What God Is Doing in Israel Right Now

What is God doing in Israel today?

Pastor Steven Khoury shares firsthand stories from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, offering a powerful look at how God is working through the local church in the midst of conflict, persecution, and uncertainty.

Through personal testimony, biblical truth, and real-life ministry experiences, you'll be reminded that God is still accomplishing His purposes and that every believer has a role to play in His mission.

You'll discover:

•  Why your life has purpose regardless of your age 
•  What ministry looks like in Jerusalem and Bethlehem today 
•  Stories of faith in the midst of persecution 
•  How God is opening doors for the Gospel in Israel 
•  Why Christians should pray for the church in the Holy Land 
•  How you can partner in advancing the Kingdom 

God isn't finished with His people and He isn't finished with you.

Guest Speaker: Pastor Steven Khoury

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thank you, Pastor Matt, for your friendship and good morning. I come to you from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The tomb is empty. Amen. And that's what makes our faith so different than any other faith is our God lives. Because He lives, so must we. And I'm telling you today, you are not here by mistake. You are here for a reason, for a greater purpose that God has in store for each and every single one of you. And I pray that by the end of the service today, you walk away a changed person. You walk away a more rich, more filled person, a person that goes out there and says that I have a purpose, regardless how old, how young you are. Do you know statistics are that the majority, 80% of the biggest successes for people who changed the world, 80% of them that it has come after they're 70 years old. I'm gonna say that one more time. After they turned 70. So that means it's never too late to God to work from you. Whether it be people in the Word of God or people in the last hundred years, 200 years, the biggest success or the biggest accomplishment or what they worked on all their life did not come into fruition until the after 70 years of age. Let that sink in for a minute. While that sinks in for a minute, and normally, Pastor Matt, when I preach in churches and conferences, a lot of people say, We want to get a hold of you. How can we know more about Israel? We we don't trust the news anymore. So we're gonna give you an opportunity today to learn more about what we do. They're gonna put up a QR code up there. This is not for giving, this is for you to sign up to get our newsletters, updates, and so forth. So yeah, pull up your phone, scan that while I while I begin to introduce myself. If you're not tech savvy, you go out to the table, you say, Pastor Gary, I'm old-fashioned. Then you go out to the table, you can sign up for our newsletter on the clipboard out there. But it's if it but we send some updated information, some news hot off the press when it comes to Israel, end times, prophecies, news in Israel, and I encourage you to do so because it allows you to learn more, learn better how you can pray. And he'll be up there for a few minutes uh over the next few minutes. Um, I was born in Jerusalem. I grew up in the birth city of Jesus Christ. And our ministry hosted Pastor Matt just uh less than two months ago in Israel. We we held we held arms and we walked together, we ministered, we served, we met with got top government officials, and we talked about how we can bring Jesus back to Bethlehem. Isn't that cool? Say we are bringing Jesus back to Bethlehem and not Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I've been to conferences in Texas or churches in Texas. Well, people come up to me and say, Pastor Curry, oh, we're so glad Christianity made it to Israel. And when they say that, I'm thinking, they really think Christianity started in Texas. They literally would tell me, Pastor Matthew, they're telling me, I'm glad Christianity made it to Israel. Well, Christianity started in Israel. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he died in Jerusalem, literally in my backyard. Uh but thank you for your prayers, though. So, but it's education is important, amen. Bible information, Bible knowledge, Bible fact matters. And today so many Christians around the world are so confused with Bible false narratives, false informations about about Jesus, about the Bible. It's important. I love the pastor. Matt's gonna start talking about Acts 7. And by the way, Stephen the first martyr starts right off at Acts 7. You see the council in the 6 and 7 is uh is Stephen being stoned to death at the hands of Paul at that time. Saul turned Paul. Uh, I was born in Jerusalem. I grew up in this in the city of Bethlehem, the birth city of Jesus Christ, all my life. Minus a few years ago in Bible college. My childhood wasn't easy. I've seen a lot of war, a lot of bloodshed, a lot