Never Alone in the Wilderness Tribe 2025-10-12 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- 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. Anybody get the spark of ski stoke for the season yet with this? Brandon, no? Oh, no. That was a yo as in it's here. Yes. Yes. How many days till the lift starts spinning, Brandon? It's coming. It's coming. If you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of Exodus? I mean What do wish? Yep. Exodus. And as you are turning to the book of Exodus, I wanna welcome everyone. Listen, thank you for worship. That was so good. Wasn't that good this morning? So good. Thank you guys for being here joining us today. We have people knocking over things. It's just calling It's our living room. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Spills happen in the living room. So this morning, as we are gathered here in the TMC, thank you guys for being with us. There's a connect card in your seat. We would love to have a record of your visit if you just fill that out. If it's not soaked with coffee, you can either leave it in your seat or put it in that little box in the corner there, the offering box and we'd love to be connected with you. Also, if you want to know about what's happening with young adults, not high school ministry but young adult ministry, there's a little box that you can check. And Ella and Connor and the young adult ministry team would love to reach out to you and connect with you, get you plugged in here. And one more shout out it goes has to go to Trinity Green for bringing a little posse this morning. Not only is she brave but it's also her birthday. Yesterday? Yep yep, Trinity Green's birthday yesterday and I'm curious you don't need to like talk to me because I know that for some of you I may be a new face, but I'm curious how many and what was the nature of the disclaimers that Trinity had to give while inviting you to come to church to get you to say yes to come here? And Zoey, what all did you have to share? Like like like for the Tolson girls like you you pretty much know what's up. But like Trinity, what all did you have to say? It's all it takes. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome welcome to tribe. One of the other unique distinctives about meeting here is in this squeezed into this large living room is it's really conducive for us to have a conversation instead of just me doing all the talking, like let's talk about the things that we're going to talk about, let's talk about them together. And so I welcome your questions, your comments, your connection. We have a mic in the room and so if you just raise your hand we'll get the mic to you and we yes we could probably hear you without the mic, but for all of our families that are watching that are traveling or or away, they get to tune into the livestream, and they still get to be a part of the conversation by hearing your wonderful, delightful, if not sometimes quirky contribution to the conversation. So also I'm surprised at how many either young adults that are coming out for the season, like the upcoming ski season or the upcoming summer season, they do a lot of their church shopping before they ever get to town, so they're tuning in on the livestream, they're checking us out, and so any young adults that could be watching this morning's livestream coming out to ski this winter, the Farmers Almanac says that it's gonna be above average snowfall season. Oh yeah, so yeah. And if you are a single young adult guy if we could just have all of the single girls raise no. Nancy's like do it do it. I mean how many how many young adult weddings have we done at Tribe as like a result? Like a lot. Yeah, should get, yeah, you should get introduced. If I check the box, will I No. No. But you will be found out real quick on a Tuesday. And probably be welcomed with open arms. Mhmm. Okay. Did I tell you what book to turn to? Exodus, but nothing else. Okay. Alright. I wanted to either we're going to turn to Exodus chapter four. Exodus chapter four. You saw the title of the conversation that we're gonna have this morning, never alone in the wilderness. That's where we're going. Exodus chapter four, and we're gonna read just a a few verses together and also have it up here on the screen. Would somebody go ahead and read those few verses? And since it's up here on the screen, you can just read it from the screen. Now you can you can see that. Exodus chapter four verse 27 through 29, who's got it? Tyler. Now the hello? There it is. Now the Lord had said to Aaron, go out into the wilderness to meet Moses. So Aaron went and met Moses at the mountain of God. And he embraced him. Moses then told Aaron everything the Lord had commanded him to say. And he told him about the miraculous signs the lord had commanded him to perform. Then Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and called all the elders of Israel together. Okay. Thank you. If you are familiar with what's going on in the story, this makes a lot of sense, and and maybe you're thinking, okay. Why do you pick such a a small narrow passage? If this is brand new to you, let me fill you in really quickly. So there's this dude named Moses. He was born a Hebrew in Egypt during the time that the nation of Israel was in bondage and captivity as slaves to Egypt. It had been four hundred four hundred and thirty years that the nation of Israel had been crying out for a redeemer and for deliverance, and God picks Moses. Now Moses was not probably would not have been either of any of our choices for a