I trust that encouraged your heart as it did mine. I drink out of a water hose, a garden hose. You ever done that? You're hot in the summer, you're working outside, or you're just playing. Mom doesn't want you coming in the house because you've been rolling in that red dirt and grass and all that stuff. So you know you can't go inside for a drink, so you go over and you let the water run for just a minute. And if you have well water like I had growing up, that water gets ice cold through that water hose. And there's a special plasticky kind of rubber taste in that water hose, right? All right, now go from there to trying to take a drink out of a fireman's hose. You can't take it all in, right? It'd be too much. And I'm excited tonight to have Brother Bill Lake come and present their Holy Land trip and to share with us some of what God was teaching them. And just like, I'm sure it was very refreshing and it was a delight to their soul to be able to drink in some of what they saw. I'm sure it was like drinking out of a fire hydrant. You just can't take it all in. But I've asked Brother Bill tonight not only just to share about the trip, but to share what God did in his heart. And I trust that tonight God will do a work in our heart as we would share in the experience and the lessons of the challenge that Brother Lake has for us tonight. Brother Lake. The three most difficult things in the world to do, they say, is number one, climb a fence that's leaning towards you. try to kiss a girl that's leaning away from you, and to be able to put in 600 pictures of the pictures that we took in Israel. First of all, I've never tried to climb a fence that was leaning towards me. Trying to kiss a girl leaning away from me is none of your business. And we're going to attempt to do the next one of trying to explain to you what we saw. I'm not going to show 600 slides. I don't want to put you to sleep. All week I have tried to think how do I thank Berean Baptist Church for sending my wife and I to not only Israel, but to Egypt, Jordan, and to Israel. I've even looked up what other people have said and thought I would wax eloquent. but I can't. All I can say is thank you. We truly appreciated your generosity and kindness to us. There's two or three things in the world that I wanted to do before I died, and number one was to teach people, or pastors from mainland China, and did that in 2017. And to be able to visit the Holy Land, And there's maybe another dream or two in the back of my mind. So what I want to do is, first of all, just go through some slides and share with you some of the things that we learned. And we're not going to show you a bunch of things that you probably have already seen with others, but try to show with you some of the things that we learned. That's outside of our motel in Cairo. Just when we walked out the door, there was the pyramids. These are known as the Great Pyramids in Egypt. They're all made out of stone. We learned while we were there, there's approximately 140 pyramids that were built. Most of them were out of mud brick and et cetera. This is what they called Joseph's Wheel. In order to irrigate Goshen and the land in which they lived, The water from the Nile was in some canals, but they had to get the water up in order to get it into the land that they lived. And you'll note that you'll see in that wheel big holes in the side of it, and the water was, instead of going over the wheel, the water was going under the wheel. The water was coming out into a channel and then flowing out into the land in which they lived. This is a pyramid that we saw. It is one of the ones that is left. This is not the great pyramids, but one made out of brick, of mud, straw, and more mud. It was interesting, as we were there, the guide that took us said, Mr. Lake, I want you to take a picture of that, because we had been talking. Now, you'll note in that picture, And then he said, take a picture of that brick. Do you see any difference in the two? The one has straw in it, over 4,000 years old. That brick has no straw. And he was sharing with us, this is the time when Moses had gone to Pharaoh and asked that his people let go. And he told them what, if they've got that much time on their hands, they'll have to get their own straw and build their bricks. And it ended up that they didn't have straw, so they just made mud bricks. That is over 4,000 years old. And what a joy it was in my heart to understand that I was looking at history that was according to the word of God. Also, I don't know whether I can do this, Okay, but he was sharing with us that this is one of the older ones that's being deteriorated. He said if you go up about halfway, I've got the, I don't know why, okay, but if you go about halfway up, you will find that the brick from halfway up down was made with bricks with straw, but about halfway up to the top, and he said it was much higher than this, there is no straw in those bricks. and they've lasted for 4,000 years. Each brick weighs about 20 pounds. I asked him if I could bring two back with me, and he said, look, if I gave a brick to everybody that's asked since I've been doing these tours, there