The Road to Gaza

Transcript from the sermon The Road to Gaza.

Shabbat Shalom church.

That phrase carries a different weight today, doesn't it?

It's not just a greeting, it's a blessing, and it's a prayer that many of our brothers and sisters in Israel desperately need.

I want to begin this morning simply by welcoming those who are here, our church family that are here, and our church family that are tuning in online and for others who are joining us today.

I do want to just make this little announcement, most of you knew or know that Tanya and I were intending to leave this coming Monday for Israel.

Obviously, that is not going to happen.

We were going to be going over for a week prior to then going to Athens where we will lead a Greece tour and cruise starting Sunday, October 22nd.

So we're going to forgo going to Israel, leave those seats open for those who need them, and we're going to be going straight to Greece.

Originally, I wasn't going to be back till November 10th because we had a tour scheduled after that Greece tour that I was going to go back and lead in Israel.

That's also been postponed to 2024.

So unless the Lord comes and says, Bren, I need you to go to Israel, you can be at peace, not be worried about whether Tanya and Bren are going over there.

The answer right now is no, we're not, at least not until a little later in 2024.

So I titled my message today on the road to Gaza.

Yeah, I was just messing with your heads because I know that that's got to raise all kinds of questions as to what in the world is he going to say?

I mean, what do you preach after a week like we have witnessed that began on the last day of Sukkot, the last day of Tabernacles, the violence that unfolded in those first hours of that Shabbat throughout the southern portion of Israel?

Do you wax prophetic and extol Israel's right to exist and defend yourself?

Do I stand here and take you from passage to passage to passage, showing you that God has a providential plan for the sons and daughters of Abraham?

Do I show you the ancient prophecies about the future destruction of Gaza which exists?

Do I offer a polemic on why Israel has the right to exist as a nation?

But what worse than, more important than all of those, what in the world do you stand and say in the face of such unprecedented inhumanity, wickedness and evil?

How do we even come today and begin to wrap our brains and our hearts and minds around the terror and the violence that we saw unfold and continue to see day after day?

Well, here's my answer.

We need to go back to the road to Gaza.

Now, in truth, this sermon, this message today is a continuation of the series that I was doing called the Dogma and the Dugma.

If you'll remember, the dogma that we were looking at is the doctrine of the deity of Yeshua, the deity of Jesus and how utterly significant it is, not just as a theological battleground, but as a roadmap for how you and I live our lives as disciples.

And that's the dogma, the example.

The dogma that we were looking at is how the deity of Jesus, how Jesus related to his own identity as the Son of God and his relationship to Father God is actually the very paradigm that the Apostle Paul offers us as a model of discipleship for our lives.

Now if that's too technical of a way to say it, let me simplify it and say it like this.

The way Jesus relates to the Father is the way we're supposed to relate to him.

Does that help?

I have at least one more message I want to bring from this passage from Philippians that we've been looking at and we'll do that after we return from Greece.

But today I want us to just laser focus our thoughts and prayers, our minds on what Jesus says.

And honey, can you grab my cell phone and bring it to me?

No, you don't need to do that.

Yes, you do.

Because as I'm looking at this, I'm realizing I did not put those notes in my notes.

The passage from which we have been sharing these thoughts comes from the letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians who said, Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, Messiah Yeshua, who although he existed in the form of God did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped or clung to but emptied himself, taking the very form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also God exalted him, highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Paul says Yeshua is the servant of the Lord and maybe we need to go back to the road to Gaza to find that truth.

We pray with me.

Abba Father, I come to you in this moment.

You know our hearts and minds are so filled with so much, so many images, so many heart breaks.

I pray today Lord that you would help me, that your spirit would move not only in me and in the preaching, but you would give ears to hear and that we would hear what your spirit is saying to us.

Pray this in Yeshua's name.

Amen.

You know there's just one other thing that comes to mind that we could have spoken, I could have spoken about today.

It's one that I've seen a lot of people posting about and have received multiple emails and text messages asking about.

