Unbreakable Week 5： Surrounded by Vandals, Part 2
Tribe
2026-02-23

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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That was funny. What else did I be like? Good morning, livestream. We're glad you're here. Let's start church, everybody.

There's a lot going on. Ready, Brian? No, I was genuine. I wasn't being snarky. I was asking if you could.

Yeah. Good morning, Jen. Lord Jesus, we invite your presence in this place. Would you come and rest on us this morning? In Jesus' name, by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Amen. We welcome you. Let's stand. Let us be aware

of what you're doing, Lord. Holy Spirit. Holy

Spirit, you are welcome here.

Let's talk to him this morning. Where you're

weak, where you're weary. When we sing that song Rest On Us, I always I always think, well, it's poetic that my heart pounds when you fill the room. But it's also so true that we don't have to feel we don't have to feel his presence for him to be here. Like, if you're not feeling anything, our feelings can can deceive us, but we stand on the truth that his word says wherever two or more are gathered, he's there in the midst. So whether we feel it or not, whether we drag ourselves in here today and maybe we feel really, really, really weary, maybe we feel really, really, really far from him this morning.

That does not mean that he's not here today. But Jesus, we just take a minute and we acknowledge that no matter how we feel in this place today, we take a second and we just resurrender. Your mercies are new again today. We surrender again anything that we've picked up, any shame. And, Lord, we ask that we would be discerning between shame from the enemy and conviction by your Holy Spirit because it's your conviction that we can repent of and you can wash over us.

The condemnation, we just cast that right back where it came from. So Lord, as as we we just ask as we sing this next song that you're our firm foundation. Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand. That no matter what we're we're going through today or we walk in here with today, maybe our marriage is rocky, maybe our finances are stressing us out, maybe you've gotten a bad health report, whatever it is, whatever it is, we just say today, we stand on Jesus, the rock who have already who's already paid every single thing for us to be forgiven and to enter into his presence today. He's already done it.

So we just declare this in this place today.

Yes.

In he won't let's sing the truth

won't he won't

Lord, let us continue to sing of your character, Lord. This is the truth that we can stand on.

This song reminds me a little bit of the history of tribe discouraged attempts to move into a more suitable location where we can hold more than 50 people in a room at the same time. And I just want to let you all know just because we have been silent for several weeks now does not mean we've been inactive. The latest example is a 10:30 email I got from Lissa last night. Just so, there is stuff going on. We are working on it and we're very hopeful and if if nothing else, this song This song is true.

Let's just thank him for this truth. We give him praise in this place today. Yes, Lord. We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you for your faithfulness.

Even when we are not faithful to you, you remain faithful. Keep us close to you so that we can see how you're moving. That's our prayer this morning. In Jesus' name and everybody said, amen. It's good to be in the house of the Lord today.

Fill up your coffee, get out your bible, silence your phone and put it in your safe little pocket so it doesn't fall out.

Good morning. I love the emphasis of the negative of that. Song. How about river, y'all? Amazing, amazing.

I love the emphasis on the negative of that song, he won't. He won't fail. Here's the trick, and hopefully you know this. He might not come through in the way that you want him to, or in the time that you want him to. But he won't fail.

He is always steadfastly, eternally faithful to his word. And did you know that the promises of God are always guaranteed but they are not automatic? You've heard me say this a bunch. The promises of God are always guaranteed but that doesn't mean that they are automatic. There's a partnership, there is a give and take, there is a dance if you will that God invites us into when it comes to grabbing a hold of for you southerners, his promises.

Thank you lord that you won't. Oh, that's good. Alright y'all. We are going to jump back into I'm gonna turn this down just a little bit. Oh, close.

We're going to Too much, too much. We're gonna jump back into a series of conversations that we are having as we go on a journey learning about Israel. The series of conversations that we are in is called unbreakable. We've spent several weeks talking about God's unbreakable commitment to a unique distinct group of people and their resilience to endure the test of time. And by way of quick recap, I've said this every single week and we'll put the slide up here again, I really would like to engage in conversation with you about this topic so just text me, we'll talk and I've gotten a couple of texts good and questions and some help me to understand and some like like help me to wrap my mind around and here is what I'm seeing and hearing.

