WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:01.360 Shalom, Yol. 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:05.919 That's a combination of Hebrew and Texan for those of you who didn't know. 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:17.679 So uh if you'll just uh open your Bibles to two major scriptures that I'm gonna focus on uh Psalm 22 and Jeremiah 31. 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:23.120 We're gonna turn to those in a few minutes, but uh first I'm gonna share my testimony for a while. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:39.359 And uh the scripture that has meant so much to me over the years, of course there's many, but one that really stands out, is uh John 15, 16, that says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you might go and bear fruit. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:45.920 And uh that means so much to me because although with all of us, God chose us. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:56.880 Now, the fact that God chose us doesn't mean that we are robots and that you're either sort of destined for one way or the other, but what it means is that God draws us and then we respond to that drawing. 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:04.480 But um, in my case especially, God chose me because I didn't believe in him. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:07.599 I believed in God, but I didn't believe in Jesus. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:21.760 And so God's hand was on me, and so as I share my testimony, you're going to see basically what a Jewish person has to go through and all the obstacles that we have to overcome in order to receive Jesus as our Messiah. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.959 And uh I know this might be hard for you to believe, but uh. 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:28.879 I don't know if you ever heard a preacher condense his testimony into six words. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:34.079 But I can actually condense my testimony into six words, and then I'm gonna elaborate a little bit. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:35.760 And here's the six words. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:38.560 I'm a Jewish Christian, African American. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:42.400 I'll give it a while. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.280 I can tell you very intelligent because it, you know, you laughed pretty quickly. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:46.959 I'm very impressed. 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:52.480 Um first of all, I'm Jewish because both my parents are Jewish. 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:55.760 I'm a Christian or a Messianic Jew because I believe in Jesus. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:03.680 I'm an African because I was born and raised in Africa, and uh I lived there 25 years, and I'm an American because I live in America. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:09.199 And so I can reach almost any people group because I've got something of every people group in me. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:19.759 And another thing I was kind of uh thinking the other day, I could probably qualify for about every uh, what do you call it, every welfare check that's available to mankind. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.599 But I'm not going to take advantage of that, I'll leave that for somebody else. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:32.479 You know, um there's certain words that we are used to as Christians that Jewish people wouldn't see the same way as us. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:34.400 For example, the word Christ. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:41.520 You know, sometimes whether it's a Jewish or a Gentile person, maybe they'll use the name Christ and we'll say that's blasphemy. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.520 But with a Jewish person, it's really not blasphemy because they don't know what Christ means. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:51.759 Because when I was raised uh, I I always believed that Jesus Christ was simply his family name. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.080 I thought he was Jesus Christ and that his parents were Joseph and Mary Christ. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:58.639 And that's what I always believed. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:04.560 But you see, I had no idea, and most Jewish people have no idea that Christ actually means Messiah. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:11.759 And you're not going to hear a Jewish person use Messiah in a moment of frustration, you know, as a as a as a word of exclamation. 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:16.240 And so I think that you know that's a good witnessing tool. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:28.319 If you explain to your Jewish friends that uh that Christ means Messiah, because every Jew knows something about the Messiah, and there's some kind of expectation of the coming of the Messiah. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:31.520 You know, I attended private Jewish schools for 13 years. 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:36.800 When I was growing up, I learned to read and write Hebrew at the same time that I learned to read and write English. 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:40.159 And we used to say prayers five mornings a week. 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:44.639 And uh we'd say the prayers in Hebrew, and I would later fill in. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:50.240 It's what the Bible calls phylactories, when Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and he talks about their phylacteries. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:04:01.680 And really, what phylacteries are is, you know, in Deuteronomy I believe it is, it says that you should take the word of God and place it as frontlets between your eyes, and then you should bind it to your forearm. 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:04.319 Now, us Jews are very literal people. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:09.120 If you think that fundamentalist Christians are literalists, we we are even more so. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:19.600 Because we literally take the box with the word of God in it and place the box on our forehead with the word of God in, and we take the actual box and put it on our forearm and we bind it to our arms. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:23.120 The only problem was I never knew what was in the box. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:29.759 But I guess as long as the word was there, it hadn't quite gotten into here yet, you know, which is the real idea. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:32.480 And so uh now God has internalized his law. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:34.079 That really that's what the new covenant is. 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:37.839 God has taken the law and internalized it and put it in our minds and in our hearts. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:50.319 You know, just to help you understand how Jewish people think when it comes to Christianity and and and how they see it, you know, my my grandparents grew up in Lithuania in Eastern Europe. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:54.160 And uh when they grew up, pogroms were a way of life. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:56.240 Let me tell you what a pogrom is. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:01.839 Uh many of the smaller cities were sometimes half Jewish, sometimes 40% Jewish. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:08.959 And uh what would happen, whenever Easter time comes, we're all very excited because we're celebrating the resurrection of our Messiah. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:12.399 But Easter is a very scary time for my grandparents. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:28.000 It was a very scary time because what would happen is that the Orthodox priests in the church during Easter would preach fiery sermons to the people, basically blaming the Jews for killing Christ, and saying that they need to get revenge on the Jews for killing their Lord. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:38.959 And then what would happen, very often with the priest in the front, usually with a big cross around his neck or in his hand, followed by the Russian Cossacks, they would raise, they would raid the Jewish villagers. 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.439 And the woman would be raped, men would be murdered. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:48.800 My grandfather would tell me stories of having to hide in a haystack or in a barn in order to not be killed or to be seriously injured. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:06:02.079 And so uh Easter was a very scary time for them, and in their minds, because these people claimed to be Christians and uh they had a big cross and the priest was dressed in his priestly garb, etc., and so in their minds, those were Christians. 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:10.079 And so one needs to understand when you speak about Christianity to a Jewish person, they're thinking persecution and hatred of Jews. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:16.560 In fact, what I thought, as weird as this might seem to you, but growing up in South Africa there was a lot of anti-Semitism as well. 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:22.000 Whenever you have any kind of racism, like in South Africa, there was apartheid, it's not only towards black people. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:30.240 You see a spirit of racism, it's it's racist towards Jewish people, Hispanics, any minority group, it's the same spirit, it makes no difference. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:36.720 And so, when I was raised, you know, in that country under that system, we we never knew what was going to happen. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:46.399 The school that I went to, we used to have bomb scares about once a week, at least once a week, where they would threaten to blow up the school, and then we all had to evacuate the classes and go and stand in the field. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:51.199 The police dogs would come and sniff and make sure there was no bombs, and then eventually we'd go back. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.480 And we just expected it, and we thought, oh, well, that was the that that's the Christians. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:56.480 We already just thought that was the Christians. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:00.639 And so uh it's very sad, but that was a way of life when I was raised. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:07.360 Uh so anyway, I finished uh my school uh life, and I had to go into the military because it was mandatory. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:20.160 And what happened then is uh during boot camp, I was no longer in a protected environment where it was just Jewish people, but I was exposed to the big world out there kind of thing, and uh there was a lot of anti-Semitism during boot camp. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:28.879 And uh there were about 22 Jewish guys and over 800 what I would have called Christians, really, who were Gentiles who occasionally went into a church building. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:31.600 I didn't really know the difference in those days. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:43.920 All I knew is that on Saturday we'd have a big parade, and uh the Jewish guys would go, we'd already be gone for the for the Jewish Sabbath, and then on Sunday, all of the Christians would go to their churches. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:49.360 So we'd stand guard duty for them uh on Sunday, and they'd stand guard duty for us on Saturday. 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:56.319 But uh there was a lot of violence even during boot camp, a lot of uh I didn't want to get into fights every day, even though I pretty much knew how to fight. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:57.759 I didn't want them to know that. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:03.519 Because when there's 800 guys and they all want to fight you until someone can beat you up, so it's not a very pleasant way to live. 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:08.240 And uh so God gives us juice, wisdom when it comes to survival sometimes. 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:19.279 And there was a particular guy there, uh he was probably one of the biggest guys uh in our camp, and uh the only difference between him and the incredible hulk is that the incredible hulk was green. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:30.000 And uh fortunately, he didn't have terribly much else apart from bone and muscle, and uh but he loved he loved condensed milk. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:34.639 And so he said, if I'll give him one can of condensed milk a week, he'll protect me. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:38.960 And so as weird as that seems, he just loved, he would just drink the whole thing in one shot. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:40.879 And uh and so he protected me. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:47.360 And so for the whole six months, if any any major threats came, my friend would just stand behind me and they would just back off. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:54.960 Anyway, uh something happened during that time that uh that God used in a powerful way in my life. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:00.399 There was actually a Greek uh guy, well, he wasn't a Christian, but he knew the scriptures. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:05.759 He belonged to some weird cult group, but I wouldn't have known the difference between a Christian cult and any other Christian in those days. 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:07.600 Uh but he knew the scriptures. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:11.200 And uh he kept on talking talking to me about Jesus. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:12.960 And finally I got frustrated. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:17.519 I said, Look, I said, Oh, that's all very nice, but I'm a Jew, and Jews don't believe in Jesus. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:22.720 So he takes out his Bible and he opens it up and he says, Here, read this. 00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:26.799 So uh if you'll just go to Psalm 22, I want to show you what I read. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:28.720 Psalm 22 in your Bibles. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:36.639 And it starts off saying this it says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:38.080 So immediately I read that. 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:39.200 I think, okay. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:42.080 I I thought I was reading the gospel, the New Testament. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:49.919 And then I kept on reading, and it it I came up to verse 16, and it says this it says, For dogs have surrounded me. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:55.279 The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:10:03.840 I can count all my bones, they look and stare at me, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:07.600 By the way, cast is cast, in case you're wondering what that means. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:14.799 And so I'm busy reading this, and I didn't know much about Jesus, but you know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this is the gospel. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:15.679 You know? 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:20.480 And I said to him, Well, thanks very much, that's very nice, but this is the New Testament, and I gave it back to him. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:22.080 He said, No, it's not the New Testament. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:24.960 He said, This is Psalm 22, written by King David. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:26.320 I said, Please give me a break. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:28.960 How's King David going to write about the crucifixion? 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:41.759 In case you didn't know this, when when David wrote this around 700 years before Jesus came, it was about 700 years before such a form of punishment as crucifixion had even been invented. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:49.039 And King David's writing down to every the smallest detail, even the finest details of the crucifixion. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:51.200 So I thought, okay, I know what this is. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.919 This is a Christian plot to try and convert Jews. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:03.679 I thought, okay, Gentiles, you know, Christians don't know any Hebrew, so they got some random guy who knew very little Hebrew and he just twisted it to try and make it sound like Jesus. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:05.440 So I thought, okay, this is what I'm going to do. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:06.879 I'm going to go to my grandmother's house. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:13.440 She's got a Tanakh, which is a Hebrew Old Testament, and I'm going to read it in the Hebrew, and then I'm going to read the rabbi's translation. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:14.799 So I read it in the Hebrew. 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:19.919 And when I came, when I when it came to they pierced my hands and my feet, it says that in the Hebrew. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:28.159 But then the English translation on the other side, instead of they pierced, it says they like a lie in my hands and my feet. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:33.039 And apparently it actually can mean either, but it's always been accepted that it's they pierced. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:42.240 And so what bothered me the most is if it can be either, why did the rabbis deliberately take it and put there they like a lie in my hands and feet? 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:44.879 Because grammatically it doesn't flow very smoothly, does it? 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:47.440 If you say they like a lie in my hands and feet. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:53.200 Although even if it did say that, even though it doesn't, even if it said that, it still describes crucifixion perfectly. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:12:00.159 And so really, it really backfires really on what they were trying to hide because it really convinced me even more. 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:05.200 If they're trying to hide something, if their piss sounds like it's Jesus, why not why change it? 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:06.799 What's the motive behind it? 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:14.480 So anyway, I still had 18 months of army uh left, and uh the incredible hulk was transferred to another army base. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:16.559 And so I was in trouble. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:25.919 So I thought, well, one of two things, either I'm gonna be fighting for my survival for the next 18 months, or I've got to become the incredible Hulk myself. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:40.639 I didn't know how to do that, but uh I actually joined the boxing gym and started training very hard and actually became very good at it, so much so that by the end of the 18 months, they asked me if I turned professional, but I said, Well, nice Jewish boys don't box. 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:48.159 But the good thing is that uh nobody would mess with me, so that kind of helped. 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:53.519 So people look at me sometimes and they say, Well, you don't look like a boxer, you know, your nose isn't broken, your face looks normal, you know. 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:57.279 So, well, if my face looks like it's been hit by a meteor, I shouldn't be boxing, right? 00:12:57.440 --> 00:12:59.200 The whole idea is not to get hit. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:03.679 Well, at least Jewish boxers feel that way, anyway. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:16.240 So uh so what I did then is uh when I finished the army, I went to Israel, and I was living on a kibbutz called Shvayim, which is beautiful kibbutz on the coast between Tel Aviv and Netanyahu. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:22.159 Uh, for those of you who don't know, a kibbutz is a kind of a farming community, uh kind of cooperative farming sort of thing. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:27.440 And really, Israel in the early years was actually built on kibbutzim, and this was a beautiful one. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:36.799 And so anyway, I went there, then eventually I went to America, and I was studying in New York, and I went back again to Israel in the summer of 1984. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:47.360 And uh, and while I was there, um, there were actually three guys sharing a room, and one of the guys who moved in, um, his name was Frank, he was a born-again Christian from Washington, D.C. 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:57.039 And I think he was the first born-again Christian that I'd ever met, that I know of, and I just knew he was different, even though I I didn't understand him very well, but I knew he was different. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:02.320 There was something different, there's something I liked about him, even though he didn't know that, because I I didn't make out like I did at all. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:05.120 In fact, I played the devil's advocate with him a lot. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:10.320 But one day he began to speak about Jesus in Jerusalem, and I thought, that's really strange. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.720 What on earth would Jesus have been doing in Jerusalem? 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.279 Because I thought that Jesus was a Catholic. 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:22.559 And so, you know, I could I could understand Jesus being in the Vatican or in Rome, but Jerusalem, I didn't know what he was doing there. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:28.559 And uh, and as weird as that seems, I never dreamed he was Jewish because most of the Christians I knew hated the Jews. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:32.320 So I thought, well, there's no way he could be Jewish because then they wouldn't hate the Jews. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:35.039 Uh obviously I was wrong, but uh anyway. 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:39.039 And so uh I used to always go to the Arab market in Jerusalem. 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:47.919 For those of you who've been to Israel, if you go to the old city, there's one of the one of the entrances, it's called Jaffa Gates, and I'd go through Jaffa Gates, and I used to go to the Arab market. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:54.559 And so I was traveling with a friend of mine from Zimbabwe uh who was a rugby player and very good friend of mine, really big guy. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:15:06.559 And uh, as we're walking through Jaffa Gate, about to go to the Arab markets, just as real as uh as my brother sitting here in the front row, Jesus appears to me, standing in front of me, about ten feet in front of me, looking at me. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.159 You say, How do you know it was Jesus? 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:09.200 I just want to tell you something. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.519 If Jesus appears to you, you'll know it. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:13.759 No one's gonna have to tell you. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:17.600 And there's two major things that instantly hit me in a really powerful way. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:25.360 The first thing is that I was amazed how Jewish he looked, and how in context he looked in Jerusalem. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:29.840 And uh a little bit, a little bit darker than me, just a little more of an olive skin. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:42.000 But more than that, I didn't know the theology of who Jesus was, but when I looked in his eyes, I saw perfect and unconditional love, like I'd never ever seen in my life before anywhere. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:51.039 And somehow I knew that he knew everything I'd ever done or ever would do, and yet he loved me perfectly and with unconditional love. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:56.000 And I knew in that moment that I was complete, and that he was all that I needed. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:57.120 Isn't that amazing? 00:15:57.200 --> 00:15:58.080 That was all by revelation. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:01.200 I mean, that's what the Bible says, and I don't know what the Bible said. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.759 And he spoke one word to me without opening his mouth. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:04.879 You say, How did he do that? 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.480 Well, I can't explain it, but he's God, I guess he can do what he wants. 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:14.080 And and the the the word he spoke to me was the word Hinaini, which in Hebrew means here am I. 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:17.279 In other words, I am the one that you've been looking for. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:20.879 And then as soon as he had appeared, he disappeared again. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.000 And and I was just really upset because I thought, well, he's just disappeared. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:28.399 Everything I've ever wanted was in front of me, everything I ever needed was in front of me, and now he's gone. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:34.799 And a few seconds later he reappeared about ten feet to the right, looking at me with that same incredible love. 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:39.200 And I felt so fulfilled and accepted and so complete once again. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:42.240 And then, of course, you guessed it, he disappeared again. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:46.399 And again, I was frantically looking around, and maybe you think, but what about my friend with me? 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:47.679 What about everybody around me? 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:49.279 It was like time was frozen. 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:50.080 I can't explain it. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:55.200 It's like everybody around me was just frozen, and I was like in this bubble, it was just me and God. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:17:00.720 Anyway, I looked around, and then the third time I saw him walking along the wall of the old city. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:16.400 The wall's very wide, it's about 15 feet wide, and he was walking uh the there's the citadel or the tower of David, and then it goes towards Jaffa Gate, for those of you who know Jerusalem, and he was walking along the wall, but this time he wasn't looking at me. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:20.000 This time he was just looking straight in in front of him. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:24.079 And I didn't know how to pray except for wrote prayers in Hebrew, like I told you. 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:30.640 But I just thought in my heart, if only he would look at me just one more time, I just thought that. 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:36.640 And I believe in God's eyes, in God's heart, that was the first real prayer that I ever prayed from my heart. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:38.160 Even though my mouth didn't open. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:47.680 And the very second I thought that he turned and looked me straight in the eyes, just like that, as if to say, the very second you thought that, I heard, and I'm answering your prayer. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:55.440 And so the scripture is very real to me, a particular scripture that says, before they call upon me, I will answer them. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:00.480 And I want you to know that before you ever call upon the Lord, he's already heard you. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:04.000 Before you ever call upon him, he's heard your prayer. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.440 You see, prayer is more for our benefit than God's benefit. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:09.599 Because God already knows our need. 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:14.079 And so I want to encourage you that God is so real, that he's just a prayer away. 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:19.759 All you've got to do is make your request known, and God instantly hears you, and he will answer your prayers. 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:23.279 And so, because of that experience, I've never struggled with faith. 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:26.799 Because really, it's easy to believe God when you know how real he is. 00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:37.200 So it was about a month after that that I was actually saved and received the Lord, and the guy who led me to the Lord, uh, his name was was Avi Schneider, a Jewish believer, a wonderful man of God. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:44.240 And uh he led me in the sinner's prayer, and then he was so excited because I I just knew that I'd prayed this by faith. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:50.160 I believed Jesus was the Messiah, I didn't know much else, and he was so excited, and he said, Brother, I'm so excited. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:55.839 He said, He said, I want you to know that if it if you go outside and a truck hits you, you're gonna go straight to heaven. 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:00.400 So I thought, what a strange little man. 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:05.599 But I'm always very careful when I cross the road, you know. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:09.759 Whenever I see trucks, I avoid them at every expense that I can think of. 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:12.400 But of course, in his mind, he was saying that I'm saved. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:15.440 But I you see, I had no idea that I wouldn't have gone to heaven. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:18.079 I I thought that I was just saved because I was Jewish. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.160 I thought, well, Gentiles have to go through Jesus, but us Jews go direct. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:26.640 You know, we do UPS next day air, you know. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:30.400 Now, of course, God straightened out my theology since then. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:33.599 And I realized that everybody needs Jesus. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:40.559 In fact, in the first century, one of the biggest arguments amongst Jewish believers was, can Gentiles also believe in Jesus? 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:44.240 Now it's almost become the opposite, 2,000 years later. 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:49.680 And you know, as excited as I was to be saved, I must confess something to you and be honest with you. 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:52.319 I think church is a good place to be honest, don't you? 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.400 That at the same time as being excited, I was kind of angry for a while. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:58.960 And I'm over it now, so just relax, okay? 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:05.759 But I was angry, I thought, you mean all this time these Gentiles have known that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel? 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:07.920 And no one ever bothered to tell me? 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:17.039 That's why I feel so strongly about Gateway's mission and Gateway Church, because I wish that there was a Gateway Church where I lived in Johannesburg. 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:24.559 I wish there was a church like this in every major city of the world where there's a Jewish population that believes in going to the Jew first. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:26.240 Are you all following me? 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:36.480 Because that is what you know in the first century when they believed in going to the Jew first, because it's what the scripture teaches, the whole world was evangelized in less than a hundred years. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:38.079 The whole known world. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:41.920 With no television, no media, no advertising, nothing. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:42.480 Why? 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:44.480 Just because they followed God's pattern. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:49.599 Can you imagine if the whole church comes back to the paradigm of going to the Jew first? 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.039 And I want you to know something, it's not just one or two scriptures. 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:57.599 In fact, it's one of the central themes of the New Testament, is going to the Jew first. 