Guest Speaker: Eitan Shishkoff

Oh, it is so good to see each and every one of you here today. What a blessing.

Especially, I know it's summertime. People are in and out doing a lot of stuff, but I know we always have people who are guests. Don't worry yourself right now. We're not going to do anything to isolate you or point you out. You know, if you're a guest, and we just want to say welcome. It is an honor to have you.

In a moment, we'll have an offering. You don't have to worry about that at all. But there is a guest card in the chair back in front of you, if you would be so gracious as to fill that out after the service. We have in both our north and south foyer, uh, a guest center if you would go there. All we want to do is welcome you, um, shake your hands, answer any questions you might have. And if you want to know what further steps you can take into a journey with Jesus and the abundant life he has, we'd be glad to help you that. And we have a gift we like to give you. Just a small way of saying we are so glad that you are here.

Now, many of you came today with your tithe and your offering. I know a lot of us do that online. There's ways on the screens that can tell you how you can do that regularly online. That's what my family does. But if you came with them, um, there are black boxes on the way out. So, you just put um your offering, your tithes into that black box. And my promise to you is that we have an eldership that's desiring one thing, that we minimize the investment of every dollar into what God wants to do in his kingdom. Amen.

And what I want you, I just love to celebrate because what we get to do is literally be a part of things in Abilene, in the Big Country, but around the world. God made me a promise that if we trusted him, that he would take this no-name church on the edge of a no-name city of the earth, and he would touch the world for eternity. And I'm telling you, we are seeing that as we are a part of things around the world and in Abilene.

I got a story the other day I have to tell you because I want you to always remember that everything we do, it comes down to a person, right? Every number has a name. Every name has a destiny. Every destiny matters to God. And so we talk about numbers as they relate to people. And I got a, a story the other day from a friend of mine about Josh. Josh lives in China. So, Josh is not Josh's real name. We can't say Josh's real name. Um, but Josh was a young man. Grew up in an atheistic home, got connected with a house church that our partners helped start. He gave his life to Jesus. And this guy who said he had a very serious gambling addiction, saw this gambling addiction go away the moment he said yes to Jesus. Now, come on. Is that not incredible?

But as we are prone to do, he was immature and he thought his journey in Jesus was going to be up to him and he struggled. And then he found himself, um, in a trap where he has started engaging illicit sexual behavior online. He got scammed out of a lot of money, very shamed. And in that culture, shame's a big deal. And he almost didn't go back to his house church because he said, "There's just no way they could accept me after I've done something so stupid." But he did. He went back to his house church. What he found was grace. He found love and he found encouragement to repent and step forward. And what he said is this: "I gave my life to Jesus, but it was only after failure and the love of the body of Messiah that I was able to surrender the totality of my life to become a follower." And now I'm living in freedom much more than I ever have, growing in abundant life. Come on. Is that not incredible? That deserves a round of applause.

Hear me. I know that's all the way around the world, but we, through our investment, get to be a part of stories like that. We're probably not going to meet Josh in this life, but in eternity, God's going to connect our investments, what we did with a thing called a dollar, what we did through our church, Beltway Park. Man, thank you so much for being a part of what God's doing.

Now, a quick thing I want you to know. There's always stuff going on from around the sanctuary. Want you to know that beyond the sanctuary, there is going to be a baptism class coming up. It is, I'm, I can't read that anyway. So, whatever it says on the screen, that's when the baptism class is. Um, you can find information about that.

Here's why baptism is important. Jesus said, "If you confess me before humans, I'll confess you before the Father. But if you refuse to confess me, I'm not going to confess you before the Father." When we become a follower of Jesus, we have a responsibility in different times in our life to say, "I belong to Him." We lay hold of the name Christian, who means follower of Christ. We lay hold of His name. Baptism is that first way that we stand in front of a group of people and we say, "I am His." It's like a line of demarcation for those of us who are Texans. Got any proud Texans in here? Right. Remember the Alamo? Jim Bowie drew the line in the sand, said, "You want to fight? Step across." Baptism is not that place where we're saved, but it is that place where we're stepping across and saying, "I am His." If you've not done that, it's, it's one of the most vital steps you can take early in your faith journey. You get to that baptism class, and what we're going to do, explain all the biblical teachings about baptism, why we're doing it, and we're going to arrange for you to make that confession. Want you to be a part of that. So, sign up, become a part of that.

