Abraham, Make Souls

[00:00:00] See, AI is all about convenience. Here's the challenge. You ready for the challenge? AI is all about convenience. It's so easy. Community can be inconvenient because people are real and they have needs. And guess what? They have different personalities than you. [00:00:22] Community can be inconvenient. It is also the support of the number one thing you must have in your life. Life to achieve happierness. [00:00:35] Do you know what it is? [00:00:37] Relationships. [00:00:39] Without a human relationship of value and strength, you will flounder. [00:00:49] You cannot do it alone. [00:00:51] I'm promising you, you cannot do it alone. But I have my family. That's excellent. [00:00:59] So did Abraham. [00:01:01] And you saw what he did. [00:01:03] And you saw what he's done through his faith. [00:01:09] It must be our story. [00:01:15] Adam. [00:01:18] Ayeka, where are you? Okay, you can unmute. That was my God voice. [00:01:24] That was God calling down to Adam and asking him, ayika, where are you? [00:01:31] You picture that from our image of that week's message. Somewhere behind a tree, trying to become a much smaller human being. But God knows where Adam is. That's not the real question. [00:01:43] Does Adam know where he is? That's where we began three weeks ago. Personal responsibility. Before I can talk about what everyone else ought to do, I ought to be doing the thing I should do. Hillel's question. If I am not for myself, but who will be? [00:02:02] I'll spare the microphone, but the next voice we heard was, Noah, feed the animals. Though it's not actually in the text. [00:02:10] God saying to Noah, you've got work to do. I know, but I built the ark. God, come on. Isn't it enough? [00:02:18] That was my Noah voice. [00:02:21] But Noah had a stronger voice than that, I'm sure. [00:02:25] Yes, Noah, you built the ark. And now it's filled with hungry things that must eat. And that's also part of your responsibility. That was not the finish was building it. Now there are living creatures that depend on you. And that was the lesson. The work inside the ark was preparing him for the work outside the ark. Learning to rebuild, to care for life. Learning that his and his family's survival was not the the only assignment. Hillel's second question. [00:02:56] If I am only for myself, what am I? [00:03:02] And this week, Avram Lech Licha. [00:03:13] Go, Avram. From your country, from your family, from your father's house to the land that I will show you. [00:03:25] And he went. [00:03:27] Now, had that been me, we would still be in Haran. [00:03:34] I would need several sessions with my mentors to figure out, make sure. Am I hearing clearly? Planning meetings, you know, very long conversations. With Kelly about. [00:03:47] Is that what he said? [00:03:49] Did he really say, just go, lech lecha? [00:03:53] When you say go, are you talking about, like now, immediately, or maybe a little. And how much information will go with me? Because I need a lot of information to make this decision. [00:04:07] But Abram went, no questions asked. Which brings us to Hillel's third and final question of one of his most famous. [00:04:17] Diktach imlo ach shav matthai. [00:04:24] If not now, when? [00:04:29] Three weeks and three calls. Responsibility for myself, responsibility for others, and today the responsibility to do something about it now. [00:04:43] And at this point in the Torah, this is still Avram. He's not yet Abraham, but of course that's what we know him as. We meet him before the change, before the fulfillment of the promise, before he knows anything about how this story will unfold. [00:04:59] He has a household, possessions, an established life, and God calls him to leave the familiar. God promises, though, to. To make him a great nation, to bless him, and through him, to bring all blessing or blessing to all the earth. Right. That is an extraordinary promise to receive from God with absolutely no detailed itinerary associated with it. [00:05:28] Remember the lion tracker discussion? [00:05:31] I have no idea where I'm going, but I know exactly how to get there. [00:05:37] All of that great stuff about finding the next track. You don't have to see the whole journey to take the next step. Well, here it is in practice. [00:05:46] This is that Abraham, I just need the next step. [00:05:52] Abram, he has enough to respond, even though he has not nearly enough to remove any uncertainty. As you read in the Torah portion this morning, not long after that, he goes into this place of what? There's a famine there. So you have to go back to Egypt or to Egypt. How many of us would have thought I heard wrong? Let's go back to Haran. Sarah, come on. [00:06:17] I mean, go. I'm going to make you great. It's going to be incredible. And there's not going to be any food. And you're going to have to go to Egypt full of Pharaoh and his people, and they're going to steal your wife. They were going to want to kill you, so you're going to need to lie about that. [00:06:32] Does that sound like something that you'd be like, yes. I'm so glad we did this. [00:06:38] This is incredible. Thank you, God. [00:06:41] He never does it. He goes and