Breaking The Law

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Good to see everybody. Great to see everybody today. Thank you for the little breakfast burrito bites. So good. Thank you.

And thank you Katie for leading worship with us this morning. So good. You all already said one thing, but looks like you're going again anyways. Alright. Who?

Oh, Leah. We want Leah to stand up. The breakfast burritos were made by Leah. And she has a food truck called Leah's yummy butt no. Oh, yeah.

Down her knee. That was close. Thank you, Leah, so much. Okay. Katie, let's talk really quick.

The song that you sang as a tag to Revelation song about Yahweh, was that something that you had prepared, or did that just come up out of your heart? Alright. We can all agree that that needs to be developed into a tribe worship song. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. Copyright. So so get together songwriters, and what you sang as a tag is a great chorus to to add some verses and a bridge to and other lyrical terminology too. But alright? Can you develop that?

Let's do it. There there's some oil on that. It's beautiful. Okay. In your seat, there's a connect card.

If you are new or visiting, we'd love to have a record of your visit. If you have some lyrics for a worship song, you can also write those down as well and that can go in there's a little box right by the swinging saloon doors. There's opportunity to if you have a prayer request, we take these very seriously. We pray over them on Monday at staff meeting and so if you're if there if there's a prayer request or a praise report, that's great. You can write that down.

Also, if you consider tribe home and you would like to know more about what we're regularly doing, you can sign up for the text blast. We send that out about once a week to let you know various things, happenings, what's going on at Tribe. And then if you are a young adult that is new to either tribe or new to Jackson, we have a vibrant young adult ministry. Where is Connor? Connor's right there.

Ella is right there. They are Maui'd, and they help lead tribe young adults. And so they would love to meet you afterwards, and you can just check that box, and we'll make sure to have somebody from our young adult team reach out to you. Let's see what else do I have. Oh, let's open up our Bibles to Matthew chapter 12.

And while we are waiting for that page to load, we got a whole lot more room on our phones because we've all deleted TikTok because it's just, like, not there anymore. I tried opening the app, like, five times.

Never had it.

I know. This is much better human than me. Never went there. But for the rest of you degenerates, I literally tried opening TikTok five times thinking like, well, maybe this time. Well, maybe the and I'm like, what the heck?

Well, we'll see. What chapter is Matthew? Matthew chapter 12. Sorry. I miss you, my Chinese spy.

What what more data do you want to just give me TikTok back? Please. Big things happening this week. We have an inauguration tomorrow. Please please be praying for safety over the inauguration.

Lots of people traveling from around the world and all over the country to Washington DC for, a big historic event. The peaceful transition of power that happens according to our democracy. But please be praying for, like, peace and safety over all of the different things that are going to happen this week. Also, we're getting more and more reports of onesies, twosies, and small groups of hostages being released and reunited with family. We call god God.

His only begotten son is Jesus. We call him Lord. We call him Lord Jesus. We call him God. In a conversational, reverent term that Jewish people use, They call him Hashem.

So thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Hashem, for your steadfast faithfulness. Thank you, Lord, that you call the stars forth by name, and they sing your praises. You place each one of the stars in the galaxy and in the universe, and you know when even a sparrow falls to the ground. From the macro down to the micro, the location and the condition of every single hostage is known to you, and you know them intimately.

Great Hashem, we ask that you would be with them, that they would feel a tangible measure of your presence as their release is being orchestrated. We ask that nothing would interrupt the safe return of the hostages reunited with husbands and wives. There is a at the time of their abduction, a nine month old baby. We ask for the safe has that baby been returned yet? Do we know?

Not yet. We ask for the safe return of that infant to be reunited into their mom and dad's arms, father hostages that have lost their lives, that families and loved ones that don't yet have closure. God, we ask for a dignified return of their remains so that that family can have closure and begin to grieve and heal. And, Lord, we ask for your healing over the entire land. One of the great prophecies of the returning Messiah is the renewal of all things.

Will you set wrong things right? Will a wave of justice and mercy flow through that land. Heal the scars. Heal the wounds that have been inflicted. We thank you, Jesus.

Everybody said, amen. Matthew chapter 12. And could I have somebody please read? You don't have to read all of it, but we're going to go from verses one through 14. And if you would take a few verses and then pass it on, and we'll let somebody else read a few more verses.