How do I reconcile that with where we're going in this series and so I really appreciate the conversations that we're having that are coming out of this this time and so once again, I'm putting my cell phone number up on the screen for you and literally the dozens of YouTube clicks that we get each and every week. Actually, think maybe we had over 200 watches on one of the episodes from this series, so woo hoo. In your seat, there's a connect card. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to have a record of your visit. That would be great.

Also, on the back, you can fill out a prayer request as Lyssa is holding up right there, and we pray over these each and every week at staff meeting, and so we'd love to join with you in whatever it is that you need prayer for. Oh, also also really quick, we hopefully, all of you by this date have worked your way through the pause app and if you were on that journey, we started it maybe the first or second week of January. January 5, it was a way of all of us getting on the same page, recalibrating, get our minds right as we go into the new year and it's a meditative journey that has a morning session and an evening session and by the end of those thirty days, you were so comfortable with John Eldridge saying, Jesus, I give you everyone and and everything. So that was a great journey. It it you maybe some of you are still working your way through that, great, fantastic.

If you haven't started it, it's a great way to just connect and add to your devotional time in the morning and evening. They're really short, like eight to twelve minutes in the morning, eight to twelve minutes in the evening, and it's great. So Tribe is going to officially tie a little silk bow on that app and say thank you Lord for giving us that and for us as a family going through that journey to kick off the new year. Alright. Quick recap.

As we have been going through this series of conversations, week one, we talked about why are we even talking about Israel or why are we talking again about Israel, and we laid the foundation for why it's important to talk about Israel. Maybe you've come from a church background, culture, or experience where Israel was a big deal. My background, so I grew up Southern Baptist. We've like never talked about that that I can remember but I was also little and then I went to what you would call a non denominational like spirit filled charismatic church and at that church, we talked about Israel but only once a year and it was the pastor's wife that got up once a year and was like, Israel, y'all. She was from the South.

And and it was like like, you know, we're making socks for Jews or some I don't know, a coat, you know, something. But it was like her like pet project and my thoughts on Israel was like, okay, yeah, like, Israel, like, sure, cool. But it really seemed more like a pet project of like the pastor's wife. Did anybody else come from a church where that was like the thing? Like the pastor's wife?

Yeah, yeah. But it wasn't discussed too much in church. Israel's always been in the news. 10/07/2023, Israel once again came to the front of the news. And as they were reeling from the devastation of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 8.

All of a sudden, Israel was on the tip of the tongue of people around the world, but it was in protest against Israel. What is going on? And so during that time, the Lord has taken me on a journey of growing in my understanding of what the Lord thinks about Israel. Did you know that the topic or subject of Israel is mentioned more than prayer, more than forgiveness? The name of Jesus or the Messiah comes up 1440 times throughout the bible.

Israel comes up over 3,500 times. In the bible, Israel is a big deal to the lord and if it's a big deal to the Lord, well, it's gonna be a big deal to us as well. And so we've also talked about not only why is Israel important, but how does it relate and connect to me? Maybe some of you have been to Israel before, maybe some of you have have not been to Israel before. Lissa and I and our family, we went to Israel for the first time in 2020 just before COVID broke out.

And in March, I'm going back again. I've been invited on a special tour, and the tour starts in Poland. So we go, like, see some things in Poland, Jews in Europe, and concentration camps, and then from there, we go to Israel for like a couple of days and then and then I'll be back and have lots more to tell you, but this will be my second trip to Israel. But for a lot of people, Israel's like, where is it? It's like way out there and like, okay, it's mentioned in the bible, but how does it impact me?

And we've talked about how it's so important not to see yourself in place of or overlaid or superior to or better than or or on top of, but we've talked about the importance of seeing in the story of Israel. How is your story any different than Israel? And all that they've been through and God's faithfulness, how he won't give up on them, and his promises are for them, how he's taking care of them, how he's had to chastise them, how they have been far from perfect, and God still loves them. And so I would just say this, if you have if you have anger or negativity in your heart towards Israel, perhaps what could help soften your heart is think of yourself. Where were you before the Lord grabbed a halt of your life?

And the bible also says that someday, God's gonna grab a hold of Israel in a very special miraculous way that will cause their hearts to melt in repentance and to receive their Jewish Messiah who we know already has one stamp on his passport, and he will come back for a second stamp on his passport. So we've talked about Israel, the importance of it, how Israel is important to God, how Israel should be important to us to be able to see our story and our journey in Israel. We've talked about where did Israel come from? We went all the way back to roots, the beginning, the birth of a nation, beginning with one man, Terah, and then his son, Abram, who picked up the mantle. And God called him to be separate and distinct from among the nations.