wouldn't be a pyramid here. The pyramids were just a building or what they call pyramids. Every time a pharaoh came on or became a pharaoh, they started immediately building a pyramid for him. We were also at the Memphis Museum for Egypt, and this is a picture of Ramsey. He was the longest living pharaoh that was there. He lived over 90 years old. He reigned over 50 years. That Ramsey, it's a picture of him carved out of one stone that weighed over 200 tons. It was an amazing thing to see this. And then they took a picture with us. This is a replica of the sphinx, which we'll see just a little later. Now we are actually visiting what they call the Great Pyramids. These are the pyramids that our guide told us that Abraham and Sarah would have seen. And I really felt I was a young fellow now. I mean, I'm looking at something 4,000 years old, and I'm really young. But it hit us again as I was sounding to Deborah. I'm looking at something that Abraham and Sarah looked at. It was just incredible. And you can see by the limestone that we're standing by, the average stone in the Great Pyramids averaged 20 ton a piece. Someone told me that you can't stick a credit card between the stones. So guess who tried it? And guess what? They were right. My credit card would not slide between those stones. How these engineers in those days and those times did it, I have no idea, but they did it. It's just beautiful. And that's the side. Now normally, when they were first built, they had like a I'll just say a clay or something that would have made them very smooth. But after four years, or 44,000 years of different weather beating, all that was removed, and therefore you just have the three great pyramids left. These are the only ones that were made out of stone. The other pyramids were made out of mud brick, which the children of Israel produced to help produce them. Here's the stink who was to guard these pyramids and the bodies of the great pharaohs. As we left Cairo, we headed out into the wilderness, and this is in the Sinai Range. Now, we're not for sure if this is Sinai, the mountain where Moses—we're pretty sure it was not. They told us it's probably behind there. We could have gone there, but it would have been an evening course. We would have had to ride camels up to a certain amount, and then there were 720 stone steps after that. And my wife and I looked at each other and said, we're too young for that. So we just enjoyed it. At the bottom of this hill, it was strange, is St. Catherine's Cathedral. and they claim they have there the burning bush of Moses, the actual bush. I just found a place so full of idolatry, I didn't take a picture of it. But one of the people on the tour said to our guide, said, How do you know that that is really the burning bush? And he said, well, we have tried it, planted it everywhere, and it won't live only but here. So we know it's the burning bush. There happened to be a couple from Australia on our tour, and he popped up and he said, have you tried Australia, planting it in Australia? And it became dead silence. I doubt if that was really true. We journeyed from then to Jordan, and this is Petra. It was a place that I've always wanted to see. You entered in, it is just a bunch of rocks, and apparently during the flood, the only way that I can guess it happened, there is this narrow, it takes about an hour walk down it, it's a mile long, and it's very narrow, and you go into the Petra. You can drive down it, probably in a golf cart. You can go by horse. You can go by a little buggy or whatever they call it. But that's the only way you can get in there. It is said, or some believe, that in the future, when Israel is once again attacked in the end days, that the children of Israel will flee to this area. This is what they call the treasurer that is built right into the wall of the stones. It was carved out, and it was just a fantastic place to be. Here is an auditorium, what they called an amphitheater, that would seat 5,000 people. At one time, it was estimated that there was between 10,000 and 12,000 people that lived in Petra. Again, because of time, the irrigation system, the way they collected water was just fantastic. Sad to say, and I don't wanna blame her, but my wife became very sick the night before in Petra. We stayed at a motel. There was, what, lamb stew, that was it. And there was about six or seven of them that ate it, and all seven got upset stomachs and were sick. So we didn't stay as long as I had hoped there to take pictures, but at least we were there and saw it. Now we have left, and we're now journeying towards Israel, and we now are looking over Mount Nebo. This is where Moses led the children of Israel, and he came up, if the picture, if it wasn't so hazy and everything, you would see to the left, or to probably your right or left, whatever it is, you would see the Dead Sea. And it was a moving time, which I want to deal with just a little later, standing where Moses stood. Now, please, again, we didn't see Moses' footprints. Our guide just said, this is Mount Nimbo. It would be somewhere in this vicinity where Moses led the children of Israel, saw the