The Land of Promise

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.

Oh, man. Good morning, everybody.

Good morning. Hey.

Can we collectively be done with the time change? Yeah. What other states don't do it? Hawaii doesn't like when when Indiana. Indiana.

Let's I mean, I think that, I don't know, I think that we're we're we're at an age of advanced American civilization where we can just not but think about this. I mean, who actually besides Jacob, who actually sets their clocks again? I mean, in a week or so, I'll push the button on my truck to change the time. Jacob raised his hand on the group text this morning and said that he does set his clock ahead. Jacob?

Sorting. He just morning. Said it Alright. Alright. Well, I'll let great Gretchen and Jacob sort that out after church.

We don't have alarms. I'm so glad that all of you got up early and are here. We're going to have so much. I hate it in the morning but this afternoon, after my nap and I'm like, maybe I'll do some little chores and projects like I get so much more light at the end end of the day. So, I do like that and then people, I Gretchen is just not letting this go.

Well, if you think that the time change is controversial, boy, have we got a great Sunday for you. This is a good warm up. This is a good warm up for our conversation and I did write this as part of the introduction in the in the top of my notes and I just wanna not necessarily confess but share something with you from my my heart that there is a battle in my mind. There's a voice in my mind that is is telling me like you are like Don Quixote. How many of you know the the fictional character Don Quixote?

Okay. Maybe you had to read it in school, but he was he was a guy who was like a a a normal guy. And then, you know, he kinda got a little bit cuckoo and he thought of himself as a knight and he developed a squire and he had his little like donkey horse and as a knight, the only guys that he could fight were windmills, right? And so, he started jousting at windmills because he was, you know, like he went a little bit cuckoo. I don't think that I have gone cuckoo list.

However, there's a voice in my mind that is saying like, you, like, why are you still on this topic? Like, everybody else has moved on. Every, it is irrelevant to everybody else. You're not meeting the needs of the the people. However, I'm trying really hard to hear and be obedient to the lord and to provide a relevant, nutritious meal each and every time we gather on a Sunday and so, I have to tell that voice in my head to just be quiet and then we I move forward in obedience with what I feel like the lord is put on my heart and how the lord is leading us as a tribe fam and so with that, all that I can do is lower my face shield pick up my jouster?

Lance. Lance. Collectively, we did it. Pokey sticks, spear. Yeah, we all lost our minds for just a moment there.

Kick the horse and yell charge and so, as we get into today's conversation, you'll notice as you sat down this morning, there's a connect card in your seat. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to have a record of your visit. You can fill that out and either leave it in your seat and our greeter team will get it at the end of service or you can put it in that little wooden box back there but there's also an opportunity on the back of that card to fill out a prayer request on Mondays. We take these very seriously. We pray over them.

We celebrate with you. We intercede with you. We cry with you and so whatever is going on, we would love. It's an honor for our leadership team to be able to partner with you and and carry whatever it is that you're carrying. So, you can fill that out in the back as well.

With that, let's jump into today's conversation and I have titled this conversation today, Unbreakable Week seven. We're gonna talk about the land of promise today and if you don't know for it's been a while since you've been with our tribe fam, we are in a series of conversations talking about God's unbreakable commitment to a unique distinct unbreakable people called Israel and you can go back and listen and watch prior conversations that we've had. I really appreciate all of the dialogue that we've had in service and I really appreciate the text messages or emails, conversations offline from this morning that we have been engaging with and I hope that you're learning and growing. I hope that you're being challenged and I hope that you continue to have an open mind and an open heart to what god may want to to speak to you regarding this really important topic and so, you can go back and listen and just like we do every single week, I really do want this to be a conversation. So, if you have a question or a comment or a connection, all you have to do is raise your hand and Rivers running the mic today and so we'll get the mic to you.

You can share your thoughts in the mic And the reason why we have the mic is not because we necessarily need to hear your voice in this room, but for all of our families that are watching the livestreaming or traveling or out of town, they get to participate and hear your inclusion as well. So, we're going to talk about the land of promise and a very controversial aspect of Israel is the land. Whose land is it? Who is might right? Meaning, if you can take it and hold it, then it is yours.

Does anybody have a right to any of the land? What about treating the people that were on the land currently or what about how do we treat people that were in the land previously? How many of you have heard any type of contentious discussion maybe in the news or media or or at your work or personally about this idea of the land of Israel? Okay. Okay.

So, it is going to be very relevant. We're going to, here's what we're going to do. We're going to lay three very important foundation stones from god's word and then, I got some pictures of maps. Yay. Oh, okay.

Alright. We love maps. Alright. Alright. So let's look at this first verse.

