Well, hello everybody and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Monday. What's tomorrow's date, Kyle? November the 9th, maybe? November the 10th. November the 10th. It's one of those fast and furious trips where we get up early and get rolling early, get on the bus, get off the bus, go different places. Let's see. Today started out on the Temple Mount. Got to see a lot of things there, reflect on a lot of things. Ended up at the pool of Siloam and also on the road Jesus would have taken to go up to the temple. It was really fascinating. There was an argument between our tour guide and the tour guide at the city of David. And it was really funny. It was like a Jewish mic drop kind of thing. And the guy's like, well, we don't know that Jesus came on this road. And he's like, was Jesus making a pilgrimage? Yes. Okay. What's the name of this road? The pilgrims road. Okay. You know, it was really great. A lot of fun. Um, yeah, it's been a fascinating day. I actually ended up at the church of the Holy sepulcher. Um, y'all, tomorrow I plan on going to the garden tomb, which is held by the Protestants as the place that Jesus was, was entombed where he was buried. Um, all the evidence really points to the Catholics and the Orthodox getting this one right. Even the tour guide and somebody else, PhD historian on the group said, yeah, We really kind of think it's over here. I'll say more about that tomorrow from the garden tomb. Um, I'll probably be able to do a lot more video. I got hung up in a, uh, Armenian processional and no, I don't mean like Armenian theology. I mean like an Armenian dude, as you'll see from the video on here today is going to be a hodgepodge of different videos. Um, but I got separated from the group. I ended up in the middle of a bunch of Armenians. I don't speak Armenian. I don't even know what language they speak, but the Lord worked it all out and I made it back to the bus on time. But it was really quite incredible. At the very end, you're going to see a very, very short snippet before I got chewed out. I could not take my phone or record any video, except in the front of the shrine where Jesus was laid. But I will say this, after having been there, I've said it so many times on this trip with you all. I said it today. earlier in some of the other videos. We don't believe in sacred places. We don't believe in sacred spaces. That being said, I've been to a lot of places y'all in my, in my 44 years, I've been to a whole lot of countries. Um, I've seen a lot of things, been to the Vatican, that kind of stuff. I'll say at the Vatican, um, I was really overwhelmed with sadness as I saw where so many people came to try to, to work years off of purgatory and, and just, I've talked about this before with you all. Um, and there's so much pomp and circumstance. Don't get me wrong, as you'll see from the video, it's a very ornate place where Jesus's tomb is, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. But as far as Second Commandment violations, images of Jesus, you just don't see a lot of those there. And it's definitely ornate, but at the same time, where he was laid, it's very, very simple. And history testifies to that being the actual place. And I've just got to say, I have this, this overwhelming feeling that in terms of places, though not sacred, I think it's the most important place I've ever been. And, uh, I don't know what to do with that. So I'm kind of working through that myself, but again, hodgepodge of videos, definitely different than the normal daily devotionals. And I hope you understand, hopefully the sound comes through with all of them, but you're just getting sights and sounds of what they call the Holy land of Jerusalem of different places. And I hope that you are blessed by these things. As it is now, it's in the evening. I'm worn out. I'm going to go eat dinner and then I'm going to bed. But nevertheless, thank you all so much for being a part of this time with me. Let me pray for you as we get started with this devotional. Our Father, we praise you for all the ways that you work, for the things that you have preserved, both in terms of ideas and philosophies and theology, but also the places you have preserved. We thank you for Constantine's mother, Helena. and the hard, hard work that she did in identifying these places that have been seen today. We thank you for the archeology. We thank you for preserving. And Father, as these videos scroll through, we not only see places of great spiritual significance, we see places of great darkness. On the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, for instance. Father, we pray that first and greatest prayer of the church, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. But while we wait, let us be found amongst the faithful. Please give us wisdom now as we hear and see some things that we wouldn't normally see through this devotional. And I thank you yet again for the opportunity to have this time. And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you so much, everyone. I hope you enjoy today's devotional. Lord willing, I'll be back with you tomorrow morning at six. Take care. Hello, everybody. It's so good to be back with you. very careful right now with what i'm doing because i don't know maybe you knew this maybe i didn't though israel in the six days war won back control of the place that i'm standing right now they