of killing over the years. I've seen a lot of hope, seen a lot of joys, seen a lot of salvations, seen a lot of a lot of healings as well over the years. And we're humbled and honored that God has chosen my family and I to be there. My father started the ministry 48, 47 years ago. And it was American evangelists from uh West Virginia that gave the gospel to my father. And my father became a born-again Bible-believing Christian. It was a group of 40 men who came from America to visit the land at the garden tomb, bumped into my father, and then if they found out he's praying for a Bible education opportunity. And what do they do? Well, they invite him in uh to America, and he got his Bible degree and then went back and started the Baptist Church of Bethlehem, or the Bible, the first, it's called the Bethlehem Ministry today. And today we've grown to be the fastest, largest growing ministry in the country today. Eleven ministries in six different locations amongst Muslims, amongst Catholics, amongst Jews, amongst Israelis, amongst Muslims, and we are humbled and honored that God would choose us to do that. And you know what? That's come, Pastor Matt, through years of people praying, fasting for us, people supporting, financially giving, so we can enable us to keep going. And people would say, We're behind you. You'll be wind behind your sails. Keep moving forward. And we got you. We're gonna preserve the roots of our Christianity. Amen to that. I believe every Christian needs to be a patriot to country, God, and the kingdom. Well, how do you be a patriot to your country? Well, you know how to do that. You guys are great at that, especially in the Tennessee region. How do you become how do you be a patriot for the kingdom? Well, you put a stake in the ground for where your faith, my faith began. Where is that? Bethlehem and Jerusalem. That's where our Christianity started. Why is it so important? Because prophecies and the coming of Christ will all link to Israel. As Christians, to keep oil in our lamp, Pastor, to keep oil on our lamp starts by knowing the Bible, knowing the scriptures, knowing the end times, and understanding the times that we're in. And what I want to do today is just go into a scripture, we're gonna talk about that, and then sort of tie it into my life story growing up in the Holy Land. I'm gonna read you a couple of my thoughts and prayers and some of the toughest times in Israel. I'm gonna I'm gonna read with you a couple of things. If you're wondering who is this guy with an accent, well, let me tell you exactly who I am. I'm just your brother who grew up right in the backyard of the spot where Jesus was born, and in the middle of where our Christianity started. I didn't learn about faith from a safe textbook in a comfortable classroom. I had to learn it on a pavement, bleeding, under attack, finding out what it actually means to look up when everything around you tells you to give up. If you know me personally, you know I love Jesus, and I crave and I crave a revival and salvation for my people, both the Arabs and the Jews. I'm a Bible-believing, spirit-filled, Arab evangelical pastor. Don't run, I come in peace, by the way. Even though I'm not from Israel, I'm an Arab. Don't run, I come in peace. And in living in the sovereignty of God proclaiming the good news. Literally, today we are on the front lines, and Pastor Mike got to witness that. We are on the front lines preserving the roots of our faith, defending the faith. But it's amazing that we're seeing so much favor. We all hit these seasons. I want to ask, I want to share this with you. We all hit these seasons in life. Listen to this. We are you are in a situation where the pressure is absolute, the trial keeps going month after month, and you're crying out, Lord, I'm done. I can't take another hit. Get me out of this pit. But God looks at you and says, Nope, nope, not yet. There's still too much of you left. He called He allows difficult seasons to stay until our pride is completely broken down, until our self-reliance is completely stripped away, and the broke and broken down until self-reliance is completely stripped. And that's only only only then that the only thing standing in your life is the raw, unshakable power of Jesus Christ. So many times we're our own worst enemy. You see, I grew up in Bethlehem, as I mentioned. I grew up in a church service where people would come in the back doors during the 80s and early 90s. People come in backdoors with malaw bombs in their hands. They throw out of the church pews. And Pastor Matt, for a long time we have buckets of water right there. And our elders, our deacons, when they come and throw a malatal bomb, our elders, deacons would grab the buckets of water, turn off the fire, get back to worshiping the Lord like nothing ever happened. While we're worshiping and praying, our elders, our deacons are refilling the buckets again. That was an average Sunday for us. Look, many