And then we answered this big question, who is Israel? And as I've said numerous times, and I'll say once again, I'd like to think, can we allow ourselves, can you allow me the grace to have this as a a working definition of who Israel is? And the reason why asking this question is important, who is Israel, is because for some of you, you may think, well Israel's Israel. But the world that we live in and are surrounded by is much more complex, much more critically thinking, and even hostile. And so when you say, well Israel's Israel, a great off ramp straight into the weeds is, well, who even is Israel today?

Are you talking about the the nation state of Israel? Are you talking about the current administration of Israel? Are you talking about bible stories? Like like who? And I think it's is it just a bloodline that's scattered across the globe and coming back to Israel?

I think that's a I'm gonna be honest with you. I think that's a very important valid question to ask. Who even is Israel? We have to it's important to define terms. If you're gonna have an educated conversation with somebody, it's important to define terms.

And so we came up with this graphic that that we'll put up here. You know I love Venn diagrams. It has tweaking that that I'm always open to to feedback and tweaking of this graphic, but when we answer the question, attempt to answer the question, who is Israel? Who who is a Jew? What even is a Jew?

Many people will give you one of these three circles. Covenant faithfulness. A Jew is somebody who is an observant picture that you get in your mind's eye with the tzitzit, the tassels, and maybe if they're, you know, they've got like a black long coat and a black hat and a long beard, covenant faithfulness. Well, is that a Jew? It's a component.

What about genealogical descent? Bloodline. That's definitely a component, but are you a Jew if your last name is Herschel?

And

then we have the component of sovereign election. God gonna pick who God gonna pick and God knows. There is no ambiguity in his mind. There is no confusion. There is no scratching his head.

There's no looking through the record books like, let's see. Are you are you not? There is sovereign. You can you can disagree with him. You can be upset at him.

You can you can rage against him, and he doesn't care. Because in his mind, he has picked a distinct group of people and then in the bible, it's mentioned several different places, this phrase called the remnant. And then you also have Christians. And so how does let's let's look at the diagram and answer a couple of questions from the diagram. How is a Christian part of the definition of Israel or a Jew?

What do you see here? This is an easy one. How does Christian in this circle? Covenantal faithfulness? Yeah.

Like like, what? How? Do you did you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is lord and that god raised him from the dead? Yes. Do you trust him as your lord and savior?

Is he what we talk about at Tribe? Is he the boss of your life? Is he the leader of your life? Do you follow him? Have you invited him into your heart?

That's called and do you have sustaining faith, not just saying a prayer at church camp when you were in high school and then never living like it the rest of your life, but covenantal faithfulness, well, that puts you in here. Genealogical descent, how does that fit? We were adopted into his family and we're grafted in. What? His blood flows through our veins.

Maybe not on the website, but on god's 22 and you, genealogical DNA website. On his website, when he looks up your name, if Jesus is the leader of your life, he's like, DNA? Oh, wow. Looks just like my son. His blood flows through your veins, so you are of genealogical descent.

And then sovereign election. This gets into a little bit of Arminianism and Calvinism, but like, hey, whatever. How many of you of 100% of your own volition completely just decided all on your own that you are a sinner and that you needed saving by his grace. Ain't a single one of us in here. God goes like this.

Bing, you, it's your time, and touches our heart and invites us into a relationship with him. So that's why Christians are in here. And then you choose. So a few weeks ago, I showed you a video of an excerpt of an interview with Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz. And Tucker Carlson got Ted Cruz twisted into a pretzel knot when asking like who is Israel?

And most people's definition of who is Israel or who is a Jew contains really only one of these components. I am not saying that I have the corner of on I have a monopoly on knowledge. I have the true definition of a Jew. That's not what I'm saying. I'm trying really hard to come up with a comprehensive definition that I have run by lots of my Jew friends and they're like, interesting.

Like I think I like it. So I'm not saying that that that I have some sort of like secret knowledge. I'm just trying really hard to equip you with a working knowledge and definition. And Ted Cruz's answer kind of fell like along here. Well, I have another Tucker Carlson clip for you today.

It's short, just a minute or two. And he's speaking with this man. Do you know who this is? Mike Huckabee and what is his role or title right now? He's the ambassador to Israel.

