In this sermon, the speaker uses various earthly illustrations to convey his message. He starts by describing a scenario where a person with great power accidentally hits a ball out of the stadium while attempting a simple bunt. This analogy is used to emphasize the potential impact of Israel's transgression and rejection of the Messiah on the salvation of the world. The speaker then transitions to a scene in heaven where a Texas evangelist boasts about his accomplishments, only to be humbled by a little Jewish man. Finally, the sermon touches on the importance of Jerusalem and the role of watchmen in reminding the Lord of his promises. The speaker references Isaiah 62 to highlight the need for continuous prayer and persistence in seeking the establishment of Jerusalem as the praise of the earth.

Lord, we love you and we love your truth. Lord, our eyes are upon you and we pray, living God, that your Word would be real and clear to us, Lord, that you give us insight, that you give us understanding, that your Word would bring about change in our whole perspective. Father, it is written in your Word that the revelation and unfolding of your Word gives light, making the simple wise. Make us wise today, Lord, as we put our trust in you, in the name of Jesus. Amen. I want you to first turn to Psalm 121, and then we're going to go to Romans 11, and I want to speak to you about Israel, an end-time revival, God's eternal purpose for Israel. I don't normally do this, but because of the subject we're speaking on, I want to read to you from Hebrew scriptures and translate into English. Whatever version you have, you'll be able to follow along. Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help is from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he will not slumber, he will not sleep, shomer Yisrael, he who keeps Israel. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shadow on your right hand. By day, the sun will not smite you, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will preserve your life. The Lord will preserve and keep your going out, and you're coming in from now on forever. We go to Romans the 11th chapter. Romans chapter 11. I want to underscore the fact that I'm not just speaking these things to you today, because I'm a Jewish believer in Jesus, and point to fact in the multiplied dozens, actually several hundred times that I've spoken in one context or another here in the revival. Having been involved here now more than a year, this is the first message God has given me to bring on Israel specifically. And there was a time in my life as a believer where I questioned many of the things that I was raised in, in the Lord, concerning Israel. In other words, just because I was taught in a certain way as a new believer, I wasn't necessarily convinced. And I went and studied certain issues out, and my views changed over a period of years, and God really had to bring me back to the word, not what this one said about it or that one said about it. I don't pretend to have everything perfectly right in everything I believe, no more than you have everything perfectly right in what you believe. But there are certain fundamentals, certain things to me that are non-negotiable, certain things that are basic. And even though I can differ with a brother or sister over these things, even though someone can love Jesus as much as I do and differ with me on this, these are basics. To me, these are definite, clear, biblical truths. So I want you to look carefully at the word with me, beginning in Romans 11. Romans 11 forms the end of three chapters in the book of Romans devoted to Israel. In fact, the subject of Israel is so important here to Paul that when he finishes the eighth chapter, one of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture, he immediately begins to deal with the subject of Israel and doesn't just take one chapter. Of course, he didn't write chapters, but he doesn't just take a few words, but three whole chapters. It's such a big subject that in passing, in dealing with Israel, he raises things like election and predestination and the truth on those subjects. Just in passing, in dealing with Israel. Before we actually read from Romans 11, look in verse one of Romans 9. I speak the truth in the Messiah. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I can wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption of sons. Their is the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised. Amen. So he starts by saying, I have continual sorrow for my Jewish people. In fact, the words are so strong. When he said, I could wish I myself were cut off from the Messiah, he says, look, I'm not lying. I'm telling you the absolute truth. My heart is continually breaking for my people. Then in the beginning of the 10th chapter, he says, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. And then he says, beginning in the 11th chapter, I ask then, did God reject his people? God made promises to Israel. And these are national promises. Romans 9, 10, and 11, Paul doesn't mention the Jews, but Israel. National promises that God has made. Did God reject his people? What about all the covenants? What about all the words of the prophets? What about all the words of the Hebrew scriptures? Did God reject his people? Is it over for Israel? By no means. Now first, he says, God did not reject his people because I'm an Israelite, and I believe, and there is a remnant of Israelites, of Jews who believe. He says, by no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah? How he appealed to God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I'm the only one left, and they are trying to kill me. And what was God's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works. If it were grace, if it were, excuse me, grace would no longer be grace. So first, he says, no, God did not cast off his people and fully reject his people. There are still Israelites who are in the Messiah. But he goes on more. Let's skip down to verse 11. In my book, Our Hands Are Stained With Blood, I go through each of these chapters carefully and see who is Paul talking about. When he says Israel, the Jews, who does he mean? Is there any dispute through Romans, through these chapters, through the New Testament? Look at Romans 11, 11. Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Have the people of Israel fallen so as to be beyond hope? It's over for Israel, in other words. God has no more purposes for the Jewish people, no more promises. It's over. What's his answer? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? We're going to come back to that in a little while. What I want you to understand today is why the subject of Israel's salvation is important for every believer in the world, and why God wants every one of his people around the world to have a burden for the salvation of the Jewish people. It's one thing if God calls you to a particular nation. The Lord has called me to the people of Indonesia. The Lord has called me to the people of Mexico. The Lord has called me to the Scandinavian peoples, and that's my burden. It's one thing for each individual believer to have a specific burden. But every believer should have a burden for the lost in general, want to see the Great Commission fulfilled. Every believer should have a burden for personal holiness and purity. Every believer should have a burden for the church as a whole to become one. In the same way, every believer should have a burden for the salvation of the Jewish people. I'm going to open that up to you as we go on. First, let me say emphatically that the church has not replaced Israel. The church has not replaced Israel. There has been teaching for as many as 1800 years that has said that because the Jewish people rejected the Messiah, God ceased to deal with the people, destroyed the temple, scattered them from the land. It's over with Israel. Now God just has the church, and that's it. Now if by the church you mean the Jewish people and Gentiles who believe in Jesus, Israel and the nations born again who believe in Jesus, that description of the church is true. But the church has not replaced Israel. Now it was easier to hold to that before the Jewish people were restored to the land. It was easier to hold to that before Jerusalem was back in Jewish hands because these Jews were just scattered all over the world. Suffering the wrath of God, rejected, persecuted, no homeland. Obviously, God was finished with them. Well, as he brought them back to the land, it was a little harder to hold to that view. But I want you to go with me to Jeremiah, the 31st chapter. Has God completely rejected Israel? Jeremiah chapter 31. Those of you familiar with the scriptures know immediately that Jeremiah 31 is the chapter dealing