It's in Psalms 24. I invite you to turn there. And this verse is worth taking a moment even though it's up on the screen. It's worth taking a moment to find it in your bible so that you can underline it and put a star next to it. You can make notes around it.

If you have one of those fancy electronic Bibles, you can highlight it. Psalms 24 verse one says this, the earth is the lord's and everything in it. The world and all of its people belong to him. So, first foundation stone, all of the earth belongs to the lord. It is his and his alone.

Question, why does the earth belong to

him? You

would think that that is pretty straightforward and simple. However, I want to acknowledge that not everybody is coming from the same worldview that you are. There are those many of them who think that the Earth in a way essentially was self created. The earth didn't create itself, but the the universe exploded into being without any prime mover or intelligence behind the earth, and that is a different conversation for a different time. For us today, like, when you're gonna build a house, you gotta excavate all this dirt out of the way, and you gotta form up the footers, and then you gotta pour the footers.

You don't just start building a house on top of the ground. You gotta dig down and lay a foundation. This verse, I would think for many of you is so foundational. It would, it's like asking a fish to describe water. Of course, the earth belongs to the lord but this is very very important.

The earth is the lord's. Who owns the earth? The lord. Whose property is the earth? The lord.

Alright. Alright. Next verse. Daniel chapter four verse 35. Let's turn to that one as well.

I'll give you a second to get there. Daniel four thirty five, it's up here on the screen. All of the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven dispatched for him and by him doing his bidding and his will and those that have transgressed broke the law of heaven according to Jude and according to first Thessalonians and mentions of it in Peter that there are some angels who have disobeyed and who are now currently imprisoned in chains of gloomy darkness. And among all of the people of the earth.

No one can stop him or say to him, what do you mean by doing these things? So, what's the takeaway? It's up top in black. He does what he wants with his own property. Oh, let me change my notes real quick and he answers to no one.

He has absolute authority and power and and is unchecked. He has no checks and balances. His author authoritarian in a way. Now, when we hear authoritarian, we tremble because we automatically associate that with human authority and governments that that because people are people can easily be corrupted. Power can slip out of balance.

People tend to once they get power, not relinquish power. That this is not on the screen, but another important foundation stone is he is absolutely trustworthy. He's perfect. He never once makes a wrong decision. He never once abuses power.

He's never ego driven. He sets and he creates laws and and boundaries, parameters that he operates within, and then, he sticks to it. Daniel four thirty five, all of the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him, what do you mean by doing these things?

Now, sometimes I ask you a really honest question and I say, don't raise your hand. Today, I'm gonna ask you to be really honest and invite you to raise your hand. Have any of you ever encountered the will of the lord doing what he's going to do and you find yourself in prayer or asking him, why are you doing it this way? Here's what I've been praying for. Here's what I've here's the counsel and the guidance that I need.

Why are you doing it this way? Why

are so slow?

We all ask that and so, like, let's be honest with ourselves. This is each and every one of us. God does something and we're like, woah, you did not run that by me. Would have been nice if you would have checked with me.

Did you not hear me?

Did you not hear me? Here's what I was Here's

what I've

been asking for. Pretty please with extra sugar on top. So, god does what he pleases and he does what he wants with his own property. Here's the third foundational, really important stone for us to excuse me. Excuse me.

There's one more verse. One more verse. He does what he wants with his own property. Genesis chapter 12. This is a a big verse.

Genesis. Genesis. Just to the right of your table of contents. Thanks

for thanks for laughing.

Remember you said it.

Then, the lord appeared to Abraham and said, I will give you this land to your descendants. I will give this land to your descendants And Abraham built an altar there and dedicated it to the lord who had appeared to him. So, we're going to talk in a moment about what is this land but based upon the two verses that we've just read, does God have the right to give any bit of land to anyone he wants? Absolutely. Do we always like and agree with his decisions including giving what he wants to whomever he wants?

No. That's alright. Does god have the have the does he have the right? Yes. Does he have the authority?

Does he have the ability? These are very, very, very it and if you feel in if your intelligence feels insulted, I don't apologize. Just just bear with me because these thoughts are very important to cement into our brain and I think I've already said this a couple of times but you have permission to dislike and to disagree. You can. It doesn't change anything, and it also doesn't mean you say it.

Doesn't mean you're right. Alright. Alright. Last foundation stone, Leviticus chapter 25. This is a good one to turn to.

You're already in Genesis. Just hang a right. Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23. The land must never be sold on a permanent basis For the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.