Tucker Carlson, Carlson, I don't know if he's still there or how long his trip was but he went to Israel recently and in Israel, he's having a conversation with Mike Huckabee and here's what I want us to do. There's there's you need each of you need about four sets of ears to hear this because there's a lot going on in this short clip. Tucker Carlson asks some really great questions. He asked some very valid questions. And you know, good old Tucker with his no socks, boat shoes on, attire, I don't know.

That's like the epitome of that's like the epitome of southern frat boy to me. But it is. Welcome to the West. Yeah but you're not wearing like penny loafers. Anyways, anyways guys, anyways anyways.

So so so I want you to listen to Tucker asking some very valid questions. Number one, listen how Tucker does not let Mike Huckabee off the hook easy at some of his questions. Listen to Mike Huckabee's answers and see how many of those three circles that he kind of draws upon on his definition, but then I also want us to think critically and here's my here's my critique of Tucker Carlson is that he will and you'll see it here, He will take something that is said and he will extrapolate off on a new direction to then use against his counterpart in this conversation causing Mike Huckabee to stumble and trip and try to sort out. So there's a lot of different things that I want you listen for this, but the main thing is his answer, how well how many of those circles do you think he hits on? Let's roll it.

In the entirety of the world,

are about 16,000,000 Jews total.

Okay.

They have connection to this land. Do they? If Bibi's family, we know they lived in Eastern Europe. There's no evidence they ever lived here. He's not religious.

But in what sense but and How sincerely? Do you have his family tree? No. We don't. Do you?

He doesn't. So no one does. That's the point. But how do we know that it's in connection with Judaism? At all.

And if there has been a practice of Judaism? He doesn't practice Judaism in any rigorous way. His ancestors didn't live here. They didn't speak the language, and there's no evidence they ever lived here. So on what basis does he ever write to each speaks other?

The language. His family is following. We're dodging a very obvious question, which is where does this right come from? How do we know that Bebe, specifically Bebe's ancestors ever lived here? How do we know that?

I'm I'm not sure if I understand your question.

Okay. Let's go back to the Venn diagram. How do you think Mike Huckabee Where did he try to stay in his answer? And here comes the mic. We have the We pass the mic around the room so that people watching the livestream can listen.

I just have a clarifying question that might be super silly, but who's Bebe? We're confused back here. Oh, thank you. So sorry. Thanks for that clarifying sorry.

I'm obviously super great in the government and know world things that are happening.

That would have been helpful to know. Hand the mic right there.

I also have a clarifying question. When it says conventional or covenantal faithfulness

Mhmm.

Is that talking in the modern day, like, the new covenant. Right? Like after yes. Exactly. After Christ.

If

we only go old covenant if we only go old covenant, then our new covenantal faithfulness is irrelevant. If we only go new testament covenantal faithfulness, then everyone that fits here in these two circles is irrelevant and that is not accurate either.

And I understand that I understand like the the old covenant is relevant to that. However, after Christ, he created that new covenant. So it's like, should we be sacrificing animals too?

Ah, okay. Let's look at the the purpose of this diagram. The purpose of the diagram is to identify who is Israel and who is a Jew. That's what this diagram does. This diagram has nothing to do with covenantal practices to earn right standing with God.

So the answer is no. Under the new covenant, sacrificing of animals is insufficient. The bible tells us that the blood of bulls and goats only covers man's sin, but John the Baptist, when Jesus was walking on the shore of the Sea Of Galilee, said, behold, look, the lamb of God that takes away, removes, propitiates, is the theological term, the sins of man. But we're not taught, this diagram is not an explanation of or differential between old covenant and new covenant. It's just covenantal faithfulness.

I don't know if that helps clarify your question. Yes, sir. Here comes the mic.

So the word Christian there is that we're talking we're talking Jews only, it's messianic Christians there in that particular diagram. Do not get confused with us in that particular

I would

put messianic Jews right here. Oh, sorry. In the remnant category. Because think about it. A messianic Jew, they potentially have some bloodline, they were under the old covenant, they in order for them to be messianic Jew, they were probably observant Jews and then, ping, got saved and are under God's sovereign election.

This is not a perfect Venn diagram, this is my best effort at it. So a messianic Jew, I would put under the remnant.

Thank you. I think it's confusing because it's God's definition of Israel, Jew. And the Christians really fit into the new covenant. So I think I think it's confusing.