We have a mic in the room. The mic is so that we can hear you in the room and also so that all of our families that are traveling and out of town can tune in and watch the livestream. And we also, if you haven't picked up on this yet, I really want this to be a conversation where you interrupt me once you raise your hand, as you've done. And you can contribute as many times as you want, and you don't have to say, I've got just one thing to say real quick. You can say more than one thing.

It's you're you're allowed, Nancy, especially if you keep bringing such yummy breakfast for us. So listen to her. She's just hammering away at me. I didn't hear it, but she doesn't have the mic right now. But if you have if you have questions, if you have comments, if you have connections, like, if you if you just raise your hand, we wanna get the mic to you so that we can have a collaborative effort of digging into god's word together, okay?

So, with that in mind, are you going to kick us off and read a little bit? Thank you. My first time here. Okay. Not your first time here.

Reading. Reading. Oh, it's your first time reading? Here. Oh my gosh.

No

pressure. Matthew 12. Here. This is from the NIV. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. He answered, haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for them to do but only for the priests. Haven't or haven't you read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?

I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent for the son of man is lord of the Sabbath.

If you're taking notes this morning, you can write the at the top of your notes, the title of our conversation this morning called Breaking the Law. I'm sorry. What?

Did you want us to read over to fourteen?

Oh, yeah. Oh, we didn't get to fourteen? Oh, yeah. Let's keep going. Sorry.

Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Keep going.

But if you wanna write the title of the conversation in the middle of us reading, that's the title of our conversation this morning. Let's keep reading. Thank you.

I read nine through

14. Alright.

I'm reading from the New King James Version. So now when he had departed from there, he went into the synagogue and behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked him saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath that they might accuse him? Then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?

Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the men, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him.

Wow. Verse 14, plot twist. So there's a lot to unpack in these few verses to get the most out of what Jesus is driving at and what the biographer Matthew wants to highlight to us. But let's set the let's set the scene. There are there are two major events that are happening.

The first one unfolds in the midst of a wheat field. The second event unfolds right in the midst of the synagogue. And the connection between the two different events, we can already begin to, like, make some connections, put the pieces of the puzzle together. But when we look at these two events together, it helps to drive home the point and the very important principle that Jesus is making here. So let's dive into the first event, the disciples in the grain field.

This is the first opportunity for me to check-in with you and ask you, as you see the words on the page, the story unfolding in front of you with Jesus walking through the grain fields and his disciples picking some of the grain, rumming it in their hands, separating the wheat from the chaff, and then throwing the kernels of ripe wheat into their mouth to chew on as a snack. I would love to hear from you. How do you picture this scene unfolding in your mind's eye? What elements of this story does your imagination focus on? Where what picture do you paint?

I'd love to hear what's in your imagination about these events.

I picture it they're walking through the fields and I picture it as a foretelling, almost like a prophecy. So the wheat field is like the harvest, right? And then walking with Jesus through the harvest. And it's also prophesying they're they're eating the the the wheat basically. And it's like this is my bread.

Do this in remembrance of me. It's a it's a foretelling of what he's he's actually going to do. It's a beautiful thing because his body is healing and I don't know.

That's how I picture it.

Wow. So, as you read this story, your mind is making all kind of hyperlinks to the prophecy of Jesus. The the harvest the fields are ripe for the harvest, but the workers are few, and the eating of the grain is eating and partaking of his body. Okay. So you're thinking of hyperlinks as you look at this.

I love it. I love it. What are some other maybe just little details that you see in your mind's eye as you read this passage?

Well, the first time that we read it, I let's just pretend a godspell moment Okay. As far as they're all walking through the fields eating kind of like friends in passing. Right? And then they're automatically judged by the pharisees. So that's, you know, we're just minding our own, and then, you know, then you're targeted.

Yeah. So so what you see is these guys are just trying to live their life, and here come these Karens. No offense, Karens. Okay? Okay?

I like it. How about some other maybe details in just your imagination? Here's why we're we're why we're doing this particular exercise. The more you can activate your holy sanctified imagination and picture picture the scene, the more of a canvas you create for the Holy Spirit to take his brush and fill in details and picture like whether it's hyperlinks or things that you're you're seeing in the text. And so here at Tribe, you know this about me.