Christians got scared and didn't come back till later down the line. But that's why be there's a price to pay for following Jesus Christ. You have to be willing to give up something when you follow Jesus. Yes, our salvation is free. Amen. It's God's gift to mankind. But come as you are does not mean stay as you are. There has to be change. You have to be willing to sacrifice, you have to be willing to give in, to give up the something that you've done in the past, something that you're you're used to. To be able to say, God, I'm yours, I belong to you. I'm turning my back to the world and I'm following you only you, Lord. It requires sacrifice. I remember two girls got shot to death in our church. My Uncle George was martyred. You can read all about that in the book the pastor mentioned in the backyard of Jesus. It was referenced by James Dobson and David Jeremiah and their teachings and their radio programs. And you can read you can read the book, it's out on the table. And it all these stories I share with you. But I remember I growing up in the holy land at the age 16, 16 and a half, my father came to me and said, I want you to disciple this young Muslim. And I ended up discipling him for two weeks. After two weeks, you see, unfortunate, I read Arabic, I speak Arabic, I read Hebrew, but this wasn't Arabic because he was an Arab, right? And I remember uh after two weeks he disappeared. What happened was his mother found his Arabic Bible. She gave his Arabic Bible to his uncles. And he woke up, his uncles were standing over his bed. They unwind in a metal hanger. And if you if you've ever seen it before, when you hit a skin with him with a metal hanger, it splits the skin open. And for three days they beat him and lash him over and over and over. Not one single time would he denife his love for Christ. And he only knew Jesus for two weeks. He didn't go to discipleship, he didn't go to discipleship one-on-one. He didn't know Genesis and Revelations. He couldn't intellectually, philosophically, theologically defend or rationalize the word of God. He just loved Jesus. He just fell in love with God. And in that mere love for God for three days, he was beaten, not one single time. But did he deny love with Jesus? Today there's Christians that have been in the faith for 20, 30, 40 years who would sell Jesus Christ at the first temptation or at the first trial and tribulation. Just imagine. I think we've complicated the gospel, Pastor. We've complicated the word of God. We've made Christ so unattainable with politics and so many other things. I'm gonna tell you this the family that would after this young man, they gave up for three days being beaten, he would not deny Jesus. Three days. I remember I was walking on a church street towards our church in Bethlehem. Uh, the same church that Pastor Matt got to speak at and got to give greetings and share a message to our people. I'm walking, I could see our church, and somebody coming up to me in Arabic in the street says, Are you Stephen? I said, Yes, I am. When they said yes, I am, I felt something burning in the back of my head. They were identifying who I am. I said, Yes, I'm Stephen, and I scratched my head because it was itching. I thought it's a bug or a fly, and I'm talking to them. I looked upon my hand, and there was blood there. My head got dizzy, and then I realized that somebody had hit me from the back of my head. I turned around about five or six guys with metal chains and thick wooden sticks in their hands. And they began to beat me to the ground over and over and over again, calling me names like infidel and Jesus lover and proselizing and a Jew lover. And then the colossal of this beating. I remember I shouted and said, Lord, please get me through this. Lord, get me through this beating. I Lord, I can't do it. This is painful. However, it was one minute, 60 seconds, it was a painful beating. When I said that prayer, Lord, get me through this. I'll do whatever Lord gave me through this meeting. I tell people I literally felt a white blanket drape over my body. And at that moment, I understood what it means to be a child of the king. I understood what it means to have a covenant God. A God who says what he means, he means what he says, regardless of skin color, race, nationality, how rich, how poor. It doesn't matter what you're where what you are, where you are, what what country you're from around the world. Our God's promises are real and they are everlasting. Where he says, I will be your God, you'll be mine people, and I will never leave you, nor will forsake you. I sense the presence of God like never before by being draped with that white blanket over me during that beating. Pastor, that beating, I wouldn't be the man I am today if it wasn't for that beating. They put they put the bar of my faith so high that everything asked after that, and there was more beatings after that. There's more attacks after that. But they were a walk