Amen, amen, okay, you can have a seat. And you can open up your Bibles to Matthew 13. Some of you are still in recovery after worship, and I don't blame you. So as we jump into this message, I have two goals for tonight.
The first goal is that I would hand you a tool that is actually a metal detector. So I'm actually handing out metal detectors, a couple hundred of them tonight at the 530 service. And so for all of you treasure hunters, get ready. We're handing some out tonight.
So that's my first goal is to hand each of you a metal detector. And then the second goal is that you would be infused with courage to keep on going as we're on this 40 day fast. And so if you're new, and you're like, I don't even know what you're talking about, you're fasting 40 days, it's a bad idea. I'll talk about it later so that you can jump in too, okay?
So let's open up our Bibles. We haven't already to Matthew 13. If you've been around a little bit, what we've been doing is we've been preparing our hearts for Jesus to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. And all throughout Matthew 13, and then there's other places in the gospels, Jesus shares parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, and he describes the Kingdom of Heaven and what it's like.
And for Matthew 13 specifically, what he does is he starts talking to people on a shoreline. And there's so many people around that he actually has to get into a boat that's just off the shore and share these parables to everybody that's lined up on a rocky shore. And then what happens is after he's done sharing these things, he actually goes to a house, the house that he's staying at. And his disciples begin to ask him, hey, what the heck are you talking about?
Can you help us understand the parable that you just shared? And so he gives them commentary of kind of the interpretation, adds in a couple more parables for his disciples as extra credit. And then he says in verse 51, what we're going to read together tonight, we're gonna just focus on these two verses and they're gonna lead us into other places in the scriptures. But I wanna read Matthew 13, verse 51.
Now I want you to notice verse 50, that the last parable that Jesus talks about ends with a doozy here. He says, and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. So we just come off of Jesus' Indian parable like that. And then Jesus turns to his disciples in this living room and he says, have you understood all these things?
And his disciples just have a one word answer. Yes. And you just gotta wonder what's happening in the room at that point. Did they just get blindsided?
Are they upset? Are they sad? Are they in turmoil? And he says, hey, do you get it?
And they say, and then he says to them, therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out his treasure, what is new and what is old? And then all the disciples are like, yeah. And then we just as Americans were like, yeah, it makes sense, got it. Thank you, Jesus.
I totally understand what you just said. Describe and the master of the house and the treasure is in the new and old. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Right?
No, none of us know what he just said. No one knows what he's even talking about, right? And I think what I wanna draw your attention to is verse 51, where Jesus actually is asking his disciples, do you understand? Do you get it?
And it makes me wonder if when we're reading the Bible that I wonder if Jesus actually wants us to understand what we're reading. Or if he's just cool with us, you know, reading it, feeling a little better, you know, I feel better now. No idea what that meant. But it feels good, because I checked off the box, you know?
Or does Jesus actually want us to have understanding of what we're reading? If we are going to be disciples of the Jewish rabbi, do you know what a good disciple does? Is they are shoulder to shoulder with their rabbi and they're following what he says, and they actually are comprehending what he is saying. How many of you know if your boss is like, hey, I want you to do this, this, this, and this?
And they're like, do you understand? And then you're like, ah, yeah, I guess. And you don't really understand. But you just kind of like, yeah, I guess so.
And you just go on, and then you completely do the opposite of what they said. Maybe some of your husbands feel this too, you know? Why said that one thing? And you're like, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure.
A couple hours later, totally didn't do it. Did the opposite of what they said? And you're like, wait, what? I'm sorry, that was me.
Okay, all right. Or is it like so painful that there's no response? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't say that.
God wants us to understand. We need to understand that he wants us to understand. So when we read the word, it's not like an option to go, man, I don't get it, but I'm just gonna move on, whatever. And there's gonna be many times that you kind of are in that position, but I want you to notice how often you're in that position.
Because as a disciple of Jesus, I wanna know exactly what he means. If I'm gonna follow this leader, I wanna know what he's about, how he's thinking, how he's processing information, what his opinion is, what my marching orders are, what I should do, what I shouldn't do, I wanna know everything. But if it's a 50-50 chance, if I get it, that's a problem for me as a follower, if I'm not actually pressing in to get it and understand, right? And I wanna give us some keys tonight so that we can understand the scriptures.
And I'm gonna give you it to, it's a metal detector and it's amazing, okay? But let's continue before we get to that. I want us to continue to look at Matthew 13, okay? So they said to him, yeah.
And then in verse 52, he says in response, therefore, let's just define some terms, therefore every scribe. So what's a scribe? A scribe is someone, throughout ancient times in Jewish history, what they would do is they would scribe, they would write out the scriptures, right? We did not have a printing press.