with the new covenant. That God will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Deuteronomy 31, excuse me, Jeremiah 31 verses 31 through 34 deal with the new covenant. Then what does he say in verse 35? It's almost as if people will be thinking to themselves, well, God is making a new covenant, so therefore he's done away with the old covenant and the people of the old covenant. It was taught in the early church that God had now ceased dealing with Israel and was dealing with the church, and that was that. There was a new covenant and that was that. The first interesting thing is that the new covenant in verses 31 to 34 is made with the Jewish people. It's made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. As one of my dear Israeli friends says to his Gentile believing friends, it's not a new covenant for you because you didn't have a covenant before. It's a new covenant with us and you get grafted into it. But look at this, look at verse 35. It's like God is saying, now don't take this wrong. I'm making a new covenant, but I'm still dealing with the same people. Don't get this wrong. Another Israeli friend of mine was asked, what does it feel like to be a converted Jew? He said, I don't know because it's not a sin to be a Jew. I'm a converted sinner. It'd be like someone coming up to you and saying to a man, how does it feel to be a converted man? Converted man, what do you mean? How does it feel to be a converted woman? Do you mean a man or a woman who has been converted to Jesus? That's one thing. But when I got saved, I didn't convert from being a man. Anymore than you convert it from being a man or from being a woman, you convert it from your sins and turn to God. Verse 35, this is what the Lord says. He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, the Lord Almighty is his name. Only if these decrees vanish from my sight, declares the Lord, will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me. Strong language, isn't it? As long as there's sun and moon and stars and day and night, God says, Israel will be a nation before me, period. But what about their sins? What about Israel's sins and disobedience? Verse 37, this is what the Lord says. Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out, will I reject all the descendants of Israel because all they have done, declares the Lord. God's saying no matter what, I will not utterly and completely reject them. Go back to the 30th chapter, verse 11. I am with you and will save you, declares the Lord. Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you, but only with justice. I will not let you go entirely unpunished. Go to 3110. Hear the word of the Lord, all nations proclaim it in distant coastlands. He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd. Go down to verse 20 of chapter 31. Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore, my heart yearns for him. I have great compassion for him, declares the Lord. God is saying here in no uncertain terms, I will discipline you, I will punish you for your sins, but I will not utterly reject you. The fact that the Jewish people were scattered around the world without a homeland for more than 19 centuries or for the better part of 19 centuries and then kept as a people. And remember, not all Jews were religious Jews at this time, somehow still kept as a people by God. This has never happened before. No people have been scattered from their homeland. Listen, you have people that have been in America for a few generations and they're just Americans. You know, they were Italian Americans a few generations ago, they're just Americans. They're Irish Americans and Russian Americans, but they stay here, just become assimilated into the culture. Even if they maintain their religious beliefs, they're just Americans. To be scattered around the world, to be a diverse people with diverse beliefs and yet scattered around the world and still be preserved as a people is the hand of God. Because God said, I will scatter you, but I will regather you. Listen, friends, the integrity of God is on the line in terms of Israel. Israel is a physical, tangible entity. The Jewish people are a physical, tangible entity. And if the devil could successfully wipe out the Jewish people, then that would make God into a liar. Aside from his covenant promises and his covenant love to his people, his reputation is at stake. And I don't know how he could say it any more clearly, no matter what you do, you will not cease to be a people before me. As long as there's sun and moon and stars, until you can figure out the size of the heavens and the depth of the earth, and you can analyze all this and so on, until you can measure it all out, they're going to be there, period. Now you say, it's true, but God has transferred his promises. Friends, then he's a liar. Then he's a forked tongue God. You know what that's like? You come and sign a contract with me. You buy a piece of real estate from me. You pay the money for it. And I say, this is yours, period. And then you come a month later to claim it. And I said, oh, I just transferred it to someone else. That's acceptable. That's fine, right? Friends, when God speaks something this clearly, it's so that there'll be no doubt about it whatsoever. And not only did he say it about the people, he said it about the land. Look in Psalm 105. And I wonder how God could have made it any more clear than he makes it. Psalm 105, let's start in verse eight. He remembers his covenant forever. The word he commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant he made with Abraham. The oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. To you, I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit. Isn't this interesting? Look at all the terms used here. First, it's called his covenant. The word he commanded. The covenant he made. The oath he swore. Confirmed as a decree. Everlasting covenant. Look at the length of it. He remembers it forever. It's for a thousand generations. It's everlasting. I'm going to give you the land as your inheritance. You say, what if Israel sinned? Then God would scatter them from the land. And what if they repented? He would bring them back. And what if he didn't repent? According to Ezekiel 36, the time could come when even if the Jewish people would not repent, he would still bring them back because of his namesake. Because people would be mocking him and the name of God would be blasphemed daily because of the Israelites being scattered from their land. And therefore, even in their unbelief, he would bring them back. You can find that in Ezekiel 36. You say, but Israel has changed. When God spoke about Israel in the Old Testament, he was talking about one group. But now in the New Testament, he is talking about a different group. Then I say again, then God is a four-tongued God. Then his promises have no relevance and no meaning. If I say to you, now listen, God has spoken to me to take care of your family and your children and your children's children down to the hundredth generation. We're going to put money in accounts and designate things in contracts. No matter what you do and no matter what your descendants do, no matter what your offspring does, we are going to continue to have a fund for them so that they can live and be supported for the rest of their lives. No matter what you do. And then your kid comes along and my son doesn't like your son. And he says, dad, we'll keep the promise. We'll keep the promise to the Kilpatrick family. I was going to say Smith or Jones or Brown, but that's too common. We'll keep this promise to the Kilpatrick family. But why don't we just change who the Kilpatricks are? We'll say that what we'll do is we'll bring Lendl here and we'll change his kids' names to Kilpatrick and we'll just keep our promises. We won't break our promise. We'll just change who the people are. You say that's ridiculous. That's absurd. That's crazy. Do you know people actually claim God has done that? He made promises to Israel and said, no matter what you do, I'm going to keep these promises, period. I will punish you. I will discipline you, but I will not pull back my covenant. It's made and it's forever. And then when Israel sinned, God said, well, because you sinned, I'm going to keep my covenant, but with somebody else. Friends, if that's the kind of God you serve, don't be too sure about the New Testament either because God may decide to change that. You know what Muslims believe? Muslims believe that the Quran is the final and the greatest testament. And if a Muslim comes along and quotes Quran and quotes this and that and says it's the greatest final testament, you say, no, there's nothing beyond this. There's nothing beyond this word that's written here. This is the final word from