Promised Land, and God told Moses he wasn't permitted to go any further. And then this is our arrival into Jerusalem. We were with Pilgrim's Tour, which is a Christian organization. As we came into the city, they started playing the song Jerusalem. And it was a moving time to be able to see the Dome Rock and et cetera. We were at Caesarea, which is the place, well, well, Yeah, this is Caesarea. This is the place where Peter met Cornelius and learned that all things are clean and you and I as Gentiles are now welcome into the family. However, I was intrigued by this whatever it was. And I said to our guide, I said, What is that? And she kind of got—was embarrassed. Our guide was a lady. Her grandfather and father are both Orthodox Jews. And she shared her testimony how that she was in a hospital. And far as she was concerned, she was dying from cancer. And someone came in and told her that she didn't have anything to fear because the Messiah had already come. The Messiah had already paid for her sins. And through that process, she came to know Christ. Now, she called this a rotting tomb. She says in that time and around Caesarea, they would put bodies in there, leave it open, and they would have the bugs, the rats, and anything else to eat all the flesh of the body, and anything that was left was just the bones, and then they would go and actually bury the bones. Now, I have no way to verify, but it certainly looked like that's what would take place. This is Caesarea. This is where King Herod had built a port city on the Mediterranean Sea. Also, there are just the graves along the road. It was obvious that they had built there and various graves of people. This is the place, I told my wife, I never can get this word down. Tell me, honey. Megiddo. Have you ever heard of Megiddo? Megiddo is about 450 feet high, and it is the place as you, I'll show you in a second, where the north and the south, east and west met each other in Israel. Israel really is the center at that time to the world. And now it's modern, but that road there originally was the north-south road, and if we could zero in really down in there, you'd see a stoplight, and that's the east and west. Matter of fact, you would find in 2 Kings 23 and verse 39 that that is where Josiah met Pharaoh, who killed Josiah. It was in that spot. Whoever ruled this hill then actually ruled that part of the country. According to the archaeologist, there are 25 different civilizations on top of each other. In the Middle East, for whatever reason, when one comes in, they destroy everything that has been before them, and they rebuild. And they took us down into a shaft, and we could see different layers and different cities that had already been built and overcome. But that is the thing. It's also interesting, you can see how rich and beautiful Israel, northern Israel is, that Israel has now been able to produce enough food to supply 95% of all of its food needs. They do not import that much food except junk, junk food. This is the beginning of the Plain of Armageddon. And according to the book of Revelation, this is where the blood will run, the last great battle, and the blood will be as high as the horse's bridle. It's a sad thing to see when it's such great beauty. If you look straight across, you're looking into Jordan and that area. This is the beginning of what we would understand the River Jordan. This is the waters of the springs of Dan that are gushing out. It was beautiful. It is 100% drinkable at that point. I wouldn't necessarily want to drink it after it got into the Sea of Galilee. But it was just beautiful. There are several springs there. And Israel has learned to distribute this water and to really beautifully to produce agriculture. Just as a side issue in the agricultural area, In 18, I think it was, they said 1840, 1850, there was a group of people, Jewish people, who were called Zionists. They just wanted to go back to Israel. They weren't necessarily looking for a Messiah. They just wanted to live in the land of Israel. They wrote the government at that time, I think it was a Turkish government, and asked them if there was any land for sale. And they said, sure. And what they did was sell these Jews swampland, land that was totally and completely useless. And if you've ever been around swampland, you know what I'm talking about. Well, they arrived, they saw what they had, but one of the men realized what they could do. He imported eucalyptus trees from Australia. And if you've ever been around those trees, they suck up all kinds of water. They planted thousands of them and turned the land in, the swamp land, to the most valuable land in the land of Israel. You leave it up to a Jew, they know how to do it. This is Caesarea Philippi. In that picture you'll see various altars to various gods that have been around. And our hearts were moved because it was in Caesarea Philippi that we have the confession of Peter. when Jesus, or our Savior, the Messiah, asked, who do men say that I am? This is the background. Which of these gods am I? And then he asked Peter, okay, who do you say that I am? In the midst of all these gods, and all these elders, Peter