And when the Bible was getting written and the books of the Bible were crafted, we didn't have the ability to just press a button on a computer and have it print. And so the whole, the way that scriptures could get multiplied is through a scribe meticulously writing out word for word with the other copy of the Torah set. And so scribe preserved, that's the first thing a scribe does is they preserve the scriptures. The second thing that scribe does is they interpret or study the scriptures, okay?
That's number two, they study or interpret scripture. And then the third thing that they do is they train and teach with the scriptures, right? And so that's what a scribe is. Then it says somebody ascribe that's been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house.
What's a master of a house? Master of a house is like what Daniel, or I'm sorry, not Daniel, Joseph was a master of a house. In the story of Joseph, he gets sold into slavery by his brothers, do you remember that? And then he's actually the master of a house.
And what that means is a high level, highly trusted servant over in a state, okay? And they're entrusted to steward all of the resources of the estate. So that's what a master of a house is, is a high level servant that's trusted and entrusted to steward what their master owns, okay? So at their disposal, they got a lot of treasure of their master, does that make sense?
So we've got scribes that are entrusted servants that are stewarding what their master has given them. And then it says that they bring out his treasure new and what is old? What the new and old treasure? I mean, I like treasure, I don't care if it's old or new, right?
And these are the moments that we have to kind of start looking and being curious around, okay, what is Jesus getting at? And most of the time, he's pointing back to a story in the Old Testament. And so what I do sometimes, you don't have to do this, but what I do sometimes is I use chat GPT, okay? And I search, find the Old Testament scriptures that have the concept of ascribe bringing something that's old and something that's new.
But I did have one more clarifier in my search and that is treasure because I know after studying what treasure is, treasure is actually traditionally the scriptures, the studying of scriptures, okay? So it's a common, rabbinical understanding that if you study the scriptures, you're going to find treasure everywhere. And so if you meditate on the word, you're going to have jewels and pearls and rubies everywhere, right? And they say that scripture is far deeper, it just has an infinite depth to it, okay?
So that's all part of Jewish teaching. So when Jesus is talking about treasure, he's talking about meditation on the word of God and revelation in the knowledge of God, okay? So I'm searching scribe, treasure, or the study of the word and bringing new and old teaching. So that's why I searched.
And there's a very short list of what popped up. And so we gotta turn to Nehemiah eight because that is the only passage that made sense. And I'm pretty sure it's connected to what Jesus is talking about. So turning your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter eight.
Are you guys ready to get into Nehemiah? How many of you have been in Nehemiah in the last year? Raise your hand if you've read Nehemiah in the last year. Come on, that's a lot of you, let's go.
All right, so let me give you context really quick. And I know some of you are like, just give me the metal detector and I will, okay? So just be patient. All right, so Nehemiah eight, Nehemiah is, man, it's right after Ezra and it's before Job.
I know, it's kind of a sneaky book right there, right? You always think it's later, I agree, I agree. Honestly, it should be. I don't know what they're thinking.
All right, Nehemiah eight, let me give you some context of what's happening. So the nation of Israel, they're in rebellion. And because of their rebellion before God, they broke in covenant that God gave to them. What God does is he sends them into exile, into Babylon, okay?
And so what happens is the Babylonian empire conquers Israel. They tear down the temple in Israel. They ransack the city. They bring the best and brightest of Israel's youth to Babylon and have them serve in Nebuchadnezzar's royal temple, okay?
And so you might remember Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, those are the guys that actually got brought into Babylon when the exile happened in Babylon and attacked Israel. Well, now what's happening is there's been some leadership changes in Persia, took over, and there's some other empires that conquered Babylon and the Assyrians, and it's just been, there's been a lot of transition, okay? And now there's groups of people, there's waves of Jews that are coming back to the Holy Land. And there's three projects that they're working on.
The first project is they're rebuilding the temple. If you've ever heard the second temple period, have any of you guys heard that term, the second temple period? What that means is David's son Solomon built the first temple in Israel, and then that got torn down, and now they're rebuilding another temple, the second temple, okay? And the second temple has a project manager, and his name is Zerubbabel.
So Zerubbabel is building the thing. And then Nehemiah, he's a leader, and he's rebuilding the wall. He's the project manager over the wall. He's a ruler, and he's focused on rebuilding the wall around the city, because how many of you know, a vulnerable city in ancient times, if they don't have a wall?
And then we've got Ezra, who's a scribe. Ding, ding, ding, ding. And Ezra is a scribe, and he is focused on bringing like a revival and restoration to the people of God in a spiritual sense, okay? If you can imagine, these people have been in Babylon, which is a pagan culture for hundreds of years, and now they're coming back home, and they have maybe been living more like the Babylonians than they have been as the people of God.
