1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:04,100 It's remarkable to go back to the beginnings 2 00:00:04,100 --> 00:00:08,180 in Genesis as a counterbalance to the character 3 00:00:08,180 --> 00:00:09,400 of our present age. 4 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:11,900 Our reality is to be found in the 5 00:00:11,900 --> 00:00:16,140 book and not in the contemporary trends of 6 00:00:16,140 --> 00:00:16,680 our time. 7 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:21,220 And how salutary, healthy, life-giving the Word 8 00:00:21,220 --> 00:00:25,480 of God is from its origins to speak 9 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:28,320 to the most pressing contemporary issue of our 10 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:28,620 life. 11 00:00:28,620 --> 00:00:31,420 So, may we be encouraged in just the 12 00:00:31,420 --> 00:00:34,280 amount that is being revealed to us in 13 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:37,800 the exploration of this text of what a 14 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:39,740 resource we have in the Word of God 15 00:00:39,740 --> 00:00:44,020 timeless and valid for all generations and especially 16 00:00:44,020 --> 00:00:44,600 the last. 17 00:00:45,580 --> 00:00:51,540 To find another expression in keeping the chosen 18 00:00:51,540 --> 00:00:55,920 people are chosen though they are not presently 19 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,920 fulfilling that call to what degree is it 20 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,760 appropriate to us to honor them for the 21 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:04,780 call, for the office, even when it is 22 00:01:04,780 --> 00:01:08,620 presently in abeyance because of sin. 23 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:15,380 What's the issue of authority in the things 24 00:01:15,380 --> 00:01:18,520 that are called, the offices that are given 25 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,700 that require our respect even when there's a 26 00:01:21,700 --> 00:01:25,600 seeming contradiction between the office and the office 27 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,120 holder when his character seems to betray the 28 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,760 very office that was given is there still 29 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,220 a respect due to the office itself as 30 00:01:35,220 --> 00:01:37,460 an authority given of God. 31 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,360 So, we read the remarkable episode with David 32 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,300 and Saul in the cave Saul being his 33 00:01:44,300 --> 00:01:47,620 persecutor, David having great opportunity once and for 34 00:01:47,620 --> 00:01:50,080 all to remove this threat to his life 35 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:53,100 and being encouraged by his soldiers to do 36 00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:57,000 so it even hurts his conscience so much 37 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,020 as to cut the cloak of Saul's garment 38 00:02:00,020 --> 00:02:04,780 and when Saul awakens to find that David 39 00:02:04,780 --> 00:02:07,400 could have killed him but did not, he 40 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,320 said, you're more righteous than I and David 41 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:14,880 bows before Saul on his face and he 42 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:19,000 cries out and calls him, my father and 43 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,800 I know that I know that this is 44 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:25,860 not a man employing artifice or courtesy in 45 00:02:25,860 --> 00:02:28,700 order to win some respect or esteem or 46 00:02:28,700 --> 00:02:31,460 maybe to even discourage Saul from his murderous 47 00:02:31,460 --> 00:02:34,560 quest it's a man who knows that the 48 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:37,920 anointing is off of the king but it 49 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:40,880 was once given and still the authority of 50 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:44,720 God and he's honoring him as father that 51 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:48,260 has got to be such a statement and 52 00:02:48,260 --> 00:02:51,780 such a ultimate highlight in the career of 53 00:02:51,780 --> 00:02:54,540 David that I think I can confidently say 54 00:02:54,540 --> 00:02:56,800 and have said it was the whole issue 55 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:00,780 of the Davidic kingdom to come the whole 56 00:03:00,780 --> 00:03:02,680 issue of what the kingdom of David would 57 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:04,140 be which is to say the kingdom of 58 00:03:04,140 --> 00:03:07,840 God is caught up in that capsule moment 59 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:10,320 when David goes on his face and says 60 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,440 to Saul his enemy and persecutor, my father 61 00:03:15,530 --> 00:03:22,190 not as a device employed for his ends 62 00:03:22,190 --> 00:03:25,230 but as a heartfelt, as Reggie said a 63 00:03:25,230 --> 00:03:28,190 genuine respect for the office of the man 64 00:03:28,190 --> 00:03:30,410 even though the man himself is in the 65 00:03:30,410 --> 00:03:33,110 lowliest so lowly a condition as to be 66 00:03:33,110 --> 00:03:36,290 the persecutor unto death of the future king 67 00:03:36,290 --> 00:03:39,230 of the kingdom are you getting that? 68 00:03:39,770 --> 00:03:40,550 isn't that remarkable? 69 00:03:40,930 --> 00:03:42,630 do we respect the office? 70 00:03:42,630 --> 00:03:44,210 do we respect the call? 71 00:03:44,710 --> 00:03:46,450 and if Israel is presently out of a 72 00:03:46,450 --> 00:03:49,250 call and Paul says in Romans but God 73 00:03:49,250 --> 00:03:51,970 has not cast them away it's not his 74 00:03:51,970 --> 00:03:59,610 enduring disposition it's a momentary parenthesis what our 75 00:03:59,610 --> 00:04:03,810 attitude toward them to be and later on 76 00:04:03,810 --> 00:04:06,330 before this week is out I'm going to 77 00:04:06,330 --> 00:04:09,070 share with you from a book by a 78 00:04:09,070 --> 00:04:14,870 Jewish theologian on the mystery of Romans what's 79 00:04:14,870 --> 00:04:15,950 the fellow's name? 80 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,640 Mark Nanos do you know him, Hans? 81 00:04:24,580 --> 00:04:29,380 and his interpretation of Romans chapter 13 Paul's 82 00:04:29,380 --> 00:04:33,340 exhortation to the church to honor and to 83 00:04:33,340 --> 00:04:35,860 submit to the authorities that are over it 84 00:04:35,860 --> 00:04:39,160 has been historically construed as Paul calling the 85 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,700 church to honor the society or the state 86 00:04:42,700 --> 00:04:46,100 in which the Roman church existed which was 87 00:04:46,100 --> 00:04:50,680 an emperor worshipping state and it has baffled 88 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,840 Christians for generations how Paul could commend that 89 00:04:53,840 --> 00:04:57,040 to Christians that they should honor a state 90 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:01,240 that celebrates as God, man the Caesar, the 91 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:06,740 emperor but in his own interpretation he says 92 00:05:06,740 --> 00:05:09,280 no, Paul's not calling for that he's calling 93 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:11,880 for the Gentile believers of the Roman church 94 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:14,660 to submit to the authority not of the 95 00:05:14,660 --> 00:05:20,330 state but of the synagogue the air went 96 00:05:20,330 --> 00:05:21,530 out of me like I was hit in 97 00:05:21,530 --> 00:05:23,850 the solar plexus what? 98 00:05:24,810 --> 00:05:28,430 believers should submit to unbelieving Jewish authorities in 99 00:05:28,430 --> 00:05:28,950 the synagogue? 100 00:05:30,090 --> 00:05:33,790 because at that time the Christians were looked 101 00:05:33,790 --> 00:05:36,610 upon as a Jewish sect and it was 102 00:05:36,610 --> 00:05:38,850 quite customary for them to take their place 103 00:05:38,850 --> 00:05:42,470 in the synagogue as being righteous Gentiles submitting 104 00:05:42,470 --> 00:05:48,470 to recognizing the salvational faith of God through 105 00:05:48,470 --> 00:05:51,070 Israel and that's why he says to them 106 00:05:51,070 --> 00:05:55,270 don't get hung up on questions of what 107 00:05:55,270 --> 00:05:57,730 you shall eat and don't fight over issues 108 00:05:57,730 --> 00:06:01,470 of diet we'll go on to some of 109 00:06:01,470 --> 00:06:05,030 this now it makes a new sense but 110 00:06:05,030 --> 00:06:08,470 that Paul could require that if it's true 111 00:06:08,470 --> 00:06:13,250 if that's a valid interpretation it's remarkably radical 112 00:06:13,250 --> 00:06:15,490 what is the implication for us today? 113 00:06:16,030 --> 00:06:18,070 do we have some kind of a deference 114 00:06:18,070 --> 00:06:19,630 that we owe to Jewish authority? 