leader. First of all, when he came back to Egypt to lead Israel out of bondage and captivity, he was 80 years old. So he was like an old dude at that point. Number one. Number two, he was already guilty of murder. He had murdered an Egyptian. And the bible says the bible records that Moses said, I'm not a good speaker. You know that I am slow of tongue. Now does that mean that like he had lisdexia or that he had a speech impediment or or he was just really nervous about speaking in public. We're not quite sure, but he was not an eloquent hard charging convincing, compelling, charismatic leader. All of these strikes are against him, and God says, you're my guy. That gives me great comfort. Like, if God would pick Moses despite all of these things that would disqualify him as being a leader, what could he do with me? What could he do with you? So God meets Moses at a burning bush in the backside of the desert. I don't have a a picture, because I'm going to show you a picture next week, but just turn to the back of your bible and you can see the maps there. Oh whoops electronic bible users sorry. But they're like we've got Google. Great go for it. That's actually quite that way. So there is the country of Egypt which is pretty much the boundaries essentially of modern day Egypt. Yes I love to see you looking. Yes. And then if you look to the right there is kind of like a pizza shaped slice of land surrounded by water on two sides that would be the the Mount or Sinai Peninsula. And then to the right of the Gulf Of Aqaba is a place broadly known as the Desert Of Midian or the Wilderness Of Midian. And in the Wilderness Of Midian, which would be modern day Saudi Arabia, you can get that in your mind, modern day Saudi Arabia is where Moses finds himself. Zero to 40 years old he grows up in Pharaoh's household. From 40 years old he runs out of Egypt essentially chased out of Egypt guilty of a of murder, a capital offense, abandons all the trappings and luxuries of being a prince of Egypt, and then from 40 to 80 years old he has the prestigious illustrious high paying job of being what? A shepherd. Now when you hear the occupation of a shepherd, what age demographic do you normally think of? Yeah. You're a teenager. You're a kid as a shepherd. Here Moses is the old guy like Clay on a Tuesday night. Yeah. Yeah. I I started college at 35. I was the old Moses, but I had not I had not committed murder. I was not running from Prince of Egypt. So Moses has this job as a shepherd that is typically reserved for a kid or a teenager. For just a moment, consider how alone Moses must have felt. What am I doing? Have you ever found yourself either in a job or in a a little season of life where you just feel like I don't know. Maybe I can't say it any nicer way, but you just feel like a loser. Like, here I am stuck in this thing. This should not be me at this time in this place doing this thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's exactly how Moses must have felt. Then one day, Moses comes across a burning bush. The lord meets him in the bush and says, you're gonna deliver my people Israel. I've heard them crying out to me, and I'm sending you back to Egypt. And Moses throws up all of these excuses. God tolerates those excuses. God equips Moses, and Moses reluctantly puts his yes on the table. Okay. I'll go back. And that's where we pick up this story. Now the Lord had said to Aaron, question, who is Aaron? Brother. So if you didn't know that, that's an important detail about the story. Go out into the wilderness to meet Moses. So Aaron went and met Moses at the mountain of God. As you look at so that brings us up to speed on this story. As you look at these few verses, I would love to hear from you what details or or or things of note stand out to you as particularly interesting. Again, you don't need to draw deep spiritual conclusions from what you're seeing, but look at the text either on the screen or in your bible and just survey it. What stands out to you as interesting? That's a remarkable detail. Here comes the mic. Low power mode until the mic comes. Mine doesn't say, and he embraced him. Mine says, and he kissed him. And I think that that's interesting. Really cool. I don't have anything beyond. It's just interesting. Great detail. I got something. Oh, yes. Okay. I was like, where's the mic? I know. Surprise. I was like, I already have the mic. I'll just say it. Great. I just love this picture. Like, when you have a brother, and, like, Moses is just, like, telling him like, can you imagine that picture of, like, Aaron comes to meet him, and Moses is, dude, you can't believe what, like, is happening right now. And, like, this is what the Lord is saying, and this is all the miracles he's been doing. And and Aaron is just like, yeah, dude, I believe you. Like, let's go talk to the elders in of Israel together. Like, I got your back. So I thought that was just a really beautiful picture. Yes. One of the things that we esteem and encourage here at Tribe is using our sanctified imagination. If we divorce our imagination from reading the text, it tends to be just words on a page. Yeah? And if it's just words on a page, maybe it's a high school textbook, or maybe it's just some other book that we're reading. Jesus says love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, with all of your mind. What's included in our mind? Our imagination. Now I always have to say this so that you like don't spin off some weird thing. We never use our imagination to derive doctrine from. That would that that's a cult. But