And it's which one of the wars is this?

Is this easy?

Is this Psalm 83?

Is this Ezekiel 37 and 38?

So which war is this?

Are you ready for my conclusive answer?

The one we are fighting now.

What difference does it make?

Does the knowledge of which war temper the violence?

Does it change the outcome?

Now don't misunderstand.

God gave us those prophecies to help us understand.

But church I think the reason we have to go back to the road to Gaza is because we have gotten our eyes off of what the Father would want us to be looking at while trying to feel.

You don't get brownie points because you know which war it is.

But you do get a crown of righteousness for walking in a manner pleasing to our Savior.

And that's what I want us to focus on this morning.

And I've got to keep my own flesh in check because there's a part of me that's mad, but I want to be focused on the Lord.

It was on the road to Gaza that a man learned of the obedient servant of the Lord who was obedient even unto death.

Now before we get to his experience, there's something in this instruction that Paul sends to the believers in Philippi that we need to stop and fully recognize because Paul is doing something extremely significant when he points to Jesus who humbled himself so much that he became a bond servant.

Paul isn't just giving a nice description of Yeshua.

He is connecting us to one of the most significant sections of biblical prophecy about the Messiah, four sections in the book of Isaiah called the servant songs.

There are four sections of the prophet Isaiah that specifically talk about the servant of the Lord.

So when Paul invokes this terminology that Jesus has become a bond servant, he is telling us very specifically this is the one of whom the prophet spoke.

Live and follow him.

Philippians 2.

7 says he emptied himself.

The context of all of this is Paul's previous words in verse 3 where he says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.

Paul was the Word of God who became flesh and was God and is God and yet his example to us and for us is that he emptied himself.

What does that mean?

He chose not to make who he was more important than what we needed him to be for us.

He chose not to be selfish and remain in heaven.

He chose not to be vain and cling to his identity as God too high, too exalted, too lofty, to bend low, to serve us in our greatest need.

That's who Yeshua is.

He chose to show us the full extent of his love as the servant of the Lord and when Paul uses that term as I said he is invoking that significant prophecy called the servant songs of the Lord.

These servant songs are filled with specific prophecies that are easily recognized in the life and ministry of Jesus yet I have to be honest with you in spite of their clear witness to Yeshua as the Messiah they provoke some pretty significant controversies especially between Jews and those who follow Yeshua and even within the body of Christ itself.

Now I'm not going to take time to ferret out all of those but I want you to be aware of them.

The controversy that exists between Jews and Christians is simply the question who is the prophet speaking of in these servant songs?

Who is the servant of the Lord?

Is it Israel or is it the Messiah?

Now we could go weeks on that topic and I could show you what some of the anti-missionaries say but we don't have time to do that today.

But that's one of the controversies that those who don't want to see Jesus as the fulfillment of those prophecies want to say no it's actually talking about Israel and I'll show you why they say that.

But there's another controversy that happens between Christian and Christian believer and believer and that is what does it say about Israel's relationship with the Lord?

As it ended you say well why in the world would that be an issue?

Because the servant songs of the Lord show that Yeshua is the servant Israel was called to be but couldn't be.

And there are those who in Christianity who see the failure of Israel not being able to live up to that call and say that's why God's done with them therefore they have no significant place with the Lord.

And therefore the state of Israel has no significant place with the Lord.

And I'm just stunned by these people that in this moment of unprecedented violence you would use this moment to validate or to argue about your eschatology or the identity of Israel but you would think it was necessary to spend time trying to prove that God doesn't have a special love for Israel.

But I'm not going to go into detail about those but you need to know they exist.

The identification of Jesus as the servant of the Lord is key to what Paul is teaching us about how you and I are supposed to be living today regardless of what war is waging or raging.

Physically out there or spiritually right here.

So let's do a fast overview of them and I say fast that means.

Let's turn to the first one.

People call this the servant he has chosen.

Isaiah 42 verses 1 through 9.