So, let's do this. You ready to receive God's word today? Ready to hear? Let's bow our heads. Let's get our hearts ready. Then I'm going to introduce to you our guest. Father, we just thank you for the opportunity we have to engage You. Now give us ears to hear. We ask for anointing on the one who is sharing, but we also acknowledge, Lord God, we have to have an anointing to hear. We can have ears but not hear, eyes but not see. By Your Spirit, enable us to hear. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

North Campus, South Campus, online family, you're going to be a special treat today. The first mission partner of Beltway Park Church, a guy who has been a dear friend of mine for over 25 years, is here, um, from the land of Israel. He's going to tell you his story. So, I, I don't want to jump into that at all. But here's what I want to challenge you with. The scripture says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. As someone who shares, when somebody shares their story, their testimony, their story is not to be our story, but their story is to empower us to live our story. And what I want you to know, Eton, is your story has encouraged me to run after Jesus like very few stories I know. I thank you, um, for who you are. I thank you for the impact you've had on my life. Again, I want to tell you all the things that we've experienced together, but I, I don't want to take away his time. But here's what I want you to do. I want you to receive from his journey. Not thinking that your journey is supposed to look like his journey, but you are supposed to have a journey that runs wholeheartedly after Jesus. And you're going to hear a story of a guy who's done it imperfectly, but has lived a life of running after Jesus. A life that I want to emulate and I want to encourage you guys to receive the same thing. We as a church have the blessing to be part of his journey. He has, um, the blessing to be part of our journey. I know you guys are going to be blessed. So, what I want you to do, North Campus, South Campus, even if you're online, would you say thank you to Eton Shishka, coming from Israel and blessing us today? They give him a round of applause. Eton, welcome. We love you. We bless you.

[applause] >> [applause] >> I love this guy. Our, our paths have really been parallel and, um, I [clears throat] remember the first time I came to share with the congregation here and it was in what's now that little chapel and, uh, Pastor Dave was relatively new in leading the congregation and over these years we have encouraged each other, challenged each other, prayed for each other and, uh, it's, it's out of that closeness that God works. I really believe that the kingdom of God travels on the highway of friendship. Do you know what I mean? When you gain trust, when you establish trust with fellow believers and you know that they receive you and you receive them and you walk through, sometimes you walk through misunderstandings and difficulties. Listen, I'm truly humbled to be standing here in front of you and, and those that are joining us because of the depth of your commitment that has been shown over decades, nearly 30 years of friendship, of giving, of praying, of receiving me back again and again. And there is something of a history that God has given us together. And I want you to appreciate it. Even if you've not met me before, even if you've not heard about the work of Beltway in Israel. And so through my story, I want to do what Pastor David said. I want to inspire you. I want to inspire you about your own story, about your own journey. Because God selected you intentionally. You're not an accident. He loved you personally. And He's got work for you to do. He's got, he's got people to touch through you. It may not be multitudes, but it doesn't have to be multitudes because every single person that you touch is also precious to Him. Is that right?

>> Can I get an amen?