I always want you to use your imagination, not to to develop doctrine because that's a great way to like end up in a cult but to to to fill in and to help you make the story come alive and engage with it. Yes. Janet, here comes the mic.

Thank

you. I see it just a picture of peace, of Jesus with his disciples and they're walking through this wheat field and he's sharing, he's teaching them and they're picking up kernels of grain. So it's feeding them physically but it's also feeding them spiritually. And I can just see the pharisees thinking it shouldn't be that much fun. It shouldn't be that peaceful.

Yes. He shouldn't even be teaching or talking to them. You know? So I think there was maybe some jealousy.

I can I could maybe see that in the text, right behind you?

I don't know this for sure, but I feel like eating that would be gross. Like I don't think it tastes good. So like, because it's like eating grass, you know, like wheat is like a grass when you eat it raw. And so my thought is like how hungry they must have been to be eating that, like, that that was their snack. And so then that leads me to the heartlessness of the Pharisees for, like, you're hungry.

Don't do even this with your fingers to separate the grain Mhmm. To eat it. Mhmm. You know? Like, I don't we it just speaks to their heartlessness that they don't care enough about the people even if they're starving.

Now that brings up a a great point that I want to draw your attention to regarding an Old Testament law about gleaning wheat from the wheat fields. Does anybody know that law or that accommodation in the law about harvesting?

The roof leaving the corners.

So so Ruth exemplifies that law, but there is a law in the Old Testament given to farmers that says, when you harvest your fields, don't don't be greedy and harvest all the way to the edge of your field. But god instructs farmers to harvest up until not the very edge. And the purpose of not harvesting all the way to the edge is what's the purpose in that?

Leave some for others.

Leave some for others. It was god's establishment of really a a welfare system. Not just free handouts, harvest to the edge of your fields, and then you gotta go give to somebody what that hasn't worked at all. There needs to be some effort demonstrated by those in need, but they are allowed. There's a provision in the law that allows for them to have some dignity of work and gain some food to fill their bellies by going around and harvesting the edge of the fields.

And if you if you own a business, it's a great example of, of setting a precedent for being generous in your in your business. As long as the product or goods or services that is coming from your business is better or equal value to what you're charging, that business is gonna prosper and flourish because you're not being so greedy to ring every last cent out. And when we see the disciples walking through the grain fields and they're rubbing the the if the grain is ripe, what happens? What needs to happen? You gotta harvest it.

You gotta harvest it really quick so that it can dry out and then you go through all of the the process of it. So the fact that they were walking through grain fields and getting picking some of the heads of wheat tells us exactly what you're thinking. Jesus's ministry team wasn't like rolling it down. They weren't like like living it up in the lap of luxury. They were hungry.

They were harvesting grain like poor people. And here and then here come the Karens. Anything else that you you see in that, and we're gonna we're gonna talk, about this, and then we're gonna go to the next story and then tie them both together. Liz? Oh, oh, over here.

I mean, each of the disciples would have been like good Jewish men, so they would have probably before they met Jesus been in line with how the pharisees would have thought about it. So I love the detail where it's like Jesus led them through the Greenfield because Jesus knew they were hungry, and I kind of like imagine Jesus picking it first and being like, it's totally okay to do this, like paving the way and it kind of like reminds me of how like we'll learn we'll learn things or like new wineskins harkening back to the previous series. And then the world just kind of tries to be like, actually no, or like legalism tries to be like, actually no, you have to go back. And Jesus is like, no, just take, eat, and enjoy.

Woah. What if the re the historical reality of that scene included the disciples watching with wide eyed amazement at Jesus walking along the path probably not like through the like the midst of the field like a scene from Interstellar but they're walking along the path and there's, you know, within easy reach, grain. Imagine the disciples wide eyed watching Jesus just sweep through, scoop up, and then he does it, and the disciples are like, you crazy? But I'm hungry. And look at this.

It is not in the text. But that and then the Pharisees, they don't have the guts to call out Jesus, but they'll pick on his disciples. Wow. Fascinating. Then we see Jesus.

He's like, we're gonna do this? Really? You're gonna you're gonna call out my crew? They're hungry. Alright.