said, thou art the what? Christ, the Son of God. What a joy it was to be there. Here is the tomb, or not the tomb, the cave in which we found the Dead Sea Scrolls. We went to what they call the Book Museum in Jerusalem, and you're not allowed to take pictures. At that time, in that day, they had on display the Dead Sea Scroll of the entire book of Isaiah. As my wife was looking at something else and reading, there was a guide there, and I went over to him. I said, is Isaiah chapter 53 there? And he looked at me, and he said, why do all these Christians want to know about Isaiah chapter 53? Come on, come on. He took me over, and he took his finger. Now, he couldn't touch it, but he said, it starts right there. I said, could you read me a few verses in English? Could you translate it? And he did. And I said, that is my Lord Jesus Christ. And he didn't want to hear it. And we understand why. But it was a real joy and delight. Now we are on Masada. I don't know if you have ever seen, there was a film, I'm told, about Masada. When Titus the Roman soldier came in to level Jerusalem, they killed everything that moved. And there was about a thousand Jews husband, wife, and their children who went to Masada. This is actually a summer resort that Herod had built for himself. It's about 1,500 feet high. In the background is the Dead Sea. And it was at this point that the last of the Jews were in existence that were still in Israel. It took the Roman soldiers three years to capture them. And what was so interesting, and I'll just share it with you, is the Jews lived there. They prospered there. And again, we could just spend one whole evening about the different tunnels and the different things that they did to get water that high. But they did have water and food there. But they realized they were going to lose the war. Matter of fact, the night before the Roman soldiers actually broke in, they came to all the people, they gathered together and said, are we going to be free or are we going to be slaves? The answer was, we want to be free. They selected 10 men and those 10 men were to kill all of the others so they would be free. Then out of the 10, one man, was selected to kill the other nine, and then he was to kill himself. And it was interesting, in the Museum of Jerusalem, there were three names on little stones that they found at Masada to prove that this had really happened. When the Roman soldiers came in there, they were expecting great resistance, and it was dead silent, for all were not going to be the slaves of Israel. Another thing that I learned, and I don't want to offend anyone here, but Jerusalem to me is the most idolatrous Christian place I've ever been. I realize I love my Savior. I realize that He died. I realize they laid His body out. What you're seeing is people bowing down to a stone in which they believe that Jesus died on, or they were preparing His body. They were crying. They were weeping. They were kissing it, just as the children of Israel. turn the brazen serpent in the wilderness into an idol, so have Christians done the same thing." And my heart broke. And again, this is at the church of the Holy Sepulchre. I have no idea if that stone had anything to do with at that time. Our guide was very gracious. She said, I'll tell you, when something is authentic, and I know it is, I'll say so. And if it's not, I'll just say it's speculation. It's all just really speculation. But to be bowing down to it, to be kissing it, And you had the orthodox priest, you had Greek, Egyptian, all the different orthodox, the Catholics running around doing all kinds of weird things. I really honestly could not stand being in there. This is the wailing wall. And I didn't realize the wailing wall, the reason they call it the wailing wall, is that it is the closest wall to the holies of holies. And the reason they call it a wailing wall is that the children of Israel go there, or the men, on one side and the ladies on the other, to lament, to weep, because they failed to uphold the word of God, or the Hebrew scripture, or the law, and they're wailing for the Lord to return to build the temple once more. We did not go there because it was late in the evening, but a couple on our tour did. They went to the institute, what was that in Jerusalem? The Rabbi Institute, and that rabbi told the people that if they could, they could have the temple built in three and a half hours, and they could actually start the sacrifices and everything that's needed. From what I gathered and what they gathered, the temple, all the, everything that is needed is already there in Jerusalem. All they have to do is get rid of the dome on the rock. This is underneath the wall, the whaling wall. It's very difficult to see, but it was a fascinating thing. There's one stone there is 45 feet long. One solid stone. 