God, period. How could you say it? Because it's written. But what would a Jewish person do? The same thing. You come along and say, well, according to my understanding of the scriptures, according to the New Testament, the church has now replaced Israel and made null and void all these promises during the Hebrew Bible. That Jew would have the right to react to you the same way as you'd react to a Muslim. If God said it, if God spoke it, if it's written, he doesn't go back on it. He doesn't change it, period. Now, it doesn't mean that there's a simple solution to all the current problems in the Middle East. There's a whole lot more behind the scenes that goes on than you may be aware of. And if the only thing you know about the Middle East is what you hear through most of the secular media, friends are getting a distorted picture. Have you ever followed major pro-life rallies in the secular media? You know, 200,000 people show up in Washington, D.C. to protest the Roe versus Wade decision. And it gets buried. The report of it gets buried on page 15 of the newspaper and comes at the end of the broadcast on television. And then what they'll do is they'll interview one pro-lifer and four out of the 50 pro-abortion people that were there. They'll interview them and you'll get this idea that there was this big turnout of pro-abortion people as well as some pro-life people. And then if you have, say, a homosexual march on D.C., it's front page everywhere. It's the biggest event that ever happened. It's the exact same way with Israel. And I remember in a public dialogue I had, I was invited to the special dinner by a wealthy friend in New York. It was $1,000 a plate dinner. McDonald's was better than the food they served there. But the main thing, there was going to be a public forum and dialogue and Dan Rather was the moderator and Henry Kissinger was one of the speakers and the other speaker was Fuad Ajami, a Middle East specialist professor originally from Lebanon. And they had a wonderful dialogue discussion. It was really excellent. And then they had a time for questions. So actually, I got to ask the very first questions. I had a question for Henry Kissinger and a question for Fuad Ajami. Then I wanted to press the issue a little bit about why, if there's no such thing as a Palestinian people, which Fuad Ajami said there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. You go back several generations, no one knew there was such a thing as a Palestinian people. These were Arab peoples of different backgrounds. Some of them lived in what was called Palestine. And I said, if there's no such thing as a Palestinian people, why doesn't the media tell us? I was pressing the point. And Dan Rather took exception and said, I'd like to answer that head on. And he gave one part of his answer. And then he gave the other part of his answer. He said, like it or not, Israel is held to a different standard. Like it or not, Israel is held to a different standard. It's the only democracy in the Middle East, and it's held to a different standard. And the Lebanese professor said, listen, Iraq uses nerve gas on its own people, and you hear about it years later. Israel uses tear gas, and the world's in an uproar. Listen, and not all Palestinians are bad, and not all Israelis are good. And there's a lot of injustice on both sides, and there are difficult issues to work through, OK? I'm not insensitive to that. I have dear friends of mine who work among so-called Palestinian people. I have dear friends who work with Arab Christian leaders in Israel. I have dear friends working for reconciliation within the land. I'm not just making this a simple black-white issue. I am saying that God promised the land to the Jewish people, and that no one has the right to negotiate it away. But there are lots of issues to be answered and dealt with in the midst of this. But I just want you to consider something. Recently, the Palestinian Authority decreed it as law that if any Arab landowner sells property to Jews, this is living in Israel, any Arab landowner sells property to Jews, he will be executed. And several have been killed already, kidnapped, shot in the head, bludgeoned to death. And this is official policy. Do you understand that? Official policy. In fact, Israel recently rescued somebody that had been kidnapped and was going to be killed, a landowner. Is there an international outcry over it? Does the UN Security Council call for a special session to condemn Israel? No. And I deal with a lot of examples of that, and our hands are stained with blood from recent history. Think, though, if Israel announced it has now passed a law, any Jew in Israel selling land to a Palestinian or to an Arab will be executed. Can you picture the world outcry that would come as a result of that? Now, again, listen, understand me. Israelis are lost sinners who need Jesus. You have a small minority that is militantly orthodox, and most of those people are militantly opposed to the gospel. Some of them are very sincere and gracious and studious people seeking to live a godly life, but not recognizing the true Messiah and the true way to God. Others are corrupt and will do anything they can to stop Jewish believers in Jesus. And the bulk of the nation is just a secular, unsaved, materialistic nation. You know, you can go over and, oh, oh, oh, Israel. I have a burden for Israel. You know, the joke we have about that is, well, then go live with our Jewish people in Brooklyn for a year or in Tel Aviv for a year and see how deep your burden is. We continue to this day to be what scripture calls, om k'shei oref, a stiff-necked people. So I am not glorifying the Jewish people or glorifying Israel or saying it's wonderful. What I am saying is God made promises to a people that was a stiff-necked people, to a people that failed, to a people that sinned, just like many of us can relate to having promises made to us in spite of being stiff-necked and sinful and often failing. And God said, it's by my grace that I'm making this promise. It's not by your works. If you sin, you will be disciplined and punished. But my covenant with you is everlasting, period. And I will keep you and I will preserve you and I will bring you back to the land. And I have not replaced you with somebody else. You get to heaven and you stand before God. And he says, no, you don't make it in. But Lord, my name's written in the book of life. Yeah, but I replaced you with somebody else. It doesn't work like that. I'm just trying to bring it to a level where you have to wrestle with verses like these in Jeremiah and Psalms that make it emphatic and clear. You say, but wait a second, Paul himself said the church replaced Israel. No, he didn't, friend. Go to Romans, the ninth chapter. And I've got some encouraging news for you. In fact, if I have the time, I'm going to tell you what happened in Korea over a period of years that just blew me away. Romans, the ninth chapter, verse six. It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. In other words, there is a natural Israel, but there is also a spiritual Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated at the appointed time, I will return and Sarah will have a son. And he goes on and expands on that. What he's saying is this, within the nation of Israel, there are only some who are children of the promise and receive the spiritual blessing within the children of Israel. He is not saying Israel is no longer Israel, and all Gentiles who believe in Jesus have become Israel. He's not saying that. Let me try and illustrate it like this for you. And I don't want to get anyone upset who for their entire believing life has been happy to call themselves a spiritual Jew. But it's really not a scriptural term. Romans 2, when Paul's talking about who is a real Jew, who's a real spiritual Jew, he's talking about between two Jews, okay? One of whom has been circumcised in the heart and the flesh, and the other one who's only been circumcised in the flesh. Which one is the spiritual Jew? Let me illustrate it like this for you. Let's say you have two Africans and an American. The American is a believer in Jesus. One of the Africans is an idol worshiper. The other African is a believer in Jesus. Which of those is the spiritual African? Is that a difficult question? Which of those is the true, right with God African? Not the American because he believes in Jesus, is he? Does he become an African by believing in Jesus? No. Does the African become an American by believing in Jesus? No. So here you have a Gentile believer in Jesus, a Gentile who does not believe in Jesus, and a Jew who believes in Jesus. Which one is the spiritual Jew? Well, obviously the Jew who believes in Jesus. Exactly. What Paul is saying within the Jewish people, there