Well, so does Adam, you can speak to this. Romans In Romans, Paul talks about it. In Galatians chapter three, God says that saints, Christians, believers are Israel. That'll twist you into pretzels. Israel.

God's definition of Israel slash Jew. It's both end. I wanna go back to to Mike Huckabee's response. When he responded, where did he try to land the conversation? In which of these three circles?

Joy has her hand up over here.

To me, it seemed like genealogical descent. Genealogical?

Yes.

And I wonder where does that number come from? Like, was there a census take it? Do you know where Huckabee was basing his number off of?

I don't know where he got his number off of. So you look at so this is really rough math and I'm not smart enough to do simple addition, but roughly 8,000,000 Jews in Israel and there are about 8,000,000 Jews in The United States. So so we're split and then there's a really small percentage still scattered among the nations. A very small number of people but you're right, here's where Mike Huckabee tried to answer the question and Tucker Carlson being an an astute critical thinker, he challenges Mike Huckabee's definition and specifically he was talking about one Jew, B. B.

Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel by by saying like his family's never lived there. I don't know if that's true or not. I bet b b could weigh in with some authority on that. I don't know. We'll see what comments come in from the livestream and watching this later.

But here's where Mike Huckabee answered the question and this is what Tucker Carlson challenged him on. I think that Tucker was exposing the premise that being a Jew is only about bloodline because then where did Mike Huckabee try to go? He jumped from one of these circles into the next circle, which was that? Covenantal faithfulness. He tried to jump into covenantal faithfulness, and Tucker Carlson shut him down real quick.

And he's like, he's not an observant Jew or barely observant. And so the reason why I show you that clip is to get our minds thinking critically about this important topic because if we don't think critically critically about it, two things could happen. Either we will assert our position from ignorance and we will get Mike Huckabee'd by a Tucker Carlson Or we will fall for a narrative whose end goal is to discredit, villainize, dehumanize, and then perpetrate acts of violence towards God's chosen people. Clay, and then we're going to read some verses and continue our our conversation.

Where does the role of prime minister or Leadership. Leadership with with Netanyahu, where does it fall in God's overall plan?

Okay. So with the creation of Israel, multiple choice. In 1948, was theocracy of Israel created, was the Kingdom Of Israel created, or was the State Of Israel created? A, B, or C. You're so smart.

They could have called the country anything they wanted, but they chose state. They went what we would call the secular route. Is the Secular State Of Israel on here? Not necessarily. Can you love, bless, and support Jews and Israel and be critical of the State Of Israel?

Yeah. Yeah. They did not create someday, there will be the Kingdom Of Israel and it will be ruled by a king and the foundations of his throne will be righteousness and justice, faithfulness. The bible says that someday, a Jew will rule the world and he will rule over the nations with an iron scepter and he will have the ability and capacity to smash nations like a clay jar. This is what the Bible says about the the second coming of the Messiah when Jesus establishes his millennial rule and reign on planet Earth.

Good to develop right thinking about Israel now. Based

on what Janet said, I think what gets confusing is we have to remember, this is a definition of when we read the Old Testament and the New Testament in Romans and Galatians. This is a graph of the definition of Israel and a Jew based on the Old Testament and New Testament, which is why Christian is in there because we get grafted in. This isn't, I have to keep reminding myself, a chart of salvation. That's I think where we all get thrown off is we're like, yeah, but we're under a new covenant a 100%.

Yeah. But

If this said who is saved, this wouldn't be very it would say anyone that believes in the name of Jesus. So I just wanna say that because I think people are getting a little confused like. This is a definition of Israel and Jew from Old Testament and New Testament, not who is saved.

Yeah. That's great. These are not ingredients that you need in order to be saved. Let's open up our bibles to Psalms 94 and this is part of the warm up each and every week. We've had two or more verses that we have looked at and examined that help us to develop and read about God's thoughts, God's heart for the nation of Israel.

Psalms 94 verse 14. Let me go ahead and read that for you, and it'll be up here on the screen. Psalms 94 verse 14. For maybe it's not. For the Lord will not reject his people.

He will not abandon his special possession. There it is. Psalms 94 verse 14. You can write that address down. The Lord will not reject his people.

He will not abandon his special possession. Doesn't mean that they get some time outs from time to time. Here's one more verse, Psalms 35 verse four. I went with Psalms Psalms one thirty five verse four. Sorry.