115 00:06:20,650 --> 00:06:23,810 to some respect to the synagogue to present 116 00:06:23,810 --> 00:06:27,670 day Judaism that would be becoming in God's 117 00:06:27,670 --> 00:06:31,550 sight and even temper us I think that 118 00:06:31,550 --> 00:06:34,810 those Gentile Christians in that generation in Rome 119 00:06:34,810 --> 00:06:42,390 in submitting to unbelieving synagogue authorities broke something 120 00:06:42,390 --> 00:06:44,710 and then had to break because they were 121 00:06:44,710 --> 00:06:48,950 in the superior spiritual position and yet acknowledging 122 00:06:48,950 --> 00:06:51,290 the honor of those who had not yet 123 00:06:51,290 --> 00:06:54,470 had the light of Christ that calls for 124 00:06:54,470 --> 00:06:56,890 something, that's a humbling when you see yourself 125 00:06:56,890 --> 00:07:01,010 as spiritually superior and having to bend and 126 00:07:01,010 --> 00:07:03,230 acknowledge the authority that comes from one who 127 00:07:03,230 --> 00:07:05,130 does not share your light and with whom 128 00:07:05,130 --> 00:07:11,450 you can argue and dismiss that factor, that 129 00:07:11,450 --> 00:07:16,590 dynamic has been lost to the present church 130 00:07:17,350 --> 00:07:19,750 and I think it constituted for the church 131 00:07:19,750 --> 00:07:22,590 of that generation in Paul's time the very 132 00:07:22,590 --> 00:07:25,370 thing that made the church the church that 133 00:07:25,370 --> 00:07:28,110 gave it the spirit of the lamb and 134 00:07:28,110 --> 00:07:31,510 the disposition of humility and the practicality and 135 00:07:31,510 --> 00:07:34,050 the requirement of having to relate to authority 136 00:07:34,050 --> 00:07:37,250 that was Jewish and not yet believing so 137 00:07:37,250 --> 00:07:39,850 we'll explore that further on but on what 138 00:07:39,850 --> 00:07:41,290 basis should that respect be given? 139 00:07:41,890 --> 00:07:43,830 on the basis that even though they are 140 00:07:43,830 --> 00:07:47,310 presently out of the place of God even 141 00:07:47,310 --> 00:07:50,870 so to say apostate, fallen but God has 142 00:07:50,870 --> 00:07:52,470 not cast them away and they will be 143 00:07:52,470 --> 00:07:56,770 restored the office that was given needs to 144 00:07:56,770 --> 00:07:58,490 be respected why? 145 00:07:59,010 --> 00:08:02,350 because of the giver not to respect the 146 00:08:02,350 --> 00:08:05,010 office given though it can hardly be fulfilled 147 00:08:05,010 --> 00:08:07,210 in that condition is not to respect him 148 00:08:07,210 --> 00:08:09,810 who has given it the thou shalt of 149 00:08:09,810 --> 00:08:13,430 God thou shalt honor is so deep, so 150 00:08:13,430 --> 00:08:17,050 pervasive and because we have not taken it 151 00:08:17,050 --> 00:08:20,090 up in our consideration there's a dimension of 152 00:08:20,090 --> 00:08:22,950 the deepest kind missing from what we ought 153 00:08:22,950 --> 00:08:25,510 to be as the church that Shem-like 154 00:08:25,510 --> 00:08:29,010 character that he himself exhibited in the crisis 155 00:08:29,010 --> 00:08:33,549 of Noah's drunkenness can we suggest that God 156 00:08:33,549 --> 00:08:36,090 has tested the church and is testing the 157 00:08:36,090 --> 00:08:39,549 church by Israel in the same way that 158 00:08:39,549 --> 00:08:41,830 the sons were tested by the glory departing 159 00:08:41,830 --> 00:08:45,010 from Noah it's the issue of the glory 160 00:08:45,010 --> 00:08:47,990 departing that is the issue it's easy to 161 00:08:47,990 --> 00:08:50,330 give deference and respect to whom it's due 162 00:08:50,330 --> 00:08:54,410 when they're acting appropriately according to the office 163 00:08:54,410 --> 00:08:56,690 and title that they've been given but when 164 00:08:56,690 --> 00:08:59,710 they fail in that and the glory departs 165 00:09:00,450 --> 00:09:01,790 what is your response then? 166 00:09:02,370 --> 00:09:05,890 so there's a remarkable parallel between the testing 167 00:09:05,890 --> 00:09:09,270 of the sons through the fallenness of Noah 168 00:09:09,270 --> 00:09:11,150 and the testing of the church by the 169 00:09:11,150 --> 00:09:14,110 fallenness of Israel if we can give Israel 170 00:09:14,110 --> 00:09:17,210 the honor do it not because she's in 171 00:09:17,210 --> 00:09:19,510 her glory but all the more because she's 172 00:09:19,510 --> 00:09:21,750 out of her glory then are we really 173 00:09:21,750 --> 00:09:25,410 showing the Shem-like character for which God 174 00:09:25,410 --> 00:09:27,590 is wanting and waiting you understand? 175 00:09:28,210 --> 00:09:32,070 it's not only because even though they are 176 00:09:32,910 --> 00:09:36,690 outside their glory but especially because they are 177 00:09:36,690 --> 00:09:40,950 outside their glory are we tested think of 178 00:09:40,950 --> 00:09:42,890 that in every application whether it's an elder 179 00:09:42,890 --> 00:09:45,170 in the church whether it's a father in 180 00:09:45,170 --> 00:09:48,610 the household we're tested all the more by 181 00:09:48,610 --> 00:09:51,790 the seeming failure and contradiction of the one 182 00:09:51,790 --> 00:09:54,950 who has been given the office tests the 183 00:09:54,950 --> 00:09:57,430 depth of our heart whether we respect the 184 00:09:57,430 --> 00:10:01,450 office itself the title itself the givenness itself 185 00:10:02,030 --> 00:10:05,950 even in the apparent contradiction of that person 186 00:10:05,950 --> 00:10:08,790 or nation at that moment all the more 187 00:10:08,790 --> 00:10:11,530 especially are we tested when we could easily 188 00:10:11,530 --> 00:10:12,850 get off the hook and say well that's 189 00:10:12,850 --> 00:10:15,090 the way that Israel is going to deport 190 00:10:15,090 --> 00:10:17,450 herself if that's the way she has blasphemed 191 00:10:17,450 --> 00:10:19,470 her name in every nation she's no longer 192 00:10:19,470 --> 00:10:22,690 worthy of the acknowledgement or honor that ought 193 00:10:22,690 --> 00:10:25,070 to be initially due her no, all the 194 00:10:25,070 --> 00:10:27,230 more reason that she needs to be honored 195 00:10:27,230 --> 00:10:30,350 and what does that mean then how does 196 00:10:30,350 --> 00:10:33,190 that honoring find its expression is it just 197 00:10:33,190 --> 00:10:35,390 some private thought that we have or is 198 00:10:35,390 --> 00:10:36,950 there a practical way in which it can 199 00:10:36,950 --> 00:10:40,130 be expressed to the nation that is being 200 00:10:40,130 --> 00:10:42,330 ravaged at every side and being demeaned in 201 00:10:42,330 --> 00:10:47,210 the press it needs to hear something from 202 00:10:47,210 --> 00:10:49,550 us that is heartfelt and sincere that is 203 00:10:49,550 --> 00:10:53,030 not sentimental not slobbery not looking the other 204 00:10:53,030 --> 00:10:54,670 way as if you're doing all things well 205 00:10:54,670 --> 00:10:57,630 but even in all your failing yet we 206 00:10:57,630 --> 00:10:59,670 express to you the honor that is your 207 00:10:59,670 --> 00:11:02,990 due you are the chosen people of God 208 00:11:02,990 --> 00:11:05,790 he has given you that call and because 209 00:11:05,790 --> 00:11:07,550 he has we respect him who has given 210 00:11:07,550 --> 00:11:11,230 it if David could respect the murderer that 211 00:11:11,230 --> 00:11:14,770 Saul had become and say my father out 212 00:11:14,770 --> 00:11:16,870 of a deepest heart of respect what ought 213 00:11:16,870 --> 00:11:18,450 we to say to those who have been 214 00:11:18,450 --> 00:11:21,470 the fathers of our faith all the more 215 00:11:21,470 --> 00:11:25,810 especially in their fallenness especially because their glory 216 00:11:25,810 --> 00:11:30,410 has departed are we tested everything of Jesus' 217 00:11:30,830 --> 00:11:35,190 acts has this foundation to honor his father 218 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,230 he's the supreme servant son whose whole purpose 219 00:11:39,230 --> 00:11:41,850 for being is to honor the father though 220 00:11:41,850 --> 00:11:44,090 in that honoring of the father there's a 221 00:11:44,090 --> 00:11:47,130 dishonoring that comes to him have you thought 222 00:11:47,130 --> 00:11:49,910 ever that if had Shem had gone along 223 00:11:49,910 --> 00:11:52,130 with Cain and Ham he would have been 224 00:11:52,130 --> 00:11:55,230 the next successor he's the firstborn so what 225 00:11:55,230 --> 00:11:57,490 a wonderful opportunity to get Noah out of 226 00:11:57,490 --> 00:11:59,870 the way he's had his fling and he's 227 00:11:59,870 --> 00:12:01,850 had his time and now he's shown in 228 00:12:01,850 --> 00:12:03,970 his failure that maybe that time has come 229 00:12:03,970 --> 00:12:05,750 to an end and it's time for me 230 00:12:05,750 --> 00:12:08,430 now as the firstborn and the eldest son 231 00:12:08,430 --> 00:12:12,130 to take over the spiritual reigns don't think 232 00:12:12,130 --> 00:12:14,990 that that temptation was not put before him 233 00:12:14,990 --> 00:12:16,790 and that the enemy of our souls was 234 00:12:16,790 --> 00:12:21,210 not there saying take advantage of your discredited 235 00:12:21,210 --> 00:12:23,950 father and come into the place that you 236 00:12:23,950 --> 00:12:27,450 really deserve and you'll show much more than 237 00:12:27,450 --> 00:12:29,290 he ever did what it means to be 238 00:12:29,290 --> 00:12:33,490 God's supreme servant spiritual temptation is the most 239 00:12:33,490 --> 00:12:36,390 powerful of every kind but you can see 240 00:12:36,390 --> 00:12:39,770 from the instant obedience of Shem to cover 241 00:12:39,770 --> 00:12:42,430 his father that he would not for a 242 00:12:42,430 --> 00:12:46,470 moment consider any benefit that he might obtain 243 00:12:46,470 --> 00:12:53,830 out of his father's fallenness so we see 244 00:12:53,830 --> 00:12:55,690 there again the character of God the character 245 00:12:55,690 --> 00:13:01,330 of Jesus and how about the