in the park for us. Why? Because we tasted what it means to suffer for Christ. We understood what it means to pay a price for what you believe in. I tell people it backfired. Their beating was to shut me down, but it backfired. It made a beast out of me for Jesus. It backfired on them, by the way. But what it also did, it elevated our stature in the international world. Being able to get on TV and Fox News and History Channel and so many other networks around the world and talk about persecution, suffering. I'm talking about Jesus. I was talking about the United Nations. I got to speak twice at the United Nations floor. I mean, that's really cool. You don't talk about being like a small thing in a big pond. Well, that was that was me. But in the UN, I was a big fish in a big pond. Why? Because God was on my side. Say amen to that. Be able to go in, talk about suffering and persecution. Also, talking about Jesus on the love of God. It was just so cool to be able to present the present Israel and present the Bible from non-political, talking about Jesus, not politics. Talking about Jesus and the Word of God. And that was what an experience to be able to do all that right in the heart of Bethlehem. And out of this persecution, Pastor, today we're 11 ministries in six different locations throughout the country, making Jesus famous. Say amen to that. It's all about Jesus. Say amen to that. It's all about Jesus. It's not about me, not about the church, not about what we're doing. It's about Jesus and that brings people together. Our architect makes absolutely no mistakes, zero mistakes. This is this is the sermon today. Our architects make zero mistakes when he allows the good, bad, and the ugly into our reality. If he allowed them to be me, if he allowed our church building to be firebombed, if he allowed my own flesh and blood, Uncle George to be martyred on Mount of Olives, it's because God, the grand architect, uses our deepest pain to frame a destiny. This is what this He allows the good, bad, and the ugly to frame your destiny and my destiny to make us a better version of who we are. God allows you to go through tough times. He allows it to make you a better version of who you are, or who you could be. If you think you're good now, if you think you're great right now, well, you don't know what good or great is until God is done with your life. Because He always makes us better, a better version of who we are meant to be. And that's the sermon today, as we as we weave in a couple more stories throughout the sermon today. Is the greatest architect, he makes no mistake. And the good, the bad, and the ugly, our God makes no mistake. I want to bring you quickly to Luke chapter 1. We're gonna briefly talk about that here a little bit. In Luke chapter 1, we see in the first 17 verses, alright? I'm gonna summarize to you the first 17 verses. Now you gotta keep up with me. The camera guys love it because I'm like going zigzagging back and forth. They're probably right there laughing by right now. I can see some laughs there, alright? So I'm gonna zigzag back and forth. I'm gonna lay out the story. All right, Luke chapter one, and we see the first 17 verses. Here's what we have, right? We have right here on the on my right, on your left, we see a priest called Zachariah. He is the father of John the Baptist. Are you guys with me? Have I lost you guys with you guys good? All right? Zachariah, he's the he's he's the high priest at the temple, and he's got a lot of responsibilities. And he goes in the temple, he prays, and they have these all these rituals and so forth. He's also the father of John the Baptist. He's also the husband of who? Elizabeth, who's also a relative related to Mary, mother of Jesus. Are you are you you guys you're tracking me, all right? You with me? So Pastor Zechariah is a high priest, and they are commanded to pray a prayer out of Malachi chapter 4. We're not gonna turn there right now, but you can sit, you can juggle it down right there. Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. It's an old testament if you haven't heard about it. Scriptures, it's in the old testament. Malachi chapter 4, it tells the people of Israel, the Israelites, how to pray. It tells the high priest what to pray, it teaches the high priest what to say. And also, there's a prayer in there. You guys can read it later. It's a really cool prayer. It's chapter 4, verses 5 and 6, Pastor Matt. It's a really cool verse because basically what it is, it summaries it. The priest says, God, bring us hope, bring us salvation, save your people, and bring us the messiah. That's the that's the summary, by the way. Bring us salvation, restore your people, save your people, and usher in the coming hope, the coming salvation, which is the Messiah. He's praying that. But he also has a selfish prayer. And I don't mean in a derogatory prayer, I don't mean in a derogatory prayer. He's got a personal selfish prayer. That