You started this, and then he marches right to the synagogue. And then in the synagogue, there is a man with a a a withered, paralyzed, a deformed, an injured hand. And if his rebuke in verses three through eight were not enough, look in verse nine. Then Jesus went over to their synagogue. Dude, he is like the Jesus if if you only have an image of Jesus as like the good shepherd bouncing the little children on his knees and being sweet and meek and mild.

You're you're missing out on the on a fuller, more robust picture of Jesus. That dude loved a good fight. He goes over to their synagogue, not a synagogue, not next week, not in the next town. Verse 10, where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?

Now they're trying to set him up. He steps right in the bear trap, and he's like, you know, catch it with his hands. They were hoping he would say yes so they could bring charges against him. And then he answered, if you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you work to pull it out? It's a rhetorical question because the obvious answer is Yes.

Yes. Of course, you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep? Yes. The law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.

Then he said to the man, I love his I love his flare. The miracle was happening in the midst of while Jesus was talking. The disciples are like eyes locked on Jesus, like trying to trap him with every word. And he's so slick. His style his style is just so awesome Because the miracle was happening while he's like, he's looking at the pharisees talking to them, but the miracle is happening to this guy.

So that by the time he's done setting the the Pharisees in their place, he's like, oh yeah and by the way, dude, show us your hand. Bam. Healed.

It's like

undercover boss. Well, give her the mic because I need you to connect the dots for me. I think I know where you're going with this, but just tell me.

I don't know. I just picture like, they're, you know, they're they're walking and they grab some grain and the Pharisees like, god. Like, you know, you're breaking the law and literally, he's the fulfillment of the law. Okay.

Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. Like, undercover boss.

You know? They're like, you can't do that. The boss says we can't. And he's

like Yeah.

I am the boss.

I am the boss. I am the boss. Okay. I love it. I love the temple.

I love it. So the man held out his hand, and it was restored just like the other one. Now, you know, on, like, Mad Libs where you can, like, fill in words and it makes a funny story? Imagine a modified bible Mad Lib where you could fill in verse 14. And the Pharisees were filled with wonder and amazement.

And the Pharisees repented of their critical attitude. And the pharisees dropped to their knees and praised god. And the pharisees with wonder examined the man's hand. But the Bible's already written. And then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.

This conversation that we're having this morning is related to a theme, a topic that we have been on for for most of the end of the fall, and it has to do with new wine and a new wineskin. And if you are new to god's stuff, if you're new to church, that sounds so churchy and unfamiliar. New wine and new wineskin. But the Bible talks about the new thing that god is doing in in a metaphor like a new wine. The new thing that god is doing is like new wine that he's pouring out and containers in those days for wine was wineskins so that they would they would process the grapes, add the ingredients, put it into a new wineskin, and as it fermented, the wineskin would expand.

And as the wineskin expanded and and time went on, the wine fermented the the grape fermented, it turned into wine, then you could uncork it and you could drink the new wine. But every new batch of wine required a new Wineskin. Wineskin because once the wineskin stretched and expanded, it couldn't contract and go back and if you were to try to fill an old wineskin with new wine as the wine fermented, the wineskin was stretched beyond the bounds that it could hold. The wineskin would split and then you would lose what? The new wine and the old wineskin.

So, Jesus talked a lot about that as a metaphor for our capacity, our ability to adapt, to grab a hold of, to be transformed by new things that he is doing in our life in new places that he wants to take us. And just in case there are any Pharisees in the room, I'm not talking about new in terms of extra biblical. Okay? So I'll get over it. These two stories hold a powerful principle.

There was something about, and I I think you were you were onto it. There's something transformative and powerful that happens when we spend time with Jesus. I'm not talking about religious dogma trying to be a good person. But when we spend time with him, he'll challenge us. He will stretch our wineskin, but there is liberation and there is freedom always is associated with spending time with Jesus.

I wrote this down, and you can write it down too. Being with Jesus sets us free from constraints of an old religious wineskin. Being with Jesus sets us free from the constraints of an old religious wineskin. As evidenced by what we saw the disciples doing, walking along. They were good Jews.

They knew that to even touch ahead of that wheat would be breaking the religious law. Don't do any work on the Sabbath. Keep it holy. And certainly don't do any farming. Don't do any harvesting as if they were out there like like really working.