are those who are Jewish in spirit also who are believers. Within Israel, there are those who are the children of the promise. But you go through Romans 9, 10, 11, nowhere does he address the Romans, the Gentile believers. And Gentile here is not a dirty word. It's the people of the nations. It can be a wonderful word. In fact, Abraham was told that his own offspring would be... How many of you know the Hebrew Jewish word for Gentile? Any of you know it? Boy, we are in the South. Goy. Thank you. And the Gentiles called him Goyim. But it's not a dirty word. God said to Abraham, I'm going to make your offspring a great Goy. Great nation. So the people of the nations, Gentiles. Sometimes the New Testament can refer to Gentiles in a disparaging way. Godless, sinful people. Don't live like the Gentiles live. But for the most part, it just means the people of the nations. You read Romans 9, 10, 11 and Paul says to the Romans, he said, look, I'm speaking to you Gentiles about my people Israel. He's not saying you have become my people Israel. No, the saved people of Israel and the saved people among the nations together make up the church. But when you get saved, a Jew doesn't become a Gentile any more than the Gentile becomes a Jew. He said, well, that frustrates me because I have my identity being a spiritual Jew. Friend, have your identity of being a child of God. With Jesus as your Lord. If there's different blood running in your veins, what does that matter, friend? People come and say, you know, I found back 11 generations that there may be Jewish blood in my aunt's cousin. God bless you, man. But if there's Jewish blood in your mom and dad and your own veins, it's not going to change your standing with God. But there are purposes that God has for Israel and there are purposes that God has for the nations. And together, the whole body is one. But God has not replaced his Jewish people. First thing, the church has not replaced Israel. Of course, there's much more to say on any of these things. I hate to just point you to a book, but I deal with these things in much greater depth and our hands are stained with blood. But just understand that first foundation. Second simple point, it is right and fitting that every believer should have a burden for the salvation of the Jewish people. I'm going to give you the prophetic side to it in a moment. But I just want you to take hold of this. I know that most of you that have come here to the revival already have a love for Israel and the Jewish people, have some sense either clearly through the scripture or through your own relationship with God that God has a purpose for the Jewish people. You know that. And as much as most Jews, traditional Jews and rabbis, think that Christians are anti-Semitic because of what's happened in church history. The fact of the matter is around the world, I've seen this where I meet Christians who say, before I was saved, I didn't like Jews. Before I was saved, I couldn't care less about Israel. The moment I got saved, God gave me a love for the Jewish people. Or as I followed Jesus, I've gotten this deep love for the Jewish people. I see the opposite. Church history has been filled with ugly anti-Semitism with hatred of the Jews in Jesus' name. I tell the rabbis and traditional Jewish friends, I wish you could come around the world with me and see the phenomenal love that the true church has for the Jewish people. But let's change things a little bit. There are some people who the moment they hear a message on Israel, the moment they hear, you should pray for Israel, they're like, well, who are you to tell me to pray for Israel? What makes Israel any different? I pray for this nation and this nation. I've got a heart for missions. I've got a heart for the whole church. You can't tell me to pray for Israel. And I remind you, this is not my standard message. I've been here over a year, speaking day in, day out. I haven't spoken on this yet. It's not like this is my little fixation. You can go get all my books there. There's one on the church and the Jewish people. But some people still react. You can't tell me I should have a burden for Israel. Let me just talk to you from the heart for a minute here. Let's change things. Let's change the picture. Let's say that Jesus was not a Jew, that Jerusalem was not the holy city, biblical times, that the people of Israel were not the chosen nation. Let's make it all Italian. That's all right with you, brother? All right. We'll make it Italian. God chose the Italian people. And the holy city was Rome, of course. And the Savior's mom, Maria, and Giuseppe, father that raised him, Gesù, not Yeshua, Gesù, came into the world, came to his own Italian people, taught them, instructed them. They followed him in mass, but then they turned on him. And he took his few chosen Italian disciples. Some of them went on later and wrote gospels. Those that weren't some of the original 12, some of them went on and wrote gospels. Luca, Marco, some of his other disciples, Matteo. Look, I've preached in Italy 11 times. You pick up little things here and there, you know. And he takes these men, he pours his heart out to them. And he says, look, our people are rejecting me. Our Italian people, they're rejecting me. And I'm choosing you to take this message to the ends of the earth. And Rome, our city is going to be destroyed, and the temple is going to be destroyed. And our people are going to be scattered all over the earth. And everyone else is going to receive this message, but only a few of our people will. And I will return here one day, but not until my Italian people welcome me back to my home city and my home country. Not until my people turn and recognize me. And he warns the nation, and he's rejected nationally. And as Italian apostles go and preach the gospel throughout the world, they go into Africa, and many millions of Africans receive the message. These Italian apostles, through them, the word goes around the world. It goes to Israel, and the Jewish people receive the message. It goes into the Arab nations, and the Arab nations receive the message. Continues to spread until it reaches a place centuries later called America, and millions of Americans receive the message. But still, the Italian people, their chosen city, the temple, still never rebuilt. The Italian people scattered throughout the world suffering untold atrocities. And as a nation, as a people, they are still known as the ones who don't believe in Jesus, their own Messiah. Would there be anything unusual or strange for an Italian believer to speak to Jewish believers and Arab believers, African believers, and Chinese believers, and American believers, and say, pray. Pray for my Italian people. They're the people of the Messiah. He's coming back to those people. Pray for our people. Would it be strange? Would it seem biased? Would it seem racist? Would it seem narrow-minded to do that? I got saved in an Italian Pentecostal church in New York. And this was part of what was called the CCNA, the Christian Church of North America. And the CCNA originally formed. There was kind of a breakaway group. Some didn't want any type of formal organization. The group was originally called the Unorganized Italian Christian Church because they didn't want a formal, organized structure the way the other one had it. And I got saved in this church. And the motto was to the Italian first. And that was just their own background and calling. And I remember, with eager anticipation, waiting to hear the missionary to Germany, the church's missionary to Germany. And dear brother Wozze came in. And he was an Italian ministering to Italians in Germany. That was his calling. And then the missionary to Australia had to have his daughter translate into English to him, for him. Because he didn't speak English. His mission was to the Italians in Australia. Speaking to people in Australia. That's what we went to reach. That was the mission of the church. And I remember we were joking among ourselves. We were all teenagers who got saved. When the missionary to India was coming, we said we didn't know there were that many Italians in India. Turns out he was an Indian with a message in ministry to Indians. But you see, that was a particular burden and calling of the Italians in that church to reach their own people. And Koreans have sent out Korean missionaries to reach Koreans around the world. And that's all fine. But friends, when you have a Jewish Messiah, when you have Jewish apostles who took the message, when you have the fact that you have been grafted in to their tree and been made recipients of their covenant and now have their Messiah, and he will not return until his own people welcome him back, it makes perfect sense. It would only seem fitting