personal prayer is God, would you give us a child? So while he's praying here in the temple, you got Mary, is on her way to visit who? Elizabeth. This is the story where we see in the Bible, where the baby in the stomach starts to shake and gets happy and excited in Elizabeth, and Elizabeth says, Oh, who am I that the mother of Jesus, the mother of the Lord, to come and to visit me into my home? And they have this really cool experience. They're talking about Mary tells Mary tells Elizabeth, guess what? I'm pregnant. The person within me or the baby within me is Emmanuel. He's the child, he's a he's the son of God, he's a salvation to mankind. And they're like going at it right here. Zechariah is praying, God, give us a child. And on the far left over here, Pastor Man, this time, same timeline, guys. God, same timeline. All right, on the far here, far left here, you got a guy named King Herod. He hears a baby's coming, and this baby's gonna be the king of the Jews, he's gonna be the king of Israel, he's gonna be the savior of Israel. And the king, king here, King Herod, he's mad, he's angry, he feels threatened. So, what does he do? He he makes a command for every baby under the age of two and their parents, anybody sends in their way to be killed, to be beheaded, to be slaughtered. When Pastor Matt was there, we're able to look at some of the some of the skeletons, some of the some of the skeletons left to from what they believe during the babies who were killed by King Harry from from the first century era. He kills babies, he kills their moms, he's searching for who? The baby Jesus. They're searching for the baby. He feels threatened by this coming king of the Jews. And Satan here, he's working, he's the puppeteer, he's working the puppets, he's working, he's working his thing. Got Mary and Elizabeth over here on in the middle. They're they're rejoicing, they're celebrating. And you have you have here Zechariah praying, God, give us a child. He doesn't know yet his wife's pregnant. Why? Because they're far apart, they're distance, he's a high priest, he had to live at the temple, be at the temple. So there wasn't they want they wanted this constant communication. Now, now bear with me. The angel appears to Zechariah. He wants to give him some good news. He wants to give him two good news. He wants to tell him number one, guess what? Zechariah, your prayer for a salvation of Israel, the Messiah, he came. His name is what? Jesus. Say amen to that. He comes to tell him the good news, the coming Messiah. And then he tells him, Oh, yeah, by the way, Zechariah. This is the angel. He tells Zachariah, guess what? You know your personal prayer, your personal private prayer. Well, guess what? Elizabeth is pregnant. It's a miracle. Yeah, she's pregnant. So start rejoicing, start thinking, start dancing, start rejoicing. And this is what happens. And we pick up from 18. Now, he doubts. All this is happening from verses 1 to verses what 17. He starts doubting. And in his doubt, the angel gets angry, he gets mad. And we read in verses uh read in verses 18 together, or you can just say follow up with me here in 18. And Zagar said to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man, my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered him. So basically, he doubts. He says, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent, unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them. And they realized they had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. In Greek, Pastor, he says he could not communicate. So he could not communicate. Here it says mute, but in reality, he could not communicate. That means he lost all shape and form of communication with others. Why? Because the angel wanted to teach him a lesson. Are you with me so far? Some might hear me, hear it, hear the story and say, Pastor Curry, that's a little bit that's a little bit extreme for God to like to punish him and take away everything from him. He can speak, he couldn't listen, he couldn't talk, he couldn't read. It's it's he couldn't communicate. He's done. Now this is what happened. Not only did his physical, not only did he have a physical disability now, according to Leviticus 21, just to stay with me. Leviticus 21, again, I've got another scripture in the Old Testament, it gives all the requirements for the high priest. It like it lists them again. Write it down. Leviticus 21. It gives lists all the requirements for a high priest. But in Leviticus 21, it also says if a priest does 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or if A if a priest has physical disabilities, then a high priest can no longer serve in his position. So according to Leviticus 21, not only does he lose now his ability to communicate, he loses all credibility. He gets stripped away. Just imagine, like imagine a pope or like a bishop of a high, high, high ranking society, and he gets stripped away from everything. The pastor, this