he keeps going. [00:06:48] This is the faith of Abraham to continue to be demonstrated over the rest of these Torah portions that have him in them. [00:06:58] Genesis 12:4 gives the beautifully simple sentence that says, so Abram went, why? As the Lord told him, don't you admire that? [00:07:13] Don't you admire that kind of faith? [00:07:18] The text doesn't give us any long discussion. It gives us his response. He just went, and last week I mentioned. Noah doesn't literally say hineni, but he, you know, he shows up, he does what God commands. And here Avram is doing the same thing. The word is not in the verse, but his response is total hineni. [00:07:41] Avram, here I am. Go. [00:07:44] Okay, here I am with my feet moving, making myself available, willing to trust you with absolutely everything and able to see nothing. [00:08:02] That's beautiful, because I am available. [00:08:09] I'm available. [00:08:10] That's very good and easy. In principle. [00:08:14] It's beautiful. [00:08:18] I want to help. [00:08:20] I'm available. I believe in helping and service and community. I'm ready to do whatever God wants. And then somebody needs something on Tuesday, inconveniently, well, I'm ready to help next Tuesday. [00:08:39] Reminds me of Wimpy from Popeye, but that's something else. How many people are old enough to know that phrase? Okay, Abram brings us the moment at which willingness. I don't even know if he was willing. He just. He was because it's evidenced. But it was a decision he made. [00:09:03] And, you know, of course we should seek counsel. We should plan carefully. I'm not saying that faith makes those things in any way unnecessary. [00:09:14] But as I've said many times, to the dismay of some, there comes a point when another conversation or even another prayer is just a way of avoiding the step we know we need to take. [00:09:35] If not now, when? [00:09:38] And Abraham's purpose in going, I'll make you great. Everyone's going to become, you know, you're all going to get. Everybody's going to get blessed. [00:09:51] God intends to do the blessing through Abraham. And that is what I want to talk about. Because. But first, actually, let me. Let me step back to the ark for one second, because I don't want to leave Noah before we understand very clearly what he was learning. Feed the animals. That puts responsibility in front of him, right? Because it's very impressive to build something that's beautiful. It's another thing to then care for it day after day after day. And that was the lesson we drew. Protection and preparation belong together. And that matters for community, too. Here in Macon, Georgia, we need a place where people can belong, where they can learn, where they can worship, they can grow. Our children need that. Our families need that. People who walk through those doors need that, even when we don't know yet that they need it. [00:10:51] And those connected through Shalom Makin behind that camera right there need it, too. [00:11:03] We talked last week about our local ark and our online ark and all of the arcs represented in every one of them. There are people to care for and responsibilities to own. [00:11:17] I've been reading a kind of strange book called the Benedict Option by Rod Dreher. Has anyone ever read this book? [00:11:24] It's interesting. [00:11:28] It uses a monastic life model from a monk named Benedict and talks about how to incorporate this, why it's necessary to incorporate this into our lives right now, for what's missing in our culture. Don't worry, we're not building a commune or a monastery. [00:11:52] I'm not in agreement with everything, but there are passages in that book that speak very, very importantly and directly to right now, which Hillel asks, if not now, when. [00:12:10] One of those things is a statement that describes responding to a difficult world by deepening prayer, by developing faith practices as a community, strengthening families, investing in the community institutions, all the things that energize and elevate our faith to be more like Abram, to answer when we call. [00:12:35] And that is not a defensive posture. We don't huddle up just inside. [00:12:44] There's a monk that's quoted in this book, Ignatius, what a wonderful monk name, who writes the best defense is offense. [00:12:59] You defend by attacking. [00:13:02] Let's attack by expanding God's kingdom, first in our own hearts, our families, and then in the world. [00:13:14] And his larger point, of course, is one that resonates very much with me, that God's kingdom begins in us. I love the progression. Us, family, world. [00:13:28] Something that takes root inside of me first and always first with me affects the way that I treat those closest to me and ultimately how all of us learn to treat everyone else. [00:13:46] There is a world out there that needs people like that. And I want you to see this lesson through the lens of the Torah. We look at Genesis 12:5. Avram takes Sarai, he takes his nephew Lot, their possessions, the people they had acquired in Haran, the people they had acquired in Haran. What does that make you think of? [00:14:12] Servants, slaves, the people they had acquired. And they set out for