>> I'm going to need your help today. Actually, what I need is my, my bottle of water. Ben, there's some water in my, in my pack there. If you talk enough, you start sounding like this. Thank you, sir. [clears throat] Back in the '60s, we were yearning for change. And by a circumstances, series of circumstances, uh, too long to go into, I met the young lady. That's me, by the way. Uh, the, the guy with the headband on the left. I don't know if you put that together yet, but that's me and that's my wife, Connie. And that's what we looked like back in '69 when we got married. And we were so disillusioned with the system, economy, government, materialism, um, the whole, the whole ball of wax, what was going on in our country, uh, back in the '60s that we left. We didn't go to another country physically. We were still inside the United States. But we went to the high mountains of New Mexico because we figured that if we got far enough away and if we worked hard enough to learn how to convince vegetables to come out of the earth, we would not only survive, but we might be able to create a new tribal way of life. Was very idealistic, uh, somewhat deceived, uh, but but our hearts were longing for purity and we were willing to do something radical. So, that that word takes me to a question or a concept that I want to just toss out to you right now. Are you willing to do radical things for Jesus? Do you perceive the gospel and faith in Him as something radical? I hope you do. I hope it's not just something that you have fallen into because it seems like that's what other people are doing. Uh, it's, it's becoming less and less that way even in our wonderful United States. But that radicality is what ultimately carried us into the kingdom. Here's how it happened. A close friend was murdered. We were up there feeling innocent, feeling like, what, what bad thing could happen? A stranger showed up. He shot my friend in the back of the head. My friend never knew what hit him. He stole his vehicle. And I was left with zero understanding of how that could happen. I had no grid for sin. I didn't understand the reality of evil in the world. And I cried out to God. I said, "Who are You? Where are You? What happened to my friend? Why is he dead? And if he's dead, is he, does he exist somewhere?" Because my parents, my mother Jewish, my father not Jewish, but they were good humanists. I was not raised as a Jew or a Christian. So I had no understanding of life after death. They, they told me that it didn't exist. And as I cried out to God, He sent some Jesus freaks. Anybody know what those were? There were people kind of like us with long hair, but Jesus in their hearts. They began to share the gospel with us. And as they were sharing the gospel, I didn't see them. I didn't see my family. I didn't see the beans and tortillas on the table. I just saw this man's face. I saw his arms spread out to the side. I knew who it was. And as He looked at me, His eyes spoke volumes. He couldn't speak because He was in the agony of crucifixion. I knew who it was. It was Jesus. And what He did was reach inside of me and He read my mail and He said, "I know you're trying to be pure. I know you're trying to find the answers for the world's confusion. I know that you're, you're desperate enough to do what you've done and you failed. You haven't achieved what you set out to achieve." We'd already been at it for a number of years with no electricity, no running water, no, no plumbing in our houses. Very, very primitive. Well, as you can see, you know, I was, uh, back behind the, uh, the horse with the plow in my hands. No self-respecting farmer would ever farm that way, right? He wouldn't, he wouldn't put a guy half naked with bushy hair on a horse to lead him to plow. I'm, you know, [snorts] I'm teasing, but that's actually what it was. Anyway, He told me who I was, what I desired, and that the only way I was going to get there was through Him. And He loved me to the depth of my being. And I fell in love with Him. And I gave Him my heart that night in the high mountains of New Mexico. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. When we were singing those songs earlier and, and giving praise to Him, it brought me back to this whole experience. Let's go to the next slide.

But you know, once we are apprehended, Paul said, "God has something that He has chosen us for, something that He is apprehending us for." And I want each of you to tune in right now as I'm talking. I want you to have a little conversation with God. I want you to say, "God, I belong to You. My life is yielded to You. And if it's not fully yielded, You can do that while I'm talking. I want all of Your will." Isn't that how it works? Yeshua did not redeem us by saying, "I'm going to do my thing." He said, "Your will be done, not my will." And that's how He wound up at the cross. And that's how He wound up being raised from the dead.

So, I went out into the field one morning. I was a new believer. I was reading the end of Matthew 9 where Jesus looks at the multitude and He says they're like sheep without a shepherd. And then He turns to the disciples, says, "Guys, the, the condition of humanity is such that there's a great harvest, but there are not very many laborers. There are not many people carrying My love and My redemption to them. And I want you to pray that that will happen." So I began praying. And before I knew it, the Lord was, was almost tapping me on the shoulder saying, "I'm sending you from this harvest that you've been working hard to learn how to do. I'm sending you back into the world." I wasn't eager to go back to civilization. I was quite satisfied with our life. We had learned not how just to survive, but we really enjoyed. We enjoyed our wood cook stove. We enjoyed our log cabin. We enjoyed the, the beauty of the mountains. But God said, "I'm calling you back to civilization because I want you to carry My love." And so that's where we went. Slide number three, please.