we use our imagination to think about and to wonder about these things that the text doesn't fill us in on, and that helps draw us into the story, and it helps to open up or stretch out the the tight muscles of our hearts so that God can speak to us. So I love what you are visualizing there, Ella. And you know had Moses not been in that lowly position of a shepherd, would he have been able to hear the voice of the Lord or be able to communicate with God? So, sometimes I think in our life, the same thing happens. He puts us in a position to stop us. So, he can speak to us and give us direction. Hold we're let that sink in. Yeah. Yeah. We all want the burning bush, but how many of us are willing to spend forty years in the wilderness? We all want the fourth man to walk around with us, but how many of us would be willing to be bound hand and foot and tossed into a fiery furnace? We all want to see the mouths of lions shut, but how many of us would be willing to pay the price of spending a night in the lion's den? Don't make me preach. Pay attention here young man. A wise old man is about to to speak here. You know sometimes our bodies will tell us that we're old, our minds tell us that we're young and that we can do many things that we have done in the past. But I feel like right now I'm kind of like reliving my childhood and camping and things like that. That I'm an empty vessel and I want to be used by God. And then maybe maybe Moses needed to be at this age for him to be able to take in all that God was gonna lay on him. Because it was it was pretty heavy. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great perspective. I I just think that that's that's something that we need to think about. Some of you young guys will get it early, great. Some of you won't. And it doesn't mean that you're not gonna get it. This may come at a later time when you're young at heart. There you go. Bethany. Oh, how old was Moses in this time? About Sorry. I'm loud. Moses was about 80. 80. 80. He's not 80. There's time for our house. So the thing that I was wondering is when it says go out into the wilderness to meet Moses, it's like where was Aaron coming from, and like how big of an ordeal was it for him to like go into the wilderness? Like was that a big endeavor or was that a casual thing? Right. So geographically we're talking about the distance of hundreds of miles Aaron had to travel. So Moses relatively speaking was in the neighborhood, but Moses on the way to Egypt had to go past Mount Horeb, the Mountain Of God, Mount Sinai, these all of known by different names. So so it was relatively close for Moses. Aaron had to go further, and then just turn around and come back. It's a big mission. It's a big mission. So let's let's wonder about just a couple of things here. First of all, let's wonder about what Aaron thought when God spoke to Aaron. Go meet your brother in the wilderness. Aaron went. Sounds so casual. I mean it's hard enough to meet with friends on the town square with all of the devices and you kids these days like we used to have to like go from like spot to spot to spot on a Friday night looking for everybody, or when school let out on Friday you had to huddle up with your friends and get a plan, and then you had to stick to the plan, and then you were torn because did you wanna go out and meet up with your friends, or did you stay at home in isolation hoping the landline would ring from that one girl calling? Like, oh, it's just the worst. Whose yard all the bikes were in? So let's so so I bet I'm sure AI could calculate the odds of what it would take for two people to meet up in the middle of nowhere. So just the fact so we already have several remarkable things, and and we're we're talking about these to to set up this story for where we're where we're going in our conversation today. But the fact that God spoke to Aaron and Aaron obeyed. Why in that regard is that miraculous that Aaron obeyed? We have no we have no indication that God had ever spoken to Aaron before. He didn't we we it's not in the text that he had a relationship with Aaron. So I think it's reasonable to assume, safe to assume. We're not gonna get in trouble if we assume that god really hadn't spoken to Aaron before. And so now he's like out of the blue. Hey, Aaron. I have a mission for you. I want you to go out into the wilderness and meet your brother. Now what's remarkable about that? Yes. How did he even know that Moses was alive? What was the gap? Forty years. Do you think Aaron knew about Moses' crimes? Yeah. All of Egypt knew. So Maybe you heard from him. I saw that guy. Like like word? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe rumors. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Like a shepherd. Yeah. Just a number. Gretchen. They also have no context for God at this point. There's no bible. Like, when we all well, I'll speak for myself. But like when I had my salvation moment and I like had an experience of the Lord, I had some context because I had heard of Christianity before and the Lord. Like they haven't had any they didn't have a bible to read. They haven't heard of a religion. They haven't heard like so to to have the Lord come to you with no context and say, go meet your brother. Yeah. And for you not to be like, am I going crazy? Yes. Yeah. You know? What did Aaron's wife say? You're what? So I would say that there's biblical evidence for not having a context of relationship because it wasn't until years later that the sign of the covenant was reestablished of circumcision. So