. This is uh a nice trip. Uh, if you have been on prior trips or you hear of people or you start googling and say, "I could find a trip for $1,000 cheaper." I want to warn you that you'll probably get a trip that's worth $2 or $3,000 cheaper. Um, you get what you pay for. So, there's a lot of hotels in Israel because the tourism is huge and they're not all equal opportunity. Uh, it's the same thing for food. I've been talking to a lot of people like, "Oh, I just don't like the food in Israel." I loved the food. The resorts we stay at,

the food's amazing. This does include uh all of your food in the morning and at night. It does not include some of your lunches. It does include some, but does not include some of your others. Lunches would be $10 to $15 per person. Uh usually depending where you choose to go, um and what that looks like. Outside of that, it includes everything else. Your fees entering into every place. All your tips are covered. You don't need to tip bus drivers, uh, any you don't need to tip the guides. It It's all-encompassing and that's how that works. So, um, it's going to be an awesome trip. You're most welcome. The price is 4,200 for land only, 57.95 for air and land from Redmond to Israel back to Redmond. Uh, this if you want to upgrade your single room, that's an an

additional $2,000. on the brochure. It's going to give you a rough estimate of our trip time together and it will be awesome. So, um, that's all I've got to say about the trip. It is starting to fill up. So, I would love for you to join us. I do know that some people are like, I would love to join, but it's so much money. Well, let me just tell you, we spend a lot of money on America in America on worthless things. uh if you would just sacrifice a if you would just look a little could you come up with $1,000 and once you put that thousand dollars down then slowly start paying it down each month by the way once you do uh the company it's called Eagles Wings that we're working with Christian company they will send you a link that you could use your link as a fundraiser so now would be a great time because if you have a birthday send that link out to everyone say I want nothing for my birthday contribute to my Israel trip is

coming up you Tell your family, I want nothing for Christmas, contribute to my Israel trip, and they can go on and directly give towards your trip. There's no weird things. There's no extra fees. What they give to the trip would go towards yours per that link. You get an individual link. So, it's kind of a cool way. I I've seen some people are like fundraising for this. I do need to just really clarify once again, it's not a mission trip. You can fund raise, but I just want to preface that if you're raising money for this trip, we're not going to proitize to the Jewish people. We're going as tourists. And uh there's as we get closer, I'll we will have a couple of meetings together and I'll just share with you my heart there. If it's organic and it's natural, I say share all about Jesus. But what we don't want to do is turn anyone off of who

Jesus is or even worse, give them their American Jesus. They need the Jewish Jesus. And so, um, I just want to make sure that that's really clear. I've seen a couple people like, "I'm fundraising for Israel." You can, but please know as you do, if someone asks, it's not a mission trip to Israel. Um, we're going to learn to grow as a disciple, and it will be awesome. Kara and I cannot wait for this. And we will make sure that we have a team from Journey there leading worship as well. It's going to be great. So, u, with that said, I just want to say shalom. Shalom. I'm going to close us in prayer and I thank you so much for coming tonight. Lord, thank you for your word that teaches us your heart that it's like a mother. I thank you for the little cous tonight that we get to hear.

It's a gift to us that you love us like a mother loves a newborn child. And God, even when we've been unfaithful, even when we've forgotten your faithfulness, even when we complain and grumble, your mercies and your steadfast love is new every morning. So God, I pray tonight the revelation of who you are and your word, what that means for Israel and what that means for us would be true in our hearts. That like Paul, we would say, "I can't believe you love us so much. I'm unashamed of the good news." first to the Jew and also to every single other person. So we thank you. We love you, God. Would you bless us as we prepare for this trip? Would you bless Israel? We ask for favor on this nation, favor on your people that God, they will know you and trust

you and that we would see a great awakening in our lifetime in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hey, thanks again for coming. God bless you.