Now this verse is worthy of a little bit broader context so that you understand what's happening and I invite you with each of these verses that you are so diligently writing down the address for so that you can come back and unpack it later. I love to see you doing that. Zooming out a little bit on the Leviticus passage will give you a little bit more context but I'll telegraph where I'm going with this passage. The broader context is that this has to do with the year of Jubilee and the very interesting system that the lord set up for property ownership and debtors and servicing debt and lending within and among Israel. So, this has to do with the Jubilee.

Okay? And if you're like, what is a Jubilee and where do I buy one? Go read around go read around, I almost said Amazon. Go read around Leviticus and see if you can buy one on Amazon.

Than Amazon and Leviticus.

They're a little bit different. Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23, the land must never be sold on a permanent basis for the land belongs to who? Him. Him. The Lord.

Me. Him. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me. Now, if we were to take this one verse, and stretch it not beyond what it's intended to bear but if we were to stretch it to the bounds of reasonability, how far could we extend the implications of this verse? How far could we extend the implications of this verse?

That I don't know if you're picking up what I'm putting down with this question but let's let's try. Okay, yeah, yeah. Every, okay. The whole world, everything in it, including who? Sir.

Us. Our homes, our lives, including the Jews. It's literally written to the Jews. The land is mine. You're a tenant farmer.

The land belongs to me but we can extrapolate, we can extend this verse to include point to who it can include. Well, how about how about the talent that you have to work the job that you have? How about the air that you're breathing right now? How about the gravity that you enjoy? The land you walk on.

Land you walk on. The children that you have. The earth belongs to the lord and the fullness thereof. Okay. So, let me really quickly go back to these verses and I'm just gonna read up top in black.

Okay? Number one, all of the earth belongs to the lord. Number two, he does what he wants with his own property. Number three, but he is very clear about who actually owns the land. How about thoughts or questions regarding some of these things that we've just said and then we'll move on.

Thoughts or or questions? I'd love to hear from you. Here comes the mic.

I just have one thought about this God being so, you know, everything and authoritarian and all that. And for a little while, I there was a in me, you know, like a resistance. But once you realize that he's a good God Wow. That there's there's he's nothing but love. Then it's not a problem

for me

at all.

That's really good. There's a great verse in the Bible that says, you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But then I don't know if you've seen this, but there's really small fine print directly under that. And it says, but until then, it will make you miserable. No.

It doesn't. It doesn't. Look closely. In your Bible. How many of you have ever encountered, whether it's in creation or some other aspect of reality, you've encountered the truth, but you've either you disagreed with it or you you didn't like it, didn't wanna submit to it, and you you were just rebellious and miserable.

And then finally, so maybe it can come a couple of ways. You encounter the truth and you're like, oh, that's what I've been bumping up against. The New Testament calls it kicking against the goad, a sharp pointy stick, or like in the symptom Simpsons where who's the guy with the big pointy dreads? Not sideshow Bob, like, is like trying to get Homer Simpson, but a truckload of rakes has tipped over and there are all these rakes on the road and everywhere sideshow Bob steps a rakes snaps him in the face. How many of you have repeatedly stepped on rakes, had them snap you in the face, and then one day you realized, maybe I should just stop stepping on rakes.

Yeah. You encounter the truth and then you submit and surrender to it and it sets you free.

You know what? This is sort of reminds me of as a teenager when I would sort of be a little rebellious and my mother would always say, this is my house and as long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules. You know, it's like this is god's world and he has set rules for us and they're rules to help us and it's because he loves us. He's not trying to be mean with it but it is his.

It is his. He says, today, I have set before you blessings and curses, life and death. Oh, that you would choose life. River, right here.

Well, and just to add on what she said, he expects us to take part in managing and taking care of everything, all his property.

Yes. We are tenants. We are stewards. Stewardship, conservation, renewal of the earth someday, all is responsibility that was originally given to Adam and extends all the way down through. Christians should be the most wise when it comes to stewarding what we've been given because we know that we are tenants and at best servants and stewards.

Caretakers.

And we have to do it his way. We

have to do it his way. So we are we're we have free agency. We are autonomous individual beings able to think and to choose what we want. However, we are not free from choosing the consequences in the manner and timing and severity. That is god's domain.

There is maybe someday we'll get to go back there again but dear friends of ours, Grant and Jane Gollaher, they have a ranch up north called Diamond Cross Ranch and now, they do a lot of like weddings and corporate events and and things but he used to do this cowboy church in this round pen demonstration where he would take a horse that has never been trained or or had a saddle or anything put on it and put the horse in this round pen and Grant would stand in the middle of the round pen and he has his little cowboy microphone and his cowboy hat and he has this long court with a plastic bag on the end of it and he would say, the goal of this horse, I'm trying to teach this horse that the safest place in the whole wide world to be is right off of my right shoulder. I just want him to what they would call join up. I just want him to join up with me and this horse is like looking outside the pen and running all over and Grant would say, the horse is free to do whatever it wants but he's not free from the consequences.