I'm going to read these to you.

I want you to hear them because I'm 100% sure they're inspired but because my flesh may get involved I might say something not inspired so I want you to hear these.

Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights.

I have put my ruach, my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry out or raise his voice nor make his voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish.

He will faithfully bring forth justice, righteousness.

He will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands will expectantly wait expectantly for his Torah, his law.

Jesus says the Lord of God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and the spirit to those who walk in it.

I am the Lord.

I have called you in righteousness.

I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from prison.

I am the Lord.

That is my name.

I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images.

Behold the former things have come to pass.

Now I declare new things.

Before they spring forth, I proclaim them to you.

Now I just want you to notice seven really quick things that point to Yeshua in this.

The first one is this.

Yeshua said, I did not come to serve, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for me.

The first line of the first song says, behold my servant whom I have chosen, whom I uphold.

God is saying, here is the person that I raise up.

Here is the person that I hold, not the one who runs around in their life seeking to be served, but the one who comes to be served.

That's the servant of the Lord.

Notice the servant is God's chosen person to reach the nations with righteousness.

And we've talked extensively about what righteousness means.

Righteousness is justice, but it's also mercy.

It always involves an act of giving.

And sometimes God's righteousness gives judgment because that is what needs to be given.

And sometimes He gives mercy to those who are in need because both are manifestations of His righteousness.

Notice that He does not do this by raising His voice or causing a commotion or a conflict.

It just drives me crazy when I read usually liberal theologians or some young minister trying to be all hip, talking about how Jesus was a radical and He was anti-establishment.

Honestly folks, He had bigger fish to fry than that.

About 5,000 of them actually.

No.

Anyway.

Only five actually.

Jesus didn't come and start a fight with politicians.

And even when He was before them, He remained silent.

Notice that He did not weaken or wound people, but He would strengthen and restore them.

A bruised reed He will not break.

A dimly burning wick He will not extinguish.

You know Yeshua when He condemned the Pharisees and called out their hypocrisy, He talked about how they love to represent themselves as the ones who were be such givers.

Oh, they were givers all right.

They gave weight after weight after weight they put on people's shoulders.

They bent people over by taking the law and turning a blessing into a burden.

And I'm sure none of you have ever done that.

Ow.

He didn't come to weaken.

He came to restore.

Because that's what a servant of the Lord does.

Remember we're looking at the servant of the Lord as He is, so should we be.

Number five, notice He will bring His Torah to the nations and they will embrace it.

Man, I have so much to say about this, but I can't say it all today.

But for now take note, the servant of the Lord brings His Torah to the nations.

Listen, I know where we came from and I know a lot of people, including myself, have used that verse.

If you love me, keep my commandments.

And we are completely unaware that there's a specific prophecy that the Messiah would bring His Torah, not the law of Moses which came from Him, but His Torah.

And how would we know it was His Torah?

Because the nations would embrace it.

It was a teaching of righteousness that would transcend Israel.

And here's the sad thing.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the instructions that Moses gave us, but why is it that so many people that pound the pulpit of the Torah of Moses spend so little time living the Torah of Yeshua?

No amen, okay.

This passage says He literally will be a covenant to the people.

Did you see that in the passage?

Not He will give a covenant.

He will be the covenant.

Well, I'm old covenant.

I'm new covenant.

I'm Yeshua covenant because that is the new covenant.

At the last supper He said, this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

The servant of the Lord who is the one who pours out His blood, He is the covenant.

The servant of the Lord is the Torah.

He didn't just come to give rules.

He came to be the living Word of God.

He came to be the living example of righteousness.

He is the servant of the Lord.

Number seven, He is the light to the nations Matthew 4, 13 through 17.

And leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naftali.

This was to fulfill what was spoken to the prophet Isaiah, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naftali by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles or nations.

The people who were sitting in darkness saw great light and those who were sitting in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has dawned.

He is the Torah.

He is the covenant.

He is the light.

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He is the Torah.

He is the covenant.