And we wound up in Santa Fe, New Mexico in Bible school. And just a very short time after that, I found myself in full-time ministry. It was like, "What? [laughter] I get to do this, and this is the way that I'm going to support my family and pay for my rent and my food?" Yes. And it was 50 years ago, beloved. 50 years of full-time ministry. Come on. I'm here to thank God for this, this time. I can't believe it. Goes by fast, doesn't it? Uh, my, my fellow old-timers, it goes by fast. And during that time in Santa Fe, God restored our Jewish heritage. My wife is also Jewish. She, uh, on both sides of her family. And one day I was reading the account of the Last Supper and I thought, "Well, they're eating. What, what is this meal? What, what are they, what are they eating?" And all of a sudden it dawned on me that this was the Passover meal that God had given to Moses some 1,400 years before Jesus' time. And they were celebrating it. And what did that mean? It meant that they were still Jewish. They were still part of Israel. They were still celebrating the Exodus out of Egypt by eating the special foods that God designated for that time. And I, for the first time, I realized that God was not finished with Israel. I was just a, you know, Christian minding my own business, you know, along with everybody else. But as God revealed that to us, we never felt separate from any part of the body. We never felt better than anybody, for sure. We were like, you know, it took us a while to get it right for the, for the penny to drop. And so the Lord brought us back and began to equip us ultimately to take us to Israel.

Now, I want you to focus on the picture on the right, uh, of this particular slide. This is the wedding of my oldest grandchild, and this is in Israel. All four of my children married Israelis from all different countries. None of, none of them from even the Western Hemisphere. Uh, uh, I have, uh, children, sons and daughters by marriage from with background in Morocco, with background in Ethiopia, with background in Yemen and Iraq and background in Kazakhstan. We're, we're a veritable United Nations right within our, right within our family. Randy knows. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. I came here this summer to thank you for, thank you to thank you for making our life in Israel possible because without your support and without, uh, without your prayers and your friendship, hardly any of this would have happened. Only heaven will reveal the extent of what God has done through our relationship, through this friendship. Come on. I want you to thank God with me. Praise You, Father. Thank You, Lord.

Well, I know that Abilene has a history of pioneering and, uh, we did a little bit of personal strange pioneering, but it was pioneering. But the whole Bible is filled with pioneers. And I want to call into you today and I want to call forth the pioneer spirit that's part of this area of, of the country. I want to call forth that pioneer spirit that you're willing and ready to go beyond your comfort zone to do things that you haven't done before, to, to move into areas of service and areas of life and areas of interaction and communication with people that you may never have experienced. In order to do ministry in Israel, I had to learn Hebrew. It's a very different language. It's not like, okay, well, let's learn Spanish. I love Spanish. um, experienced some of it in New Mexico. I also studied Russian in college and that came in pretty handy because it wound up being a lot of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants in Israel that began to collect together in our congregations. But Hebrew is a whole different animal. And yet, I, I knew that I needed to do it. So I just kept putting one foot after the other. I'm calling that pioneer spirit forth in you. The spirit that was in Abraham. The spirit that was in Moses. The spirit that was in Joshua. Joshua was called to enter into the promised land. What did he know about what was there? And in the, the portion of the Torah in the Jewish world, we read, uh, a few chapters out of, uh, the books between Genesis and Deuteronomy every weekend, every Shabbat, yesterday. And yesterday's was about the spies, right? You remember that one, the 12 spies? Well, Joshua was looking at entering into a territory where the dudes were gigantic that were going to oppose them and the, and the cities were massive. But he went forth into it by faith. Do you hear me encouraging you? Are you receiving this? Am I talking to anybody?