fallenness of 246 00:13:01,330 --> 00:13:04,430 Jesus before his own disciples who had thought 247 00:13:04,430 --> 00:13:06,630 it had been he who would have restored 248 00:13:06,630 --> 00:13:09,310 the glory to Israel but alack and alas 249 00:13:09,310 --> 00:13:12,130 there's that poor pathetic cadaver hanging on the 250 00:13:12,130 --> 00:13:20,610 cross hardly human and totally discredited he had 251 00:13:20,610 --> 00:13:23,810 to bear that sense of failure of their 252 00:13:23,810 --> 00:13:29,910 expectancy their disappointment and the high illusion that 253 00:13:29,910 --> 00:13:33,110 they held about him as being a necessary 254 00:13:33,110 --> 00:13:37,630 part of the whole servant suffering walk required 255 00:13:37,630 --> 00:13:41,010 to honor the father and of course he's 256 00:13:41,010 --> 00:13:45,050 still in many ways suffering disrespect worldwide and 257 00:13:45,050 --> 00:13:48,810 even in the church so if it was 258 00:13:48,810 --> 00:13:51,610 becoming to the Lord himself in his earthly 259 00:13:51,610 --> 00:13:56,390 tenure to be an object of fallenness whose 260 00:13:56,390 --> 00:13:59,630 glory had departed and to leave his admirers 261 00:14:00,250 --> 00:14:03,510 deflated and alack and alas and their countenances 262 00:14:03,510 --> 00:14:06,630 fallen to what degree can we walk out 263 00:14:06,630 --> 00:14:09,750 this life as servant sons and not be 264 00:14:09,750 --> 00:14:11,670 that kind of an object to those around 265 00:14:11,670 --> 00:14:13,810 us are you understanding me? 266 00:14:14,590 --> 00:14:18,970 how willing are we to be misunderstood or 267 00:14:18,970 --> 00:14:21,550 to fail and God doesn't explain to us 268 00:14:21,550 --> 00:14:24,090 that we're going to get drunk he doesn't 269 00:14:24,090 --> 00:14:25,590 explain to us that this is going to 270 00:14:25,590 --> 00:14:27,650 happen in order to do this it merely 271 00:14:27,650 --> 00:14:30,350 happens and you have to bear it without 272 00:14:30,350 --> 00:14:33,470 explanation and trust that it will redound to 273 00:14:33,470 --> 00:14:36,990 the glory of God the father but that 274 00:14:36,990 --> 00:14:41,210 there must come a dishonoring of yourself as 275 00:14:41,210 --> 00:14:44,390 the price necessary to reveal the secret hearts 276 00:14:44,390 --> 00:14:46,970 of those about you in order that they 277 00:14:46,970 --> 00:14:50,510 might themselves become sons out of repentance the 278 00:14:50,510 --> 00:14:54,970 Lord suffered that Noah suffered that God the 279 00:14:54,970 --> 00:14:58,110 father suffered that suffers that continually and we 280 00:14:58,110 --> 00:15:01,850 who have any call to authority and place 281 00:15:01,850 --> 00:15:05,130 in the government of God I think in 282 00:15:05,130 --> 00:15:08,270 some measure have to expect and to experience 283 00:15:08,270 --> 00:15:13,530 that are we willing to glorify God the 284 00:15:13,530 --> 00:15:17,670 father at the expense of our humiliation and 285 00:15:17,670 --> 00:15:20,590 that Israel herself has suffered a dishonoring for 286 00:15:20,590 --> 00:15:23,530 the church's sake she has no consciousness of 287 00:15:23,530 --> 00:15:27,870 it but even in her apostasy she's fulfilling 288 00:15:27,870 --> 00:15:31,670 a servant son function that was necessary for 289 00:15:31,670 --> 00:15:34,690 the church's sake to test us over the 290 00:15:34,690 --> 00:15:37,590 issue of the respect for the calling and 291 00:15:37,590 --> 00:15:41,530 the chosenness of God for that people and 292 00:15:41,530 --> 00:15:45,630 how long has she borne that reproach and 293 00:15:45,630 --> 00:15:50,530 the failure to acknowledge us to the acknowledgement 294 00:15:50,530 --> 00:15:53,250 that should have come from us and that 295 00:15:53,250 --> 00:15:56,250 is the issue of the church itself there's 296 00:15:56,250 --> 00:16:00,490 a there's a brave statement the issue of 297 00:16:00,490 --> 00:16:04,970 our attitude toward present Jewry, toward present Judaism 298 00:16:04,970 --> 00:16:09,530 toward present Israel and whether we will give 299 00:16:09,530 --> 00:16:14,330 them a respect due their call even in 300 00:16:14,330 --> 00:16:19,170 their present apostasy and departure of their glory 301 00:16:19,170 --> 00:16:22,130 is the issue of the church itself as 302 00:16:22,130 --> 00:16:28,290 church wow how far will God go at 303 00:16:28,290 --> 00:16:30,830 the expense of an entire nation people Israel 304 00:16:30,830 --> 00:16:33,830 and the Jew to bring us to the 305 00:16:33,830 --> 00:16:36,570 place of Shem character for which he waits 306 00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:38,310 and which is the conclusion of the whole 307 00:16:38,310 --> 00:16:41,030 age for if we do not obtain it 308 00:16:41,030 --> 00:16:45,750 into what tent will Japheth come Japheth then 309 00:16:45,750 --> 00:16:49,030 will be the enlarged terror of the world 310 00:16:49,030 --> 00:16:52,130 in his capability for turning his enlargement into 311 00:16:52,130 --> 00:16:55,330 death unless he comes into our tent into 312 00:16:55,330 --> 00:16:58,370 that tent of Shem and receive there the 313 00:16:58,370 --> 00:17:03,230 modifying mediating influences that reside in Shem alone 314 00:17:03,230 --> 00:17:06,349 he will be a threat to the whole 315 00:17:06,349 --> 00:17:09,589 of the world and to himself it's a 316 00:17:09,589 --> 00:17:13,829 race for time so to speak so how 317 00:17:13,829 --> 00:17:15,810 far will God go to obtain the fulfillment 318 00:17:15,810 --> 00:17:18,970 of this mystery whose first expression is given 319 00:17:18,970 --> 00:17:20,970 as it has every right to be in 320 00:17:20,970 --> 00:17:26,000 the book of beginnings a great deal of 321 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,620 the resistance against me and against the message 322 00:17:30,420 --> 00:17:34,500 of Israel comes from Christian Zionists and those 323 00:17:34,500 --> 00:17:37,580 who celebrate the nation presently and the people 324 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,800 in a kind of romantic highly idealized way 325 00:17:42,660 --> 00:17:45,360 that does not reckon on the realities that 326 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:48,820 are everyday being exhibited in Israel that God 327 00:17:48,820 --> 00:17:52,100 insists must be exhibited that we would finally 328 00:17:52,100 --> 00:17:54,160 acknowledge the truth of God's word there is 329 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:56,100 no man good nor not one we Jews 330 00:17:56,100 --> 00:17:59,300 do not have any intrinsic virtue above man 331 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,180 so instead of acknowledging and seeing what God 332 00:18:03,180 --> 00:18:06,240 is after they look away and they justify 333 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,900 and explain every kind of thing that the 334 00:18:08,900 --> 00:18:11,140 present state of Israel is required to employ 335 00:18:11,140 --> 00:18:13,720 in its preservation the use of torture, violence, 336 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,800 all those kinds of things this is contrary 337 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:21,220 to God's intention for the church toward Israel 338 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:26,580 not to idealize and romanticize an image that 339 00:18:26,580 --> 00:18:31,720 we have created and forced and put upon 340 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,460 them as completely contrary to what is the 341 00:18:34,460 --> 00:18:36,960 truth of their condition, their reality but to 342 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:38,860 esteem them and to respect and to honor 343 00:18:38,860 --> 00:18:41,760 them in the revelation of what their present 344 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:45,980 character is see what I mean so I 345 00:18:45,980 --> 00:18:47,420 want to get at the issue of being 346 00:18:47,420 --> 00:18:52,380 romantic and idealizing and having mental concepts and 347 00:18:52,380 --> 00:18:57,020 the way in which we celebrate certain present 348 00:18:57,020 --> 00:19:03,560 day evangelical leaders and ministers and they have 349 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:09,080 whole followings that is based on this thing 350 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:12,680 of illusion and maybe what we respond to 351 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:20,920 as disappointment angry disappointment and disrespect is not 352 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:23,240 because the man has failed but our ideal 353 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,200 of him has failed our anger is the 354 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:30,580 collapse of a humanly contrived elevated notion that 355 00:19:30,580 --> 00:19:33,940 that man had no obligation to fulfill but 356 00:19:33,940 --> 00:19:38,460 it disappoints us and our anger indicates our 357 00:19:38,460 --> 00:19:41,600 disappointment that something is amiss with us more 358 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,980 than the man himself instead of the benign 359 00:19:43,980 --> 00:19:48,480 patience and forbearance of correcting a brother how 360 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:49,940 does that scripture go? 361 00:19:50,820 --> 00:19:54,400 you would just spiritually restore the brother instead 362 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,540 of that spiritual attitude of identification that brings 363 00:19:58,540 --> 00:20:01,200 the restoration we walk away in a huff 364 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,400 of disappointment and justify ourselves at the expense 365 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,420 of the fallen one because what we're really 366 00:20:07,420 --> 00:20:09,480 responding to is not so much his fall 367 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,500 but the collapse of the ideal that he 368 00:20:12,500 --> 00:20:14,880 represented to us that has to do with 369 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,760 our own self aggrandizement why do we idealize? 