He is the light.

And as such, He is our example of how to live and walk in righteousness.

But the controversy erupts between Jews and disciples of Jesus over the next servant song.

The controversy is over who is it talking about?

Is it talking about the Messiah or is it talking about Israel's role as a servant Lord?

And make no mistake, Israel was called as a nation and a people to be the servant of Lord.

But there were limits to what they could do.

The next song is found in Isaiah 42 I believe.

Beginning in verse one, listen to me oh islands and pay attention.

He's talking to the nations and you people from afar.

The Lord called me from the womb from the body of my mother.

He named me.

Notice that.

He has made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of His hand.

He has concealed me.

He has also made me a select arrow.

He has hidden me in His quiver and He said to me, you are my servant Israel whom I will show in whom I will show my glory.

But I said I have toiled in vain.

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.

That surely the justice due to me is with the Lord and my reward is with God.

And now says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to Him so that Israel might be gathered Him for I am honored in the sight of the Lord and my God is my strength.

He says is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore and preserve the ones of Israel.

Let me just stop right there.

What is God, what is He saying?

Is it a small thing for you to humble yourself so that you might rise, raise up the tribes and save the people that I love?

God is saying no this is no small thing to be the servant of the Lord.

I will also make you a light to the nation so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

For thus says the Lord the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One to the despised one to the one abhorred by the nations to the servant of rulers.

Kings will see and arise.

Princes will also bow down because of the Lord who is faithful to Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.

Every knee shall bow.

Thus says the Lord in a favorable time I have answered you and in a day of salvation I have helped you and I will keep you and give you, I will give you for a covenant to the people.

Did you hear that?

I will give you for a covenant to the people to restore the land to make them inherit the desolate heritages.

Saying to those who are bound go forth to those who are in darkness show yourselves along the roads they will feed and their pasture they will be on the barren heights.

They will not hunger or thirst nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down for he who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of living water.

I will make all my mountains a road.

We sang about this and my highways will be raised up.

Behold these will come from afar and lo these will come from the north and from the west and from the land of Sinim which is China.

Shout for joy oh heavens and rejoice oh earth break forth into joyful shouting oh mountains for the Lord has comfort his people and he will comfort the afflicted.

Don't worry I'm not going to give you seven points on that one.

I just want you to notice verse three.

You are my servant Israel in whom I will share my glory.

Just a couple of quick reminders about what the New Testament says about Jesus.

One chapter one says John records that we saw the Word of God who became flesh and tabernacled among us and he says we saw his glory.

Matthew reminds us of Hosea's prophecy out of Egypt I called my son and directly attributes to Jesus having been taken to Egypt and coming out of Egypt with his parents.

Now here's where the Jewish-Christian controversy erupts.

The modern Jewish approach is to say that these servant songs are about the nation of Israel and not the Messiah.

They do acknowledge that some of the elements of the songs are about the Messiah, the ancient sages especially.

However within Judaism there are passages, prophetic passages that refer to David that the ancient sages of Israel say are actually about the Messiah.

Now why am I telling you that?

So when you go on the internet as many people in the Hebrew roots movement did and they listened to rabbis tell them well this was talking about David or this was talking about Israel this wasn't talking about the Messiah.

They are misrepresenting what the ancient sages said and did with those passages.

They very well knew that a passage that named David was about the Messiah.

They very well knew there were passages about Israel that were talking about the Messiah.

It's only when they don't want you to see Yeshua as that Messiah that they change the rules of the game.

And I don't say that to be mean-spirited.

I say that to educate you and to protect you from that deception.

Please again notice the emphasis is on servanthood.

Verse 5 special emphasis is placed on his formation in the womb to be his God's servant so that Israel might be gathered or returned to him.

Verse 6 in this verse the Messiah's role in redeeming Israel and the nations is again declared so that my Yeshua Ati, my salvation may reach the end of the earth.

Do you love Yeshua?

Yeshua is Yeshua Ati.

He is my salvation.