there's a multiple generations where the sign of the covenant wasn't even in place. So, yes, I agree with you. Now let's talk about the moment of their meeting. We have to fill in the gaps here with our sanctified imagination but what do you picture the moment like when they first saw each other from a distance and then walked up to each other? Were they shouting? Yeah. Yeah. You shriveled up old goat skin. Look at you. That's how guys talk affectionately to one another. Right? Yeah. Brothers. Did they wrestle? I you know, brothers do when they see each other after not having seen each other in a long time. Moses had the Moses had the stick so maybe he had an advantage to whack his brother Aaron. His little brother, did he give him a noogie? Like, what so so it's important it's important for us to consider this because it adds depth to what is said here. What happens when they meet? What happens when yeah. He embraced them. Why is that significant? Why do you think that's ex that is significant? Why do you think that is important that that detail would be included? Okay. So so perhaps there's a custom of the time. I was just thinking as we were talking, like, that, like, like, Moses whoever Moses was before he left for the wilderness, like, we don't actually know what their relationship was like, but, you know, the fact that they embraced might say something about their what their relationship was like or the redemption that happened in that moment. But, like, I was just thinking of, like, if I, like, left on the wrong foot with a sibling of mine and didn't see them for forty years, it would be like a much different greeting. It might be a little awkward. You might not really know how to approach the situation. That is that's where I'm getting at. Don't you think that there was a high probability for an awkward reunion? So the first forty years Moses lives as one of the princes of Egypt raised in the household of Pharaoh being afforded every convenience and luxury. And do you not think that Moses could not have passed on some kickbacks to his family? And then Moses had to go and mess it up when he left? Like like there's certain privileges that come with being even if that has to be covert an extended family of one of the princes of Egypt. Like like if you are speeding through town and you get pulled over by the cops, but like your husband is a cop and you're like, my husband is a cop and then he's like okay well you know and he like lets you off like there's some kickbacks that are afforded I said you would do that. In this hypothetical situation. Alright. He said no. It just happened when I was going to your house and you knew this story. Well, whatever. This story would have remained completely hypothetical. You gave yourselves up. So they could be thinking he screwed it up for all of us. He screwed it up for all of us. Think of the the resentment that could be in Aaron's heart. Think of that anger he just ditched us. It says that they were only three years apart in age. So they're close. Very close. In age. Now Aaron and Moses embrace and reconcile, and from this point moving forward in the story, we see Aaron and Moses being very, very close to one another, and they had lots of ups and downs and and trials. But in the midst of Moses' wilderness season, god sends a brother. Now how about you in your life in the season that you find yourself in in this moment? By chance, do you feel, is there anyone, you don't raise your hand, but is there anyone in this room who in an area of their life feels as though they are in a wilderness all alone. As Clay said a moment ago, the wilderness is not a punishment, but it can be a place of preparation. When you find yourself alone in the wilderness, you must know this about the nature and character of God. Even when it feels as though you are all alone, God will send a brother. We talked about the distance between Egypt and Mount Sinai and the wilderness of Midian to Mount Sinai. The distance for Moses to travel was much much shorter than for Aaron. So what does that mean about Aaron's start time? Aaron had to start long before, maybe weeks before. So in God's sovereignty, long before God ignited that bush on fire to grab a hold of Moses' attention. God had touched Aaron on the shoulder and said, I have a mission for you. Aaron was on the way in the midst of Moses being alone in the wilderness. If it feels as though you are alone in your whole life or in an area of your life this morning. God sent me here and brought you here to tell you that you are not alone. Elijah in the wilderness, fed by ravens. Jesus alone in the wilderness ministered to by angels. God will never leave you alone in the wilderness. I only have one more verse to share this morning. Proverbs seventeen seventeen. We'll put it up here on the screen. A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. In your translation it may say in time of adversity. Okay Nancy, tell us. You know how we always say that friends are great because we get to choose them? And we know every family has got issues, and you know, say a friend is always loyal and a brother is born to help in time of need. Sometimes that friend is a brother, know? Yes, certainly, can Doesn't be have to be blood relative to be there for your in time of need because I've got friends closer than family. Certainly. That is the that is the clear that is the clear implication of this verse. That God never intends for any of us to walk alone for any sustained amount of time in the wilderness. And the help, the encouragement, the