00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:05.599 And I believe that God blesses his pattern, and that's why Gateway is so blessed, as Pastor Roberts so clearly and eloquently explained last week. 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:09.839 So I believe this is a time of bringing the gospel back to the Jews. 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:16.079 If you'll just turn me with me to the second scripture that I spoke to you about, uh, Jeremiah 31. 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:20.319 First I want to say, who did God make the new covenant with? 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:33.440 You know, there is there is a teaching that is very dangerous, not only dangerous, but I believe that the devil has designed this teaching to hinder God's end-time plan being fulfilled for the nations. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:47.440 And there's a there's a teaching called replacement theology, which basically says that uh God has replaced Israel with a church, that he's replaced the Jews with Gentiles, basically, and he's rejected Israel. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:53.039 The reason that it's very dangerous is because it actually prevents people from sharing the gospel with the Jews. 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:58.240 So not only is to the Jew first not practiced, but not it's not to the Jew at all, period. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:21:59.279 Are you all following me? 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:07.759 And so it says in Jeremiah 31, 31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I'll make a new covenant with who? 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:11.279 With the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:20.640 And so the new both covenants are made with the Jews, both old and new, but God has grafted in the Gentiles, so we are all one family, the Bible says. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:22.880 Grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:28.240 Then Jeremiah 31, verse 35 through 37 says this. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:40.960 It says, Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon, and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:50.640 If those ordinances depart from me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:23:21.359 You know, God feels so strongly about the Jews and about his covenant with Israel that he goes to all its trouble to say that basically the only way the Jews can stop to exist as a nation and as a people is if the sun stops shining every day, and we know what would happen if that happened, if the stars stop coming out in the evening, if you go out one night into the beautiful Texas sky and there's no stars, uh, if if all of the ocean suddenly becomes a lake and there's no waves, if that happens, then there won't be Jews anymore. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:30.960 And then, just in case that wasn't enough to emphasize God's points, he thought, let me, he feels so strongly about it, he goes to verse 37 and says, Let me emphasize this even more. 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:44.640 And then he says this, thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured, so now God has made it absolutely impossible because there's no ways anybody can measure all the galaxies, even with all the technology we have today, they can never be measured. 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:50.319 And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will cast off the seed of Israel. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:52.720 Do you think God feels strongly about this? 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:55.279 I think he feels pretty strongly about it. 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:59.920 So I and I'm comforted because you know they've been trying to kill me for 2,000 years, you know. 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:02.480 Not only me, but you know what I'm saying, my people. 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:07.039 And so it's comforting to know because really, uh, if you look in the natural, there's no ways. 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:13.440 There is no ways that the Jews should have survived what we've gone through over these years unless it was the hand of God. 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:19.680 You know, as a Jewish believer, Jewish believers are kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:26.480 Because in the Jewish community, they say, Well, you know, you're not a Jew anymore, you're a Christian now, so you're not one of us anymore. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:34.720 Then in much of the church world, they say, Well, you're not a Jew anymore, because the Bible says there's neither Jew nor Gentile. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:38.400 And so you I'm I'm just kind of this sort of blob that's in Christ, you know. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:43.839 I'm not I'm not I'm not Jewish, I'm not Christian, well, whatever, I'm just a blob, you know. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:49.279 But uh, if you turn to Romans 3.28, that's the scripture that's that they use. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:54.160 It says there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. 00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:55.519 That's interesting. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:56.960 So the same scripture. 00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:01.839 So, how many in here are female and you believe in Jesus? 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:03.279 Put up your hands. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:04.559 Wow, that's amazing. 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:05.440 You can be both. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:06.640 Wow, okay. 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.640 How many in here are males and you believe in Jesus? 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:15.839 Okay, 90% of you, the other 10%, you need to go to freedom ministries that haven't put up your hand, okay? 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.319 So I think you catch the drift. 00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:20.960 You can be a Jew and believe in Jesus. 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:25.519 You don't give up your national heritage, you don't give up who God has made you to be. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:30.000 Because the Bible says let each man remain in the state that he was in when God called him. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:35.440 That doesn't mean any sin, but as far as your natural disposition and your cultural background. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:45.039 And you know, Paul the Apostle was speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem, the same Paul the Apostle that penned, there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, etc., male nor female. 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:56.480 The very same Paul the Apostle is addressing Jewish leaders in Jerusalem in Acts 22, 3, and you can read it in your own time, and he starts off the address saying, I am a Jew. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:25:59.200 The same Paul the Apostle who said there's not, you understand? 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:02.160 So that doesn't mean he just became a blob now in Christ. 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:09.839 Basically, what that's saying is, is that when push comes to shove, the bottom line, when the rubber meets the road, what really matters is that you're in Christ. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:11.039 And we all agree on that. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:19.359 But it doesn't mean you understand, and so that is important because if Jews think they have to stop being Jewish to believe in Jesus, then many of them won't receive the Lord. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.000 And so really, uh, you know, I became a completed Jew when I came to faith in my Messiah. 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:29.440 Just as a guy becomes a completed guy, or a woman becomes a completed or a whole woman in the same way. 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:40.400 And you know, one thing I must say here, as I'm beginning to close up here, is that the Bible says in Acts 4.12 that there is salvation in no other name. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:44.400 And by the way, Peter was speaking to a Jewish audience when he said that. 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:49.839 But you know, I unashamedly share the gospel with my people. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:57.200 I unashamedly say that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel, that he fulfilled the law and the prophets. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:26:59.759 And we are seeing more Jews saved today. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:04.720 Every month, virtually, we're seeing Jews saved right here at the Messianic service here at Gateway. 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:09.920 And I encourage you all to come just to experience it, to stand with us and support us in that. 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:15.759 But you know, the DNA of Gateway is God's DNA to reach his chosen people. 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:23.599 And I I just want to share a story in closing as to why I'm even here, why I even exist, because it's a real miraculous story. 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:40.799 My grandparents, as I mentioned, grew up in Lithuania, and uh many of the towns that the Jews lived in were sometimes 40% Jewish, sometimes 50% Jewish, and the town that my great-grandfather grew up in in Lithuania was uh almost 40% Jewish, about 36%. 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:45.920 The population was around 16,000, there were almost 7,000 Jews. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:56.720 And uh he was in the Russian army because Lithuania was part of Russia until 1918, and he contracted a form of tuberculosis, and he was very worried about his health. 00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:00.640 Went to the doctor and said, Doctor, how can I live a long life? 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:08.480 And I'm not a medical person, but the doctor said to him that if you live at a higher altitude where the air is thinner, you'll live longer. 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.480 And so he said, Well, where can I go? 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:22.960 And he said, Well, there's a place in South Africa called South Africa where you can make a good living, and this is the southern tip of Africa, and there's a big gold rush there, and there's gold mines there, and uh you could open up a store in one of those mines, and the altitude is very high. 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:24.559 Johannesburg is very high. 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:31.039 Uh I think it's about um 6,000 meters, which is around 18,000, 20,000 feet above sea level, something like that. 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:35.200 And uh so he went to do that, left his family behind. 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:43.279 They didn't see him for a long time, but they came uh after the Russian Revolution and the First World War, they came to join him in South Africa. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:29:01.440 And I'm saying all of that to say this uh from 1941 to 1943, especially 1943, when the Nazis came through Lithuania and through that village, the Jewish population went from, as I said, 36% down to zero in a few months. 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:11.200 And they would take all the rest of the Jews that were left in that city, make them take off their clothes, they would either dig deep pits or there would be pits that were already there. 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:15.519 Didn't matter if they were babies, young, old, it wouldn't really matter. 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:19.519 They would just line them all up and they would just mow them down like they were dogs. 00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:27.039 And if there was a few hundred, they would just hold their machine guns, but if there was a few thousand, there was one that I actually read about that was over five thousand. 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:37.039 And when that would happen, because the Nazis didn't want to hurt their biceps by holding their machine guns so long, God forbid, you know, what they did is they put their machine guns on tripods. 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:42.319 And they would just sit there casually smoking a cigarette and just gun them down and mow them down. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:51.440 But you know, this really touched my heart, even when I began to read more about it recently, that God wants to save the Jewish people. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:59.519 And you know, if my great-grandfather didn't have tuberculosis, if he hadn't left, I wouldn't be here today. 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:16.240 And what I want to say through that is that when God's when God's hand is upon somebody, and God's hand is upon every one of you, whether you know it or not, when God has a destiny on your life, there is nothing that any person can do to stop it. 00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:25.680 Because God will literally, if necessary, move heaven and earth to make sure that your calling is fulfilled in this life, and God will preserve you.