The disciples, the Pharisees did not have the flexibility in their wineskin to contain the new wine of freedom of the example that Jesus was setting resulting in, well, we're not gonna change. He needs to change. Let's figure out a way that we can unalive him. Did did I see your hand up, or were you just absorbing? Here comes a Mike Brad over your left shoulder.

Now while you're talking, it's reminding me a lot of Revelation, twelve, ten, 11 because Satan accuses through religion and he hasn't changed. And I'll just read two verses of the Yeah. Come on. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death. You know, it's just so cool because Jesus came to provide mercy, to seek these people out, to deliver, and all Satan wants to do is accuse and create division and put down. So, it's just so awesome because we have so much access because who Christ is.

That's it. Can I have that mic? I gotta preach for a second. That's good. That's good.

Oh, that's so good. So, listen. Listen. Listen. Some of you have spent just enough time around Jesus that you are beginning to experience freedom in your life And in freedom, you're gonna you're gonna have to fill in the blanks on this, but in freedom, you have reached out to grab a hold of some sheaves of wheat but that accuser has says, what are you doing?

And tries to bring you back into bondage of guilt and shame and spit ups. And it is the accuser of the brethren. It is that dirty devil that would try to tell you how dare you take a step into freedom. No. No.

No. No. No. Who do you think you are? And then he reminds you of how you've messed up and how you've blown it and and he tries to get you to agree with him that you really aren't worthy to be able to walk along and and walk in freedom of being able to harvest some grain, roll the wheat in your fingers to separate the wheat from the chaff, and throw back a little snack.

That dirty devil, he is a liar. He's a liar. So, we're gonna take, just a few moments. I have to hold my breath as I go from one mic to another. Expanding our wineskin, stretching our wineskin.

I want to share with you, you can, maybe if you have a really fast pin, you can write these down. Maybe you want to take a picture of them. Some of these already could be incorporated into your library and built into your life. But over the last couple of years, I really feel like the Lord has been challenging me and stretching my wineskin unlike he has done in twenty plus years of of walking with him and I just want to take a a few moments to share with you some of the things that have stretched my wineskin to help make room and adapt to the new things that the lord is what I what I know he's doing in my life and what I believe he has is doing at Tribe and around the world. And so these are some of Brian's like top wineskin stretchers.

And these are some of the ways that you can, like, help, develop and grow a new wineskin. So I have I have of them are books, but then a couple of film teaching series and podcasts. Let me start with the books. And just like with anything, a couple of disclaimers. Number one, with any of these authors, any of these books, you gotta eat the meat and spit out the bones.

There's gonna be bones in every single book or thing that you watch or listen to. But you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. He'll tell you, oh, a little bit of a bone. Don't choke on it. Just spit it out and get the most out of the meat.

I would not serve you anything that was more bones than meat. Okay? Let's start with the books, Trinity. Here are some books. These are three books by one of my favorite authors, Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm, Supernatural, and Reversing Hermann.

And I I I won't go into a big description of all these because there's a good number of books to get through. Supernatural is a Reader's Digest version of a bigger volume of the unseen realm. And reversing Hermann, talks a lot about, perhaps some of either the prehistory or history that is happening in the book of Genesis that Genesis doesn't focus too much on but just touches on. But Michael Heiser is a great scholar and super wise, and he's really dry but very engaging if you can have both of those at the same time. Now everybody's spiritual teacher granddad would be this next author.

His name is David Pawson, and he has written he's written a lot of books. These are are three of my of my top wineskin stretchers. When Jesus Returns, David Pawson takes several different options for how and when and the manner in which he returns. He presents several different options and then says, here's what I believe lines closest with scripture. His walk through the book of Revelation is is thoughtful and insightful and inspired.

And if you really just wanna, like, stretch your wineskin, you jump into this short book, once Saved, Always Saved, question mark? Like, that'll really twist your religious undies into a bunch. So so we have Michael Heiser. We have David Pawson. The next author is a Brooklyn Jew who got saved.

His name is Art Katz. Have any of you well, let me ask this. How many of you have heard of Michael Heiser? Yes. How many of you have heard of David Pawson?

Okay. Art Katz? Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah.

I was like, what? Okay. Yeah. Alright. Yeah.

I get it. I gave him that book. Have you got a chance to start it? Is it challenging? Yeah.