My friends, the nation of Israel never accomplished this.

Yeshua did.

They couldn't accomplish what only the perfect righteous one could.

Now I told you there's a Christian and Christian controversy and I've actually seen the servant songs this week being referenced as to why Israel has no more special relationship with God than Hungary or the United States.

They focus on this because they failed to fulfill the role of the servant.

My friends, how could they fulfill that role?

We are the church.

We are the redeemed.

We are the spirit filled.

Do we always get it right?

Do we always walk in the righteousness to which we're called?

So what happens when you ask a rhetorical question?

I had a Down syndrome brother and I never learned this lesson.

I would be teaching.

I would say, is this the life that God had called us to?

And I'd say no.

And he'd say yes.

If the answer was yes, he'd say no.

And then I couldn't recover because the crowd was lost.

And I never learned, don't ask rhetorical questions.

Was Israel's servant of the Lord, they were certainly called to be?

Can they affect the salvation of the world?

No.

That was the Messiah's job.

So this is really a dumb source to try to cite to devalue Israel's role in the eyes of the Lord because of nothing else they still remain a people on this planet whom God loves.

Now if you're wondering at this point, what does any of this have to do with me as a disciple?

Listen to the words of the third servant song.

We'll call this one the obedient servant with the tongue of a disciple.

The Lord God, I can't believe I didn't write down the references to this to tell you guys these references, forgive me.

The Lord has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

Wow, I mean, listen, I gotta stop.

Pay attention to what's being said here.

This is a roadmap for discipleship.

The Lord has given me the tongue of disciples.

He's talking about Yeshua.

The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

He awakens me morning by morning.

He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back.

I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard.

I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.

For the Lord God helps me, therefore I am not disgraced.

Therefore I have set my face like a flint.

Remember what Jesus?

He set his face towards Jerusalem and he would not relent.

And I know that I will not be ashamed for he who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up to each other.

Who has a case against me?

Let him draw near to me.

Behold the Lord God helps me.

Who is he who condemns me?

Behold they will all wear out like a garment.

The moth will eat them.

Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Behold all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with firebrands.

Walk in the light of your fire and among the brands that you have set ablaze.

This you will have from my hand.

You will lay down in torment.

That last line is saying, look, if that's the light you want to walk in, the light that you kindle around you, go ahead.

But the light that you kindle around you is the light that will consume you in judgment or you can choose the light of the servant of the Lord.

What did John say?

He is the light and life of men.

Verse four, the Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples.

I don't know about you, but when I read that, I just did a double take.

I had to go look at the Hebrew.

Disciple, the word for disciple is Talmeed.

The word that is used here is Lee Moudim.

It's from the same root.

He is saying this about the servant of Lord.

He's saying this about the Messiah that he has given him the tongue or the language of disciples.

I mean, if you need a paradigm to understand why we need to be following and paying attention to Yeshua, did you listen to what he just said about him?

The servant of the Lord has a tongue of a disciple.

Well, what is the tongue of a disciple?

He answers the question, and wow, what a model for discipleship, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

Church, that's discipleship.

He awakens me morning by morning.

He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

The tongue of a disciple is to speak words that sustain the weary and the broken, not put bondage and pressure and judgment upon them.

Amen?

That's what it means to be a disciple.

I want to ask you, whether you're online or in your private conversations, do you have the servant tongue of a disciple?

A bruised reed, he would not break.

He wouldn't do anything to crush or add to the weariness or pain of the afflicted, but he had the tongue, he had the language, he knew how to speak that which would strengthen and sustain, because that's what being a disciple is, and that's what being a servant is.

Where did we learn that?

The servant of the Lord who humbled himself and became obedient even to death and a cross.

The ear of a disciple to listen to the voice in the heart of God.

I was on the Sea of Galilee one day.

That sounds so weird.

Not walking on the water, just to be clear.

I was in a boat, and I was teaching some of the things about Yeshua's ministry out on the water, and the Lord just hit me in the heart that discipleship is learning to listen to the voice of God.

