Hello everyone and welcome back. This is purely theoretical right now what I'm doing. Hopefully it records. I really hope it does. But nevertheless, this is your daily devotional for maybe Wednesday. We'll have to see. I'm having to be kind of adaptive to this because of how this is going. Take your Bibles today. I can't do it with you. But let me encourage you today. Daily devotional is gonna be tricky right now, all right? So take your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter 10, and I want you to read Acts chapter 10, and you'll read all about a series of events that took place with Paul, with Peter, and particularly with this place right here. I don't know what you can see of this, but right behind me, right up up here. This is the house of Simon the Tanner. Okay, Simon the Tanner was the one who Peter went to stay with and this is where Peter had his rooftop vision where he learned about Cornelius the centurion. But this is the place y'all, this is the place right here where Peter received the vision of the sheep coming down from heaven filled with all sorts of different animals and God told him to take and eat And he said, no, Lord, I'm never gonna do that. I've never eaten anything common or unclean. And yet what God did through that one moment with Peter is, you can see the script right behind me there. What God did with Peter is something so incredibly valuable to us. And two things, number one, dietary loss. Number two, showing Peter that the gospel was not just for the Jews, but instead was for the Gentiles as well. It's fascinating the guy that's leading the trip just talked about how Peter did something very Jewish. He argued with God and he made reference to Jacob receiving the name Israel after wrestling with God. Well right behind me you see Simon the Tanner's house where all of these things took place. Well, hello everybody. It's good to be back with you. Realize that I'm recording now a few hours after where I last came to you from. I'm trying to mix and match and put these videos together. Last time I was with you, I was at Simon the Tanner's house and now it looks like I'm finally made it to the hotel and I'm just relaxing at some wonderful Oceanside Resort. except it's not an ocean, it's a sea, and that's not a beach that you see behind me. It's actually a port, and it's a very, very important port. Lots of things happen there, including what we read in the book of Jonah, chapter three, or excuse me, chapter one. It says, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, go to that great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.' But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and set sail from Tarshish to flee from the Lord." Y'all, as I said, this is not a beach behind me. It's not an ocean. It is a port, and in fact, it is the port of Jaffa, which is the Hebrew name for Joppa. That's right. The picture that I just took, or the video that I just shot, is right in front of where Jonah would have set sail. It's adjacent to Tel Aviv. It's one of the oldest cities on earth and it's extremely important because not only do we find that this is where Jonah ran off to to try to escape the Lord as we just read about from Jonah chapter 1, if you fast forward to the New Testament, Acts chapter 10, as we saw together, Joppa is also where a man named Simon lived who happened to be a leather worker, Simon the tanner. This all takes place in Acts 10. I told you to read it today, but I'm going to read it with you now. I didn't think I'd be able to have this opportunity, but here we are. In Acts chapter 10, we find that at Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing. Side note, that means a Gentile who practices Judaism, so God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He saw an angel of God who came to him and said, Cornelius. And then we find out about what the angel has said for healing and all of these different things. And fast forward to verse seven. It says, when the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. Now, again, modern day Jaffa, but Jaffa, one of the oldest cities on earth. And the reason the centurion was told this was because he was told, hey, listen, you're going to go look for a man named Peter. He's staying with Simon the Tanner. He actually said the man's name is Simon. So we find out. Verse nine, about noon the following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and saw something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all sorts of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and the birds of the air. Then a voice told him, get up, Peter, kill and eat. As I referenced in the first little video I shot from Simon the Tanner's actual house, showing you the rooftop where all of this happened, Jews like to argue with God. Peter was no different. Remember how Israel even got his name from wrestling with God. Verse 14, "'Surely not, Lord,' Peter replied. "'I've never eaten anything impure or unclean.' The boy spoke to him a second time, "'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'" And then if you keep on reading Acts chapter 10, remember in the last little video I told you, and it should be one connected video, so I should say at the beginning of this video, I told you about this absolutely fundamental, earth-shattering, completely life-changing thing that took place where you saw just a few minutes ago. And no, I'm not just talking about Jonah setting sail for Tarshish out here. You see, when God came to Peter, it was twofold. Number one, as I referenced, this was doing away with dietary laws. This was God saying, hey, you know, bacon-wrapped shrimp, knock yourself out, buddy, right? This was saying the dietary laws were fulfilled. Jesus actually did that in his earthly ministry as well. But the second thing, and even bigger than bacon-wrapped shrimp, I know that's hard to believe, but I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't the case, even bigger than kosher laws being done away with and dietary laws being dispensed with and so forth, is the deeper meaning of what Peter saw. You see, Peter saw this vision of all these different animals being let down on this sheet, and he was told to take and eat, and then God said, hey, don't call anything clean. unclean that I pronounce clean. Yes, it was about dietary laws, but even more so, what God was talking about was Gentiles. You see, Peter didn't know what was going on with Cornelius. God didn't have him privy to those things. Peter was going, and he fell into a trance, and he's praying and all of these different things. And God is working a plan through Cornelius. He's sending this Gentile, or he's having this Gentile send his representatives to look for Peter. And y'all, the beauty of this is the real message of Acts chapter 10 is not only dietary laws, it's this wonderful, beautiful principle that the gospel isn't just for Jews. The gospel is not just for those who call themselves those who kept God's covenant and that sort of thing. Instead, in the New Testament, we find out that the gospel is for every tribe and tongue and nation. And what a beautiful, spectacular thing that is. What a gift from God. And so, to that end, you've seen the port of Jaffa, you saw Simon the Tanner's house. I'm trying to keep these things really short because my connectivity is really poor and I want to be able to upload them. But nevertheless, tomorrow we will see more things. I think I'm gonna be on Mount Carmel tomorrow, so we'll see. But until then, let me close us in prayer. Sorry about all the loud stuff in the background. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you so much for your word, for the power of it, that I praise you that I'm personally getting to see some of the places firsthand that I've learned about for so many years. What a blessing it is. I pray that you would use these short videos to be a blessing, these short devotionals to be a blessing to all who see them, to make real these names and places we see in God's word. Father, we're so grateful that you have intervened. We're so grateful that the gospel isn't for one nationality or one ethnicity, but instead it's for all those who have placed their faith in Christ. So please work in our hearts that we indeed would ensure that we are trusting in him alone for our salvation. and we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord willing, I'll be back tomorrow with another devotional, again, maybe from Carmel or Caesarea. I really don't know where we're gonna be. This is kind of a whirlwind trip that I don't have as much time as I thought I would, but hopefully between the different videos that I do, hopefully there'll be around 10 minutes or so, and hopefully I'll be back with you soon. Until then, take care.