I'm going to drive this horse until he makes even the slightest recognition of me and as soon as that happens, I back off from the pressure. In order to teach this horse that the safest place is to be right here with me and so what he would do is the horse is running around, running as long as the horse is being crazy, Grant would reach out with this long court. It was like 10 or 12 feet with the plastic baggy on the end of it and the horse is but as soon as the horse looked at Grant, he would remove the pressure. Through positive reinforcement, oh, it was it's amazing. Over about forty five minute horse demonstration, That horse that had never been around Grant, never looked with Grant.

He would come around and he would be right off his shoulder and then Grant would walk around the arena and that horse would follow him. It's a beautiful picture of discipleship and how in many ways, I don't know about you but how the lord whips and trains this jacket. I mean, this. Wild stallion. Stallion.

I mean, blush.

If this is not relevant or a rabbit trail, let me know.

I'll look to you, Nancy, to give him the knee squeeze.

So so god has all the land.

Yes.

He has given a piece of land to Israel. He still owns it. I guess he sublets it or whatever. But Israel, as far as I know, has given that little strip of Gaza back and kind of walked away from it. How how does what does the Bible say or what would you say to that?

Okay. Still, it's still obviously it's still god's but Israel is given something that they had had obtained back.

Okay. That is a great question and is a wonderful segue to looking at some maps. So we're gonna go back in the the first map that I have. I didn't create this. I understand it can be a little bit hard to read some of these things from back there, but you understand that this is a map of the Middle East with the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea right here and the Dead Sea.

And this first map is it's titled Abraham's Journey, and he go he leaves from what is now modern day Iraq and travels up along the Euphrates River to a place called Haran and this is where Abram's dad decides to stop his journey. He peters out. Then God speaks to his son, Abram, and says, come on. And Abram continues the journey down into this region called Canaan. When he gets to Canaan, God speaks to Abraham.

I have another map in just a moment, but god speaks to Abraham and says, I'm gonna give you all of this land. It's a rich, fertile land. Abraham's like, wow. Super cool. And then a famine happens.

And you read the story in Genesis, you're like, this is a this is a beautiful way, not necessarily how the lord works, but in his sovereignty, what the lord does because, oh, that's a different sermon. So he has to go from Canaan down into Egypt for a while and then he comes up back out of Egypt. He goes through Beersheba and Shechem and then ends up kind of posting up in a place called Hebron. So this is what's known in geography terms as the Fertile Crescent. When I first moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I was a ski instructor for a couple of years and at that time, you know, you got your little Velcro name badge and you you put your name and then like, where you were from and and I thought I was so funny because on my little application, I put Brian Hunter Fertile Crescent.

I thought oh, I thought I was so clever. Bowden likes it. Bowden likes it. I I thought that I was so clever. The Fertile Crescent, you can see right here.

Okay. So, this is the land during Abraham's day. There were people and there were inhabitants there but the land changes ownership and occupation throughout the year. So, the next map that I have is this is all of the land that god promised to Israel in Genesis chapter 15 verse 18. He says, from the Great River to the Euphrates.

As a law or land. Different places in the Old Testament, god shares and speaks of and refines these borders and it is quite possible. You are not reading into the text if you take only this verse and say, god is speaking in hyperbole, in exaggeration. You're not you you would not be stretching the text if you said, well, god didn't really mean from the Great River to the Euphrates. You would not be stretching the text.

However, however, number one, this is exactly what he said. And number two, as time goes on, those boundaries become a little bit more refined. In Genesis chapter 15 verse 18, God is saying, I'm giving you an area of land on planet Earth that all belongs to me that I will give to you. Thoughts or questions about this little map?

What's that border on the left? What's it covering?

What? Where? This is the Nile River. Oh, okay. And in the Bible, it says the great river to the Euphrates.

The squiggle line is Euphrates. Oh, thank you. Thank you. River of thank you. Thank you.

River Of Egypt, the Nile. There we go. Thank you. Thank you for getting me. The the river in Egypt, Nile to the great river which is the Euphrates.

Thank you. And then, we have the Mediterranean Sea and then there's just a line, a straight line connecting those. Now, this is what god says. Okay. What's the next one?

Oh. Alright. So, Moses lives in a region called Hebron. Isaac is born to him. Jacob is born to him.