that every Christian would pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. What is odd or unusual or biased or bigoted or narrow about that? It strikes me as biased and bigoted and narrow not to have a heart to do it. And I've met Christians around the world whose primary burden is to get the church praying for Israel. It's an amazing thing. I remember in Kenya in 1989, in February, visiting there with two other Jewish believing friends. And for most of the Kenyan Christians that we met, we were the very first Jews that they'd ever met. And certainly the first Jewish believers in Jesus they'd ever met. And we met one guy named Shadrach and he had a backpack and in his backpack it was filled with tapes. And his whole burden was to get the church of Kenya praying for the Jewish people. And these were tapes on the subject that someone in America had sent him for free and he was handing them out for free to his people in Kenya. I remember on our first trip to India in 1993, my wife and I are Jewish. We had another woman with us that was Jewish and then two Italian friends. So there were five of us. And we were going to have dinner or lunch at one man's home. And he was a wealthy man. He had running water in his home, even had a car. And we go there to have dinner. And the wife had been up all night. She was so excited. She had been up all night the night before. And this man greeted me at the door. He spoke English. He was so honored that we were there. And he said, you are the second Jew to come into my home. The first Jew was Jesus Christ. I've seen that kind of love around the world. I went to Finland for the first time to minister there in conjunction with Our Hands Are Stained With Blood coming out in Finnish. For the most part, if a book comes out in another language, great, may the Lord use it there. But the last thing I'm going to be able to do is go to each of the different countries when a book comes out and speak in the churches. But I felt that it was important that I went to Finland because the Finns have such an extraordinary love. The Finnish church has a phenomenal love for the Jewish people. And there are Finnish Christians who are convinced that the reason that the Finns were able to maintain their freedom and not get swallowed up by Russia in the Second World War was because of the Finns' heart towards Israel. This is not the Finnish people as a whole, but the Finnish church as well as their heart for mission. It's an extraordinary thing. There are even Finnish Lutherans who are not born again who have that same passionate lifelong commitment to Israel. And the Finnish flag has the exact same colors as the Israeli flag. The Israeli flag has the Star of David. The Finnish flag has a cross. God has planted this in the hearts of his people around the world. There is one brother, not originally from America, but goes out from the States, ministers around the world with a powerful healing ministry. And as he leads people to Jesus around the world and stirs the hearts of the church to love God passionately, it's an interesting thing. But he calls for all believers. He has them make commitments by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, raise their hand and commit that with every meal they have every day, they will pray for the salvation and well-being of the Jewish people. He's a healing evangelist, you could say, with a message of the love of God. And yet he calls people to do that. God wrote it on his heart. And he calls them to fast one day a week. I remember being in Italy and meeting a pastor. And he came up to me and he said, there is not one meal that we have in our home without us praying for Israel. He said, and there is not one service we have in our church without us praying for Israel. To me, he was in the middle of nowhere in Sicily, place I had not heard of. I didn't know the man, he didn't know me. Yet God wrote this on his heart. I remember being in Korea one time and an incredible prayer meeting we were having, an Israel prayer group I joined with one morning. And there was a girl visiting from Malaysia about a 20, 21 year old that had been wonderfully converted in Malaysia. And she was with the folks in Korea for some time. And she was crying her eyes out for Israel. And afterwards we were talking and she said, you know, we don't know much about the Jewish people in our country. And then she said about the Christians, she said, we just know we love them. I was the first Jew she'd ever met. It is right and fitting for every believer to have a burden for the Jewish people, to ask God to give you his heart for the Jewish people and to pray for the salvation and well being of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You ask him for his heart on that. You read the word and meditate on key scriptures and he will write these things on your heart. Just like he would write on your heart a burden for the unity of his true church. Just like he would write on your heart a burden for holiness and purity. Just like he would write on your heart a burden to touch a dying and lost world, a burden for the nations. He'll also write on your heart a burden for the Jewish people. There are revivals, moves of God taking place in different parts of the world that do not have Israel as a focus and God is blessing them and moving. But I believe one thing that the Lord has smiled at here in Brownsville is from before the revival there has been regular weekly intercession for the Jewish people and that there were some Jewish roots in the teaching related to the revival itself. Let me go beyond why you should have a burden. Let me show you biblically the importance of Israel's salvation. So if you want to make a third point, it's this. The salvation of Israel is essential for the fulfillment of God's end-time plans. First, go with me to Matthew 23 after Jesus pronounces woes on the Pharisees, scribes, teachers of the law who rejected him. He says in verse 37 of Matthew 23, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stole those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Speaking to Jerusalem, the representative city of the nation, the base of the leadership. Look, your house is left to you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The well-known Hebrew words, Baruch haba b'shem Adonai. By the way, if you like to say those words, you might as well pronounce them correctly. It is not Baruch haba b'shem Adonai. That is grammatically impossible. It is Baruch haba b'shem Adonai. You say, what does it matter? It doesn't particularly matter except if you want to be sensitive to Jewish people and you try and use Hebrew and all it exposes is that you don't know Hebrew, you might as well get it right. You will not see me again until you say Baruch haba b'shem Adonai, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now here's something interesting. Jerusalem, Jewish people, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. What does it say in Revelation, the first chapter, when he comes, every eye will see him. Every eye will see him. Jerusalem, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Do you know what that means? Do you understand what that means? If every eye will see him when he comes and Jerusalem, the Jewish people, will not see him until they welcome him back. Those words, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, those are words of welcome. It was understood those were words to speak in welcoming the Messiah from Psalm 118. And you can read it through the gospels as Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Those are words of welcome to the Messiah. Jesus is saying, every eye will see me when I come. Jerusalem, you won't see me until you welcome me. Therefore, nobody will see him until Jerusalem welcomes him. It's not particularly difficult to figure that one out. Go around in every different way you want logically. You say, well, then maybe they'll never see him. Well, hang on, if every eye will see him when he returns and if he's returning to their territory, if he's coming back and he's going to split them out of olives according to Zechariah 14, they're certainly going to see him. He says, but you won't see me until you welcome me. Have you ever been late for something? You're desperately trying to get to a particular place. Maybe you're on a flight and you're looking, man, it's going to be tight to make this connection. I've had it where it was going to be tight to make a connection because of hours of delays and I was going to be the only speaker at a national conference the next day. And if I missed that connection, I would miss the conference. And you're looking and man, it could be tight. God, just help me out here. And they say, we're just waiting for a few other people to come from