370 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:23,260 why do we impute to others a loftier 371 00:20:23,260 --> 00:20:24,440 thing than God's intention? 372 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:26,940 it has something to do with something that 373 00:20:26,940 --> 00:20:29,780 we want someday perhaps to enjoy but it's 374 00:20:29,780 --> 00:20:34,120 false it's an illusion it's unreality so on 375 00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:38,240 July 30th in Watchmen in Oswald Chambers my 376 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:41,440 utmost for his highest he takes up something 377 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:45,180 he calls the discipline of disillusionment that disillusionment 378 00:20:45,180 --> 00:20:47,000 is not a bad thing it's actually a 379 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:50,740 grace from God for illusion is lie and 380 00:20:50,740 --> 00:20:52,600 we know that the father of lies is 381 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,440 an illusionist and that the whole world lives 382 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,980 in a fantasy land of romanticism and that's 383 00:20:58,980 --> 00:21:03,460 why marriages collapse families are destroyed because of 384 00:21:03,460 --> 00:21:06,220 the things that are in our culture that 385 00:21:06,220 --> 00:21:09,440 are cultivated that we think the marriage is 386 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:11,360 going to be and totally fits us for 387 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:14,360 the reality to which we're called to experience 388 00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:16,140 and the moment that we're disappointed in it 389 00:21:16,140 --> 00:21:18,080 we're ready to throw it over and try 390 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:22,180 try again so he writes the refusal to 391 00:21:22,180 --> 00:21:24,940 be disillusioned is the cause of much of 392 00:21:24,940 --> 00:21:27,980 the suffering in human life it works in 393 00:21:27,980 --> 00:21:29,440 this way we love a human being and 394 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:31,860 do not love God we demand of him 395 00:21:31,860 --> 00:21:34,820 every perfection and every rectitude and when we 396 00:21:34,820 --> 00:21:36,680 do not get it we become cruel and 397 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,920 vindictive you see that in the disappointed spouse 398 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:47,180 cruel and vindictive this lofty love that was 399 00:21:47,180 --> 00:21:50,620 so romantic suddenly turns and becomes its very 400 00:21:50,620 --> 00:21:54,260 opposite we are demanding of a human being 401 00:21:54,260 --> 00:21:57,040 that which he or she cannot give we 402 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:01,820 have an unrealistic perception of man if of 403 00:22:01,820 --> 00:22:04,660 our spouses what of ourselves because we have 404 00:22:04,660 --> 00:22:06,920 not recognized the truth of our own condition 405 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:08,980 that there's no man good, no not one 406 00:22:11,510 --> 00:22:14,450 so there's only one being who can satisfy 407 00:22:14,450 --> 00:22:16,970 the last aching abyss of the human heart 408 00:22:16,970 --> 00:22:19,430 and that is the Lord Jesus Christ why 409 00:22:19,430 --> 00:22:21,710 our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every 410 00:22:21,710 --> 00:22:25,110 human relationship is because he knows that every 411 00:22:26,110 --> 00:22:28,810 relationship not based on loyalty to himself will 412 00:22:28,810 --> 00:22:33,250 end in disaster you cannot directly relate a 413 00:22:33,250 --> 00:22:35,890 human being to another human being if Jesus 414 00:22:35,890 --> 00:22:41,810 is not the the prism the mediator between 415 00:22:41,810 --> 00:22:44,250 husband and wife there's going to be an 416 00:22:44,250 --> 00:22:46,950 inordinate demand of the one of the other 417 00:22:46,950 --> 00:22:49,810 that cannot be fulfilled and must necessarily end 418 00:22:49,810 --> 00:22:53,110 in disappointment every relationship has got to be 419 00:22:53,110 --> 00:22:55,310 seen in and through Christ and has got 420 00:22:55,310 --> 00:22:57,090 to be affected and realized in and through 421 00:22:57,090 --> 00:22:59,450 Christ not just invoked as a kind of 422 00:22:59,450 --> 00:23:02,570 a catch word but a very reality the 423 00:23:02,570 --> 00:23:06,510 relation directly one to another is idolatrous it 424 00:23:06,510 --> 00:23:09,110 must pass through Christ to come to the 425 00:23:09,110 --> 00:23:11,370 other in the redemptive way that it can 426 00:23:11,370 --> 00:23:14,450 only come if he himself is the third 427 00:23:14,450 --> 00:23:18,610 fold cord of that union of a three 428 00:23:18,610 --> 00:23:21,510 fold cord that cannot be broken if he 429 00:23:21,510 --> 00:23:23,170 is out of the picture you can count 430 00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:25,630 on disaster and however happy they might be 431 00:23:25,630 --> 00:23:27,870 for a season on the happy accident of 432 00:23:27,870 --> 00:23:30,650 compatibility or they are saved from tensions and 433 00:23:30,650 --> 00:23:34,750 so on inevitably it has to end not 434 00:23:34,750 --> 00:23:38,150 only sadly but tragically and cruelly and vindictively 435 00:23:38,150 --> 00:23:42,730 because a human ideal has been disappointed the 436 00:23:42,730 --> 00:23:47,890 last refuge of humanism is idealism and don't 437 00:23:47,890 --> 00:23:49,490 think that we have been saved from it 438 00:23:50,030 --> 00:23:52,490 because we are Christians and we are opposed 439 00:23:52,490 --> 00:23:55,570 to humanism it will find a last opportunity 440 00:23:55,570 --> 00:23:59,410 to find lodging in our souls in idealism 441 00:23:59,730 --> 00:24:06,370 because idealism is human celebration human imagining human 442 00:24:06,370 --> 00:24:14,330 conception human desire of something unrelated to the 443 00:24:14,330 --> 00:24:18,090 reality of something as God has given it 444 00:24:18,090 --> 00:24:21,810 and so the first requisite is to recognize 445 00:24:21,810 --> 00:24:26,130 that the relationship is God given and that 446 00:24:26,130 --> 00:24:30,070 the disappointment is a very benevolence of God 447 00:24:30,070 --> 00:24:33,770 to save us from a marriage based on 448 00:24:33,770 --> 00:24:40,590 faulty idealism that cannot be fulfilled so I 449 00:24:40,590 --> 00:24:43,310 wrote here Shem was not disillusioned about his 450 00:24:43,310 --> 00:24:46,090 father Noah why? 451 00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:49,230 because he did not have a lofty notion 452 00:24:49,230 --> 00:24:52,770 of his father that was conceived and conjured 453 00:24:52,770 --> 00:24:55,150 up out of his own soul which one 454 00:24:55,150 --> 00:24:57,270 day he would hope to share in that 455 00:24:57,270 --> 00:25:00,590 elevation that is false he saw his father 456 00:25:00,590 --> 00:25:04,210 realistically as a man in his mortality in 457 00:25:04,210 --> 00:25:07,010 his frailty, in his weakness but it did 458 00:25:07,010 --> 00:25:09,610 not in any way lessen the respect, reverence 459 00:25:09,610 --> 00:25:11,490 and honor for the father, but I would 460 00:25:11,490 --> 00:25:14,750 say all the more would augment it because 461 00:25:14,750 --> 00:25:17,950 any respect that is predicated on a false 462 00:25:17,950 --> 00:25:21,570 supposition that issues out of our imagination or 463 00:25:21,570 --> 00:25:24,450 idealism or humanism is not a respect at 464 00:25:24,450 --> 00:25:27,310 all, it's a respect for our ideal, but 465 00:25:27,310 --> 00:25:32,440 not for the man himself, so a true 466 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,840 son makes no demands there's not a standard 467 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,040 to which Noah must conform or to which 468 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,100 an elder must conform, though of course we 469 00:25:42,100 --> 00:25:46,160 know there are biblical guidelines that constitute a 470 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,820 condition for eldership, but we ourselves do not 471 00:25:48,820 --> 00:25:52,160 impose anything beyond that and even with those 472 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:56,300 requirements we have a disposition disposition to be 473 00:25:57,580 --> 00:26:02,940 understanding what's the word magnanimous if it is 474 00:26:02,940 --> 00:26:05,660 not met to the letter or it's not 475 00:26:05,660 --> 00:26:06,800 met in a way that we think it 476 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,060 ought to be met, after all ought not 477 00:26:09,060 --> 00:26:12,460 an elder to have his house in control 478 00:26:12,460 --> 00:26:16,660 how does the word go in order well 479 00:26:16,660 --> 00:26:18,180 what if his wife this, what if his 480 00:26:18,180 --> 00:26:21,820 children this, is that an automatic statement that 481 00:26:21,820 --> 00:26:25,340 he's in this order, or are there perplexities 482 00:26:25,340 --> 00:26:28,480 and details and conditions that God is requiring 483 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:30,920 for him that have not been required of 484 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,060 you, for which you need a tolerant respect 485 00:26:33,060 --> 00:26:36,040 while it's being out worked, and not be 486 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,220 quick to jump on what seems to be 487 00:26:38,220 --> 00:26:40,960 a breach of the conditions that God has 488 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:45,640 stipulated that's a Shem-like attitude that's a 489 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,860 precious grace because we know that we ourselves 490 00:26:49,860 --> 00:26:56,120 are dust so Shem was not disillusioned he 491 00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:58,740 made no demand and he cultivated no ideals 492 00:27:00,340 --> 00:27:02,660 I said Jews might be willing to forgive 493 00:27:02,660 --> 00:27:08,360 Germans the concentration camps and the systematic annihilation 494 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:10,560 of 6 million of us but we cannot 495 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,280 forgive them the collapse of our ideal that 496 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:17,820 German civilization represented for us, we'll forgive them 497 00:27:17,820 --> 00:27:19,740 our death, but we'll not forgive them the 498 00:27:19,740 --> 00:27:23,180 collapse of our ideal, because German civilization had 499 00:27:23,180 --> 00:27:26,140 been for us our messianic hope we had 500 00:27:26,140 --> 00:27:29,700 become so alienated from the scriptures and from 501 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:33,520 the divine fulfillment that we saw in German 502 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:37,680 civilization it's high ethical and philosophical and literary 503 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,760 quality of that fulfillment and when that failed 504 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:45,720 and they became our monsters of execution, we 505 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:48,440 can more quickly forgive them the execution than 506 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,000 we can forgive them the collapse of the 507 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:54,080 ideal that sustained us can you follow that? 508 00:27:55,180 --> 00:28:00,700 Idealism is the last refuge of humanism and 509 00:28:00,700 --> 00:28:03,200 that means God's solution to that is to 510 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:08,640 be disillusioned disillusionment is a grace, but it's 511 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,520 not a pleasant grace, we want to cling 512 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,120 to our illusions because they serve very clear 513 00:28:15,120 --> 00:28:19,420 purposes in establishing a whole mode of understanding 514 00:28:19,420 --> 00:28:22,260 and life in which we want to find 515 00:28:22,260 --> 00:28:24,460 our part and want ourselves to be recognized 516 00:28:24,460 --> 00:28:29,520 by others but it's false so the whole 517 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:33,460 world lives in the lie in illusion and 518 00:28:33,460 --> 00:28:36,900 God's mercy to us is to allow us 519 00:28:36,900 --> 00:28:40,200 the privilege of disillusionment but how does he 520 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:40,920 give it to us? 521 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,580 he gives it to us through men in 522 00:28:43,580 --> 00:28:46,220 whom we have attached ourselves and looked with 523 00:28:46,220 --> 00:28:50,960 great expectancy only to see them crash or 524 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,840 the people Israel themselves and in that his 525 00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:57,460 intention is that whatever is false in the 526 00:28:57,460 --> 00:28:59,820 way in which we beheld, either that servant 527 00:28:59,820 --> 00:29:02,240 or that nation, it needs to come into 528 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,500 death, that we might behold them realistically and 529 00:29:05,500 --> 00:29:08,800 rightly and still give them the respect due 530 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,780 even in their apparent failure, follow me? 531 00:29:15,700 --> 00:29:19,420 this needs to sink so deeply into our 532 00:29:19,420 --> 00:29:23,100 spirits it's really ironic that this whole message 533 00:29:23,100 --> 00:29:26,380 of the Tent of Shem had its birth 534 00:29:26,380 --> 00:29:30,020 last year, last summer coming back with wide 535 00:29:30,020 --> 00:29:34,260 -eyed naivety thinking that though I had received 536 00:29:36,580 --> 00:29:40,180 severe reaction where it was first spoken that 537 00:29:40,180 --> 00:29:42,260 here at Ben Israel I would find accommodation 538 00:29:42,260 --> 00:29:46,500 and a home but instead I got something 539 00:29:46,500 --> 00:29:50,040 of the same backlash of reaction against that 540 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,100 word as I found elsewhere well, okay, I 541 00:29:53,100 --> 00:29:56,000 can bear that but the reaction and the 542 00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:00,100 backlash was expressed openly so that the messenger 543 00:30:00,100 --> 00:30:05,380 was openly exhibited as an object of failure 544 00:30:05,380 --> 00:30:10,820 and a man dangerously flirting with heresy publicly 545 00:30:10,820 --> 00:30:13,800 by members within our own body before those 546 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,000 that were called like you to the school 547 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:20,160 and to the convocation isn't it remarkable that 548 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,080 that humiliation had to be born that we 549 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:27,180 now receive some measure of the benefit of 550 00:30:27,180 --> 00:30:29,820 the blessing of it, that suffering preceded whatever 551 00:30:29,820 --> 00:30:32,480 measure this glory is but it had to 552 00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:36,560 be born this is servanthood, this is sonship 553 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:41,820 to be an object that your I often 554 00:30:41,820 --> 00:30:43,820 say the greatest use that God has made 555 00:30:43,820 --> 00:30:45,600 of me at Ben Israel is to be 556 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:47,780 the object of disillusionment for those who come 557 00:30:49,620 --> 00:30:55,560 that's my principle ministry and I have handled 558 00:30:55,560 --> 00:31:02,340 it wonderfully I've never failed to disillusion and 559 00:31:02,340 --> 00:31:04,620 I've not been that great a failure under 560 00:31:04,620 --> 00:31:06,080 my own roof and with my own children 561 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,840 and my own wife but it's a painful 562 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:13,120 transition to forsake and forego that because so 563 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,820 much is attached to that false and illusory 564 00:31:15,820 --> 00:31:18,940 thing our own image we want to see 565 00:31:18,940 --> 00:31:21,780 the false thing continued in the other so 566 00:31:21,780 --> 00:31:23,960 that our hope one day to share in 567 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,920 that kind of elevation and exaltation admiration from 568 00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,520 others will be given to us, if it 569 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,000 collapses for him then it collapses for us 570 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,240 and we don't want to consider that so 571 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,060 can you imagine a church in which an 572 00:31:38,060 --> 00:31:42,680 elder and a leader is respected, honored even 573 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:44,920 in his frailty and in his mortality and 574 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,560 in his failure and that that affects the 575 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,260 whole atmosphere in which the church has its 576 00:31:50,260 --> 00:31:53,420 life and passes not only to the elder 577 00:31:53,420 --> 00:31:57,340 but to every member that's the church that's 578 00:31:57,340 --> 00:32:00,900 the tent of Shem into which our Jewish 579 00:32:00,900 --> 00:32:03,960 community must first come that we establish for 580 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:08,000 it that they in turn might fulfill that 581 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,040 tent for the Jafeth nations of the world 582 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,560 we ought to exhibit to them their call, 583 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,460 but this is what the tent of Shem 584 00:32:16,460 --> 00:32:20,520 is it's not just a drapery, it's an 585 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,500 environment it's a reality, it's a truth it's 586 