It'll stretch your mind, skin. So, it's called the final mystery. So, Art Katz is he grew up Jewish and then turned his back on the lord, lived like a very, very, very rowdy crook. There's a there's a line from a old cross movement rap song that said, whoever thought that the cross would look good, whoever thought that whoever thought that a lost crook would get brought to the point where the cross looked good. There it is.

Whoever thought that a lost crook would get brought to the point where the cross looked good, that's Art Katz. He got saved, and this particular book speaks of the role of Israel in the generation of the Lord's return and Israel's role in the coming messiah and the millennial reign of the messiah, and every sentence just drips with with sorry to use a churchy phrase, just the anointing of God on it, and it's challenging, and it's good. So Art Katz. There's another slightly disreputable author that I'm gonna put up here on the screen next. His books are really good.

His jokes are really bad. He's written a lot of books. I think each one of these is a New York Times bestseller, incredibly. When a Jew Rules the World, Sinai so when a Jew rules the world talks about the millennial reign of Jesus from Jerusalem. Sinai to Zion talks about a bunch of Old Testament prophecies, and he paints a beautiful picture that the return of Jesus will look much like the coming of the lord on Mount Sinai and how in glorious triumphal procession leading the idea forces that there will be a procession from Sinai rescuing Israeli refugees and then bringing them into triumphal procession into Jerusalem, liberating Jerusalem, and establishing his his kingdom there.

The book is amazing. And then the last one, the Islam Islamic Antichrist. If you grew up on the Left Behind series like like I did, how many of you just devoured the Left Behind series books? Yep. Yep.

Oh, yeah. I was all about those. What was the name of the of the Eastern European antichrist? Nicolai Carpathia. So so Timothy Lahey portrays the antichrist as as a resurrected Roman empire, and in his popular series where the rapture happens before the tribulation, this antichrist figure, Nicolai Carpathia, rises up.

That is not the direction that Joel Richardson goes. He suggests using a lot of academic research and study and historical records and biblical references that the Antichrist could be a revived Ottoman Muslim empire. Read that book. Stretch your wineskin. Okay.

Another author, this is the only book that I've read from him. I don't know what you think of this author in general and I can't vouch for his entire ministry but I read this book and boy, did it stretch my wineskin? Come on, Trinity. Next one. The oh, do I not have do I not have a book by Jonathan Cahn on no?

The book the book by Jonathan Cahn is called Return of the Gods. I didn't put that in there. Is there a slide with it? Alright. I'm not too big to apologize, but I'll tell you after church.

So one more book. It's by an author called Jonathan Kahn, and the name of the book is called Return of the Gods. And we were talking about this with Leo and Darcy maybe last year or so. Right? And I I usually like to some books I like to have, like, the the paper, you know, the the book book, and then I underline and go back and reference it.

Return of the Gods, I just crushed on audiobook while I was on the skin track last winter, and and it's it is fascinating. It speaks his whole premise is, from a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew about when the house is swept clean, the demons go out and wander around in dry places. When they find no place to land, they come back. They find the house swept clean. They go get seven of their friends, move into the house, and the condition of that nation is worse than the start and that our nation was established on biblical principles and values.

And then throughout our history, we've pushed God out of the nation inviting in iniquity embodied by these territorial spirits that Israel dealt with in the bible that we are seeing reemerge in our day and age. It is it's it's a very interesting, fascinating read. It's a good one. Okay. Let's keep going.

Films. You've heard me talk about this organization and these films a lot. What's the what's the next one, Trinity? Oh yeah, teaching series. Okay, teaching series.

So if you I didn't have time to put up a bunch of slides, but just listen to me now, believe me later. If you go to the App Store, unlike TikTok, this app is still available. And if you download the FAI app, FAI Frontier Alliance International app, There it is there's so many resources. It's so much teaching on this one app. But if you go to the teaching and if you go to the Maranatha Global Bible Study, And then from there, you can go to the end time study, and it is such a wineskin stretcher.

That would be a teaching series. What do I have next, Trinity? Okay. Podcasts. How many of you are familiar with this podcast?

Blurry creatures. How many of you are familiar with it but you're like, I don't know if I wanna like admit that quite yet. Yep. There was one hand. Yep.