guy loses it all. He loses credibility, he loses his mantle, he loses his robe as a high priest, and he's no longer communicating. You don't talk about having a bad day. He had a bad 30 years, like go before his eyes, because he lost everything for doubting. Now listen to this. What happened to him looked like it's like the end of the world. But God was silencing him for a reason. A lot of times, your difficult time, my difficult time, God allows us to go through trials and tribulations to make us a better version of who we are. I said it earlier the architect, the master plan for our life, God. He makes no mistakes. When the good, the bad, and the ugly happens in your life, God allows it to happen because He's got a master plan for your life. Say amen to that. You might feel alone, you might feel broken, you might feel lonely, you might feel like nobody hears you. You might feel like God, where are you? In your marriage, in your life, in your business, in your health, in your in your like your life is broken apart. You feel it alone. And that's what this guy, Zechariah, felt because he doubted. But listen to this in his doubt, God silenced him for a bigger purpose. Just imagine. Just just just imagine with me. His high priest, if he could still speak, if he could still talk, if he still had his mantle on top, if he still had that, there's no way he could have held it in that the Messiah has come, the savior to the world has come, and there's no way he could have held it in that Jesus will be born where? In Bethlehem. He would have given Jesus on a platter of gold to who? To King Herod. He would have blown it. And too many times we get in our own way, we get in God's way for lack of faith, for pride, for sin, for issues we go through. We get in God's way. If King, if king, if Zechariah could speak and talk, he he would have he would have literally given the baby Jesus on a platter of gold to King Herod. But God shut him down, he silenced him because God was working his his miracles in the life of who? Mary and Elizabeth. And God was also working his his ways, he was working his miracles and the life of who? King Herod and those around him. Now he gave he bought us time for the wise men to come from the Far East to fulfill prophecies. Do you know there's also prophecies from even in other writings in the Far East about a coming savior to the world that's not in the Bible? He coming, coming savior, and the people in the Far East were looking for signs of a wise man coming on a on horses and donkeys and camels to the city of Bethlehem. So just imagine if if he would have known, he would have distraught, he would have killed the plan for so many people. He would have affected God's plan to bring salvation to mankind. But God had to strip away from everything. And in our lives, in our tough times, in the good, bad, and the ugly of our in our lives. We God allows us to go through it because He wants to make us a better version of ourselves. And all this time, He's working in the background. Say amen to that. He's working, He's working His ways, He's working His His miracles, He's He's planning things for your life. And He allows you to go this moment of silence because He wants to get your attention. He's knocking your heart's door to call you closer to Him. Guys, it's never too late to make a difference. Say amen to that. It's never too late to make an impact to put a stamp in the world that you live in. And this is what happens when the time comes. It says in Luke chapter 1, Pastor, that when the time is fulfilled, when the time came to be fulfilled, the Bible says that God restores unto him his speech, his communication. Now he can communicate, he can hear, he can see, he can talk, he can communicate. According to Leviticus 21, back to Leviticus 21, guys. Leviticus 21, it says that if a high priest, when he loses everything, if he receives back what he lost, then that person has seven times the blessings. That person basically that that that closer that person becomes a cool guy. He becomes a cool guy in the streets. Why? Because he lost everything and God gave him back everything. When God gives you back everything, that means you must be somebody special. Not only are you somebody special, now what you have to say has a lot of validity. What you have to say has a lot of weight. So when when Zechariah right over here, when he gets back his communications, when God gives him back everything, now he receives a double mantle. It's seven times a blessing. Now when he proclaims the two things, he can shout them from the rooftop. And guess what? People will what? Will listen. Why? Because he lost everything, and God himself gave him back everything. That means that guy must be really special. Here's what happened. Now he's declaring two things. Guys, my wife is pregnant. She's an old, she's an old, old woman physically and biologically, she's not supposed to have any kids. She's a miracle. My