That's what discipleship is.

Discipleship is learning to listen to the voice in the heart of God.

The obedience of a disciple is to not turn back, not even in the face of death, not even death on a cross.

My friends, please hear me.

Discipleship is not a method.

You're not a disciple because you go to a small group.

Yeah, I'm meddling.

Discipleship is not a method of how you learn.

It's a matter of how you listen to the master's voice.

Morning by morning, listening, master.

Remember what Jesus said about his relationship with the Father?

That he would only do what he saw and heard the Father doing.

He wasn't demeaning his identity.

He was showing his unity with the Father because the only way he can know to do and to say what the Father is doing and saying is to do what?

To listen.

Discipleship is listening.

Now we can come together in small groups, big groups, midweek groups, Shabbat groups.

Well, there's all kinds of groups we can come together and we can talk about how to do that.

But at the end of the day, you're not a disciple because you're a part of a group.

You're a disciple because you have chosen to get up every morning and listen to your master.

That would have been a great place.

I'm not needy.

I just sometimes I just don't understand.

I mean, I just maybe I'm just more fired up about it.

I think that's I'd say men there.

Sorry, my wife's going, get on point, get on point.

If you're not getting this to be a disciple is to be a servant like under the way Jesus was the servant of God.

He is our Torah.

He is our covenant.

He is the light in the darkness, light in our darkness.

He shows us how to be disciples by showing us how to be servants.

The fourth song, the suffering servant of the Lord.

Now this song actually begins in Isaiah 52, 13 and finishes Isaiah 52, 13.

But it begins with these words, but my servant will prosper.

I'm going to skip the first section because we don't have time and I want to come back to that in the next message.

But the rest of that suffering servant message is one that we're very familiar with who has believed our message and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground.

He has no stately former majesty that we should look upon him, nor the appearance that we should be attracted to him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and like one from whom men hide their face.

He was despised and we did not esteem him.

He's talking about our suffering servant.

Surely our griefs he himself bore our sorrows he carried yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions.

Let me clarify that.

He was pierced through because I sinned.

He was pierced through for my transgressions.

He was crushed because of our my iniquities and the chastening that should have been mine fell upon him and yet by his scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him and he will bear the iniquities.

He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter like a sheep that is silent before its shear so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away and for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

Let me just clarify that.

Have you have you realized he was cut off from life so that we could live.

His grave was assigned with wicked men yet he was with a rich man in his death because he done no violence.

Now there was any deceit in his mouth but the Lord was pleased to crush him putting him to grief if he would render himself as a guilt offering he will see his offspring he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands and it goes on through verse 12.

My friends here the prophet describes the suffering servant the one who is pierced for the sins of his people who takes their iniquity upon himself in the ultimate act of humility and servant hood.

My friends this is the righteousness of God.

The servant of the Lord is the Torah of the Messiah.

He is the Torah.

He is the covenant for the people.

He is the light of the nations.

He is the righteousness of God because he was given for us and as an obedient servant he did not turn back but was faithful even to the point of death.

Why say that?

Because those who die on trees are cursed.

He became a cursed so he could bless me with life.

And before the ones who were taking his life he was silent.

And on the road to Gaza a man would meet him.

Philip the apostle had been in Samaria with the apostle Peter bringing the good news to them but when it was time to leave the Lord spoke to Philip and told him the following.

He said get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert road.

When we are singing I think the first song.

You know behold you find yourself in a desert place.

Philip suddenly found himself in a desert place.

Luke records that he got up and went and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all of her treasure and he had come to Jerusalem to worship and he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

Don't envision one single chariot.

If you run the treasury of a queen you are with an entourage.

And in the midst of this entourage that has come up to Jerusalem to bring offerings and to worship the Lord now Philip sees this man.

Reading from the prophet Isaiah.

And the Spirit said to Philip go up and join him in this chariot.

Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet.

By the way very good little discipleship lesson here.