>> All right, give me some response now. Come on. You got to, got to work with me. It's lonely up here. I'm just all by myself. Ruth was also a pioneer. And God showed me this vision that you're looking at. And in the short version, this vision that I received in prayer, God showed me that I was to establish an oasis in Israel. I wasn't there yet. And that in this oasis, there was to be physical help for people who were coming back from impoverished communities, uh, of Jewish people around the world. That might sound strange to you because in the Western world, generally Jewish people are prosperous and in the professions, but that's not true. Wasn't true in the Soviet Union. It's not true in Ethiopia. And so the people would be coming back poor. God said, "I want you to provide them with humanitarian aid like an oasis. People getting refreshed, people getting healed, but also people getting saved because there has to be water in an oasis and Yeshua is the living water. It's through Him that we have new life." Am I right? So I went with this vision. Next slide, please.

But any vision, any calling requires perseverance. You can't give up. If there's somebody here or somebody's, because with this number of people, I'm sure there's more than one. And you came to this service today and you said, "I just can't go any, I can't go any further. There are too many problems. There's too much on my plate. I can't handle it. God, I just, I'm, I'm finished. I'm, I'm ready to quit, but I'll go to church one more time." The Holy Spirit is speaking to you and saying, "Don't give up. God will never abandon you. He will never leave you. He will provide you with whatever you need for life and godliness. He's promised it. Please, He's true to His word and He's brought you here this morning in order to encourage you." We had a situation a couple years after we planted the congregation where we were firebombed in the middle of the night. It was the congregation was tiny. I mean, uh, you know, probably like, you know, these first four rows, about 45 people. But you see, the gospel has not been preached in Hebrew in Israel for some 1900, 1800 years. It was really the, uh, after Yeshua, uh, that was the last time that the gospel was being preached in Hebrew among from within the Jewish people, not as you have to convert to Christianity and stop being Jewish. So the people, especially the ultra-Orthodox, took offense and they wanted to stop us. So we were firebombed in the middle of the night and the next day I got there and the Lord spoke to me and He said, "This is like what happened with Joseph and his brothers." You remember the story at the end of Jacob's life. Jacob dies and the old, the brothers have been mean. They had pitched Joseph into a pit, left him for dead. Then he got hauled out and he wound up being the prime minister of Egypt. And now at the end, uh, Jacob's gone. And they figure it's curtains for us. You know, we, we did this, we did this lad. That's a nice rhyme, isn't he? We did this lad bad. Sometimes it happens by accident. You're not laughing. You're too serious. I don't know. I don't know. Well, we need to loosen the crowd up, Pastor Randy. You know, I could do some more harmonica if that would help. I love you. I really love you. I just came here to say that. So, the firebombing resulted in what Joseph said to them. God shared with me. What you meant for evil, God used for good. How did God use it for good? In our case, where that firebombing happened was 75 yards from a brand new building. It was a speck building, industrial building. We wound up entering into that building. We wrote a contract 60 days after the firebombing to rent purchase a, a small portion of the building. We now own just about the whole thing. We own everything that we use because of Beltway. You enabled us to purchase the building after the firebombing. You see what the enemy meant for evil, God used for good. And now on the right side of your screen, you see a portion of the warehouse filled with humanitarian aid bags that we give out during the, during the holidays. This is your victory. This is your satisfaction. I want you to experience it. Next slide, please.

God has also taught me about fathering. I know you believe in, uh, we call it in Hebrew l'dor vador, from generation to generation, and that you're already experiencing this, this, uh, handing off of the, the racing baton. We are 30 years into this project, into this miracle. I'm calling it a miracle because the prophet Ezekiel said that God would, would bring up, uh, our, our bones, bring up the Jewish people out of the graves. I believe it was the Holocaust that he was seeing back 2,500 years ago. And I will bring you back to the land and I'll put My Spirit in you. And His Spirit is working not only here, but also in Israel in the Haifa Bay area where we live and where this congregation is now being led in worship by my grandchildren. Can you dig it?