Canaan. [00:14:20] Ve' et hanefesh asher asuve Haran. [00:14:25] The souls they made in Haran, not the people they had acquired. Literally the souls they had made. Many of you know this passage. We've talked about it. It's in probably, if you read any Torah commentaries at all this week, probably talked about it. But I have to tell you, after developing these messages and Thinking as the leader of this community. This means more to me now than I think ever before. [00:14:50] Rashi takes that statement and, you know, he literalizes it to make up a word that it is servants, it is people that they came along. But more than that, he also indicates through the rabbinic interpretation that Avram brought men and Sarah brought women into the faith under the shelter of the Shekhinah to become monotheists, to serve the God of Israel. [00:15:23] Their influence was so significant that the scripture credits them as if they had made them made souls in Haran. [00:15:37] Think about that before anything happens, before they got any part of any promise or anything, they're investing in all of these people. [00:15:50] No wonder God chose him. [00:15:57] Teaching them, helping them, turning them toward God, gathering them into a shared life. And then when they left, they went with them. We picture Abraham stepping out in faith, but beside him was marching his beautiful wife. And behind them were the souls they had made, all coming out together and going somewhere together. [00:16:20] It's so much better than the people they acquired in Haran. [00:16:28] And I think it's true, Midrashic or not, they were going somewhere. And when I say building people, that's not a project. [00:16:38] That wasn't for notches in their belt, their evangelist belt, how many souls we saved in Haran, that wasn't in their mindset. [00:16:53] Now, you can't decide for someone else what their journey would look like, but in community, you can walk with them, you can discover things together, you can teach and share things. People, when they're invited into this kind of life, they find out that there's something I can give and in the process, something I will likely receive. [00:17:19] And if you haven't already noticed, I've been talking about where I believe we must go together as a community over the last couple of weeks. And messages like this are sometimes challenging to deliver because the Shalom Makin community, everywhere in person, online, are students. [00:17:40] They're learners. They're driven here primarily by teaching, seeking to learn insight from the Bible. And when I stand up here and I talk about community and responsibility, it can lead to questions like, how is this helping me to know God better? [00:17:59] Where are the biblical insights that I'm known for? And a particularly pointed question, if you're not sitting in these seats, what difference does any of this make to me if I'm not in Macon about what you want to do in Macon, My friends, I don't care where you are in the world. [00:18:23] Personal responsibility, caring for others, acting on what God has entrusted us. This is Bible study, practical Living out the words we read. [00:18:39] This is the learning that God expects of you, and it matters. And everywhere, as the leader of this community, near and far all Shalomis, this is what we're called to do. [00:18:58] And so these messages lay a foundation for our direction in 27 and beyond. [00:19:06] And I want to point out something many of you know have contributed to the Beit Shalom vision. Accommodations where people could stay and gather and experience this community. And we've been working on that for a little while. [00:19:26] And as the project developed the scope, the cost has grown so far beyond what our board and I personally believe is wise to pursue. [00:19:42] The Last estimate was $800,000, And that's not the right step for us right now. That's an uncomfortable statement for me to make because not to toot any kind of horn for me, but it's very uncommon for me to feel a strong direction only to find out that that may not be, for now at least, it's part of developing humility and wisdom to not push where God has not gone. [00:20:16] And here's the thing about it. I know many people have contributed to that. And if you've contributed to that and you say that's what I wanted it to do, that's fine. Guess what? We have all of the money and we can give it all back to you without any question. [00:20:33] So that's fine. [00:20:38] But the idea behind that project has not gone away. [00:20:48] We still believe that people need a place that people want to belong, that they want to share a table, they want to experience community. [00:20:59] They've come to know through this place whether they're here, you're here all the time, whether they visit or even in their space. And I've been asking whether we can serve that need in ways that reach much further. [00:21:18] Stronger marriages, families, children, young people with deep roots, people equipped to open their homes, care for another, build community wherever you live. [00:21:35] And for some, that will happen in Macon or Georgia and surrounding areas. Right here. It is happening in Macon. We have work to do. I'm