Read the word of God out loud.

When you read the word of God out loud you create a memory.

Alright.

It is better to read it out loud than to just think read it.

Just a little freebie.

And he said Philip ran up and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.

He said do you understand what you are reading?

And he said well how could I unless someone guides me or teaches me.

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter as a lamb before it shears his silent so he did not open his mouth.

In humiliation his judgment was taken away and who will relate his generation for his life is removed from the earth.

He is obviously reading from a Septuagint version of the Torah.

The eunuch answered Philip and said please tell me of whom does the prophet say this?

Isn't that interesting?

That's the ongoing debate between Judaism and Christianity about the servant songs of Isaiah.

Who's it talking about?

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from the Scripture, from this Scripture, from this Scripture, from the suffering servant song of the Messiah.

He opened his mouth and he began to teach him and preached Jesus to him.

As they went along the road they came to some water and the eunuch said behold water what prevents me from being baptized or immersed.

Philip said if you believe with all your heart you may and he answered I believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God.

He ordered the chariot to stop and both went down into the water Philip as well as the eunuch and he baptized him.

When they came out of the water the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away and the eunuch no longer saw him but went on his way rejoicing.

My friends when Philip entered the chariot of this significant man on the road to Gaza he found that he was reading from the prophet the servant song and from there on the road to Gaza he helped a man turn around.

This week the Lord has, the world has seen violence on the road to Gaza since we have not such as we have not seen since the Holocaust.

We have witnessed just how far man's depravity and ultimately his selfishness can take him.

Why do I say selfishness?

Because murder is the act of selfishness.

It is the ultimate act of selfishness.

It is the ultimate act of taking that which does not belong to you.

It is the robbing, it is the stealing of somebody else's life.

It does not just rob the person of their life, it robs God who gave that life.

As such murder is the exact, it is the ultimate opposite of the righteousness that we have been called to.

And it is the ultimate example of wickedness that we have seen this week.

Now much has been made about the name of the group that has perpetuated these barbaric acts of selfishness and murder.

The Islamic resistance movement is actually, the word Hamas is actually just an acronym, kind of like Chabad, a Jewish Orthodox group.

Chabad is actually an acronym for three Hebrew words.

And so is Hamas.

Some hear the similarity in this acronym with a Hebrew word for violence and destruction, the word Hamas.

It's a homonym.

And some overstate it and quite honestly some understate it.

We have not witnessed, and from this point on I'm talking about the biblical definition of the word, we have not witnessed such Hamas since the Holocaust.

And it is not the similarity and sound that is most striking.

It is the similarity in the violence and destruction, the definition that it has brought upon the world.

It is grotesque and vile, and as believers in Yeshua we must ask ourselves, what must we do in such a world?

What is our message?

How do we respond?

Do we go figure out which war it is?

Do we go figure out the conspiracy of why Israel did or didn't know it was coming?

My friends, this is a season in which I am watching believers of every flavor get sucked into every discussion, every debate about the things that matter the least.

My answer to you to this day is this, what do we do in a world filled with Hamas?

We introduce them to the one in whom there was no Hamas.

If the Luke had quoted one more verse of what the eunuch was reading, it would have included these words, yet he was with a rich man in death, even though he had done no Hamas.

What is our reaction to a world filled with Hamas?

It is to point them to the one in whom there is no Hamas.

There is no violence.

There is mercy.

There is compassion.

There is the heart of God pleading to a nation.

I have paid the price.

I have been obedient, even unto death.

I have come as the servant of God, not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.

People think all this is happening because Hamas hates Israel or they hate the Jewish people that has nothing to do with it.

They hate God.

And I'm asking you what road you're on today.

I'm here to ask you, are you willing to turn around on the road to Gaza?

Because I know if you're like me, Satan has wanted to take you down that path and has wanted to fill your heart with Hamas.

Come on, just nod at me if I'm .

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.

I send an email or a message to one of the men who work at the land agency in Israel, Saral Tours, and I ask, how many of your people are affected by this?