And so Ezra brushes off the Old Testament, the Torah, many of them have, he like brushes the dust off of the Torah, and for many of them, it's the first time that they've heard the words of the scriptures, and they're all gathering around, and Ezra is reading the scriptures for the first time, as they've come back from their exile. Verse eight, look at this, it says this, they read from the book, so this is Nehemiah eight, they read from the book from the law of God clearly, or with interpretation, paragraph by paragraph, and they gave the sense, everybody say gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. That reminds me of what Jesus said, he says, do you understand, remember how he said that phrase? Do you understand?
In verse nine, India Maya, who was a governor, and Ezra, the priest, inscribed, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord our God, do not mourn or weep, remember the disciples, they just came off of Jesus talking about weeping and gnashing of teeth, they're probably like saying yes with sad faces, right? He says, do not mourn or weep for the people wept as they heard the words of the law, and then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink sweet wine, sin portions to anyone who has, has nothing ready for this day is holy to the Lord, and he said, do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength, and every American that's grown up in the church says amen. So the Levites calmed all the people saying, be quiet for this day is holy, do not be grieved, and all the people went their way to eat and drink and sin portions and make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. Do you know what Ezra is doing in this moment?
He's taking the scriptures and he's making sense of it for all of these Babylonian exiles. Are you hearing me? As the people of God, and this isn't just a preacher's responsibility, as disciples, modern day scribes, you're the scribes, it's not me, I mean, it's me, and us, it's all of us, we all get to be scribes, we all get to be disciples, do you know Matthew, and Mark, and not Mark, but Matthew, and some of the disciples, like Peter, they're all hanging on every word from their rabbi, and if you've seen the chosen, you know Matthew, he's such a funny character, and he's like scribing, he's scribing, right? That's how we have the book of Matthew, he's writing out what is my rabbi saying, what is my rabbi teaching, he's honoring the words coming from his teacher, right?
And he's valuing it, but what Jesus is saying is, hey, all throughout these parables that I've been talking to you about in Matthew 13, I want you to know something, I want you to notice, I'm contextualizing all of the Old Testament, I'm contextualizing all of the Old Treasures, I'm contextualizing all the Old Treasures so that they make sense to you, so that they can be New Treasures, so that the Old, when I bring understanding to you, it can actually be New, so it's Old Treasures and New Treasures, and he's going, that's what I'm doing, I'm modeling it for you, and I want you to do the same, just like a normal good scribe, what they're gonna do is they're gonna study and interpret, and then they have to teach. Now how many of you know teaching, that makes no sense to the hearer, is not good teaching. How many of you know if you just spout off religious information and people are like, I have no idea what you're talking about? Bro, I live in 2025, right?
I live in America, this isn't making sense to me, we have to, as the people of God, learn how to contextualize the scriptures in our lives, so it makes sense. The only way that that's gonna happen is not through you going to seminary, somebody say amen to that. It's not gonna be you going to Bible school, that's not the answer of how you're gonna figure out how to contextualize the scriptures so that you can share them. That's not gonna work, I mean it could help, so do it, go for it, just don't have your heart grow cold, okay, if you go to seminary.
But the way of the everyday believer, the everyday disciple is if they listen and they study, and they actually obey what God is saying, you are going to become the word, you are going to live out the message, and when you live out the message, then you'll be able to contextualize it because you just contextualized it in your life, in America, in a modern setting, or postmodern setting, whatever we are, postmodern, whatever it is, for all of you philosophers, you know what it is, what time it is. But I'm just telling you, whatever it is, whatever season time, whatever it is, if you are obeying the scriptures, putting them into practice, you will be able to teach and train the disciple that's coming behind you, because what does Jesus say in the Great Commission? He says, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to what? Obey, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.
So the whole way, you're going, I don't know how to make disciples, I don't know how to mentor somebody, I don't know how to raise somebody up, I know how you can do that, all you do is you listen to God, you study the word, and then when you see the word, and you go, Lord, how can I obey this? And then you obey what he says, and then after you've obeyed what he said, you turn around and you say, hey, do you wanna follow me as I obey what he says, and I'll teach you how to obey what he says. And so then they learn how to obey what he said, and then they teach somebody else how to obey what Jesus said, and then that's called discipleship, and then you can fulfill the Great Commission in your life, and it doesn't have to be hundreds, it doesn't have to be thousands, it's gonna be one at a time. You don't have to do it, you don't have to do it, you don't even have to do it, you can just do one person at a time.
This is the hour that we're living in. If we can all get activated into doing it, you're going, man, I'm not qualified, I need to get more training, no, ah, stop it, you are qualified, you have what it takes, start, just start, jump in and go, hey, you wanna come and pursue God with me? Let's figure it out together, and I'm gonna invest in you. Man, we're, so many of us have seen on the sideline waiting to get trained, and the training is on the job as a scribe.