another connection. We're just waiting for them to get on board, waiting for their flight. And sometimes you look when those people finally get on, you're not necessarily looking at them with grace saying, thank God they made it on the flight too. I'm so pleased that the Lord allowed this that they wouldn't miss their flight because that's the Christian attitude. In fact, Lord, may everyone who could possibly be late for this flight, make it here. And may our plane wait even all day if needs be to bless these people. That's not the attitude most of us have. When so-and-so comes running on the plane with half their luggage and they're kind of embarrassed because they realize the plane's sitting and everybody's ready to take off. And you're waiting on them. Maybe some of you all your life growing up, you were always the one in the family that they were waiting for. The rest of the family was waiting for you. You just got ready slower. Or maybe you were the one out the door before anyone else was even dressed, laying on the horn. Come on, we got to go. There's this sense where the whole world, the church around the world, is going to be saying, even so come Lord Jesus. Israel, come on, will you welcome him back? Even so come Lord Israel. Come on, will you welcome him back? He's your own, he's your Messiah. He's not coming back until you welcome him. I can't help it. That's what he said. You know what it's like? It's like maybe a son gets put out by his father. Father says, I don't want anything to do with you. And then the mother writes the son and says, he's mellowed out, he's changed, come back. And then the brother writes, dad's not the way he is anymore, come on back. The son says, dad wants me back. Dad's going to have to let me know. I need him to call me. I need him to write me a letter. Just one word, come and I'll do it. It's the same with Jesus and his Jewish people. He came to his own, his own received him not, it says in John Mark. And he says, you won't see me until you welcome me. Now look at God's heart on this and then we go back to Romans 11. Go to Isaiah, the 62nd chapter. Isaiah 62, beginning in verse one. Dick Rubin will be teaching a Jewish roots course this summer. It's listed in our program as two weeks. It will actually be taught intensively in one week. We have a whole in-depth course, a second year course in our school of ministry. I'm just touching on a few basics here. Verse one, for Zion's sake, I will not keep silent for Jerusalem's sake. I will not remain quiet till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. Verse six, I have posted watchmen on your walls. Oh, Jerusalem, they will never be silent day or night. You call on the Lord or literally you who put the Lord in remembrance. In other words, you who remind the Lord of his promises. Give yourselves no rest and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. What a word. Don't give yourselves any rest, watchmen on the walls, and don't give God any rest until he establishes Jerusalem as the praise of all the earth, until the Jewish people in Jerusalem say, Baruch haba b'shem Adonai. Now let's go back to Romans 11 and see what Paul actually says here. Do you know as simple as these verses are in Romans 11, the light did not fully go on in me about the significance of these verses until 1984. What I was amazed to see was what God opened up to me through the scriptures. I don't mean some secret revelation. I just mean, there it is. It's so obvious. I met Jewish believers in leadership and ministry and I would talk to them and they said, yeah, God gave me the very same insight from the very same verses. I didn't see it. The light went on and there it is. I remember one guy called, he said, Mike, this may sound radical, but I got put out of the church group I was with for teaching this, but I can't go back from it. It's what the word says. And he laid it out. I said, yeah, that's what we believe. Simple enough. And he got put out of a group he was working with for teaching it. Verse 11, again, I asked Romans 11, 11, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Who? The Israelites, the Jewish people. After he says in Romans 9 that there is an Israel within Israel, there is the believing remnant within the nation as a whole. He then talks about the nation as a whole for the rest of the chapters. Every time he mentions Israel or the Israelites, he's talking about the nation as a whole, the nation that sinned, the nation that missed the Messiah, the nation that has been cut off from the fullness of the promises, the nation, the people that God will restore. Again, I asked, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Why? To make Israel envious. It is one of the greatest tragedies of church history that instead of the church making Israel envious, it has in many ways driven the Jewish people away from the gospel. The exact opposite of God's heart and God's intent. You ever gone into a restaurant to order something and you can't decide between two different dishes? So you order one and your spouse orders the other and the moment those things are served, what are you thinking? Oh, I wish I got that. I've been on a plane and they hand out newspapers and I'll catch up with the news a little bit, read a few headlines, a couple pages of Sports Baby and I'm done. I said to the person next to me, would you like a newspaper? Oh yeah, sure. The moment they start reading, I'm craning my neck. I remember that story. How did I miss that? Oh, that's interesting. See, when I had it in my hands, it was like, I'm done. I don't need this. I got other things to do. The moment someone else has it. How many of you when you were teenagers had that with relationships? You know, you broke up with this person because you just, you didn't get along. You weren't interested in them. You had an attitude. You know, you recently really liked them and then when they started liking you, you got an attitude and then your best friend starts going out with them and it's heartbreak city for you. You know, a week ago, you could care less about them. You were happy to break up and now I can't believe he got her. I can't believe she got it. I can't believe you have it with kids with toys. I remember as our girls were growing up, one of them would go play with a toy that was in the other one's room. She'd start playing with it and the other one would start having a fit about it and I'd go in, well, honey, were you actually going to play with that toy now? You weren't playing with it, were you? She said, well, I was just thinking before she came in that I would probably like to play with it very soon. I was thinking that I would want to. The thought didn't cross your mind until she took that thing out. Once she had it, you wanted it. That is just human nature. Look, for years, I've ordered books and in the early years, I used to have this deception that I lived with that when I got the next book, I'd be satisfied. You know, the Bible says, he who loves silver is not satisfied with silver. He who loves gold is not satisfied with gold. And I used to have this deception when I had just two little bookcases. Oh, if I just got the two volumes edited by Pritchard, the Ancient Near Eastern Texts and Pictures. If I just got J.A. Alexander's 1846 Commentary on Isaiah that was just reprinted. I remember thinking these about specific. If I just get those, I'll be happy. And I'd get a shipment of books in. You know, so many books just piled up everywhere. I couldn't even deal with them, you know. And I'd have ordered from three different publishers. And, you know, if you want to, you know, you come by my office and some of the folks that have done some work in our office, we just took over an office for me that had, you know, floor to ceiling bookcases through most of this big office. And I put out some of my books and everything else is just piled. You have to wait over books to get anywhere. I mean, it just, you know, you can line probably from, you know, floor to ceiling of half this sanctuary wall there. You know, you need ladders upon ladders to get to them. And still I'd have books to put out. And you know what happened? I'd get orders from three different publishers. I couldn't wait to get this book. And, you know, for research and writing that I do, I do need it. It's justifiable. Hey, look, if you don't believe me, get this book here. Israel's Divine Healer. It's got 85,000 words just in the end notes, okay. You know, I'm serious in my scholarship. So there. But you know what inevitably happened? The one book that I really wanted would be the one that didn't come in in that shipment. You know, and the funny thing is, it was always the book that didn't make it that was the book that I wanted. Always. Same with computer equipment. You