I wished I hadn't sent the email.

I have friends who have been called up who are on the front line.

They have relatives who have been murdered.

They have relatives who have been captured.

And my flesh wants to respond with Hamas.

But what the world needs is not my Hamas.

It needs the one who had no Hamas within him, who gave his life, who came as the Torah of goodness, who is the covenant, who is the light.

And let me ask you, let me just say, if you're trying to figure out what to pray, there are testimonies of people who were actually in ISIS, who came to know the Lord because Yeshua revealed Himself.

If all you can pray is, you know, Lord, kill them all.

Why don't you pray, Lord, reveal yourself to as many as are necessary?

Open their eyes that they might see the host of heaven standing in their way and run back.

Open their eyes to see the one in whom there was no Hamas, that they might give their life to him.

And no, they're on the wrong side of this fight.

And do the same for the sons of Israel, that they might realize you can't defeat the Hamas of this world.

He did.

And he didn't just do it out there.

He did it in here because it wants to grab my heart.

And I know many of you are fighting that as well.

I don't know which war we're fighting, but I know the one I'm fighting.

And I know the answer to that war is to meet the one the Ethiopian unit met on the road to Gaza, the servant of the Lord.

Years ago, I inadvertently found myself on the road to Gaza.

I believe it was the year 2000.

It was a Shabbat.

And I had received a phone call in the early evening of a young Jewish man from New York City who had gone out into the wilderness down in that direction and needed to be rescued.

I won't go into all the details of why, but he needed me to come get him.

I literally got up from the Shabbat table with the family that I was enjoying the meal with and said, well, my little donkey is in a ditch, and I got to go get him.

And so I began to head south on that road out of Jerusalem towards Gaza.

When I finally found him south of Beersheva, I almost got in a fight with three guys who were actually helping him.

I was so scared.

It's a funny story, but I won't go into it.

Thank God the Lord said, no, Brandon, don't do that.

Don't punch that guy.

He's helping.

We finally got back in the car and we started heading north.

It's like 2.

33 in the morning.

And the Holy Spirit said, Brent, turn around.

And I slowed my vehicle and I said, I think we're going the wrong way.

And I waited for a place where I could turn the vehicle around and it happened to be where once I made the turn, I could see this road signs that were indicating where I was going.

I was on the road to Gaza.

And the Holy Spirit said, Brent, turn around.

And that's my message to the church today.

Turn around.

Don't, Hamas is going to fill this world.

Don't let it fill your heart.

And when you're trying to figure out what in the world do we do, pray that people will encounter Yeshua, will encounter the truth of the servant of the Lord on the road to Gaza just like that eunuch did.

Be they Arabs or Jews, may the Lord reveal the servant of the Lord in this hour.

And may we all find our victory, worship team, in the one who is the servant of the Lord, who taught us how to humble ourselves, who taught us how to listen to the voice of the Master, who teaches us to speak as disciples, to build up and not tear down, to speak life and not death.

You may be here this morning or you may be watching online.

And you're on the road to Gaza and you need to turn around.

As I've said and prayed that I hope that Israelis and Jewish people around the world come to know Yeshua and Arabs as well, be they Muslims or whatever.

If you're watching here today or you're here today, this could be your day to turn around if you would just say, that's the Messiah, that's the one I choose.

I choose life, I choose righteousness, I choose hope, I choose love, I choose grace, I choose mercy, I choose Him.

Because He is the servant Messiah.

If you have never accepted Yeshua as your Lord and Savior and called on His name, you need to come find myself or Chris or one of the leaders whoever and let us talk to you about what that means to call on His name and we will find.

There's no water in here right now, but we can get some.

So that you too might be buried with Christ and rise to walk in the newness of life.

But right now in this moment, I'm going to invite you to stand, I'm going to invite you to sing, I'm going to invite you to let the Holy Spirit move in your heart.

And to be honest, is this a day you need to change your direction on the road to Gaza?

Let's sing.