You just start doing it, and then you start realizing they're watching you, and you're like, oh my gosh, do I have anything in my life, is my life worth following? There's a question we have to ask. When I look at my life, is it worth following? And I think we're touching on something in this 40-day fast, because maybe for the first time in your life, you're going, I feel like my life could be worth following, because I'm obeying him, and I'm actually doing the way of a disciple, okay?
So I love that the Lord is meeting his disciples in this moment, and he's going, hey, the joy of the Lord is your strength, don't forget, you know? And as an American, we're like, yeah, I love that. I put it on the wall, put some egos and sunsets in the picture, he is our strength, as a joy of the Lord is our strength, right? And we want to understand what he's talking about.
We want to understand the context, right? And as a people, that's what we're giving ourselves to. So how are you going to understand if you are from the West and your Lord and your Savior and your Teacher is from the East? We ought to just name this right now.
Jesus is not a white European that showed up on the Mayflower a couple hundred years ago. He's not a stoic, frail, skinny guy. That's all pale, and he's got a beautiful, like nice cut from the barber. And he's not like on the bosom of his mother all the time.
My gosh, you guys, he is a masculine carpenter that's got brown skin. He's from the Middle East. He's a Jewish man, and we are serving and loving a Jewish king despite the imagery that you've been exposed to as an American for your entire life. And we must understand that he doesn't teach on our terms, and he doesn't teach in our language, and he didn't teach to our culture.
As Americans, what we think is that the Bible was probably written in English until we learn more about it. I'm just telling you how it is. As Americans, we perceive this. We are so egocentric that we just think that it's going to apply right on the page.
It's going to apply right to our lives, exactly what it says, and it says what it says, and that's what it means. And we've got to understand that he is a Jewish teacher speaking in a different language, into a different culture. And if we want to understand our rabbi, it's not going to come easy. It actually is something that it's going to require some hutsba.
It's going to require some like grit. But I'm telling you, there's treasures. Oh my goodness, there's so many treasures. I can't wait for you to discover all the treasures of the scriptures that he has prepared for you, OK?
So this is what I want to do. I want to teach you a Jewish biblical interpretation of how to read the scriptures. I want to teach you how to read the Bible, the way that Jewish disciples would read the Bible. Not the way that America, not the way that Northwestern College teaches you to read the Bible.
I didn't even use the current name. That's how upset I am. You hear me? I don't know if there's any Bible professors from Northwestern.
I love you. But I'll tell you this. I didn't learn anything that I'm teaching you today, at any type of Bible college. And honestly, I'll just tell you this right now.
I doubt North Central can't teach it to you either. No, I'm just kidding. Betful, no, I'm just playing. I'm just playing.
I love you guys. Hey, I love you guys. I love all of you. OK.
Just so much hate and happening. OK. Listen, I want you to all be able to fish yourself. I want you all to be able to discover what is your rabbi teaching you.
I want you to know how to hear him and listen to him and understand. And I don't want you to have to go to a podcast. I love when we gather together. And I don't want you to be dependent on somebody with a microphone at every day.
I want you to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. How many of you know if things went sideways and there's like unrest that you must know how to feed yourself? I'm talking spiritually. The grid goes down.
Is this you in your Bible? No, Wi-Fi. This is you in the Word. I want you to be able to know how to feed yourself.
OK. So I'm going to give you the metal detector because there is treasure everywhere. How many of you know that it doesn't come easy for that when you're hanging on the beach, you're getting a tan. I'm getting a burn.
You're getting the tan. I'm getting freckles. You're getting the tan. And I look around.
I look over. And there's a guy. And he's just working the sand. Working it.
Working it. Working it. And I know he's not finding anything. But in the kingdom, it's different.
In the kingdom, it's different. There is treasure everywhere in the field. And he wants you to discover them. Because he wants you to understand.
So I want you to get out your note taking app or your piece of paper. And we can put on the first slide. I'm going to help us out here. So this whole concept is a common understanding for disciples, for rabbinical teachers, for those that wrote parts of the Midrash and other Jewish texts.
That this is a really common strategy that rabbis and disciples used to learn and teach the scriptures. And so when I'm looking at a passage, basically what I'm trying to give you is this. I've spent hundreds or maybe thousands of hours in prayer rooms like this room. Some of them were not as beautiful as this one.
Little rooms, like 10 by 10 with burgundy carpet, just sitting in the room and meditating on the word. And I'm giving you a tool that has been given to me that has bore so much fruit in my life, but has also been spread everywhere. And I'm just giving it to you because I want you to do the same thing. I want you to follow what your rabbis teaching you.
So this is kind of a four step. I'm going to call it five step here today. You can write three columns and then five boxes or five lines. And the first line is Pashat.