>> I'm playing harmonica with my grandchildren on the platform of Tents of Mercy. Next slide, please.

This idea of generation to generation involves release. It involves multiplication and sometimes involves forgiveness because we get into misunderstandings. And God has really, really taught me a lot about forgiveness, both asking it and giving it. So these are my spiritual sons. One's from Ethiopia, that's my son-in-law on the left. The one in the middle, his parents came from Yemen and Morocco. He's a genuine Sephardic Israeli Guy Cohen, uh, another pioneer. And Leyon, who's this treasure of a, um, Russian Hebrew-speaking, um, pioneer entrepreneur who's planted three of our six congregations. That's our territory on the right. In addition, next slide.

Thank you. God directed my heart to the youth. The prophet Joel said when the Spirit of God was poured out on Israel and all on all flesh, He said, "Your sons and your daughters will prophesy." This is where we must give attention. And I know Beltway is doing it. I'm encouraging you also within your families. I've learned about fathering, but also grandfathering. The relationship that I have with my adult grandchildren is something that is one of the richest parts of my life. We are deep friends. We have deep conversations and I'm able to encourage them as they make their life choices. Please be fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers who share, uh, with your next generations. This is our staff, pretty small. The guy on the left is a Jewish believer born in Argentina, raised in Israel, learned his English in, in Dallas, Texas, of all places. And the guy in the middle is an amazing Arab-Israeli. He actually plays American football in Israel. He is an amazing man, a brilliant teddy bear, if I can put those things together. And he is about to start with our encouragement and support a camp for Arabic-speaking teenagers. Arabic-speaking teenagers in Israel. Amen. To do the same thing we've been doing with the Hebrew-speaking, uh, teenagers who are the ones that you see on the right side. God drew me into that ministry 25 years ago. And I'll tell you a fun story showing that I was not qualified to do that. Do you ever feel not qualified to do what you're doing? I think that if we do feel qualified, we probably won't succeed because we'll be trusting in our own abilities. I haven't felt qualified one day since I left for Israel. It's going on 34 years ago. That's not comfortable, but it's, but it's incredible and it yields results. Here's what happened. This is my unqualification. So, uh, it's at the end of a meeting, a youth conference, and, uh, we're praying for the kids. Guy comes up to me and I said, "Son, you know, what do you need? What's your request?" He said, looked at me very sober, very serious tone of voice. "I want to kill myself." Well, my insides went on tilt. I said, "Not on my watch." I started praying. I prayed every prayer that I knew and some I never prayed and I ran out of breath. And when I ran out of breath, I looked at him as sincerely as I could. I tried to with my eyes, I tried to say, "Okay, you're, you're okay now, right?" And I probably actually say, "How do you feel now?" And he said, "Well, I still want to be baptized in water." I thought the word that I heard as "kill yourself" was "kill yourself," but it was really "I want to be baptized in water." There's only one letter difference. Can you hear the difference? Almost not, right? I didn't hear the difference. Woo! [screaming] I was so glad that he wanted to be baptized. That was one of the best answers to prayer I ever had. Pastor, Pastor Randy. [laughter] I never thought about it that way. God answered the prayer that I was praying that he wouldn't kill himself. [laughter] And he didn't kill himself and he got baptized in one. Oh well.

Now we're ready to show you some of the young people of Israel. Let's, let's roll the video. This is the ministry you have been making possible and it's impacted thousands of young Israelis and trained them to go on into society and to bring Yeshua to our people.