Jacob wrestles with God. God changes his name to Israel. Israel has 12 sons. Those 12 sons that are growing up, we talked about Joseph here last couple of weeks. They experienced another famine in the land and they all go down to Egypt and this is the story of Joseph in Egypt and Pharaoh, Potiphar, and all of that.

Four hundred and thirty years go by and Moses comes along. The ruler of Egypt had given the Israelites land, fertile land four hundred years ago. This land called Goshen. But then pharaoh changes hands, succession, succession, succession. Antisemitism takes root in Egypt and the people of Israel, Hebrews become enslaved and they cry out for a redeemer.

God raises up Moses and his brother Aaron and you know the the plagues with an outstretched hand and with a mighty arm. God delivers Israel from bondage and slavery in Egypt. And God tells Moses, I'm going to bring you into the land that I promised your forefathers. You're all you're you're with me on this so far. Right?

Alright. When Moses comes out of Egypt before they cross into the promised land known as Canaan, there were other people groups living in this land. And we've heard of them. All the ites. Edom, Edomites, Amorites, Kingdom of Moab, Parasites, Phehisians, these are Canaanites, Palestinians.

This is the city of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza is here. Jebusites, oh, those Jebusites, Hivites. Just keep looking and more of the ites come out. So these people had moved into the land over the course of Israel's time in Egypt. These people, god told Moses, and then later Joshua, displaced them.

That's a really nice way of saying what? Take them all out. Now it's not in my notes. Let me let me make mention of a very worthy rabbit trail that you can run down, a scenic detour if you will. I'd invite you to look up and research the religious practices of the people in these lands.

Spoiler alert, they were cannibalistic tossing in fire, pagan idolatrous, nasty, nasty little g gods, territorial spirits that had moved into this vacancy trying to establish a stronghold that god said, it is now time for me to deal in judgement against the pagan idolatrous pagan idolatry of these nations. In his particular instrument of judgement coming out of Egypt was the nation of Israel. What what time? What

what time was the vacancy again? What years are we doing?

Four hundred years. Remember that I mean Like, the date?

Yeah. You said it first, and then they were they went to Egypt and were slaves there for, what, four hundred years? Before that, what what time was time frame was that? What century? The date?

I don't know. You don't know the date. I know. I'm confused. That's one thing.

But I I don't I don't I mean, I can look it up. It's pretty easy. So four hundred years between eight between Jacob who and his who becomes Israel and his 12 sons come down to Egypt. Four hundred years goes by while Israel is in Egypt. In four hundred over the course of four hundred years, people move into this area.

Okay? And there's a very interesting parallel that theme that you can see throughout the Bible that when god makes it known that he wants to do something with a person or in a place, the enemy rushes in to supplant the work of god and to thwart and to short circuit the work of god. It is a it's a reoccurring theme throughout the Bible. So, this is not the first instance of what I would say as the taproot of demonic evil trying to thwart the plan of god. Land Of Canaan.

Next map. The tribes of Israel. So this is the land that was divided up by Moses and then and then reiterated by Joshua to give the land of Israel to the 12 different tribes of Israel. So each one of these names and and you might oh, boy. That that is blown out.

That's So. It's

worth looking at this one if

you're over here.

Yeah. Sorry. So, you can see that each one of these shaded areas has drawn boundaries that are spoken and so for the tribe of Simeon and then it says, this town, this town, this town, bordered by this, this, and this. For the tribe of Judah, here's your boundary. This, this, this, and it's all, it's all laid out in in the Bible.

Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Gad, Reuben. These are the boundaries of the territories of the tribes of Israel that god gave. He spoke it to Moses and then reiterated it through Joshua. And there was a time in which, for the most part, these tribes did, for the most part, occupy this land. This was not just theoretical or hypothetical.

Thoughts or questions about this? Joy.

Is that basically what's modern day Israel Mount?

We're gonna get there. We're not there yet. The question was, is this more or less what modern day Israel looks like now? We're gonna get there, but the quick answer is no. Oh, Jacob has a question, and here comes River.

Hold on.

I guess it's more of a statement. Before the Israelites went into this land here, God told them basically to wipe out all of these tribes in this land. And there were many tribes that the Israelites disobeyed god and didn't completely wipe out like he told them to. And if you look at the root of those people, a lot of them still lived in the land and populated the land and lived there to this day. But those were people that God originally said to wipe out.

Yes. You are correct. Give me one example of those people. Philistines.

Philistines. Yes. Okay.

What's the next, ma'am?

That's a

great point. That's a great point. Now we fast forward again. So we have moved forward in time, thousand years or more. Now we are looking at a map of what the area looked like during Jesus' day.