Well, the title of this is called Pardes. So they call it Pardes. Pardes in Hebrew is actually the word orchard. And so the whole idea is that when a rabbi teaches, he will give nuggets that have the capacity of an orchard.
So it's like one truth is like an apple, and then there's seeds in that apple, and there's great potential for massive multiplication. So it's called orchard or it's called Pardes. And the first step, the top layer, is called Pashat. You guys want to say Pashat?
Pashat. And what that means is the face value meaning of the text. So most of the sermons that you've ever heard in America are Pashat messages or Pashat sermons. So that's where somebody that's studying the scriptures, they're going to do a word study.
They're going to get blue letter Bible out. They're going to click on the word and go, what does this mean in Greek? What does this mean in Hebrew? They're going to look at what's happening before this verse, contextually.
What's happening after? What is he getting at here? Contextually. Pashat is also like, what's the cultural?
What's the setting? It's just like a standard exegesis of the passage. I know I'm using some theological words, but we're just simple. Just the face meaning.
The next step is called Rames. Rames. I want you to say Rames, because the Rames is very important. Say Rames.
Rames is the clue or the hint. You can even write doorway. We're going to try this with a scripture. Matthew 27, verse 46.
Jesus is on the cross. And he says this phrase, why have you forsaken me? He says, why have you forsaken me? Don't worry, you'll get Rames back up there if you're upset about being halfway through the notes.
He says, why have you forsaken me? And you have to understand that because Jesus is the most excellent Torah teacher in all of history, that even when he is breathing and gassing for air on the cross, hanging on the cross, he's still dishing out treasures forevermore. And so he says, why have you forsaken me? And the Pashat of why have you forsaken me is, well, theologically, he is becoming sin.
He's become sin and embodied it and taking all the sins of the world on him. And the wrath of God is getting poured out on him because he's become one with sin. And we are going to be justified because the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus on our behalf and he is being forsaken. So that's like the, and he's feeling for the very first time distance from God.
That's the Pashat. It's like the what is happening. But Jesus, the hint or the Rames is Jesus quoting something in the Old Testament. He's actually drawing our attention to something else backwards and all he has to say, I love this, all he has to say is a phrase.
All he has to give is one little hint and there's a whole world that's going to open up just because he said one phrase. And that's how he teaches. He'll just drop a little hint and then all of a sudden, it's just like he dropped the word scribe and knew and old and then all of a sudden it's like, well, what is that? Where's that?
Right? That's what his listeners are doing. And that's why we went to Nehemiah. I was just doing this.
I just showed you what I was doing. And this is how you study the word. So why have you forsaken me? If you do a quick search, you're going to see Psalm 22.
So turning your Bibles to Psalm 22. Let's just put up the Rames real quick. If you want to copy anything else from that screen while the room turns to Psalm 22. And slides, we're going to dance around again versus one and two and then five, 14 through 18.
You're not going to be able to remember this. I'm a, you'll be able to track. Okay. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22.
Now let's put up Psalm 22. Okay. Right when we open to Psalm 22, what do we notice? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
So we see that Jesus when he's on the cross is quoting this song. Now what you could do is you could go, oh, I got it. You were just quoting the Psalm. Oh, that's cool.
Picked up what you were laying down. I got the right answer. But wait, whatever Rabbi drops a hint, they're actually wanting it to open up even the whole context, the whole chapter or the story that's around it. Okay.
So I want us to keep on reading. I'm going to dance around a little bit. If you have your Bible, you got to open your Bible and turn to Psalm 22 and read this. I don't want you to miss it.
You must look at the screen and follow along. And I want you to think about the crucifixion. While I'm reading this, I want you to think about the moments that happen throughout the crucifixion if you're familiar with it. Okay.
Psalm 22 verse one. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest.
Remember, this is written in 1000 BC. This is a thousand years before Jesus is on the earth. Okay. This is written by David.
Verse four. In you, our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. He's talking about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the heritage of Moses and all those in the wilderness.
Verse five. To you, they cried and they were rescued. In you, they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by mankind, despised by the people, all who see me mock me.
They make mouths at me and they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Well, let the Lord deliver him. Let him rescue him for he delights in him.
Verse 14. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast.
My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me, a company of evil doers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and my feet and I can count all of my bones and they stare and gloat over me.
They divide my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. Verse 26. And the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and repent and turn to the Lord Jesus. And all the families of the nation, Jesus isn't in there. I added that.
And all the families of the nations that worship before you for kingship belongs to the Lord. And he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him and shall bow. All who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive, posterity shall serve him.
They shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it, that it is finished. Are you? I would just have to pause and get our mind blown that this was written 1,000 years before Jesus alive and all of these are born.