00:32:23,500 --> 00:32:26,380 a mode of being and at its heart 587 00:32:26,380 --> 00:32:29,480 is the issue of honor and respect and 588 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:31,320 that was exhibited by the first son of 589 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,920 Shem in the covering of his father though 590 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,640 he had every advantage to gain in leaving 591 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:41,600 his father uncovered and enjoying Ham and Canaan 592 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,620 in mocking the father and becoming therefore the 593 00:32:45,620 --> 00:32:50,100 new heir and take over Guy he forsook 594 00:32:50,100 --> 00:32:54,780 that because he respected the God of Shem 595 00:32:54,780 --> 00:32:58,000 and no one knew that and the prophetic 596 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,360 blessing that comes out of his mouth is 597 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:02,860 not for Shem personally but blessed be the 598 00:33:02,860 --> 00:33:05,160 God of Shem because what you have done 599 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,540 for me is so clearly the expression of 600 00:33:07,540 --> 00:33:10,520 that God, what you expressed in that moment 601 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,420 is a God who honors a God who 602 00:33:13,420 --> 00:33:18,740 says thou shalt, it's foundational for life and 603 00:33:18,740 --> 00:33:21,580 for reality and when that is lost, everything 604 00:33:21,580 --> 00:33:23,720 is lost, and we see it in our 605 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:26,300 schools, I praise God I'm delivered from having 606 00:33:26,300 --> 00:33:28,560 to be a teacher today in this generation, 607 00:33:28,700 --> 00:33:31,840 I had enough struggle 30 or 40 more 608 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:34,720 years ago of the disrespect for students in 609 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:37,880 the classroom for their teachers, disrespect for authorities, 610 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:41,620 disrespect for the police disrespect for courts because 611 00:33:41,620 --> 00:33:44,960 there's no respect for God who gave these 612 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:49,020 authorities to which we should be submitted, calling 613 00:33:49,020 --> 00:33:51,280 teachers by their first name as if it's 614 00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:55,940 Buddy Buddy, in my time that was unthought 615 00:33:55,940 --> 00:33:57,620 of that you would call a teacher by 616 00:33:57,620 --> 00:34:01,720 his first name, it's Mr. Cass so we 617 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,580 need to know there's been a tremendous loss 618 00:34:04,580 --> 00:34:06,720 of what is foundational not only to the 619 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:10,580 church, but to civilization itself and how shall 620 00:34:10,580 --> 00:34:13,440 it be restored but by the church to 621 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:18,020 civilization by our own modeling to the world 622 00:34:18,020 --> 00:34:20,360 the reality to which God calls all men 623 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:24,020 everywhere, all nations that we ourselves will exhibit 624 00:34:24,020 --> 00:34:27,199 to them in the respect and honor that 625 00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:29,940 they see that prevails in the church the 626 00:34:29,940 --> 00:34:32,040 kind of thing that ought to guide and 627 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:36,040 govern them in their relationship in society following 628 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:36,340 me? 629 00:34:39,909 --> 00:34:43,070 Thank you Lord, that when we get the 630 00:34:43,070 --> 00:34:46,530 flashing red light behind us for speeding, and 631 00:34:46,530 --> 00:34:49,830 we say yes officer it's not because we 632 00:34:49,830 --> 00:34:52,070 want to beguile him and maybe get off 633 00:34:52,070 --> 00:34:54,590 the hook it's because we respect the fact 634 00:34:54,590 --> 00:34:57,110 that he's an officer, he's got the badge, 635 00:34:57,190 --> 00:35:01,050 we respect his authority we're not condescending to 636 00:35:01,050 --> 00:35:04,010 honor him by his title in order to 637 00:35:04,010 --> 00:35:07,210 find that it will relieve us of the 638 00:35:07,210 --> 00:35:11,990 penalty of our speeding we're rendering honor where 639 00:35:11,990 --> 00:35:12,730 honor is due. 640 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:28,360 Thank you Lord it 641 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:30,840 is on other grounds entirely, it's the way 642 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:32,780 in which the church should have beheld and 643 00:35:32,780 --> 00:35:36,380 respected the Jew, whose view of God was 644 00:35:36,380 --> 00:35:40,320 as wrathful father this is how this is 645 00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:41,760 the respect that we should have given to 646 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,480 fallen Israel what would the history of the 647 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,560 church and Israel have been, had the church 648 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:52,240 from it's very beginnings rendered unto Israel the 649 00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:54,560 respect and honoring that was it's due, even 650 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,100 in it's fallenness but when you read the 651 00:35:57,100 --> 00:36:01,040 early friction of the church and the synagogue 652 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:09,520 it's a diatribe of accusation of superior triumphalist 653 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:12,940 attitude over the fallen church and the Jews 654 00:36:12,940 --> 00:36:16,600 were baiting the church you guys don't even 655 00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:18,260 read Hebrew and you're telling us what those 656 00:36:18,260 --> 00:36:20,540 scriptures mean and you think that this Greek 657 00:36:21,140 --> 00:36:23,840 magical figure, Jesus is the Messiah, no way 658 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,180 and you guys are in error and so 659 00:36:27,180 --> 00:36:30,700 the church stunned and stung by these accusations 660 00:36:30,700 --> 00:36:34,480 with the kind of authority that the Jew 661 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:37,580 has that the synagogue has even in it's 662 00:36:37,580 --> 00:36:42,860 fallenness, reacted instead of with a respect they 663 00:36:42,860 --> 00:36:47,460 reacted in kind and railed against them that's 664 00:36:47,460 --> 00:36:50,060 been the whole history from the beginning of 665 00:36:50,060 --> 00:36:51,880 the relationship of the church to the Jew 666 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,780 to this day how then shall we be 667 00:36:54,780 --> 00:36:57,460 a witness to that people by what means 668 00:36:57,460 --> 00:37:00,020 shall we move them to jealousy how do 669 00:37:00,020 --> 00:37:01,880 we even get them to consider a word 670 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:03,960 that will come from us when we have 671 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:09,540 such a track record but the thing is 672 00:37:09,540 --> 00:37:11,240 it will not only benefit and bless them 673 00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:15,040 it will bless us we will find ourselves 674 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:19,220 changed in our own deportment, in our own 675 00:37:19,220 --> 00:37:23,900 character when we can find ourselves respectful to 676 00:37:23,900 --> 00:37:27,380 the Jew and to Judaism though we know 677 00:37:27,380 --> 00:37:29,640 that it's in a blindness and it falls 678 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:32,740 short of the precious glory that we have 679 00:37:32,740 --> 00:37:36,080 come to enjoy it will change us it 680 00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:41,100 softens it tenderizes I don't have a word 681 00:37:41,100 --> 00:37:45,420 for it it mellows but without that we 682 00:37:45,420 --> 00:37:48,080 are a jangling cymbal we're a noise, we're 683 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:53,080 a clang our voices are metallic even when 684 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:54,320 we say the right thing and the nice 685 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,040 thing, there's a metallic clang that turns off 686 00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:59,080 the one to whom that spoken word is 687 00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:03,700 addressed something comes with deference and respect that 688 00:38:03,700 --> 00:38:06,600 affects the character and the inner life of 689 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:08,280 the person who can give it in all 690 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:10,140 sincerity in an unfeigned way. 691 00:38:10,860 --> 00:38:12,320 Well, how did it come for Shem? 692 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,380 It came I believe, though the scriptures are 693 00:38:17,380 --> 00:38:20,760 silent, out of the kind of union and 694 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,120 relationship with his God, because what he expressed 695 00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:25,880 was God's own character. 