Sorry. Sorry. One thirty five. Maybe my lisdexia from time to time. For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own special treasure.

These two verses are great to write down. At the top of your notes this morning, you can write the title of the conversation that we're going to continue having. This is Unbreakable, week five, surrounded by vandals, part two. And if you remember, last week we did a little detour for Valentine's Day. We had I thought we were gonna have one, but we ended up having two team guys in the service and so I just loaded up the gospel and then lowered the cannons to deck level and fired the gospel at them.

Yeah. The team guys. So now we're getting back into Israel. So if you will now turn to Genesis chapter 37. And for the last couple of weeks, here's here's what instead of going slow and and and reading through this story, I will give you a brief synopsis and I'm sure that many of you, if not all of you, are very familiar with the story as I do a quick try to turn on some air here.

Okay. Do that, two more. Arctic blast cold is what we're going for and let's see how that does. Okay. Quick synopsis on Genesis chapter 37 verse one to one through 20.

It's a story that many of you have read before and it is the story of Joseph and his technicolored dream coat. Joseph was the second youngest son of his father and for some reason, out of all of the other siblings, Joseph's dad loved Joseph very dearly and special. K. It was no.

The sun is

here. Correct. That's why I put my glasses on to do this. Mommy and daddy love each other. There we go.

There we go. If the preaching weren't so good, it wouldn't be so hot in here. Joseph has a special robe made for him and he wears this thing everywhere. There's favor on Joseph. Joseph's dad could have picked anyone.

He picked Joseph. Sovereignly chosen and given a special unique gift. Then Joseph begins to have dreams that his brothers and his parents will bow down to him. And then we pick up the crux of the story in Genesis chapter 37 as one day his dad tells him like, hey, go out into the field and tell your brothers a message. What does Joseph grab before he leaves the house?

His coat. His special coat. Now if you think of shepherding and and ranch life, you don't that's that robe is like your Sunday best. That's your church clothes. Joseph is going out on a mission to work the ranch.

Why in the world would he wear his Sunday clothes to go out doing some ranch work? Joseph does it anyways, and that is the straw that breaks the camel's back. So in Genesis chapter 37, I'll just get to the crux of the story here. So we see let's let's skim down. Joseph has his dreams.

In verse 10, he tells his dreams to his fathers. Verse 14, go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along, Jacob said. Then come back and bring me a report. So Jacob grabbed his robe, sent him on his way, and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the Valley Of Hebron. When he arrived, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside.

What are you looking for? I'm looking for my brothers, Joseph replied. Do you know where they're pasturing the sheep? Yes, the man told them. They have moved on from here, but I heard him say, let's go to Dothan.

So Joseph followed his brothers to Dothan and found them there. When Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. Woah. Like, zero to 10, that escalated quickly.

Here comes the dreamer. They didn't even call him by his name. Here comes the dreamer. They're mocking him. Let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns.

What's the difference between a cistern and a well, just so you know? Shay's like, never thought of

it. There

you go. A well fills itself itself from from a a spring. Spring. A cistern, you put water in it and it holds water. Everybody say, there you go.

We can tell our father a wild animal has eaten him, then we'll see what becomes of his dreams. And we said this, in the same way that Joseph was mistreated by his older brothers, so Israel has been mistreated among the nations for thousands of years. In the same way that Joseph was mistreated by his older brothers, so Israel has been mistreated among the nations for thousands of years. And we touched on this. I used I I chose this word specifically, this idea of vandals and being vandalized because of all of the petty crimes, I think that vandalism is the absolute worst.

A person destroys or defaces another person's work simply because it exists. A vandal is a weak person. A person who commits vandalism is a weak person. They expend energy but not to create of their own, not to make something beautiful of their own, not to innovate of their own, not to improve, but just an expender of expenditure of energy to tear down, to deface, to take something that was beautiful and make it ugly and common. Throwing rocks through windows, spray painting on walls, splashing paint on art, vandalism.

I wrote this down in my notes, it's not up here, but antisemitism can be understood as a form of cultural and moral vandalism. It's an attempt to deface a people whose continuous existence bears witness to historical meaning, moral order, and the faithfulness of God's covenantal promises, God's covenantal purposes. Like all vandalism, it is driven not merely by hostility but by the resentment towards that what endures, what resists erasure, and what stands as a visible challenge to nihilism. Somebody asked me like what's nihilism? Nihilism is a way of thinking, philosophy, a mindset that says there's really no meaning, purpose, and value in the world other than what we make of it, and what we make of it is so subjective and individual that there's no overarching purpose or meaning in life.