45 feet long, 32 inches high, and approximately, they're guessing, 18 to 24 inches thick, and they've estimated it to weigh around 400 ton. One rock. Incredible. Here's Deborah out there around the Eastern Gate. Our Lord's coming again, folks. And He's going to come there to the Eastern Gate. And we look forward to it. Around there is the tombs of Arab people. We asked our guide why Arabs were buried there. He said they're protecting Jerusalem from the Jews. That was what they said. The dead would protect them. In our last day, we went to what they call Abraham's Tent. This was something similar to what Abraham lived in, the people of the Old Testament lived in, and we had a meal there. It was delicious, and it was just really a good time. And as we rode off into the sunset, that we got on a camel. It took them a long time to get that camel up, and if any of you have ridden camels, I don't recommend it at all. They are a very tough group, and I wish my wife would come up. We won't take the time. But coming to the Abraham's tent, they actually came down a road. We assumed that when we went back, we'd go on the road. No, we went on a little trail. And as my wife would say, if the camel took one step to this side, it would have gone down at least 500 to 600 feet, because it was just straight down. And she was petrified. And I'm not going to tell you that I was happy either. But I did tell her if it did fall and she went down with a camel, we would throw some stones over it and we'd just leave her there buried. But again, we thank you so much for your allowing us to enjoy this. We do have 600 pictures, and we just tried to select some to give you an idea of what we saw. And if you're ever there, this is just a side item, I recommend highly that you go to St. Anna's Church. It is the only church building we were in that didn't have all the idols or anything. It was just plain. And our guide said, now, be very careful because when you go in there and they're going to sing, you're going to get goosebumps. I have never been in a building where the acoustics, it was beautiful. One group came in and they sang, I Am Redeemed. by the precious, and I came out with goosebumps. Matter of fact, I wanted to stay the rest of the day there, but if you ever get a chance, I recommend that you do that. What I'd like to do now is just share with you, the pastor asked me, what did you learn? And there's many things that I could go on, but I want to go back to the pyramids and to Mount Nebo and share with you something that I learned. Our guide was kind of joking when we got to Nebo, Mount Nebo, and showing us what Moses saw. And she said this, it took Moses 40 years to find a land that did not have any natural resources, no oil, or anything that people would want the land for. And that was the one that Moses chose. All the land around Israel has oil, have resources, minerals. And I don't know why, but as I stood there and heard that, it hit me just like a, and this is what I really learned. I thought, yeah, that's true. It probably doesn't have any natural resources. It doesn't have any oil, but they had God. and He is all that we need. How grateful I am for the song that we sang this evening, He is sufficient. Turn with me, if you please, to Psalm. I just want to read a few Psalms to show you what I mean that God is sufficient and He's all that we need. And every time you see something that you have in Christ, Ask yourself, how many gallons or how many barrels of oil would it take to purchase this? Notice Psalm 18, verses 1 through 6. I love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock. Is Jesus Christ your rock tonight? How many barrels of oil would you need to replace Christ? Notice, the Lord is my rock. The Lord is my fortress, my deliverer. How much minerals? How much natural resources? How much oil would you need to replace that? my strength, in whom I trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies. The sorrows of death compels me, and the floods of the ungodly men make me afraid. The sorrows of hell compress me about. The snares of death preventeth me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and I cried unto my God. He heard my voice, and out of his temple, and my cry became for him, even unto his ears. Look at verse, look at chapter eight, or verses 18, no, chapter 18, I'm sorry, verses 32 through 36. It is God that girdeth me with strength, and he maketh my way, what? How many barrels of oil do you need for that? Verse 33, He maketh my feet like hen's feet, and sitteth me up on high places. He teaches my hands to war, so that how of the steel is broken by my arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation. How many barrels of oil would you need tonight to replace your salvation? You could have all the oil in the world, and it wouldn't do you one lick of good when you face God. No wonder, when God said to Moses, this is the land, I think he was actually saying to Moses, it has nothing natural, but I am sufficient for all. And that's what I learned. Once again, I had to learn that Jesus Christ is sufficient. And I have a lot more Psalms that I could go through just out of the Old Testament. All that God is to us. Allow me to read in final an illustration of, I believe, gets the message across. Years ago, there was a very wealthy man who, with his devoted young son, shared a passion for art collecting. Together, they traveled around the world, adding only the finest art treasures to their collection. Priceless