embrace, the kiss, maybe it comes from a blood relative. But this verse says, a brother is born to help in time of need. You could replace born with arrive or emerge. Now I know that you're thinking about you and any kind of wilderness season or situation that perhaps you may find yourself in, but there's two sides to that algebraic formula. Maybe you are the friend or the brother that has that is emerging for someone else in their time of need. And I won't hammer this too hard but you know old PB loves you and if you would just quit thinking about yourself so much for half a second, Maybe the lord would send you out into the wilderness to meet somebody that is alone and isolated out there. Even in the midst of friends and soccer teams and work and all of this. You never you never know. Tribe has emerged, had an opportunity recently to emerge as a brother for a special group of people. We touched on this before it before it played out, and then afterwards I got to say thank you, but today I want to take just a few minutes more and linger on this idea of a friend is always loyal and a brother is born to help in time of need. If you remember all the way back at the beginning of September, I told you guys, hey there is a ministry called Risen Hearts based out of where? Nashville, Tennessee, and they have they have a a ministry devoted towards loving on active duty and reservist members of the Israeli Defense Force, IDF, that have been in sustained combat for over two years now. And the purpose of this ministry is to love on IDF soldiers and the the founder of this ministry, a woman named Kelly and her husband Ali. Ali and her husband Bobby have said have said, ma'am, wouldn't it be great if when these soldiers have some time off, if we could give them a little bit of therapeutic R and R by bringing them to Jackson Hole. So that was her vision and her dream. And she began to work with local Jewish community here and reaching out to contacts in Israel who to bring and how to make all of that happen. And tribe got connected. I got connected. And then if you remember, the opportunity was for us as a tribe family to to do two things. Number one, to give financially to help cover the expense for the meals. 10 hungry dudes here in town for a week is ten days is it gets really expensive really fast. So we had a budget and we said hey would you pray about giving towards that budget and you guys were amazing givers. All of the funds and above came in towards that and I really I really love how you were either able to either be fully on board like, yeah, I'm all in or suspend any poo poo that you may have and still give because your pastor asked. And I I wanna say that that some of your poo poo is illegitimate. Some of your poo poo is is certainly legitimate, but I love that you gave. The second thing is that you gave of your time, and there are members from tribe that we were engaged in various activities of them, and they came out here. They had an incredible time. A week after they left, I said, hey. Good job, everybody. And then we just moved on with service. Today, wanna take in in light of this verse, I wanna take just a little bit of time for you to hear from Gretchen who was in charge of organizing and preparing a lot of the meals and got to spend a lot of time with these guys. And I'd like you to hear Gretchen's perspective on what this trip meant to these men. And Gretchen, would you grab that little stool, put it right here, and then Ella will give you the mic. And have I set you up for a successful enough to share what you wanna share? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good question. Because then I'll scream. Oh gosh. Yes. We all know that. Yeah, it was a really special experience. You know, like Brian said, the Lord had put it really strongly on Ali and Bobby Ali's heart mostly, to minister to IDF soldiers. And she said like before this, she didn't really like have any thoughts or feelings about Israel. So this was something definitely like supernatural from the Lord. Yeah, these are all the guys. That was when you did Cody Peak, Mhmm. Yeah. And so And those are beers. Yes. They really loved Budweiser's. It's like an American beer. Really want Yeah. They really wanted that. They really wanted to like experience American culture. Like that's they were like super excited to do that. But I got to spend almost every night with them, and I think and every what I was most surprised about was every single night, one of them, and it was always different, sometimes it was the same, wanted to share what they were thinking and what they were feeling. Like, they were so emotionally open and like available, and wanted to just talk about the experiences. And so I got to hear a lot, which was really meaningful. But I think one of their biggest takeaways well, they had a lot, but they were struck by the relationship that we had built with the Jewish community already. Like that was so evident to them because we did a lot of events with us and with the Jewish community here in Jackson. Like we co hosted dinners, and we did, you know, they were able to be here during one of the meetings on the town square, which was amazing for them to see all that support and everything. But they kept bringing up like how amazing it was, the relationship that we had with the Jewish community here, and they had never really seen anything like that. Like, they they understood that we weren't, like, we were just friends. We weren't going in and trying to, like, push our agenda on the Jewish community. We were just coming