He was alive and he turned and he passed before he was born, before he was walking on the earth. 1,000 years before that, Jesus has no control over them casting lots for his clothing. Jesus has no control of what the preferred execution style is going to be. Jesus has no control over people wagging their heads at him while he is getting beaten as soldiers wagging their heads at him in the scriptures.
Jesus has no control of them putting a spirit in his side to confirm his death. And like the verse 14 says, water poor out of him, out of his lungs. And as he is hanging on the cross, he drops a ramez so we can understand his glory, the glory of who he is. This is, the ramez was the hint, but what we just started wading into is the drash, okay?
So I want you to put up the next slide, the drash. The drash is the deeper meaning. So if the ramez is a doorway, the drash is like the treasure trove field, all right? And it's almost like you walk through the ramez or the hint and you find it and sometimes it will take years of study to even find what is the ramez for a passage.
But if you find a ramez and you begin to dive into the passage and you begin to meditate on it and understand it, it becomes expansive where you can go in the word. Now as an American, as a Westerner, most of the time in our culture what we're trying to do is okay, a teacher is teaching and now I need to figure out how to get the right answer. Are you hearing that? So we're going, okay, I got it.
It was the ramez, that was the hint, I got it. And then we go, okay, I found it. Now what is he trying to communicate? Like just give me the full fact of what he's trying to say.
And then as a rabbi, he's going, I've set a table before you here. And you're like, okay, but what are you exactly trying to communicate? What are you trying to say? Because I want to know exactly your intention because I want to get it right.
And he says, look, discover, it's a sandbox. There's so many treasures here. And we're like, no, no, no, no, but I want to get like all of the right answers, Lord, I want to know. And he's going, do you see?
And that's very Eastern. And it's not Western. Because we want the equation. I'm looking at my friend, John Fuller right here.
And he's like, okay, but I'm an engineer. And then I'm looking at Sam. You're an engineer too. I've got a bunch of engineers.
And I'm like, oh, no for you, right? No, I'm just kidding. But it breaks the brain when you start trying to listen and understand what a rabbi is getting after. And because half the time, he's not even trying to lead you to an exact thing.
He's trying to lead you into discovery. And he's trying to lead you into transformation. And he's going to trust the Holy Spirit to lead you into revelation that actually changes the way that you think. And he's not really as hands on as we think he is in terms of making, like he doesn't take the bumpers and make them really narrow.
It seems like there's really wide bumpers here when you're a disciple trying to learn from a rabbi. Okay? So this is an example of what I'm talking about with the trash. When you're in verse one, you're going, why have you forsaken me?
That in itself can keep you busy for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. Just the phrase, why have you forsaken me? Can lead you all around the scriptures. Because you can go, when was the Lord forsaken?
Well, he was forsaken in the garden. When else was he forsaken? Well, in Noah's generation. When else, Tower of Babel.
When else, Sarah was laughing at him. When else, you know, you just start going down the line. How many times was the Lord forsaken? How many times was Yahweh forsaken by his people?
And it starts eating away at the reality of who is this God of mercy and grace? The God, the great God that was forsaken and exposed himself over and over and over again to be forsaken by the ones that he created. Who is this Lord? And you just start wading into it and it starts getting uncomfortable because then you start thinking about how am I forsaken him?
And then you get to the gospels and you see Jesus, man and God with his arms out. And he's saying, why have you forsaken me to the Father? And now the Father is forsaking himself on our behalf. Oh my gosh.
And I skipped over thousands upon thousands of verses. And I just gave you the cliff notes. Totally like a Western teacher is horrible. Horrible, horrible what I just did to you.
I just stole that right from you. I stole that opportunity. Do you see that? I stole the opportunity from you to actually go on the journey and discover yourself.
And it was actually cheap. Because you're going to, now you don't have to. Now you don't get the joy of really. I gave you the cliff notes, you guys.
You don't want the cliff notes. I remember searching cliff notes. When I was in middle school and high school, I never did that. You never did that.
We never did that, right? I'm telling you, cliff notes isn't where you experience treasure. Treasure comes with digging. OK.
When I look at Psalm 22, I go, OK, verse. There's things that just start popping off the page. Once you start reading your Bible, things just start popping off the page. And you start going, OK, verse 5.
They cried and were rescued in you. They trusted and were not put to shame. And I'm starting to go, shame. The story of shame.
And then you start going off on shame. Hebrews 12, 2. And Philippians 2. And you start meditating on the topic of shame and how Jesus despised the shame.
And then you start thinking about crying. And he rescues those who cry. And now all of a sudden, you're in this whole meditation on voice and how we're given voice. And God delights in the cry of his people.