So many of the town names are the same. Hebron, still there. Gaza is still there. Caesarea, but the regions had been named just different names. Judea, Perea, the Decapolis, 10 cities over there, Samaria, Galilee.

But if we could zoom out, who was the dominant governing ownership of all of this land during Jesus' day? The Roman Empire. Right? So, all of this in Jesus' day now belong to the Roman Empire. I think I have one more.

Okay, now we're gonna really fast forward here. Alright, not so bad. Alright. I'm done with this mic. I'm done with it.

Alright. So now let's this is the same region. On the far left, you can see Turkey here and the far excuse me. You can see 1888. The far right, you can see up until 2023, my far right.

So after Jesus's resurrection in approximately year thirty AD, In the year seventy AD, the Temple Of The Lord in Jerusalem was razed to the ground. It was burned. The city was looted, and Jews living in that area under Roman occupation were dispersed and scattered among the nations. And for hundreds of years, it was a wasteland, no man's land. The Bible describes it as a haunt for owls and jackals.

As the Ottoman Empire grew, and this is when we can think of like like more more modern day politics, all of this was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Egypt over here was under the governorship of Britain. 1918 to 1946, around World War I, all of this area was under the control of the British Empire, and the British Empire used the name given to the region by the Romans as Palestina or what we know of today as Palestine. And then after UN Resolution 181 in 1947, Egypt got its own sovereignty and land. Jordan became a country.

And here, we have the land of Judea carved up. The Jewish people got some of this. This was Arab Palestine. Jerusalem was under control of the Arabs. After the Arab Israeli war in 1948, you can see that Israel regains control of all of the territory in white.

Egypt is in yellow. Jordan is in green. Then we move forward in 1967 to the Six Day War. Every surrounding country that has ever attacked Israel has ended up losing geographical territory to Israel that Israel, for the sake of peace, has conceded or given back. 1967, we see the country of Jordan.

They win the Sinai Peninsula, which would be like winning Rock Springs, okay. Love you, Rock Springs.

Geez. We're

Rock Springs. I know. They always get it. Somebody's get it. Somebody's got to get it.

1979, you can see the Yom Kippur War. And then as a result of the Camp David Accords, in exchange for peace, the West Bank was given to Arabs and Palestinians. The Gaza Strip was given to Palestinians. And then according to the Oslo Accords and the Gaza disengagement, the unilateral pullout from Gaza giving them their own autonomy and control in 2005, I believe. And so at the bottom right hand corner of this last map from 2005 to 2023, more or less, this is what the modern map boundaries of Israel looks like.

So your question, Joy, back when we were looking at the 12 tribes, how does that look, the 12 tribes, compared to the modern day border? The big difference is I'll use the far right map from your perspective, the far right map. The territory of Israel went on the other side of the Jordan River and extended into what is Jordan, parts of Syria today. So this is the land as it's gone back and forth, boundaries drawn and redrawn and fought over, and a quick crash course history of the geographical borders of various nations in that region. Thoughts or questions about this?

And then we're going to keep going. Yep. And I'll hand you the mic, and you can take it around.

In the second picture, the eight, 1918 to 1946. Oh, no, sorry. Second one on this screen. Is the Palestine there made up of Israeli people at that time? Is that, okay.

There's been a continuous Jewish presence in this land since Abraham moved into here and certainly since they came out of exile into the Promised Land three thousand five hundred years ago, a continuous presence. And when here, all the way through, there are Arab citizens, ethnic Arab that have Israeli passports. There are ethnic Arab Muslims, so their ethnicity and their religion that have full rights and citizenship of Israel with an Israeli passport. So you can have Arab Muslims, ethnicity, religion, and nationality can all be Israeli. By contrast, step outside of these borders and not only are Jews not allowed to have citizenship or nationality, they've also, because of their religion and because of their ethnicity, have been pushed out of surrounding nations and persecuted.

We've got a little more to do. Thoughts or questions? Okay. The last thing is wanna I wanna show you two quick videos. And the purpose of these videos is I'm these are political figures and political commentators.

I'm not trying to bring politics into the church. It's not my desire or my interest. However, when political pundits wear their muddy shoes into the house, it has to be at least considered. And so I'm going to show you two quick videos, and the first one is a short excerpt from a recent interview by Tucker Carlson with Mike Huckabee, and in that interview, he's talking, he asks a question about the land and the ownership of the land. And so let's see how Mike Huckabee, how the question is asked and then what is said.