alongside and supporting them, and they really that was, like, so impactful to them, and and some of the leaders in the Jewish community had made some speeches and were talking about, what did Paul say that one night? You know who your friends are in times of need, and tribe and the Christians in Jackson have shown to be better friends than some of the people in our community. And so they got to hear that, and one of the soldiers one night was like, I just never knew it was possible for people to have this kind of a close relationship while having different theological beliefs. And he said, and I wonder what this would look like if we brought it back to Israel, this mentality. And, like, would it be possible to have to, you know, be closer with like even like Muslims or Arabs and you know, all of this stuff. And so I think what struck me is a lot of it's such an example of the upside down kingdom. You know, like a lot of the time it's like, well, I don't agree with this group and this ideology, and so I'm not going to support them. But by supporting them, they had the outcome that you probably would have wanted if you're not supporting them. You know what I mean? Like, they were like, oh my gosh. Like, this is possible, and I could bring this back to Israel. The other thing that really struck them, and that they kept talking about, and and had such a hard time wrapping their mind around was they were just like, why do you wanna love on us so much? Like, the world the world hates us, and you're just loving on us with no agenda? Like, are you sure you don't want anything? And then they had a lot of jokes in the beginning when Ali had reached out to them, and they were like she was like, you know, we're gonna have you come here, and we're gonna put you up in a house, and we need your shoe size, and we need your t shirt size, and we and they were like, this is some ploy. They're going to kidnap us. Is like I'm ringing in operatives. Yeah. This is like some kind of trick. And so like they kept joking about that. Like, can't believe this wasn't a trick. You guys really just wanted to bring us out here. But they just were so struck by like the purity of like our love for them, and how it was just about them as people, and that we recognize that they had been through a lot, and that they just needed a little bit of love and rest. And it was so that was so meaningful to them, and they kept bringing that up, like how much that touched them. And then I think like the last thing that I would say is I was just really struck for me personally, this troop in particular, they're front lines. They're not, you know, going in at the end and cleaning up or doing anything like that. Like, they're going in before everyone else to, like, root out explosives, and a lot of guys in their troop have been severely injured. They have amputees, and then a few of them have passed away. And so they've seen a lot, and they're still so open. They go in to an area before the main ground force arrives, looking for booby traps and for bombs. And when they move into a neighborhood, they go to they go into civilian apartments, they find bombs. They go into clinics and hospitals, and they find bombs. They go into children's schools and they find bombs. They go into playgrounds. They go into mosques and churches. That's where the bombs have been placed, that their job is to go and find. Yeah. But in spite of all of that, they are like, their hearts are still so open. And like I said, they always wanted to be talking about their feelings and their takeaways, and they were so grateful and loving, and on the town square, you know, they were so open to wanting to talk to people and hear from people, and they were just they didn't let it harden their hearts, is what I noticed. That's amazing. And I think that that is amazing, and that's a miracle. God is sovereign. God is in control. And that's the one thing out of this message that I I wanted to hear. Yeah. It's it's a long shot if we're depending on us. It's not a long shot for God. God's in control of all this. In control of all this. I just wanna share kind of a story, short story real quick about that when they were here. I had very little part in it, Gretchen did so much for them. Do you know how hard it is to cook kosher? Yes. She had to buy new utensils just to cook kosher. Lord have mercy. Yes. But one of the nights I was invited to the Shabbat dinner, and we were all at the house, but at the table, we were all sitting at this very long table, and at the table was devout Jews. There were messianic Jews. There were Christians. There were in the middle Jews, and Non religious. Non religious Jews, yes. You're your run of the mill Jew. Run of the mill Jew. We're all sitting at this table, and like everybody's laughing and joking, and we're all just telling stories, and they like to just say what things mean to them. And one of the guys stood up, and it hit me pretty hard. It was like he stood up, and he started talking about how this was an amazing thing. That you had these different groups of people sitting at a table together, in community sharing Shabbat. Know, and he was talking about how that, think about the prophetic picture of what that is. That all these groups are together sitting at a table, which has never happened before for them especially, and for us. I've never seen that. And it's just an amazing thing that you have this group, and everybody loves everybody. And he was just saying how prophetic, to him that's what hit him, is how prophetic this was, and how this is an