And he delights in rescuing them. And all of a sudden, you're thinking about the power of voice. The power of voice for children and how children's voice is actually shaped their world and how they read. I'm just really in a sight tangent.
But when a child cries and their parent is responsive to them, it actually gives them identity knowing that their parent is responding to their cry. And they have value. And it's again and again and again. They cry.
There's a response. They cry. There's a response. And all of a sudden, they have their identities.
Their little brains start forming because there's a caretaker that responds to their cry. And it shapes the human brain developmentally when the baby is, when the distress is met. And right here, I just read on the page that he rescues those that cry to him. The very God that knows how the brain is formed in a child is going, I know exactly what you need.
You actually need to cry to me. You need to get some reps in of crying. Because you've been locked up and you need some, a fresh dose of vulnerability, you need to start crying. You guys, I'm just looking at something that's like Psalm 18, and now all of a sudden, I'm in this whole world.
You can do that too. All of a sudden you just start seeing these cross-referencing. I'm saying different things than I said at the 230 because all of a sudden it just all starts connecting. All right, verse six, he's despised and rejected.
I'm going, oh, is it okay, Isaiah 52? I don't got anything else other than that. Okay, verse 27, verse 28. King of the nations, oh my gosh.
Look at that doorway. Woo. Isaiah 66, the book of Revelation. We just sang from Revelation five.
Oh, this is gonna be good. You mean you were thinking about that on the cross? You were thinking about us in America in 2025, the Gentile nation of America. And he was thinking about me when he was hanging on that cross because he said, why have you forsaken me?
And he knew at the end of Psalm 22 that he was going to say that all nations, and I'm part of the all nations. And he was thinking about me on that cross. Woo. Let's go.
I love him. And it moves in me an affection for him. I love him so much because he is so creative. So genius.
He's this wild combination of author, genius, sage, all powerful, humble, and it just is, he's holy. And you have to begin to experience it personally. Because when you start going these places personally, it starts keeping you through every season. When you get the oil yourself, when you start digging, listen, there is nothing like it.
When it's not somebody else digging, but you're the one with the shovel. You're the one with the metal detector. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, you're like, give me that shovel. And you just ding, and that ding could literally ruin you for your whole life in a really good way.
That little ding of the shovel can mess you up for God and completely change the whole trajectory of your life where you all of a sudden are not so bored and you've got fascination on yourself. And I'm just telling you, I remember Pastor Ben, he was just telling me this over the years and I don't think he's still doing it. But he was like, man, I had so much trouble waking up in the morning to just get in the word. I'm gonna out you bro.
He said it from the pulpit so I can say, he said, you know what I needed to just get out of bed to start? I needed the promise of a donut. So what he did, he lives close to a cup of foods and he's like, I just need some type of, I need to just need some sugar, some hydrogenated oil to give me out of bed so I can get in the word. I don't recommend that on our 40 day fast, okay?
But what I'm telling you is this, he had some hoods, he was going, I am gonna get creative because I must have the Lord and I will, even if I have to eat a donut to get myself out of bed, I want God. Whatever it takes, not whatever, but listen, don't eat donuts for the rest of your life, every single day, just to get in the word. It was just a crutch for a little bit, it was just a step. But listen, we're having a good time, okay.
We just gotta move on, okay, there's a number four. The sod, the sod is the last one. The sod is the mystical meaning. And this is what happens when you start meditating on the word, all of a sudden, you begin to realize the Holy Spirit is the one in the driver's seat and you cease to be in the driver's seat as you're in your study.
This is the moment where you start going, man, I know that wasn't me that had that thought, right? All of a sudden, you begin to unearth revelation in the scriptures that you're going, I've never heard anybody say this before. I gotta do some fact checking, is this heresy? I'm just gonna make sure it's not heresy.
And that's good, you gotta test what you're getting with the scriptures, you can bounce it off of others, right? That's to be done in community. But I'm telling you this, all of a sudden, it's like for me, I'll just tell you mine, okay. This is a sod that I experienced.
When I was on a 40 day fast, when I was in college, I went on a 40 day liquid fast, I was putting everything in my smoothies, it was unbelievable, okay. I went on a 40 day fast and I meditated on one verse for all 40 days, for a couple hours a day, okay. Psalm 18 verse six, I meditated on Psalm 18 verse six for 40 days, couple hours a day, and it brought me everywhere throughout the scriptures, okay. But I always remember that it was like the Holy Spirit brought me into, it wasn't a vision, but it was like a picture that played out in my mind and brought me into the throne room.
And he unfolded all of these revelations about the eyes of the chair of them, because the chair of them are covered in eyes. And I remember being in this picture in my mind, and I remember asking the question, if all of their eyes looked at me, what would come out of their mouths? Because when they look at him, it's like a spontaneous combustion of holy, when they look at me and I slide into the back of the throne room, what comes out of their mouth? And that bothered me until I learned the true gospel.