know, it's always that one thing. I don't want to get off on another tangent with that for you. So God's heart for Israel was when the Gentiles would be enjoying Israel's Messiah, Israel's God, the presence and glory of God, the promises of his blessing and presence, the forgiveness of sin. When Israel was looking on, we sowed. You're reaping the harvest. We put in all the work. You're getting the benefits. We as a people have been prepared all these centuries for the Messiah. We don't have them. You do. That should make Israel envious. And one of the greatest ways to win Jewish people to the Lord is to make them envious of the walk that you have with God. To live in such a way and for your churches to be so filled with the presence and glory of God that Jewish people want what you have. One prosperity teacher once made the, it was a funny comment. He meant it to be serious. But he claimed that making Israel envious in order to do that, then Gentiles would have to out-earn Jews. And then they'd be envious. Oh, so you're going to get saved because I got a nicer car than you got. Give me a break, friend. And plus, good luck. Salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. And they will become envious. And Jewish people have come to the Lord for those reasons. And they will come in droves by God's grace at the end. And an ever-increasing number up until that point. But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? Wait a second. You know what this is like? Make it a sports analogy. A guy's never really played baseball before, but he seems to have great athletic ability. And he gets up behind the plate and they tell him, all right, you swing when the ball comes. And he swings and he hits the ball. It goes flying out of the stadium. You know, beyond the parking lots, further than anyone's ever hit it. And they said, I can't believe you're a power. He goes, power? I was actually trying to do one of those things that you call a bunt. I didn't even use any power. I didn't even swing. It's like, buddy, if that's what you do with a miss, with a half swing, what's going to happen when you put your power into it? Or to use another example, maybe you hear thundering footsteps. All of a sudden, the door swings open off the hinges. And a guy comes walking through the door so big, his head smashes through the overhang on the door. Smashes right through. We say, who are you? I'm little Timmy. Anybody seen my brother, Big Bob? You're a little Timmy. What in the world does Big Bob look like? I'm just trying to use simple earthly illustrations to get a point across. If Israel's transgression, consider this, Israel's national rejection of the Messiah and of the apostolic preaching of the Jewish witnesses to the Messiah, the national rejection of that message has brought the salvation of hundreds of millions of people. If it has brought people being delivered from every type of bondage and brought from darkness to light and the healing of every imaginable sickness and disease around the world in the name of Jesus, if that has happened because of Israel's failure and sin, what is going to happen when Israel gets it right? Let's keep reading. There's more. Look at this. If their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? What an incredible picture. You're talking about world redemption. You're talking about the glory of God filling the earth as the waters cover the seas. That's what Israel's fullness is going to bring. I am talking to you Gentiles. He didn't say spiritual Jews, Israelites. No, Gentiles. That's not a dirty word. People of the nations. I'm talking to you Gentiles. And as much as I'm the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people at envy and save some of them. My goal right now is to arouse my people at envy through your lives, through the lives of you Gentiles, so I can save some of them. So I can see some of them come to the Lord until that fullness comes. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, if Israel's rejection of the Messiah and God's rejection of Israel from its favored status, if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, people from every background, atheists, God haters, Buddhists, Muslims, animists, homosexuals, lesbians, drug addicts, alcoholics, religious hypocrites, proud ungodly scoffers, now reconciled to God, people from every nation and tribe and kindred and tongue loving the God of Israel through the Messiah of Israel. If Israel's rejection means that, means you folks sitting here today from around the world, if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? You know what that means? Go back to what Jesus said in Matthew 23, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. When the Jewish people turn and embrace the Messiah, no matter what end time scheme you have, no matter where you stand on tribulation issues and so on, I'm talking about the physical return of Jesus to the earth to establish his kingdom and to destroy the wicked out of the earth. When the Jewish people welcome him back nationally, whether it means every Israelite will be saved, every Jew will be saved, or whether it means a mass turning, certainly at the least it means a mass national turning. When his people welcome him back, he will return in the clouds and establish his kingdom. And it will mean life from the dead. It will mean the kingdom of God established on the earth. I like to picture it like this. Amen. I like to picture it like this. It's the day for the rewards to be given out around the throne of God. There's a big Texas evangelist. He's still dressed really sharply. Next to him is a little Jewish guy with glasses. Forgive the caricatures, okay? I'm just having fun here. And the Texas evangelist says to the little Jewish guy, yo man, you know who I am? I preach to more than 1 million people in my lifetime. Some more than 100,000 commitments to Christ. 15 people got out of wheelchairs. Three blind eyes were open. I see it with my own eyes. Boy, what you done for Jesus? Well, I haven't really done a lot. I was involved in Jewish ministry, you know, and praying for the salvation of the Jewish people. And what we did helped to bring about the return of Jesus to the earth and the resurrection of the dead. Friends, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's written. It's written. Verse 25. I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. He had warned just a few verses earlier, don't be arrogant. In the end of verse 20. Now he says it again. I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. See, if you say, hey, we're the new Israel. We replaced Israel. God was angry with them because their unbelief cut them off. Now it's us. No, no, no, no. Don't become arrogant and conceited in your ignorance. No, not at all. See, Israel's only experienced a hardening in part. There are always individual Israelites, and now several hundred thousand Jewish believers in Jesus around the world. There are always those who believe. There's always a remnant. And the hardening is not forever. Israel will be saved. When you read through Romans 9, 10, 11, there is no question when he gets to the end of this, when he says Israel, he means Israel. He doesn't mean the church. He doesn't mean Gentile believers. He doesn't mean Gentiles and Jews. He means the Jewish people nationally. Whether it means every single one or in general, you can debate that. But at the least, it means in general. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account. But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account to the patriarchs for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience. So they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. And when Paul gets to this point, he can't write anymore. And he just starts praising God because it's so awesome how God put the whole thing together. Oh, the depth, riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God are in search of all his judgments and his ways beyond tracing out. Just amazed at the whole plan of God. All Israel will be saved. It's written. The fullness of the Gentiles, the world harvest of the Gentiles. It's at least one of the clearest meanings there of that passage. The world harvest of the Gentiles. And on the heels of that, the salvation of Israel. It's true that there have been many difficult obstacles in reaching the Jewish people with the gospel. Many tears and much pain and much hardship for Israel and those that were called to comfort Israel have often cursed Israel. And if you get involved in Jewish evangelism and seek to reach religious Jews, it's very difficult territory. I can dare say that the book I'm finishing now on answering Jewish objections to Jesus, if I gave you, say, out of the 150 or 200 objections in there, if I gave you 20 or 30 of the toughest, as a careful student of the word, you'd be hard pressed to come up with answers that couldn't be torn down in a public debate by a rabbi or an anti-missionary. There are tough objections. There are answers. But there's been so much suffering, so much persecution by so-called Christians against the Jewish people. So much hardness that's come through the years. So much resistance to the gospel. Think, man, this is a tough field. True, but I would much rather have a tough field with wonderful promises than an easy field with no promises. We have the greatest promises of all for national Israel, that there will be miraculous turning. And if any people will be known as those who believe in the Messiah, it will be the Jewish people at the end of this age. Let me just encourage you real quickly, then we're done. When I went to Korea the first time in 1990, we got there the first night. You know, it was a 14-hour time differential at the time of year that we went. Plus, it was about a 14-hour flight out of Detroit. We had to fly to Detroit and wait a half a day in Detroit because we had to get a different plane. 