696 00:38:26,780 --> 00:38:28,900 So in other words, we can't become this 697 00:38:28,900 --> 00:38:32,280 by principle or by method or by technique 698 00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:36,860 we can only become it to the degree 699 00:38:36,860 --> 00:38:40,060 that we reflect and express the life that 700 00:38:40,060 --> 00:38:43,060 is our life which is God's, for this 701 00:38:43,060 --> 00:38:46,660 is his nature anything else would be a 702 00:38:46,660 --> 00:38:49,140 performance it would be a put on and 703 00:38:49,140 --> 00:38:53,540 most Jews would see right through it so 704 00:38:53,540 --> 00:38:56,200 the quest for us is to come into 705 00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:58,680 that union with the God of Shem that 706 00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,440 Shem himself enjoyed and that we would have 707 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,380 every even greater right to enjoy through Christ 708 00:39:04,380 --> 00:39:09,520 and yet fall short of that reality and 709 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,380 we'll come to it through repentance in our 710 00:39:12,380 --> 00:39:15,060 failure when we see that we are metallic 711 00:39:15,060 --> 00:39:18,200 and brittle and that our respect is only 712 00:39:19,020 --> 00:39:24,560 superficial and what's the word perfunctory look that 713 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:29,320 one up and we'll know that we're playing 714 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:30,960 at this it's an act, it's not heartfelt, 715 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,860 it's not genuine we need the reality of 716 00:39:33,860 --> 00:39:36,260 this that comes from God himself and to 717 00:39:36,260 --> 00:39:39,380 forsake the one in repentance is to open 718 00:39:39,380 --> 00:39:41,820 us to the receiving of the other in 719 00:39:41,820 --> 00:39:43,840 truth a portion of an answer to your 720 00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:47,040 question in my own experience is speaking to 721 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:51,580 Christians who have a romantic view of present 722 00:39:51,580 --> 00:39:54,500 Israel and the Jew and so in my 723 00:39:54,500 --> 00:39:59,460 ministry of disillusionment I raise questions for them 724 00:39:59,460 --> 00:40:02,780 that would bring them to consider that there's 725 00:40:02,780 --> 00:40:04,700 something unreal in the way in which they 726 00:40:04,700 --> 00:40:08,460 are connected with present Israel there's a word 727 00:40:08,460 --> 00:40:11,780 in psychology where you receive a certain benefit 728 00:40:11,780 --> 00:40:16,140 by a relationship symbiotic, I accuse them of 729 00:40:16,140 --> 00:40:19,120 a symbiotic relationship there's something in it for 730 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:20,720 them in the way in which they are 731 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:23,400 celebrating the Jew in Israel and that that 732 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,260 is not priestly and the only ministry that 733 00:40:26,260 --> 00:40:29,380 will bless Israel is what is mediated in 734 00:40:29,380 --> 00:40:31,700 a priestly way which means that there's no 735 00:40:31,700 --> 00:40:35,580 benefit that redounds to the servant toward the 736 00:40:35,580 --> 00:40:38,840 nation and so they've got to get off 737 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:43,500 this romantic kick and relate in another way 738 00:40:43,500 --> 00:40:48,700 in reality, realistically without any return to themselves 739 00:40:49,660 --> 00:40:56,340 and that would be a priestly benediction for 740 00:40:56,340 --> 00:41:00,380 the Jew though many of them appreciate what 741 00:41:00,380 --> 00:41:02,600 they're now receiving because they want the support 742 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:07,260 of the evangelical church while entire nations are 743 00:41:07,260 --> 00:41:10,520 increasingly turned against Israel and anti-Semitism is 744 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:14,760 becoming a worldwide phenomenon so they appreciate any 745 00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:19,500 expression of support, but the deepest thing that 746 00:41:19,500 --> 00:41:22,580 will bless them is that which comes from 747 00:41:22,580 --> 00:41:25,860 the life of God and not something out 748 00:41:25,860 --> 00:41:30,780 of our own humanity romantically mediated do you 749 00:41:30,780 --> 00:41:31,020 understand? 750 00:41:31,660 --> 00:41:33,880 so yes, in that way we're correcting them 751 00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:36,260 but we correct them not only with word 752 00:41:36,260 --> 00:41:38,660 we ought to correct them also with example 753 00:41:40,300 --> 00:41:43,120 now let me really lower the boom if 754 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:46,060 the church is capable of this philo-semitism 755 00:41:46,060 --> 00:41:49,220 which is an idealization out of its own 756 00:41:49,220 --> 00:41:52,420 humanity toward Israel and unreal to what degree 757 00:41:52,420 --> 00:41:54,840 are we guilty of that not only toward 758 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:59,700 Israel but toward Jesus himself to what degree 759 00:41:59,700 --> 00:42:04,740 is Jesus being celebrated romantically rather than realistically 760 00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:10,100 rather than authentically spiritually we ourselves have formed 761 00:42:10,100 --> 00:42:13,140 an image and have even produced a worship 762 00:42:13,720 --> 00:42:16,960 which in fact is a false god it's 763 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,600 not the man himself, Christ Jesus who in 764 00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:25,200 his humanity suffered this humiliation and covered us 765 00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:28,120 by his uncovering nakedly on the cross as 766 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:29,720 I often say when I preach this, don't 767 00:42:29,720 --> 00:42:33,080 think that that nice little flowery garment was 768 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,600 around his loins that the Renaissance and Gothic 769 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:39,120 artists employ in depicting Jesus crucified, he was 770 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:42,620 stark naked he could not cover his nakedness, 771 00:42:42,720 --> 00:42:46,260 the greatest shame before orthodox Jews is to 772 00:42:46,260 --> 00:42:48,480 be naked at the cross that's what made 773 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:50,380 the cross the suffering that it was, Jesus 774 00:42:50,380 --> 00:42:53,980 bore that nakedness that we ourselves shall be 775 00:42:53,980 --> 00:42:58,660 covered but if we are romanticizing another Jesus 776 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:03,600 who is our errand boy and gets us 777 00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:05,600 a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a marriage 778 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:07,380 or a job or a health or whatever 779 00:43:07,380 --> 00:43:11,480 it is an ideal or something that facilitates 780 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:15,040 our worship atmosphere with wonderful music and all 781 00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:20,520 that goes with it this is unreality to 782 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:24,140 the uttermost this is disrespectful to God this 783 00:43:24,140 --> 00:43:26,820 is dishonoring to the God who is God 784 00:43:27,210 --> 00:43:31,280 and so to what depth and extent must 785 00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:33,380 this illusion come to the church to bring 786 00:43:33,380 --> 00:43:36,140 it to the reality that it must obtain 787 00:43:36,140 --> 00:43:39,540 and who is it who is going to 788 00:43:40,240 --> 00:43:42,660 blow the whistle who is going to sound 789 00:43:42,660 --> 00:43:44,860 the trump who is going to say that 790 00:43:44,860 --> 00:43:47,100 what you are about is false and pretentious 791 00:43:47,100 --> 00:43:51,160 and self coined and self imagined and it's 792 00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:53,400 not the celebration of the Jesus who is 793 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,480 Jesus who sees through that barrage, who sees 794 00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:58,220 through that hype and who will have the 795 00:43:58,220 --> 00:43:59,620 courage if ever he is invited to the 796 00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:02,980 platform to address it it must come from 797 00:44:02,980 --> 00:44:06,360 a prophet it's not from a teacher that's 798 00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:08,920 the prophetic function is to blow the whistle 799 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:11,880 to bring down the thing that's false to 800 00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:15,580 shred it mercilessly without in the same way 801 00:44:15,580 --> 00:44:17,740 that Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal, 802 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,040 