It's called the Greater Israel Project. This is Huckabee knows about this. Netanyahu's talked about it openly. They are actively looking to assume the land based on biblical context through the political realm. So that is happening, and that's why you're seeing one of the many reasons why you're seeing the war in Iran is to get that peace back that they think they deserve per the deed that Tucker is talking about in Genesis.

Potentially. So, I think if we had played this clip before we had looked at some foundational verses, looked at some maps, I think that Mike Huckabee's statement, I would be fine if they took it all. That's a lot. I mean, not a lot of land. I mean, that is a really big statement.

And without the proper context, I think even with the proper context, it's still a lot. So now I want to look at one other it's just a few minutes long. I want to show you a reaction video to that clip of the interview between Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee. Here's what the world thinks of that interaction. Oh, it feels like we're talking about politics.

Why are you bringing politics into the church? I would suggest to you that it is politics that have waded into the church. And it's a very relevant topic and subject The Bible is not irrelevant. The Bible will become more and more and more and more relevant creating and causing more and more challenge and confusion in the world and tension.

So,

Those two views by the way, two views, those two videos by the way, two weeks ago, they had already each of those videos had over a million and a half views. And this the second video that you saw was on a major network broadcast. So here's the bottom line of what I have for today. Borders drawn without God are lines drawn against God. This may be abrupt and abrasive, but it's the truth that you need to wrestle with.

Borders drawn without God are lines drawn against God. So as Tucker presses Mike Huckabee, and he's right to do so, he has a right and it's good that he would press Mike Huckabee on that. I mean, he's literally the American ambassador to Israel. He should be an expert. Mike Huckabee's answer, if you look at the root of his answer, regardless of his brash delivery of it, his answer comes from the Bible.

And so as Tucker challenges Mike Huckabee, we need to be very real and very clear about who he's actually challenging. And who is that? God. Mike Huckabee did not establish these boundaries. Israel is not perfect.

I'll say that first. The government of Israel, I have no idea their their motivations or intentions. I certainly know that the government of Israel is run by people and people, I don't know if you've noticed this, they tend to be flawed. And they tend to be motivated by desires that are not necessarily the most noble. Greed and power.

Name one government that is immune and not affected by it. But who is transcendent above any one government? The Lord. Whose land is it? It's all His.

He does with it what he wants. And so really vehement arguments and disputes all come back to and trace their roots to this statement. Borders drawn without God are lines drawn against God. That interview or not interview, that excerpt, that news excerpt, you know, if you listen carefully, the person giving the report, they were trying to argue against Mike Huckabee, They were trying to argue against modern geographical boundaries. They were trying to imply land grabbing motives for Israel.

Guess what? Israel might actually have land grabbing motives.

I said it.

They may even go about it in unhonorable ways. They're people. They're humans. That does not change God's sovereignty. That does not change God's heart for those people, as naughty as they could be.

And here's why I get fired up about this particular topic when we look at the geography of Israel. Israel's alleged, no, no, no. I don't I haven't seen this. I haven't seen this, but I'll I'll be I'll really come your way and say overtly stated goals and intentions for increasing their land that was given to them. But here's why I get fired up about this because my heart is actually really for you.

My heart is that you would own and fully possess all that God has said belongs to you. Last verse as we land the plane or I don't know if I have these. I don't think I have them. Alright. Let me just read them to you.

In first Corinthians, it says this, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by god? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. You took your autonomy and it was sold into slavery to the enemy, this fallen world, when you invited Jesus into your heart, made him the leader of your life. You were redeemed out of the marketplace of slavery. You belong to God now.

You are his property and his territory. Listen to Song of Solomon chapter seven verse 10. I am my lover's and he claims me as his own. You belong to him. Freedom from fear, that's your property.

Freedom from anxiety, that's your property that He has given to you. Joy, healing, the fruits of the spirit, those are all your property. They belong to you. That old dirty devil, he may try to encroach, he may try to talk you out of your property. But it belongs to God and he's given it to you.

I want you to fully possess to the outermost boundaries all of the territory and terrain and healing and hope that God has marked out for you. Israel in the land, there's going to be a guy that's going to sort all that out. And you can argue with him all you want, but he'll he'll he'll reestablish geographical and geopolitical boundaries. Oh, spoiler alert. He's a Jew.

Hold on to it. Take the inverse of this. Jesus says, I have come so that you may have life abundantly into the fullest. Let's take a moment and invite the lord to just whisper to us. Is there and here's the prompt.

Is there any territory of your life or heart where you feel like that enemy is trespassing or tried to rob you of or try to talk you out of. That is your inheritance because you belong to him. Holy Spirit, would you speak to us in this moment? I feel like the Lord would say, a sound mind is your allotment of land that I've given to you. Healing of your heart, full healing of your heart is land that I have given to you.