Everything is meaningless and has no purpose and value. And so why would a person honor and recognize an entire group of people as something distinct and different and unique and special because nothing is special. Therefore, tear it down. Burn it down. I think about the effort that went into the making of Joseph's Rose.

We get a few details about it, that it was woven of bright materials and it was very colorful. What that tells me is that there was a lot of intentionality, effort, creativity, design put into that gift for a son. In a similar way, God, like an expert weaver, has built and crafted and assembled and created a nation of people out of nothing. And ever since the nation of Israel came into existence, they have been surrounded by vandals, people and nations, philosophies, political movements that have done nothing but want to deface and defame Israel. While Israel was still reeling from the horrific attacks of October 7, people around the world on October 8 gathered together by the thousands lifting up the cry from the river to the sea, how does the rest of it go?

Will be free. Palestine will be free. Do you know what that means? From the river, the Jordan River, which is the boundary of the eastern most boundary of the current nation state of Israel, to the sea, the Mediterranean Sea. So the idea is that Israel would be pushed off the map right into the sea.

Israel has been surrounded by vandals. Now we're gonna take a lightning fast tour of history of of vandalism from among the nations, but but look at this and then we're gonna land the plane. From Abraham to Jesus, we have the call of Abraham here, slavery in Egypt, Assyrian exile, Babylonian captivity, Greek oppression, all the way up to Roman rule from the beginning of the creation of the nation of Israel up until the time that Jesus arrived. There is a history and a legacy of vandalism committed against God's chosen people. Now look at this next graphic.

From Jesus' time and the destruction of the temple in seventy AD, Centuries of anti Semitism in the fourth century, the Roman Empire, the Crusades which were perpetrated by Christians, the black death program pogroms across Europe, people blamed the Jews for the black plague that swept across Europe. It's the Jews. It's the Jews. If you ever hear anybody, maybe political pundit or a famous podcaster blame the Jews, you're like, kind of heard that one before. It's all the Jews' fault.

It's all the Jews' fault. The Spanish inquisition, Russian pogroms, 1933 through 1945, the holocaust, 6,000,000 Jews exterminated across across Europe. Is that me? Yep. And then the persecution of Jews from Israel's creation, after they were made a nation state, they immediately were besieged upon, almost the next day by the surrounding nations.

The Six Day War Munich Massacre, if you remember the attacks on the Israeli Olympians, Yom Kippur War, all the way up into the present day ongoing conflicts and if you look at this last one, one more graphic. From Israel's creation to around the world today, this one, this bombing in Argentina is devastating. Paris Attacks, Brooklyn fire bombings and today increase of violence and one more graphic to show you of some statistics. Since 2023, the percentage rise of increase of anti Semitic attacks on either synagogues or Jews skyrocketing around the world. And I put this in my notes after the Hamas attack on October 7 attacks on Israel triggered a dramatic global surge in anti Semitic violence.

Can somebody help me to make sense of this? There's plenty of time to critique the potentially deeper reasons. But can somebody help me make sense of looking at the surface level facts that October 7 happens, where innocent Israeli citizens were raped and murdered, taken into captivity, and then the very next day, the world erupts in violence against Israel. Why? Here's I'm gonna suggest a partial answer that will make you very uncomfortable.

The line between good and evil does not run down geographical borders. The line between love and hate does not flow along political party lines. It does not follow geopolitical boundaries. The line between love and hate, good and evil runs straight down the middle of every single human heart. Violence towards Israel as an answer to terrible violence being committed against Israel is a deplorable response, but it's not a response that should shock us because each and every one of us have the capacity for hatred and evil and violence to perpetrate it.

And I would even suggest to you towards Israel. None of us are immune from the little seed that is a weed of jealousy because that's really what vandalism is about, isn't it? You have something super cool. I don't. I'll never get it nor do I wanna put in the effort and energy to to get it or to achieve it or to create it.

So what's the easiest thing for me to do to your beautiful creation? Destroy it. Scratch it. Knock a piece off of it, vandalize it. That's what the nations of the earth have have done towards Israel.

And we're gonna land the plane today with two really big questions. Maybe they're on your mind. Why is this? Why this vandalism towards Israel? Why?