I hear you. I hear you. So there's if you go to the next slide about that podcast, Trinity, that's how you that's how it looks, and you can find it. That will really stretch your wineskin. Eat the meat, spit out the bones, But the idea behind this podcast, it's two Christian guys that started, like, talking about Bigfoot.

And, like, what's the deal with Bigfoot? And they, like, published these podcasts about their conversations about Bigfoot, and it grew and it expanded. They've had doctor Michael Heiser on there. They talk about a lot of of wild topics. But here's this is the only podcast like this that I would recommend to you because I at the end of the day, I trust these two guys and where they're going.

They don't get they don't get off they go into the weeds, but they don't get too far off base. And it it's always whether they're, the people that they interview not all of the people that they interview are Christians. But those two men have a very solid faith in Jesus, and I trust their relationship with Jesus. I trust where they go with the conversations, and I trust them enough to be able to share it with you, but they will stretch your wineskins. Talking about firsthand eyewitness accounts of, like, alien craft retrievals, supernatural encounters, the supernatural realm, angels, Nephilim.

Nephilim. She said it. It's in

the Bible.

It's in the Bible. Was there did I have anything else, Trinity? No? Okay. How did this slide not make it in here?

But film, it's it's not on there. This is the last thing I was gonna say. There are a couple of films that you can check out to watch and to to help further stretch your wineskin. This is related to FAI, Frontier Alliance International. The first documentary film series is called Sheep Among Wolves, and it is about the rapidly growing underground church in Iran that's being led not by people like me, but by women.

Untrained in seminary, no bible degrees, but just have encountered Jesus, tasted the goodness of the wheat that comes from a relationship with him and are leading the, the fastest growing church movement in the world. So the film series is called sheep among wolves. The last wineskin stretcher is another documentary film series by the same people, FAI, and it's called covenant and controversy. Covenant and controversy. And it speaks of of the people, the land, the city of the great king, and god's covenant love, and how we as a global Christian community fit into that picture.

So those are some wineskin stretchers. I am happy to have coffee with any of you to discuss these. Once you read the book, once you watch one of those teaching series, you have questions, if you wanna if you wanna, like, like, lock horns about them, I'm I'm happy to do that. I know that that's how some of you learn and really grab a hold of the material is by arguing it. That's great.

I'm happy to listen to and we can have a dialogue about any of those things. And I wanted to give you a bunch of those things so that maybe just one of those resources would resonate with you and you would follow-up with it. Let's the we're going to land the plane soon here. I'd like to invite the worship team to come up. And then I want to tie these wine skin stretching things with the conversation that we're having about Jesus in the wheat field.

You can see the disciples have a whole new wineskin that allows them to receive the new wine that Jesus is pouring out of freedom. They had some type of transformative encounter with Jesus that allowed them to walk through the wheat fields and not be confined or constrained by those by the religious dogma of the day. And two thousand years later, he's still doing the same thing. When we meet with him, when we spend time with him, when we encounter him, we cannot help but to be set free. That's really the mark of a person that has spent time with Jesus.

Their life is different. You can tell me until you're blue in the face, all kinds of things that you that you think would impress me, that you know about Jesus. And and it's really not going to have much effect on me. I I really don't care how much you know about Jesus but when I see evidence that you've spent time with Jesus resulting in a transformed life, that gets my attention. That's like for me personally.

That's what I I'm attracted to. I love being around people that have spent time with Jesus. Their life has been transformed and they have been set free because I want that. Jesus set us free and help us to live a life that demonstrates the freedom that we can experience being released from entrenched, old religious dogma. We just wanna meet with you.

The rest of the world was will say we're breaking the law. But we know that as we follow you, we're walking in freedom. Set us free from our chains and help us Jesus to actually walk out a transformed life. Help us. Can I pray for you really quickly?

Yes.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for today. Thank you for freedom's sake that you set us free. Jesus, thank you that you love us so much not to leave us where we are, but you continually challenge us, inviting us contrary to what people would believe, to break the law, to break the law of religious dogma that has no place with freedom. We break the chains of what the enemy would try to put on us, guilt and shame, and and reminding us of our past, and we grab a hold of the wonderful, beautiful wine stretching future that we have for you. I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe family here today.

Jesus, we tell you that we love you, and thank you for bringing the hostages home. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said Amen. Amen. I love you so very much.

Have a great week, and remember, you got this.