excited about that. But for other people, that may begin around your table, hundreds of miles away from here. [00:21:54] And that is beautiful as well. [00:22:00] There may be opportunities. As I'm watching and I give you the inside track, there may be opportunities to work alongside First Fruits of Zion in some of this development as well. [00:22:14] We'll see. [00:22:16] We'll discuss all these things. I'm going to Israel on Thursday with Kelly for a trip, a tour that we're going to be a part of leading. [00:22:28] When I come back, I want to Share directly about that trajectory, our mission, makin souls like Abraham and Sarah, and consider for you how you'll support that. [00:22:47] If not now, when this timing matters. And here's the reason. [00:22:52] I am not afraid of artificial intelligence. I'm genuinely not afraid of artificial. You get it? [00:23:02] Artificial, genuine. It was a little. [00:23:11] I'm not afraid of it. It's helpful we use it. But we are living through technology changes that will reach into almost everything we do. [00:23:20] Okay. AI has now come to a place that it serves as people's boyfriend and girlfriend, their psychologist, their best friend, their rabbi or pastor. [00:23:37] Because every answer, usually with enough coaxing you can get the one you want is there at your fingertips. [00:23:47] And the thing is, you know, someone can ask AI a theological question and get this lengthy answer. And of course you should check and see if it's even remotely close to right. [00:24:01] But a confident, you know, that is going to. I'm just sorry to say it. It's going to cheapen in some way the experience of knowledge. [00:24:15] Teachers, Bible studies, all of these things. [00:24:20] There's a change about that that's happening. It's already happening. I was doing havorut tours around the country two summers ago and I was giving this message about. AI is going to change the way people, their faith develops and what they believe about God. And it's two years later and I can't even believe the speed at which these things have happened. [00:24:47] Now, that all sounds negative, right? But listen, teaching has been such an important part of Shalom Makin's life. It always will be, it still is. [00:24:58] And teaching has carried this community into the homes of people that we never, ever, ever would have reached otherwise. Some of you found us on a screen. [00:25:13] And I'm grateful for that. And we will keep using all of the tools available. But when I think about the future, I can't help but think about how important. [00:25:23] Community. [00:25:25] Touch, hug, handhold, voice. [00:25:29] Yes, well, AI can talk. A real voice. [00:25:34] Somebody who has feelings, who's not a machine, who is part of you, part of your life. [00:25:41] This is going to become so important now and for the future. [00:25:48] Im lo A if not now, when it must be now. [00:25:58] There must be a legitimate investment of every single soul into building community with real live people. [00:26:13] Community. [00:26:14] See, AI is all about convenience. Here's the challenge. You ready for the challenge? AI is all about convenience. It's so easy. Community can be inconvenient because people are real and they have needs. And guess what? They have different personalities than you. [00:26:37] Community can be inconvenient. It is Also the support of the number one thing you must have in your life to achieve happierness. [00:26:50] Do you know what it is? [00:26:52] Relationships. [00:26:54] Without a human relationship of value and strength, you will flounder. [00:27:04] You cannot do it alone. [00:27:06] I'm promising you you cannot do it alone. But I have my family. That's excellent. [00:27:13] So did Abraham. [00:27:16] And you saw what he did. [00:27:18] And you saw what he's done through his faith. [00:27:23] It must be our story, wherever you are. [00:27:35] What are we building? [00:27:37] Yeshua said, a tree is known by its fruit. And that is a fair test for any community. There is another great line by Brother Ignatius in the Benedict option which says, you want to know. [00:27:51] You want to judge a community, you need to see what their fruit is. [00:27:56] Are they cheerful? [00:27:57] Are they growing? Are they serving? Are they connected in any way? Those are questions that are important. Attendance tells us something. Livestream, participation, that tells us something else. But I want to know what happens in people's lives. [00:28:12] Are we becoming more generous people in every kind of way? We can be that. Are we investing our children, finding a place to go belong? Are they finding a way for young people to carry responsibility forward? Are people carving a path that is attractive to people who want to be a part of what you're doing in the kingdom of God? [00:28:36] Now, the thing about a building fund that's so beautiful is. I can show you slides. [00:28:42] Look, the concrete's been poured. Aren't you excited? [00:28:47] Look, we've put down the first pillar. It's in the ground. And we can take photographs. How do you draw architectural plans for a stronger marriage? [00:28:58] How do I encourage you with an image of a young person