Why this why this response towards Israel? What happened when Boko Haram captured a 140 school girls in Africa? Terrible violence committed against them and taken off at into out deep out into the bush. The world didn't respond with, like, anger at those schoolgirls. The world's heart broke with sympathy for those schoolgirls.

Why? What is what is the root of this of this evil? Do you just go to the unbreakable graphic? What is the root of this evil perpetrated against Jews over long periods of history. And number two, where is this going?

Look at the the we saw a moment ago the rise of antisemitism in this country across college campuses and around the world? Where is this all going towards? Those are the two questions as we begin to land the plane on this whole series. Those are two really important questions that we are going to to tackle. What is the root of this vandalism, and where is this vandalism going?

And so with that in mind, let's take just a moment, and we're gonna invite the Holy Spirit to just whisper to us about maybe there's an aspect of what we've talked about today that that stepped on your toes and you need to chew on and consider. Maybe there is as you were listening to the story of Joseph and hearing what has been perpetrated against Israel, maybe you could find yourself identifying with Israel, and there has been vandalism caused to your life, to your heart. Maybe just maybe there's an area of your life or heart where you were the vandal and you need to you see that and just ask the holy spirit. Please forgive me. So with just a few minutes that we have left, holy spirit, will you just come and speak to us regarding all that we've talked about?

And whisper to our hearts. I feel like the Lord would say, for anybody in here who feels like their heart or their health or their marriage or some relationship has been vandalized The Lord would say, the restoration of all things is coming. His heart breaks that you have been vandalized, and he will make all wrong things right. He won't forget about the beautiful work that he begun in you and he is faithful to see it to completion. So, lord, just with the few moments that we have left, I don't know how you do it.

I guess take the pressure washer of your great love, and will you remove any graffiti that's on our heart or on our life? Help us to not live seeing ourselves as with broken windows and overgrown grass and spray paint. Restore our hearts and our innocence in our lives. Help us to see ourselves the way that you intended us to see. A bright, beautiful coat of many colors.

Your prized possession. Take just a few more moments and talk to him. While we stay in this attitude of tenderness towards the Lord, let's just I'll I'll I'll go ahead. Roll right into worshiping the Lord one other way. We worship the Lord in song, and y'all were such great singer outers today.

We worship the Lord by considering and discussing his word and allowing his word to transform our hearts. Let's worship the lord in one other way this morning by bringing our tithes and offerings to him. And when we bring our tithes and offerings to Lord, it's a way of telling him that we love him and that we trust him. It's a practical way of telling him, I love you. He loves to hear it with our voice.

He loves to see it with our life. But when we surrender a portion of our finances, that especially blesses our heart because he knows that where our treasure is, that there our heart will be also. And it's also an expression of telling him, I trust you. We all know what it's like to live in this valley. Every penny is precious.

So when we surrender a portion of our finances to him, we tell him, Lord, I trust you. Let's pray together. Whether you're giving now at this time, and I'll share with you ways to give in just a moment, or if you are tithing at your local church, let's just pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for being good to us. Thank you that we are your special treasure and possession.

We thank you for we can see your love demonstrated towards Israel and know that that is available for us to grab a hold of it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And because of that, we surrender a portion of our finances.

God, I ask that you would receive these tithes and offerings to make your name famous here at Tribe, in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region, and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. We pray these things in Jesus' name, and everybody said. There's a little wooden box, in the back of this room. There is a black metal box on the outside of this building. You can also go to our website.

It's literally in our name, tribe j h dot com. Most people are generous with their smartphones, with the text to give. (833) 369-7847. You can follow those prompts there to give. The Lord bless your giving today.

Just like with any other family, all of the important life events happen on the fridge. So check the fridge for bible studies, ski meetup gatherings, opportunities to serve on Sunday, opportunities to serve on Tuesday, our young adult service. If you will stand up, let me pray for you, and then we'll skedaddle out of here. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for your great love demonstrated to us on a consistent, faithful basis. We receive your love and provision today. God, I command a blessing over each and every person gathered in here this morning. Lord, give us a great week. And I don't know.

Maybe you want more winter or not. It kinda would be cool if we didn't have much more. But really, Lord, it's up to you. It can keep snowing up high. I command a blessing over everyone here in Jesus' name before we get into a snow fight.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. Amen. I love you guys so very much. Have a great week, and remember, you got this.