it wasn't enough to defeat them by the 803 00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:22,720 invoking of the fire upon the sacrifice, they 804 00:44:22,720 --> 00:44:26,760 had to be destroyed spare not where is 805 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:29,460 that ruthless man who can be set before 806 00:44:29,460 --> 00:44:32,780 the church in it's best forms, in it's 807 00:44:32,780 --> 00:44:36,540 charismatic celebrations and blow the whistle and say 808 00:44:36,540 --> 00:44:39,840 this whole thing is a hyped up falsity 809 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:43,600 that constitutes a basic disrespect and dishonoring of 810 00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:48,200 God and not be stoned and be willing 811 00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:49,920 to be stoned because so much is at 812 00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:52,060 stake that it's worth even your own death 813 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:57,960 that's why this is a prophetical school because 814 00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:01,120 the word prophet itself has fallen into disuse 815 00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:05,040 and has become romanticized and anyone is picking 816 00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:06,900 up the label and says I'm now it 817 00:45:06,900 --> 00:45:13,040 and recites a few fanciful prophecies even there 818 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:15,060 if the reality is lost in what is 819 00:45:15,060 --> 00:45:17,180 prophetic what shall we hope can come to 820 00:45:17,180 --> 00:45:20,260 the church to bring it to reality how 821 00:45:20,260 --> 00:45:23,780 much then must we nurture and patiently uphold 822 00:45:23,780 --> 00:45:26,740 and invest in prayer those whose callings are 823 00:45:26,740 --> 00:45:29,800 authentic and will perform the will of God 824 00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,300 in the last days and be his trump 825 00:45:32,300 --> 00:45:38,080 men like myself and what if that something 826 00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:41,640 should happen that your illusion about me collapses 827 00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:45,060 and you can no longer sustain and pray 828 00:45:45,580 --> 00:45:47,200 because at last we had thought it had 829 00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:48,460 been he who would have restored the glory 830 00:45:48,460 --> 00:45:50,580 to the church but now we see he's 831 00:45:50,580 --> 00:45:53,660 done into heresy, he's back into Judaism he's 832 00:45:53,660 --> 00:45:55,640 bringing the church into bondage of law blah 833 00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,420 blah blah blah blah you see what's at 834 00:45:58,420 --> 00:46:01,400 stake here you dear saints great issues are 835 00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,740 at stake but the issue of propheticness and 836 00:46:04,740 --> 00:46:07,600 calling the church back to it's reality and 837 00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:10,220 the knowledge of it's own God is the 838 00:46:10,220 --> 00:46:12,900 first requirement before it can find the reality 839 00:46:12,900 --> 00:46:17,580 of Israel and we're at the losing end 840 00:46:17,580 --> 00:46:20,620 of this whole remarkable thing and Satan's had 841 00:46:20,620 --> 00:46:23,500 a field day because he's the God of 842 00:46:23,500 --> 00:46:27,810 illusion, of fantasy of imaginings, of romanticizing of 843 00:46:27,810 --> 00:46:32,030 fantasizing of the lie and people prefer the 844 00:46:32,030 --> 00:46:36,630 lie so may we take the last few 845 00:46:36,630 --> 00:46:39,270 minutes we have to pray pray for the 846 00:46:39,270 --> 00:46:41,910 church pray for the prophetic calling in the 847 00:46:41,910 --> 00:46:44,270 church, there may be men who have come 848 00:46:44,270 --> 00:46:46,990 to us at this time for one reason 849 00:46:46,990 --> 00:46:49,950 or another even to themselves who have such 850 00:46:49,950 --> 00:46:52,490 a call and that call will come to 851 00:46:52,490 --> 00:46:54,750 them perhaps even in these very days and 852 00:46:54,750 --> 00:46:57,690 perhaps even in this very moment, the realization 853 00:46:57,690 --> 00:47:01,270 of it, they'll tremble at the magnitude of 854 00:47:01,270 --> 00:47:03,950 that call and the reproaches that they'll have 855 00:47:03,950 --> 00:47:07,490 to bear in it's fulfillment so we need 856 00:47:07,490 --> 00:47:09,130 to pray for those that are called, we 857 00:47:09,130 --> 00:47:12,470 need to be a prophetic church the school 858 00:47:12,470 --> 00:47:16,110 of the prophets that honor the calling that 859 00:47:16,110 --> 00:47:19,830 are supportive even when there are moments of 860 00:47:19,830 --> 00:47:24,290 failure as must necessarily come, no prophet comes 861 00:47:24,290 --> 00:47:27,410 to full maturity without passing through the collapse 862 00:47:27,410 --> 00:47:29,870 and failure here and there in the course 863 00:47:29,870 --> 00:47:32,570 of his history how the church will respond 864 00:47:32,570 --> 00:47:36,110 in those moments is the issue of his 865 00:47:36,110 --> 00:47:41,090 furtherance or his dismissal so Lord, we ask 866 00:47:41,090 --> 00:47:44,110 your blessing my God, you're talking over our 867 00:47:44,110 --> 00:47:46,630 heads I'm hearing things coming out of my 868 00:47:46,630 --> 00:47:49,470 mouth now that are beyond my own ability 869 00:47:49,470 --> 00:47:53,350 to comprehend we're touching something Lord, that is 870 00:47:53,350 --> 00:47:55,970 not only true but in the very deeps 871 00:47:55,970 --> 00:47:59,850 of your own so great heart save the 872 00:47:59,850 --> 00:48:03,250 church my God from illusion that beckons and 873 00:48:03,250 --> 00:48:06,830 woos and seduces it everywhere and now with 874 00:48:06,830 --> 00:48:11,010 modern geophetic technology we have the loudspeakers and 875 00:48:11,010 --> 00:48:14,690 everything to create the false moods of so 876 00:48:14,690 --> 00:48:17,650 called worship that are false celebration of a 877 00:48:17,650 --> 00:48:22,250 false ideal false image and you've warned us 878 00:48:22,250 --> 00:48:25,330 not to submit to false images that this 879 00:48:25,330 --> 00:48:28,970 is idolatry so Lord, help us with a 880 00:48:28,970 --> 00:48:32,430 little help because you're the God of truth 881 00:48:33,430 --> 00:48:35,830 thank you Lord we want to know you 882 00:48:35,830 --> 00:48:39,370 as you are and the greatest demonstration and 883 00:48:39,370 --> 00:48:42,350 revelation of the God of Shem was how 884 00:48:42,350 --> 00:48:45,050 you deported yourself on this earth in your 885 00:48:45,050 --> 00:48:49,870 suffering humiliation your death that's God what you 886 00:48:49,870 --> 00:48:52,970 did in providing a covering for us for 887 00:48:52,970 --> 00:48:57,770 your nakedness is God showing the respect for 888 00:48:57,770 --> 00:49:01,450 honoring that requires so great sacrifice as your 889 00:49:01,450 --> 00:49:05,610 death and your humiliation at the cross may 890 00:49:05,610 --> 00:49:07,690 that be at the very heart my God 891 00:49:07,690 --> 00:49:10,430 of the reality of our faith and we 892 00:49:10,430 --> 00:49:13,550 ask you to bring to death anything less 893 00:49:13,550 --> 00:49:16,930 or other, anything fanciful in our own contemplation 894 00:49:16,930 --> 00:49:19,490 that we think prophetic, that we think spiritual 895 00:49:19,490 --> 00:49:23,130 any idealizing of any kind for a spouse, 896 00:49:23,270 --> 00:49:25,750 for an elder for a leading figure in 897 00:49:25,750 --> 00:49:29,550 the church today or public figure for all 898 00:49:29,550 --> 00:49:32,910 of these public figures that have become the 899 00:49:32,910 --> 00:49:36,270 icons of our age and their paid fortunes 900 00:49:36,270 --> 00:49:40,530 and salary that are unbelievable barren fortunes in 901 00:49:40,530 --> 00:49:45,950 millions for a game so many tens of 902 00:49:45,950 --> 00:49:48,430 thousands of dollars for a game pitched so 903 00:49:48,430 --> 00:49:50,970 much for a single ball pitched they have 904 00:49:50,970 --> 00:49:55,110 become the idols of our age so precious 905 00:49:55,110 --> 00:49:57,790 God bring it down we pray and bring 906 00:49:57,790 --> 00:49:59,430 it down by the church that is the 907 00:49:59,430 --> 00:50:02,870 church that is prophetic in its very foundation 908 00:50:02,870 --> 00:50:06,650 that can speak the truth in love unsparingly 909 00:50:06,650 --> 00:50:09,790 because it is the truth in love and 910 00:50:09,790 --> 00:50:13,010 so bring us to that reality by disillusioning 911 00:50:13,010 --> 00:50:15,250 us from any illusion that we have cultivated 912 00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:17,730 and nurtured to this hour thank you for 913 00:50:17,730 --> 00:50:19,050 those men that you have set in our 914 00:50:19,050 --> 00:50:21,630 midst who have been your provision to bring 915 00:50:21,630 --> 00:50:25,230 that disillusionment even by their own collapse thank 916 00:50:25,230 --> 00:50:27,290 you for that Lord we honor them today 917 00:50:27,290 --> 00:50:31,890 and that is servanthood itself that is sonship 918 00:50:31,890 --> 00:50:36,990 itself Noah served that purpose and we thank 919 00:50:36,990 --> 00:50:40,050 you Lord we bless you for this mystery 920 00:50:40,050 --> 00:50:44,970 oh Lord work it deep into our deeps 921 00:50:44,970 --> 00:50:47,990 we pray even now in Jesus name