discovering their purpose in life? [00:29:06] I can't. [00:29:08] But you gotta see it. [00:29:11] And it's gotta become part of your mission. [00:29:15] It's harder to put those things on a poster. But maybe we don't have to. Maybe we can look around. [00:29:21] Maybe we can just look around. [00:29:23] They're not here today, but I think of Pat and Breezy Higgins. [00:29:28] I don't know. Atheist might be a strong word for Pat before things got started. [00:29:35] But any connection to God, and he wouldn't care if I said this. [00:29:39] Any connection, like relationship with God for Pat? Nah, not really. There. [00:29:47] Pat and Breezy. [00:29:49] Breezy's Breezy. [00:29:51] She's Breezy, man. [00:29:57] And they stayed together in their marriage through thick and thin, but not happily many of those years. [00:30:07] Again, they wouldn't care if I told you. [00:30:11] But by sitting in these ugly purple seats, by interacting in community in this space, they are like, as far as my ministry career goes, they're at the top of the list of transformations transformed people. [00:30:33] Why? [00:30:35] Because God showed up and gave them an instruction book about how to no, because they came here. Amazingly, they came here and they got loved and they heard about God and Pat got interested in God and started learning and listening and it drew them together. And at some point then they asked me and I renewed their marriage vows here. And from that point forward, their entire life and trajectory has been changed. [00:31:06] That's fruit, my friends. [00:31:12] I think about Darren and Sabrina Hucky, our first family who did the Abrahamic lech lecha journey. I've watched their family grow. I've watched them become contributors, givers, builders, people invested in the life of this community. [00:31:36] And that trend continued. [00:31:38] I can give you a long list if you want. I won't. [00:31:42] A long list of people families moving to be part of this Watch the Rogers move from Colorado. We now have two engaged kids that will be part of this community as they bring their spouses here. [00:31:58] I hope if not, they're in very, very big trouble. [00:32:02] I've just said it. Standing before the ark. If you guys have other, you better come up here and get on your knees. [00:32:09] Altar call. [00:32:15] If you're one of those who has moved here to call Shalom Macon home. [00:32:20] Listen, I would love it if you would share your story on Shalom at home again. I'd love to see that so that people can know you. [00:32:30] I'd love for the international community to know children are discovering that this belongs to them young people. I see them taking ownership of things. They have something to contribute. They're part of this life and building this community. [00:32:45] And yes, there's a lot of work to do in that area. There really is. It's at the top of the list. [00:32:52] I think back to Enya Huckey and Lydia Grace Reagan, who came a few years back and said, we want to do something for the youth. We want to do something for the youth. And we did something, but we didn't do anything close to enough. And I'm so thankful to you, Ania and Lydia Grace. I hope you're watching because you heard from God and that's what we need to do. [00:33:20] We need to build. [00:33:23] Most of all. When I look, you know, I'm just so grateful. I think about Carrie and Cheryl Myrick. They live in Atlanta, but they're so invested in this community that they bought a house in Macon, too. Why? So that they can open that home like a Abraham and Sarah so that people can come and be a part of things. This hospitality. They saw a way of helping people, and they did something about it. Sitting in this sanctuary right now, we have a family who traveled here from Australia to live with us, the Z family for three months. [00:34:02] Isaac Asante and his family from Ghana, who came. Pastor Kumie from Japan and her community, New Wineskin Church, who's a part of Shalom Macon. But she came to California from Japan to visit a friend, got on a plane to fly to Macon just to be here, because she wanted to feel the community. [00:34:33] That is very real, very meaningful. And the people I mentioned, they represent a much larger story. There are examples I could keep going. And again, none of it is meant to toot a horn. It's the power of people building together. That's all it is. And I could talk all day, and I don't want to. And one thing's for sure, I never want any of these things to be, you know, Shalom Makin, that people listen to me. [00:35:03] I'm grateful that you listen. I spend a lot of time building and writing and hoping I'll say something that you'll actually listen to. [00:35:11] And you do. You're amazing. But that's not it at all. [00:35:16] The teaching, yes. Everything we do is to help you become someone, to encourage someone else to become that kind of person. And the health of the Shalomi community includes what you're able to do. And so to all of our shalomis in the world, you may be saying, what about us? [00:35:39] I mean, we have that label. What about us? That's our brand. That's our family, too. What about us? [00:35:47] Well, two things. [00:35:49] The stronger