works of Pasco, Vaughn, Moat, and many others adorned the walls of the family estate. The widower, elder man, looked upon with great satisfaction as his only child became an experienced art collector. The son's trained eye and sharp business mind caused the father to beam with pride as they dealt with the art collection around the world. As winter approached, a war engulfed the nation. The young man left to serve his country. Only a few weeks, or I'm sorry, only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram. His beloved son was missing in action. The art collector anxiously waited for more news, fearing he would never see his son again. Within days, his fears were confirmed. The young man had died while rushing a fellow soldier to a medic. Distraught and lonely, the old man faced the upcoming holidays with an anguish and sadness. The joy of the season, a season that he and his son had looked forward to, would visit his home no longer. On Christmas morning, a knock at the door awakened the depressed old man. As he walked to the door, the masterpieces of art on the wall only reminded him of his son not coming home. As he opened the door, he was greeted by a soldier with a large package in his hand. He introduced himself to the man by saying, I was a friend of your son. I was the one he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you. And the two begin to talk. The soldier told him how the man's son had told everyone of his, not to be mentioned to his father, love for art. He said, I'm an artist, said the soldier, and I want to give you this. As the old man unwrapped the package, the paper gave way to reveal a portrait of his son. Though the world would never consider the work of a genius, the painting featured the young man's face in striking detail. Overcome with emotion, the man thanked the soldier, promising to hang the picture over the fireplace. A few hours later, after the soldier had departed, the old man said about the task. True to his word, the painting went well above the fireplace, pushing aside thousands of dollars of painting. And then the man sat in his chair and spent Christmas gazing at the gift he had been given. During the weeks that followed, the man realized, even though his son was no longer with him, the boy's life had lived on because of those he had touched. He would soon learn that his son had rescued dozens of wounded soldiers before a bullet stilled his caring heart. As the stories of the son's gallery continued to reach him, fatherly pride and satisfaction began to ease the grief. The painting of his son became his most prized possession, far eclipsing any interest in the pieces for which museums around the world would want. He told his neighbor it was the greatest gift he'd ever received. The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. The art world was in great anticipation. Unmindful of the man's only son, but in his honor, those paintings would be sold at an auction. According to the will of the old man, all the artworks would be auctioned the day he had received his greatest gift. The day soon arrived, and art collectors from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world's most spectacular paintings. Dreams would be fulfilled this day. Greatness would be achieved as many claimed. I have the greatest collection. The auction began with a painting that was not on any museum list. It was the painting of the man's son. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid. The room was silent. Who will open the bid with $100, he asked. Minutes passed. No one spoke. From the back of the room came, who cares about the painting of the sun? It's just a picture of his son. Let's get on with it and get to the good stuff. More voices echoed in agreement. No, we have to sell this one first, replied the auctioneer. Now, who will take the sun? Finally, a friend of the old man spoke. Will you take $10 for the painting? That's all I have. I knew the boy, so I would love to have it. I have $10. Will anyone go higher? Called the auctioneer. After more silence, the auctioneer said, going once, going twice, gone. The gavel fell, chairs filled the room, and someone explained, now we can get on with it and we can bid on the real treasures. The auctioneer looked at the audience and announced that the auction was over. Stunned, disbelief quieted the room. Someone spoke up and asked, what do you mean it's over? We didn't come here for a picture of some guy's old son. What about all these paintings? There are millions of dollars of art here. I demand that you explain what's going on here. The auctioneer replied, it's very simple. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son gets it all. Put things in proper perspective, doesn't it? Just as the art collector discovered, the message is still the same, the love of the father. A father whose greatest joy came from his son, who went away and gave his life at ransom for others, and became the father's love. Whoever takes the son gets it all. And that's exactly what I learned, that I have it all. because I have Christ. Thank you, Father, for this opportunity. May you bless it in Jesus' name, amen.