then gave it back and allowed islam to regulate this space so that means no bibles no torahs no praying out loud know anything like that because the Muslims, despite this being Israel, the Muslims have control of the Temple Mount. Behind me, as you will see, is the Dome of the Rock. I'd like to take you in there, but I can't because I'm not a Muslim. I can't take you in this building behind me, which is their mosque, because I am not Muslim. It's a fascinating place. I gotta tell you, as I'm here, I'm reminded of all the things that we read in God's Word about the fulfillment of what this place would be. That indeed, in the Olivet Discourse, I made allusion to it a couple of days ago with you, but it's in the Olivet Discourse, that word being important, discourse, that Jesus said that he longed to draw Israel to himself as a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not have it. And so Jesus then promised to tear the temple down and to rebuild it in three days. We know from 1 Corinthians that in fact, if the Holy Spirit is in you, you are the temple of God. And so it's ironic being here in this place where Jesus came in and turned over the tables of the money changers. And yet, what's behind me right now, I'm about to walk up the steps with you, What's behind me right now is one of the largest monuments on earth. If not, you know what, I'm going to take that back. It's the largest monument on earth to complete and total totalitarianism, um, to oppression, to everything from oppression of women, oppression of religion, um, national boundaries, everything. It is a monument to that. And it is a monument. to idolatry. In the Old Testament, one of the things that's always contended with is the Baals. And what is the confession of Islam? But there is but one God, and his name is Allah. That term comes from Ba Allah. And here behind me, you see the Dome of the Rock. Hopefully, I'll be back with you in just a little bit. Thanks. Well, hello, everybody. It's good to be back with you again. I've just finished I'm hearing an explanation about this place, but I've got to remark on something. Realize what the Jewish tradition is as far as the Temple Mount is concerned. This is Mount Moriah. This is where they believe that Abraham brought Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice. And yet we know that that is not the whole story. We know that so many more things happened right here in this space. because you see, God would reject Isaac as a sacrifice and would provide the ram instead, but it was the ram that would point forward to the lamb, the perfect lamb of God. And interestingly enough, hopefully you will be able to see this. I'm making my way over so you can get a better view, but this is the temple mound behind me, Mount Moriah, and across from me is where I started when I came to Jerusalem a few days ago. In fact, across from me, right up on this hill, and hopefully you can see it. Behind me on that hill is the Mount of Olives. And if you see, it's kind of hard to see, there's a grove of trees there, that would be the Garden of Gethsemane. So you see, as Jesus went up on the mountain to pray and to ask that question, Lord, if it be within your will, let the cup pass, he was talking about the cup of God's wrath. He said, not my will be done, but your will be done. Sometimes, and I will confess this to you, not knowing geography that well and being here has really transformed my understanding of a lot of things, but the fact that Jesus prayed that looking from the Mount of Olives towards the Temple Mount, towards that place where he would be crucified, towards the city, that he would be taken to, and very shortly thereafter would be arrested. Y'all, there is a surreal poignancy to this place. And again, the fact that the Dome of the Rock is still right behind me, right? This is, y'all, I'm not gonna get into the whole Islam side of things with this. You can Google it. It's not terribly important. What is important is the promise of God fulfilled. What is important is the faithfulness of God revealed in this place. And also one more thing. What this place strikes me with, though there's history, this was built in 691 AD. That is solid gold on top. It's thin, but it is 24 karat gold. The marble that this building is made from is probably the most expensive building material in this entire area. I'm reminded that there are no sacred spaces. There are no sacred spaces. The only sacred space is the heart where the Holy Spirit rests. Perhaps you can hear behind me Muslim prayers going on. Nevertheless, y'all, what a, again, surreal and poignant place this is. Thank you. Hello again, everybody. Continuing along with the theme of the Olivet Discourse that Jesus pronounced upon Israel, when they rejected him. I'm now on a very special part to the Jewish people of the Temple Mount, and that is I am at the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. It's right behind me, right over here. It's interesting. This wall is not original to the temple. Remember, you're dealing with two temples, really two slash three temples. First temple was constructed. David bought this land and said this would be the side of the temple. Solomon, of course, built the first temple, and then it was destroyed in 586 BC. The temple was rebuilt. Remember recently I preached through Ezra and Nehemiah. It was rebuilt again, but destroyed again, or