this community gets locally, the more capable it is of doing things outside of here. [00:35:58] That's number one, and it's easy. Remember? [00:36:01] Oh, I didn't read you this quote, but this was another Ignatius quote that I should have given you, who said, you have to have borders, but our duty is to not let the border stay there. We have to push it outward, and we've done a good job of that. But the stronger we get here, the more those borders push out. [00:36:19] Secondly, our team, particularly with the help of Jonathan and Hannah Mitchell in Virginia, are thinking of ways, developing ways to think about how this to create, not to think about, to figure out how to take this experience of Shalom Makin and make it more available more widely. [00:36:43] How can the relationships formed here help people build community elsewhere? So when I talk about investing in people, I'm looking, of course, at what God has already allowed us to see. [00:36:56] But there's so much more that must be done, and it requires so much in 27. To be clear, this is not a three month, 90 day change the world program. It's not a 40 day, whatever. [00:37:18] This is a trajectory. [00:37:22] It's a lifetime. [00:37:24] It's an ongoing thing that over the next year we will begin to build stronger and stronger and stronger. [00:37:36] I want us to strengthen individuals and marriages and families and invest deeply in children and young people and help all kinds of people develop. But you have to hear that word. [00:37:47] You didn't hear me say I or us. Me and Kelly. [00:37:55] Us. [00:37:56] Us as a community. [00:38:00] That's a key word that requires time and attention and leadership and financial resources. And all of these things that are boring to talk about now, but really exciting when we get to them. And listen, if you're connect, if you live here, your presence and service to make this place everything it can be is required. [00:38:23] If you live elsewhere, your location is also a place where these things should take root. [00:38:30] The Abraham journey should take root. [00:38:35] You don't have to move to Macon to begin caring for people that God has in your circles, but you must go when God calls. [00:38:48] And I've become increasingly convinced that the greatest thing Shalom Makin will build will never be a building. [00:38:57] It will be people. [00:39:00] Always. [00:39:02] Always. [00:39:05] It's 100% about makin souls. [00:39:13] We had a baseball team called no. A hockey team called Macon Whoopee. [00:39:20] We had a baseball team called Makin Bacon. [00:39:24] We had some other sports team called Macon Love. [00:39:29] Yeah, we did. [00:39:31] Yeah. [00:39:35] Or maybe that was a beer from a local brewery. I think that's what it was. But anyway, anyway, making souls is better than all of those. And it's tied. It's tied. [00:39:50] So listen, here's the rap. You ready? How are we going to do it? Where? As I said, I'll share more. I'll share more later. Something really powerful that I came across. [00:40:03] You want to know where? [00:40:05] In a conversation with AI where I was reminded of what God says to the exiles in Jeremiah and 29. And I want to talk about it. [00:40:17] Not now. [00:40:20] For now. We've studied these first three Torah portions of 5,787 in a different kind of way. [00:40:27] No deep insights about the Hebrew, no hidden mystical meanings in the text. But we've done something very, very important. We've met the people in the parsha. [00:40:41] Adam, where are you? Noah, feed the animals. Abraham, go. And in many ways, many ways, they are us. [00:40:53] One of the Torah's greatest attributes is its timelessness, its ability to reach across the generations and into the lives of the people that you read to see ourselves and the lives that we're called to live. And speaking of calling, you know this verse from Psalm 20? We sing it at Havdala. Adonai hoshea hamelech yaninu bayom ko rehei nu. [00:41:21] Lord save it says, may the king answer us on the day we call. [00:41:29] But here's a bit of a flip to that for us to take out of here. [00:41:35] I believe he's calling out to us. [00:41:41] How about may we answer you on the day you call? [00:41:46] Father, we've discussed our biblical hero's response when God calls. Avraham, Moses, Isaiah, others, they respond when God calls. What do they say? [00:42:01] Hineni, here I am. [00:42:05] And as he calls to us, what will we answer? [00:42:11] I'll tell you what we should answer, Hinenu, we are here. [00:42:23] That's the response of a people committed to God and to building his kingdom. Hinenu is the response of people who answer together and we must Shabbat Shalom I'm Darren with Shalom Makin. If you enjoyed this teaching, I want to ask you to take the next step. [00:42:47] Start by making sure you're subscribed to our channel. Next, make sure you hit the like button on this video so that others know it's worth their time to watch. [00:42:55] Last, head over to our website to learn more about Shalom Macon, explore other teachings and events, and if you're so inclined, contribute to the work that we're doing to further the kingdom. Thanks for watching and connecting with Shalom Macon.