747 had to be replaced. By the time we got to Korea, you know, you don't know if it's day or night. You're wiped out. You're jet lagged. Last thing I felt like being was in Korea at that moment. So I went to sleep that night. They got me up early the next morning. Come on, come on. We got to go. We're going to visit Dr. Cho's church, which I was happy to do. We visit the church there, you know, just taking the service. And then they said, come on, you have to go preach. We're going to the church, the other church. So you're going to preach. I'm going to preach? I mean, my mind was fogged. I didn't think I was starting anything until the next day. We were doing 25 meetings in one week. I remember they told me the schedule. They said, we have leaderships seminar all day and public meetings all night, every day. I said, wonderful. Who's speaking? They said, well, you're speaking, Dr. Brown. I said, right, well, who else is speaking? You are speaking, Reverend Brown. All day, all night. Yep. Four meetings a day. So I preach in the morning. You know, God gave grace. Repentance came to people. We go out, you know, restaurant. Actually, we went to a Japanese restaurant in Korea, and I got a steak. And we're sitting around the table, and the guys start asking about Israel. How can we more effectively pray for Israel? Bless Israel. Boy, it's amazing. They've got such a heart for this. And they had asked me to speak on revival and on prophetic ministry, but also to take one day to speak on Israel. Because they asked me to do it. I said, I would do it. So some of the sisters there said, Reverend Brown, what are you discerning? I said, I'm not discerning. I'm tired. I'll start discerning tomorrow. So we go back to the apartment where we're staying with some folks. And I say to my translator, look, tell them no dinner for me tonight. You know, because I don't know how late I'm going to sleep. But I noticed we were in like suburbs of Seoul, and there were no non-Koreans anywhere around there whatsoever. I noticed there was a pizza place in the area. And for years, I've, you know, eaten pizza. In fact, my boast is that of Messianic Jews with PhDs in Near Eastern languages, I have eaten pizza and played drums in more continents than any other. That's my boast. If I'm wrong, I'll stand corrected. So my translator tries to wake me, you know, six, seven, eight. I'm just unconscious. Finally, nine, Reverend Brown, Dr. Brown, Dr. Brown, we better go. They're going to close. So I get up and we walk down to the place that I saw, but they were closing. It was too late. But they tell my translator a few blocks away, you got to go this way, this way. We couldn't even find it. A few blocks away, there's another pizza place. And he said, I can't believe they volunteered the information. You know, they're normally not that polite. We never would have found this place. We had to ask again. We get in there and we sit down. As we're sitting there, only two other people in this pizzeria. I tell my translator, I noticed these people aren't Koreans. I tell him, just quiet, quiet. One second, one second. I look over at them and I say to them in Hebrew, what are you doing here? They're Israelis eating pizza in the suburbs of Seoul, Korea. 24 hours from my arrival, they're meeting Israelis. I said to them, what are you doing here? The guy said, oh, clean pizza. We're eating pizza. Typical Israeli response. I began to talk to them and I was blown away meeting them. I surveyed the Koreans that I was with that week. None of them had ever met an Israeli in their country. Two of them had met Jews previously, but none of them had ever met an Israeli. And God spoke to me immediately that night that one of the reasons he had raised up the Korean church with all of its prayer intensity. Nobody prays like the Koreans. One reason was to be a blessing to their nation. Another reason was as a force in world missions. And another reason was to pray for the salvation of Israel. And I knew it. Before that week was over, I had all kinds of unusual encounters and things taking place with Israelis there and with Hebrew speaking Koreans and all this. And anyway, don't have time for that. That was trip number one. But God spoke to me immediately. I go there the second time. Just a few months later, we had three and a half days of prayer and fasting with about 2000 people shut up in a giant gymnasium. It was intense. It was heavy. You prayed and then you preached. You prayed and then you studied the word. You prayed and then you worship. It was just day and night, prayer and ministry. And the third night we had this tremendous breakthrough in intercession. The thing exploded. And I remember thinking, how will I know when it breaks through? Because it's so intense all the time. You know, but it's something broke. It got deeper as we ministered on intercession, the burden of the Lord, and then I'd announce something and we pray and people would cry out and I'd announce something else and they'd pray for five minutes and groan and cry out. And seek the face of God earnestly. Then I'd announce another subject and my translator would pick himself off the ground. He was sitting a heap on the ground. I'd say, pray for all of Korea, you know, pray for Mitch and this and that. And then this tremendous burden, pray for Israel, Russian Jews in Israel. And even though I lived in Maryland, pray for the Jews of New York City, specifically in my heart and mind, the Orthodox Jews of New York City. Tremendous prayer. I'm now leaving. I'm flying back on Korean air. Almost all the people on the plane are Koreans. All the stewardesses are Koreans. Some of the stewardesses, some of them don't even speak English. There I am sitting at the airport, just a handful of non-Koreans there. I walk into the airport, Kimpo International Airport, and I sit down and I look, I said, this is unbelievable. There he is, long beard, yarmulke and all, an Orthodox rabbi from New York. Kimpo International Airport. Seoul, Korea, about to get on Korean Airlines. And I said, what in the world? I said, Lord, clear enough to me, you know, just another sign. So I went over to him. I said, hey, I got a question for you. He actually wasn't a rabbi, but Orthodox Jew, well-educated and rabbinic things. I said, I got a question for you. And I said, you know, it says this in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud says this, you know, what's your answer? It wasn't related to the Messiah or anything. I said, that's a good question. I'm going to think about it. Well, we didn't get a chance to talk. I said, God, you got to give me another moment with this guy. We had a one-hour layover in Anchorage, Alaska, that great center of Jewish ministry. So I found this guy, and we had a real heart-to-heart talk for most of that hour. And at the end, he said, have your fun. Do what you want to do. You know, just, in other words, you're not keeping all our laws and traditions. Just live how you want to live. I said, listen, I said, it's not fun. I said, the other day, I said, we hadn't eaten for three days. I said, there were 2,000 of us. We were on our knees, on our faces, weeping for you. I said, the day is going to come when the only true friends you have in the world are Christians who really love Jesus. I was so charged with God. I had months and months of work ahead of me to finish this book, Our Hands Are Stained With Blood. I came back so charged. In the next 19 days, I finished writing the book, just pouring out of me. I mean, just day and night, jet lagged and all. I knew I was riding on the wave of it. Other things open up with Jewish ministry in New York.