Security in me is part of the inheritance, the land that I have given to you. I feel like the Holy Spirit would whisper to your heart. And what he means by that security in me is I know that you want security in your circumstances. But I'm offering you something far better security in me. That old dirty devil will try to cheat you out of land and say that that's too much to ask or that that's out of his control.

But God says, the it's all mine. And as part of your inheritance, I have for you security in me. Lord, help us to be like Joshua and Caleb and grab a hold of all of the land that you have promised for us. And Lord, I don't know. I don't know how you're going to sort out geopolitical issues in the world.

Far be it from me to try to arbitrate or decide. Boundaries or territories far be it from me. To discern the motives behind. I just want to focus on possessing all the land and territory that you have for me. We pray these things in Jesus name.

Just before we scoot out of here, let's worship the lord one other way. I'm going to invite Amanda up. At the end of service today, I'm right here. We, I'm certainly willing to talk and just like I say all the time, you can text me. We'll talk.

I'm happy to connect with you. Amanda, will you come share offering announcements with us?

So while a lot of the things today were on a global scale and from the Bible, at the end of the day, us individually, we ask the lord, lord, how do you want me to be obedient? What is it that you are asking of me today? What kind of sphere of influence do I have? What am I supposed to do? And one of those things and ways that we worship the lord here at Tribe is through song.

Mean, what do we have to give back to a savior who died to set us free? Right? Worship, obedience, our time, our talent, our treasure, we give to him and submit to him in an obedient act. So one of those things we do as believers is bring our tithe and then above and beyond that, our offering to him each and every week to your local church, whether it's tribe or somewhere else. So we just say when we bring our tithe, god, it's, like we said today, it's all yours anyway.

So, this is an act of obedience to show you tangibly that I trust you. So, that's what we do when we give at our local church. So, let's pray and then I'll give give you a few ways to give. Heavenly father, thank you so much for who you are, that you are so faithful, and no matter what's going on in our world, in the world, father, thank you that no one and no thing will take you off of your throne. You are sovereign.

You are good. You are faithful. We believe that wholeheartedly, and we just say thank you. So we bring a portion of our hard earned money today just as an act of obedience and an act of worship to you because you are worthy of every act of worship we can possibly come up with. So, father, I thank you for in a practical way, every single penny that comes into to tribe today and always will be just stewarded well and go to exactly what you want it to go to.

Father, to just reach the brokenhearted and the lost and the people that need you. Lord, what an honor it is to privilege with you in a local church or otherwise to just be your hands and your feet, to love on people that you love. Thank you for calibrating our hearts to be more like you, care about what you care about. In Jesus name, amen. Ways you can give here at Tribe, we have a couple boxes.

If you have physical money or checks, you can put it in this box here as you leave or the black lock box downstairs. Also, on the website, tribejh.com, you can always give. And then, of course, there's instructions on the screen. If you wanna give through your smartphone, you just pull up a new number like having a new friend, (833) 369-7847. You type the word give, the dollar sign, and the number you wanna get.

It's pretty simple. And then for announcements, we have stuff on the fridge if you ever wanna make a meal for Tuesday night. If you ever wanna bring goodies, if you're good at having people scooch over, you can come and usher. And just please talk to one of us who you've seen today if you want to serve in that way. If we're kind of like a family and we all have chores that we don't get paid for, right?

Because it's a privilege to be part of

a family.

Yeah, come and serve in in whatever way that the lord has given you. We'll we'll plug you in somewhere. So, Brian, will you please come pray us out?

Well, if you're around sweet Suzanne, will you put a hand on her this morning? This is her last Sunday here. She's moving. She's been such a blessing. Oh, to Connecticut?

How ironic is that? New Canaan, Connecticut. Let's all go. Here we go.

I love

it. Put a hand on Suzanne while I pray for her. Yeah. Love it. Love it.

Oh, Lord Jesus, we thank you for how you move. We thank you for the people that you bring in and out of this valley and in this community. And I specifically right now thank you so much for the impact that Suzanne has had on this community. Thank you for her contribution. Thank you.

Thank you for what she's meant to this tribe family. We thank you in advance for how you're going before her. What a helper, what a helpmate she is to her children and to everyone around her. Lord, we ask that your peace and your favor go before her in her new home, in her new community. Help her to find a great church and a great church family, and that the spirit, your spirit, would just go before her and touch everyone that she comes in contact with.

Thank you for the time that we've had her here in our community and to fellowship with us and the blessing that she's been. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. You got this.

Have a great week.