image of the future, of what's coming, that we're all gonna sit at the same table and do this. It was just an amazing event. That's really cool, Jacob. That same guy also said, I realized by spending time with you that I've always thought of peace as something that like comes upon you or like peace that is just something that happens. And he was like, and I realized that peace is something you work for, and that's what you guys have done in Jackson, is you've worked for peace. Who said that? Raz. Raz. Oh yeah, holding on to the mountain for fear Yeah, of he was scared of heights. I was just gonna bring the like what we've been talking about about Aaron. Like in a way, and I'm not trying to like stretch to find a connection, but like, Allie is in Tennessee. Never really cared or thought about Israel. She'd be the first one to tell you. Like, I'm not like my pastor's not talking about Israel. And the Lord just spoke to her to do this detailed thing just like yeah. In the pink. And her husband is right there, Bobby. And just think, it's so similar to Aaron. I mean, God just spoke to Aaron. Go out into the wilderness and do this thing. I mean, like, I really believe that, like, Aaron made it possible for Moses to do what Moses had to do. And then the lasting effects of that. All Ali did was hear a vision from the Lord. Hear hear a word from the Lord. Get an idea from the Lord and be obedient in it. And the ripple effects, you know, we won't ever even know what these guys brought back to the Middle East. You know, just like Aaron. We that's the whole yes. Mhmm. Talk about just a moment the wives. Yeah. So the one thing too that they kept bringing up, they brought it up on the town square in front of everyone, they brought it up to us multiple times, there's talks about doing things now, but they they kept saying that, thank you for doing this for us, but, like, can you please keep in your hearts and your prayers our wives? Because they have it so much harder. They're sitting at home for two years now, taking care of our families by themselves and wondering every day and just praying that we make it home, dead or alive. And that is so hard on them. And, like, they have asked, like, can we do something for the wives? Something, like, smaller, but something similar to this. Like, their heart is so like, they very much understand the pressures that their wives are under while they're away fighting. And what did the wives say about when their husbands came home? Maybe Ali just told me that that when these men came home, many wives who Ali is developing a relationship with were like, what did you do to my husband Oh, yeah. In Jackson Hole? Yeah. Like forever changed. A lighter heart, more optimism, less tension, and being on edge. And so I asked Gretchen to share to to from her perspective about this and to to share with you your contribution, whether you gave a specific dollar amount towards this, whether you prayed, whether you participated. You know what? I'm feeling really generous. If you even just tolerated this initiative from tribe, you get full credit. You were that brother raised up in the time of these men being in the wilderness. Yeah. And on that note, I do just wanna say, like, I think we tend to think someone's in need or someone's experienced, like, all of this trauma, and I have to do something grand to help. And, like, when you think about it in the grand scheme of things, we gave them a week in the mountains. I cooked four meals for them, organized the others, and we donated money. Like, I probably, if I wouldn't have met them, would have been like, man, wish I could have done more. You know? Like, that wasn't enough. But one of them said to me, like, I can't believe the heart of you and your church that, like, you are doing all of this for me. And I was like, fuck. And at that point, I only cooked him one meal. I was like, I only cooked one meal. It wasn't even my best to wait until next week. Wait until the last night. I have something special prepared. But like, and he was like, no. What you've done is so much. And he was like, it's it's nothing compared to what we do. And I was like, you're fighting a war. And he said, we're fighting for our our land and our people. You're doing this because you just love. And that is so much more impactful than anything that we've done. And so I think it's just it takes a tiny bit and God will multiply it if it comes from a heart of love. God will do amazing things with it, and I think it's going to impact their families and their communities for years and years to come. Thank you Tribe fam for being a part of this. Will we do it again? Only the Lord knows. Ali was super excited to start planning next year's initiative. And we will see. If while Gretchen was sharing, you were like, man, I wish that I could have been more involved. For two years now, the first Sunday of every month, we have gathered with the Jewish community here in town to stand with them calling for the release of all of the hostages. And I've said it so many times, but I feel like I have to continue to say it. There's a biblical mandate. If you are a Christian, if you follow Jesus, there is a clear biblical mandate for you to love and support Israel. And did you know that you can love and support Israel and disagree with many aspects of how the war was prosecuted. If you feel like you can't, you've just been drinking propaganda Kool Aid To create this binary, it has to be one way or another. The situation is complex. Israel is not perfect, but God's mandate could not be more