[music] >> Exactly one year ago when I first came, I decided to give my life to Yeshua, to Jesus. [music] And I really found Him here. Fields of Wheat is a ministry that exists to equip [music] and to encourage the local body of Messiah here in Israel by focusing on the next generation. [music] And, uh, we host about 90 plus teenagers and about 20 to 30 young adult >> [music] >> uh, small group leaders and counselors. That moment for me was [music] really, really inspiring and very special for me. Many, many [music] salvations, people dedicating their life to the Lord. People returning to the Lord. Many of our leaders are teenagers who've now come back to be counselors after they [music] finished their army service because they were touched while they were here as teenagers. >> I'm really happy here. [music] We did like a night of worship and it was like, really touching. I don't know. I just felt God. [music] I don't know. Uh, we also have a vision to launch a discipleship, uh, program called Harvesters. [music] And that will be geared towards serving Jewish and Arab young adults together [music] in this environment of growing together in the Lord. Uh, serving together, living together, eating together. We are here to [music] stand in the gaps. We are here to pray. We are here to minister and to show and just be a vessel. And I can say already from this year, I was leading worship with the team [music] and we didn't need to sing, they were singing, they were leading the songs, they were crying out to God. They were asking [music] to, so it was just like, God, You're doing something. We're just privileged to be here. [music] Thank you so much for choosing to stand with us and being a part of what God is doing here in the land. [music] You matter. You are a part of this story. We could not do what we're doing without you.

>> [applause] >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much. The project, the initiative that Joel was just talking about, a young adult discipleship bringing together Jews and Arabs. We are asking you to help us launch this project because of the war. Joel, who has been in the reserves as a tank commander for much of these two and a half years, that has slowed down the launch of this project. We were just about ready to start it when the war broke out October 7th. So, please be praying with us. We feel like this is going to be a, a strategic point of gathering, a point of equipping, uh, that will bring the good news both to the Arab side and the Jewish side within Israel. There are many, uh, some 1.5, I think close to two million Arab-speaking Israeli citizens who vote in our elections. It's hard to, to get the panorama from this distance, but not all of the Arab-speaking people within Israel are Palestinians. The Palestinians in general are those who are within the territories, not Israeli citizens. The people that we're working with are full Israeli citizens. They are in the, uh, very heavily in the medical professions, legal professions. But there's a small minority of evangelical Arab churches, much smaller even than the Messianic Jewish presence, which we guess there's some 20 to 25,000 Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel out of, out of 7 million Jewish people. That's not very many, but it's a whole lot more than there were 33 years ago when I got there. So, please be praying with us. It's called Harvesters. We'll be telling you more about it. And on that, uh, on that note, I want to encourage you to sign up for our updates. When you sign up, you'll be getting updates from the congregation Tents of Mercy and also from Fields of Wheat because both of them are supported by Beltway. Okay, that's on the table as you leave.

There's a significant aspect of what God has been teaching me and, uh, you will see it on slide number 10, and that is knowing how to grieve. These two and a half years have been tragic. There have been funeral after funeral. It's on, every time one soldier dies, [clears throat] it's broadcast nationally. That's how valuable every single person is in Israel. In contrast to, uh, our enemies who purposely, uh, have their own people bombed because they embed, uh, all of their arms and their, and their, uh, terror soldiers inside the population. On October 7th, this woman and her babies were kidnapped. And not long after that, they were brutally murdered. Her, her husband was kidnapped at the same time, kept in separate captivity. He didn't know until he got out two years later that his family was destroyed. On the right side, you see a man in a wheelchair. His legs were blown off in an explosion, uh, while he was fighting in Gaza. And he happens to be the brother of our administrator of the camps that you just saw. And the, the film that you saw didn't show her, but his sister was in that camp and she's been with us serving for many, many years. The guy on the left with the white shirt saved his life by keeping him from breathing, bleeding to death. Next slide, please.

These are two soldiers who have given their lives during this war. The one on the left is the great-grandson of my mentor, a man who taught us how to live for Jesus as Jews, not separated from the rest of the body of Messiah. He gave his life in battle. And the man on the right was trained with my grandson in the same small platoon and sent into southern Lebanon where he was killed by a drone from Hezbollah. Well, my grandson would have been in that unit right next to him, but he, he had been promoted into being a training sergeant. Israel shouldn't exist, beloved. It's a ridiculous miracle that God restored us and now we're needing to defend ourselves. But this is much of the Bible talks about this and talks about spiritual warfare, which sometimes involves physical warfare as well.