excuse me, improved, Around the year, I don't remember what year it was, negative, or not negative, but 20 BC, something like that, by Herod the Great. And yes, these are all, everything that you see here that I'm walking on is 2,000 years old. It's all original stones, that kind of stuff. But Herod improved upon the temple. It was destroyed again in AD 70. But there's two things I want to bring out here. First off, You know, what is part of the original temple and what is not? There's a big question about that. The rock that's in the middle is supposedly the spot, and we can't go in there, but that's where Mount Moriah, that's where Abraham supposedly was told to sacrifice Isaac. I believe that it is. The Jews, interestingly enough, believe that this is the soil that God used to create Adam. They do not, of course, believe John 1.1 that all things were made through Jesus the Christ, nevertheless. But I want to bring out two things. Number one, about that Olivet Discourse. What is left here that is original? They found a lot of the original stones and we're gonna walk over to that direction because when Rome destroyed the temple, they tore it stone from stone. Now you might wonder, why did they spend so much energy on that? In fact, some Romans even wondered at that. Was it because the Jewish people are so resilient? I don't think so. I think it's because Jesus promised he was gonna tear it down stone by stone. He said, one stone will not be left on another. Titus Andronicus was the Roman emperor that was over the Roman Empire when Jerusalem revolted in 66 AD and eventually was destroyed in 70 AD. But it is the Lord, Jesus Christ, who pronounced judgment on Jerusalem, who pronounced judgment on Israel in the Olivet Discourse. And ultimately, Titus was the emperor But Jesus is the King, and the King of kings and the Lord of lords is the one that tore this down. But I want to bring up something else first. In the last segment, I talked to you about the fact that we don't believe in sacred spaces except that place where the Holy Spirit dwells. You know, when you go back and read, and I don't have the scripture reference with me. Remember, you're not allowed to bring Bibles here. Go figure. Solomon, when he prays the dedicatory prayer for the temple, He says something really important. He says, oh, Lord, our God, should we presume to build a dwelling place for the most high? It's a rhetorical question, obviously. How do you build a house for God, who is everywhere, who is a spirit, infinite, eternal in his being? You can't. Then Solomon asked God to make his presence among them. to set up residence, to make His presence among His people. Of course, we believe that nothing has changed, though the presence of God is not in the temple. The presence of God is not in this place. According to 1 Corinthians, the presence of God rests with His people by the power of His Holy Spirit. So though this place is amazing, though it's incredible, though to be a part of the history here and to see these things is just remarkable, as followers of Christ, we need to remember how God works. We need to remember the dynamic of his Holy Spirit dwelling within his people, that as a result there are no sacred spaces except the heart of the believer. And that is the temple that Jesus promised he would rebuild. He's built it and indeed is building it. Thank you. Well, hello again, everybody. I'm back with you, and I have just gone up to the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, however you want to say it. This is an intriguing place where people come to pray, and people also carry guns. A lot of different people here. Heard a rabbi who's a very, very nice man just now come and talk to us. And he talked about the verse where it says, seek God where he may be found. And it's fascinating. It's a little disappointing. because I'm here with fellow pastors and it's as if they ate this stuff up where he quoted a song that was popular in Israel about how some people have hearts of stone and some stones have hearts. This does not. Y'all, seek God where he may be found. That's anywhere. By the power of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus, as we know from Romans, is seated at the right hand of God and is your intercessor. We don't pray through rocks. We don't pray through spaces. And I'm not trying to denigrate this place. I'm not trying to have a terrible attitude about it. I assure you, I don't. But if you know me, I don't even know to how many countries I've been to. I've been to a lot of very significant, important places. This is certainly one of them in human history. However, Y'all, again, we do not have sacred spaces. We are firmly entrenched in the principle that you can go to God wherever you are because God is everywhere. If Jonah could go to God in the belly of the fish, then certainly you can go to God wherever you happen to be. But again, it's surreal being in this place. It's true. There's just thousands and thousands of little slips of paper in the wall where people come. You'll notice that I didn't think I was going to be able to go down and touch the wall because at first we were told that you must wear a kippah, right, the yarmulke thing, and I refuse to do that. I will not do that. I'm not Jewish, and though my great-grandmother was a Jew, but nevertheless. And apparently, I could immigrate here if I wanted to. I could bring