abundantly clear. And you've heard me for two years now saying we're gathering today 5PM on the town square, we're gathering today 5PM on the town square, the first Sunday of every month we've been saying this. Many of you have joined us And there was talk at the last town square gathering that when either hostages begin to come home or when the last one comes home, That the cry will go out around the community to gather on the town square and celebrate and dance and sing and celebrate. Did you know that you can dance and sing and celebrate the return of the hostages and be against the war? Really let that sink in. When they come home, I will be on the town square dancing to support Jews living in this community because they're in the wilderness, and they should not be alone. I'll be that brother born in adversity to stand with him. Lord Jesus, help us. Okay, Amanda, lead us in offering and announcements. We just wanna stay in this attitude of worship and we just we're gonna pray over our tithe and our offering. That's something that we do every time we get together as a local church. The the money the actual money that you give to your local church goes to do the work of the ministry. So it's a privilege and an honor to be able to partner with God in what he's doing to reach people in our community and beyond as we say to the uttermost bounds of the earth who have not heard the name of Jesus. You hear us say we wanna make his name famous. That just means, like, let people know who he is. And so when we bring our tithe and our offering, it is a sacrifice. Whether you're giving a little bit or a lot and it feels hard, it's a sacrifice, and it's a way to say, god, it's all yours anyway, but I'm gonna give a portion of this hard earned paycheck to you, to the work of the ministry because you're worthy of it, first of all, but it's our opportune one of many opportunities to partner with what the Lord is doing to reach people that don't yet know Jesus. So we're gonna pray whether you're giving right now or another time, ways that we give at Tribe is a little different. We don't pass buckets but Ella is sitting right next to our offering bucket. You can put cash or check-in there. There's also a black lockbox downstairs right outside the front door. You can also give on our website, tribejh.com. And then the easiest way to give is by smartphone. You can just type a number. It's here on the screen to (833) 369-7847. Type the word give a dollar sign and the amount you want to give. So, let's pray together as a tribe family whether you do this now or another time. Lord, we just say thank you for who you are. Thank you for your sovereignty, for your grace, for your love, for your mercy, for your faithfulness. Thank you that you use as the Bible calls us in the Old Testament, clay jars. We're just old clay jars, and you use us, Father, for your glory. We carry the light of the world, the answer, the lighthouse in the in a dark night, father. We carry you, the holy spirit, and people are drawn to that. Let us be worthy of that assignment and steward that well. When we bring our tithe and our offering to you, father, we just say, please, father, let this go out and do just practical things that draw people to you and to your character, into your nature, into who you are. Let so many people come to the lord because of our obedience and something so very simple. Father, we just thank you in advance for kingdom advancement from our obedience today and every time we give. In Jesus name, amen. Announcements really just what's on the fridge. Is that correct? Take a look at the fridge as you leave. There's some serving opportunities, and then every Tuesday, probably until the Lord returns, the young adults meet here, and we you can bring a meal any Tuesday until the Lord returns. And you don't have to stay or anything. Just bring a meal, and it feeds people, gets their bellies full, and then they hear the word, and it's a great way to just to just love on each other as we're here. Where's Brian? Will you bring us out? Come back up here, please. Whether you find yourself in the wilderness today, take courage of brothers coming. Or maybe you would hear the Lord whisper to your heart and invite you to be that brother, to travel out into the wilderness so that another is not alone. May the lord bless your obedience and whether we'll send out a text blast when and how we're gonna gather on the square. It could be Monday night. We're deep into the nighttime in Tel Aviv local time, and the agreement was for hostages to begin to come home. The remains of those that are dead and the remaining alive hostages to come home soon. So keep praying, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your stand to be that brother with Israel here in this community. Would you stand up and I'll pray for you? Where? What? Oh my gosh. Wait. Yeah. I almost forgot like a huge part. Don't sit down, but next week, Lisa and I will be in Saudi Arabia climbing Mount Sinai. So that was yeah. Surprise. Lord Jesus I command a blessing over each and every person gathered here today. Lord thank you that when we were in the wilderness of sin and depravity you sent your son Jesus to rescue us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God I command a blessing over each and every person here today. Use our lives to make your name famous. We pray these things in Jesus name the strong son of God and everybody said, amen. I love you. Have a great week. And be here next week because I'll be talking more about Mount Sinai. So see you. You got this.