There's one more picture here about friendship. We sang about it earlier. Friendship comes from God. I'm convinced that friendship is the highway through which God builds His kingdom. The man on the left, uh, was my, my dearest friend other than my wife for 45 years. We pioneered together, uh, both in the States and in Israel. He was an amazing, amazing teacher with a background in Orthodox Judaism. And for the last number of years, he had Parkinson's, which led to dementia and at the end of his life, I had to feed him with a spoon. He was not able to care for himself. But God taught me about friendship that in friendship, you don't leave somebody when they're in need. I encourage you. Sometimes the needs that are the most difficult and the most tragic and that, and that tear us up on the inside are the opportunities that God opens up for us. Some of you are looking at that in your family. Some of you are looking at that in your friendship circle. Please be faithful. God will demonstrate Himself through that.

I need to wrap up now. But the last quality that I want to highlight for you is longing. Let's skip ahead like we did last time, uh, to slide number 15. When Yeshua taught the disciples to pray, what did He say? He said, "Pray this way: Father, Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." I want to highlight those words. Your kingdom come. What we're looking at right now is the birth pangs. Jesus called this in Matthew 24, Luke 21, uh, Mark 13, in the end-time prophecies of the Messiah. He said that the end times would be like birth pangs, like a woman bringing birth to a child. It doesn't happen instantly or immediately, but that there have to be labor pains. I believe that we're in the labor pains that speak of the coming of the kingdom of God. But God has given us a rare intercessory authority. It's not just that it's going to happen regardless. It's that God is listening. He's listening for us. Back up two slides, please.

Psalm 118. And Yeshua quotes it in Matthew 23. He said, "You will not see Me again, you Jewish guys, until you say, until I hear from your lips, 'Baruch haba b'shem Adonai,' blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." And something so interesting about that is that those are the words that I say at the beginning of a wedding ceremony. Stick with me. The Jewish wedding ceremony begins with this call for the bridegroom. What is the return of Jesus called in the book of Revelation? It's going to be the wedding supper. The wedding supper of the Lamb. So every time in a Jewish ceremony we say, "Come on, Mr. Bridegroom, you know, come up the aisle and stand under the chuppah," we're declaring the return of the Messiah. It's for us to declare these words. I want you to say them with me.

Baruch >> b'shem >> Adonai.

>> B'shem Adonai.

>> B'shem Adonai.

>> Lord, we're calling for You to return. The condition of the earth is miserable. I know it's very blessed in Abilene and throughout many parts of America, but the world in general, and also our nation, I think you would agree, is in crisis. And this, this era of history has to get wrapped up, beloved. If not, God's going to have to apologize to Noah and to the generation of Noah. But Jesus said, "As in the generation of Noah, when God said the thoughts and the hearts of people were wicked, there's a wickedness in the earth." This attempt to destroy the people of Israel, the outbreak of global anti-Semitism as a result of the fact that we were attacked. Would you give me a break, please? I mean, talk about, you know, the, the total illogic. But it is our time to stand. Would you stand with me? It's our time to stand with the Jewish people. It's our time to stand with the, the Arab people who are also suffering. It's our time to stand with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's our time to stand and to call Yeshua back to this earth to be the King. You remember what was written over His head on the cross, right? King of the >> Jews. He's the King of the Jews and He's the King of the Gentiles. And this covenant friendship that God has given us over these years that has birthed these ministries and touched untold lives that you are a part of. This is now we need to lift our voice and say, "Your kingdom come." Come, Lord Yeshua. Says that at the end of the New Testament in the book of Revelation, "Come, Lord Yeshua." Let's bring Him back with our cries. Let's bring Him back with our prayers and let's serve Him faithfully all the time until He returns. Are you with me?

>> I love you.