my family here. That's fascinating. All of that being said, I want to avoid the appearance of evil, because there is another thing about this place. We heard about the millions of Jews and coming and joining your prayers with them. 1 John 2.23 says, you cannot have the Father if you do not have the Son. John 14.6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me, and through me. So I don't know what God they are praying to, but rest assured, without Jesus Christ, they are not praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they have denied the seed of Abraham, Jesus. And it is through him that Abraham is our father too. So again, thank you very much for being a part of this time with me. Hey everybody, I'm in a really interesting spot right now. I'm standing over what would have been King David's palace. Right over behind me is the Temple Mount again. Right back here is Mount Zion. Right there is the Mount of Olives. And this is where it would have been announced that Solomon was gonna be the next king of Israel. Remember, David is on his deathbed. He's about to anoint his other son. The prophet Nathan gathers him up and says, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's gotta be Solomon. And so right here is the place where that was shouted out. And we just did that. I'm gonna post the video next. Hopefully you'll hear the echo. It came through pretty well, but pretty impressive spot. Well, hello everybody and welcome back. Hopefully this comes through. I'm trying to be quiet because of the tour. Where I'm at is a very special place. I'm making my way down to the pool at Siloam, that place where Jesus healed the man that was born blind. And also that place where the Pharisees examined him saying, hey, listen, who was Who said? Them or his parents, right? His disciples. But nevertheless, Jesus, of course, corrected that error in thinking that this is absolutely 100% the path that Jesus would have taken because it leads up to the city of David and to David's gate into the city of Jerusalem and to the temple. Interestingly enough, this is also where many, many money changers would be set up leading up to the temple. You talk about Jesus being a shuriken. Not only would he have come here to be cleansed, not only did he perform miracles here, not only did he send people here, this is also the route that he would have taken coming out to the temple. 100% Jesus walked right on this road. This is the original stone pathway that was here. So incredible, incredible opportunity. Hopefully I'll be at the pool of Siloam in just a few minutes and I'll see you there. A brother has just shared something with me that I've just got to share from you. Again, as I said, Jesus 100% would have walked up these steps going to the temple, but Realize, as I said before, the money changers would have been set up. Now, realize what the Pool of Siloam was. It was a place to purify himself. This has only recently been discovered, by the way, 2023. But it was a place for Jesus to purify himself and others before going up to the temple. And yet, all the way up the street were money changers and the sellers of prayer shawls. and you can almost see Jesus taking and throwing them from left to right, and then he gets up to where they collect the temple tax, and it's there that he says, you have turned my father's house into a den of robbers. It's supposed to be a house of prayer for all peoples. What an amazing place. Hello, everybody. I'm here. I've got to speak very quickly. I made it down. There's a tour here, so I'm trying to be very careful, but, y'all, this is it. The Pool of Silo. Such a blessing. I don't know if I'm allowed to do this, but somebody left a towel here, and I just had to dip it in the water. Hopefully, I don't get apprehended. Hello, everybody. I know that it's very dark in here, but I am in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It's a really fascinating place. They say this is the tomb, well, just above the tomb where Jesus was placed. This is the shrine built above it. I'm waiting in line, and I can't take pictures in there. Is this where it was? That's where Saint Helena said it was. I'll give you more on Saint Helena later. She was Constantine's mother, but nevertheless, hopefully I get in. I'm separated from my group and nobody speaks English here, so we're going to see what happens. Hello everybody, I'm coming to you from the roof of my hotel tonight. If you're wondering what you just saw, that was the shrine itself. That's where it is said that Jesus' tomb was. They built a shrine over the top of it. I can only record for a couple of seconds. If you saw the chanting, that was actually an Armenian priest. and I got hung up in an Armenian processional. I had no idea that that was going to happen. Kyle Simms got cut off. I made it in at the last second. I nearly missed the bus. It's been a crazy day. But like I said, I think that that's probably the most important place I've ever been to. But in case you're wondering, that last little snippet that was inside right there, that's as close as I could get. What a blessing. Please know that It's with such gratitude that I come to you now, closing out this devotional. And don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow, Lord willing, at 6 a.m. But thank you so much for being here with me. I feel like you are with me, and it's an honor to be here. Take care.