That was a sod, that was a Holy Spirit, just kind of took me into a revelation that I, it took six years later for that to get rounded out with gospel truth to actually bring true meaning, because I know when that chair of them looks at me now, I know I'm confident what they're gonna say. They're probably gonna say something about my identity that was blood purchased, not based on my works, not based on my righteousness. They're probably gonna say something like, righteous son, something like that. And I'm gonna be dressed in that phrase, and I'm completely undeserving of it, but they see according to the Spirit, and they know what's true about me and him.
Listen, it didn't come easy, but that's mine. You can't take that from me, because I didn't get that from a podcast, I didn't get it from a preacher, I didn't get it from anybody else. Thing, you get to have that too. You get to have those things too.
Do you think that's just for a preacher guy? For sure, no, I have friends here in this room that know like Annie, you've known me, you remember that 40 day, and how, you were concerned. You were looking at me like, is this guy gonna make it, right? I remember Annie was in like our third wheel, we'd go to church together at Katie and I, she was like in the back, we'd be like fighting, and Annie's just there.
Listen, you are qualified to dig as a son and daughter of God. You are a disciple of Jesus. And what the fifth line is Shema, and it's not part of Pardes, it's not traditionally part of it, but it was a way of life for the Jews. And you can't copy anything, because I just added it, okay?
But it's Shema, it's listened to God and obey him. And what I want to draw your attention to is what we started with, that's the way of a disciple and a scribe, the disciple and a disciple and a scribe. What they do is they study, and then they walk it out, so that they can have many follow behind them. I want you to know, your life is not your own, your life is not about you, your study is not just about you, your study is because he's worthy of being studying, he's worthy of being discovered.
He's the most brilliant, amazing being and person in the entire universe. You're not gonna waste your time, it will never be taken away from you, it's a good investment. Listen, you're not gonna regret in the New Jerusalem, you're not gonna be like, man, I shouldn't have spent so much time reading my Bible. I shouldn't have spent so much time meditating on my king, and what he prefers and what he likes, and I shouldn't have been studying so much, what he thinks I should do, and trying to understand the way as of my kingdom, I shouldn't have, or my king, I shouldn't have spent so much time, no, no, no, no, no, you're gonna be like, I'm so glad I spent time to understand my king, to understand his ways, so that in eternity, that I can partner with him all that more.
I can journey with him, and he can trust me with more, because I've been seeking to understand and I obey, and then I teach others the way. Let's all stand. Listen, I want, I wanna just say, I really appreciate the hunger of the 530, and I wanna honor you guys for your hunger. I know that many churches all around the world have all day services, and they just worship for hours and hours and hours.
But I know that for the American church that that's not very common, and that the time that you're investing to actually be provoked into love and good works, I just wanna honor you, as a people for your sacrifice of time at Awakening Services. And many of you, I look around the room and I see many of you drive, some of you drive 45 minutes, some of you drive an hour and a half, every single Sunday to come to services, to be provoked to love and good works, and I just wanna say, I'm really Katie and I are just honored that we get to run with you. We are honored that we get to pursue Jesus with you, and I wanna call us to continue, if you're not doing the 40-day fast, I wanna encourage you to jump in on the 40-day fast, if you're getting discouraged, and you've been totally in compromise the last three days, and you've been going to gain milkshakes, listen, listen, bounce back. You're a bounce back kid, okay?
Listen, you got bounce back in your spirit, you're just like, there's a couple in our community, they're called the Ferbones, and that's their last name. And the Ferbones, they have a bunch of boys, this is my last thing I'm commissioning on, they have a bunch of boys, and they're called the Ferbones boys. The Ferbones boys, I remember seeing one of the Ferbones boys running in full speed, and they just ran straight head first into a wall, bam! And just hit the deck, and then completely stood right back up, and just kept on playing, and kept on running.
And I just want you to know, on this four-day fast, you get to be a bounce back kid, okay? You get to have that bounce back in your spirit, you get to get back up again, let's put our hands to the plow, let's listen in, let's celebrate the Lord, if you haven't been fasting, you gotta join us every single morning, we're gathering on Zoom, it's so good. All right, Jesus, we love you, just put out your hands before the Lord. Jesus, we love you, and Lord, we receive your kingdom, metal detector today.
We receive it, we receive this tool, and we say that we want to use this tool, because we want to get to know you more. Holy Spirit, we need you, we need your revelation, we need your understanding, because we want to know you, Lord. And so God, we ask, would you lead us? Would you guide us?
Give us courage and strength, as we continue to make room. We want the kingdom, and we want good soil. We want an orchard of glory in our city of the kingdom of heaven, and everybody said amen.