wife, Elizabeth, is pregnant with a child, and we're gonna call him John the Baptist. He's proclaiming, he's preparing the way for the coming Messiah. Oh, yeah, and guess what? That's what he says to the to the Jewish people. He said, Guess what? Our prayer from Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. The salvation, it has come. The salvation arrived. Our salvation, our hope is here. His name is Emmanuel, the savior to mankind. And that's the beautiful news about it all is that he thought that God abandoned him, God turned his back on him, but God never does. Guys, God never turns his back on you. He's just waiting on you to turn back to him. He's waiting on your heart to open up to him. He's waiting on you to say, God, come back. God, I'm yours. God, I belong to you. It's never too late to say, God, use me, prepare me, use my heart, and use me for a bigger purse, a bigger reason. By the way, I want I want you to write this down. It's hard to fall when you're on your knees. It's hard to fall when you're on your knees. And in our lives and our mystery, Pastor Matt got to experience all this with us and got to meet a lot of the government officials for almost 35 years. People just did not like us, not because of who we are. People did not like us because of our strong evangelistic message. We are strong evangelists. We were preaching the gospel. We'll preach to the stones and rocks in the streets. And people did not like that. But we started to slowly rise up and put a stake in the ground where others would pack up and leave. Other organizations have shut down, they packed up and left. And guess who stood there? Our ministry. Today, because of our endurance for 46 years, we stayed true to the message. We stayed faithful to God. In the good, bad, and the ugly. We stayed our ground. We're not perfect. But we're drawing towards God's perfectness. Amen to that. But because we stayed true, we stayed the course, we stayed faithful. Today, we are the fastest, largely, growing, fastest, largest growing Arab evangelical ministry in the country of Israel today. And we give God the glory for that. Not a day. Give God, give God the glory for He deserves it. Guys, I'm not talking about Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Texas, or Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Talk about Bethlehem, where our faith started. The same place where you need to be praying for every day because that's where that's where our faith began. About five years ago, they started to realize there's there's something special about what we're doing. So what did they do? They called us in and they said, We want to give we want to give you the keys to Bethlehem. You don't talk about crying like a little baby in front of all the Muslim leaders. That was me crying. They gave us the keys to Bethlehem. And they said, We want to challenge you to bring Jesus back to his birth city. My goodness, I sat back, I'm thinking, am I dreaming this? I literally had one of my one of my elders, you know, pinch me, pinch me, is this for real? The Jewish leaders and the Arab leaders are asking us to bring Jesus back to his birth city. What an amazing experience. So we start to wander and to pray and say, God, what do we do? How do we bring how do we bring you back? Well, street evangelism does not work in Bethlehem. Why? Because you're dealing with cultural. It's called a fast food evangelism, does not work there. Over there, it's all about relationships. You call people in, you you have meals with them, you have coffee. You don't talk about we drink 11 cups of coffee a day. And that's like that's on a slow day. Why? Because our culture, we eat, we eat a lot of desserts, we eat a lot of good food, we have a lot. So it's a lot of relationships. That fast food evangelism does not work there. It's really it may work in some western countries, but there's all about relationship, relationship, relationship. That's how we we walk the journey with them. Why? Because most Muslims, Pastor Matt, uh they they can they can get killed for accepting Jesus Christ. Most Jews, when they accept Jesus, they can be kicked out of their homes. Now, granted, Bethlehem is unique because there is because it's the birth city of Jesus, because Jesus is in the Quran, so Muslims in Bethlehem are a lot more open than most Muslims around the country. They're they're more open there because they know Bethlehem is a historical town. Um, it brings economy, which is aka tourists. So most Muslims in Bethlehem are pretty open-minded. But for us to get the leadership, the governor's office to say, we give you the keys to Bethlehem. So here's what we decided to do. We started to fast and pray. So check this out. You talk about going for 40 years of trials and tribulations and suffering. When I when you remember what I said when I first started, God, the greatest architect, he makes no mistakes in the good, the bad, and the ugly. He allows us to go through trials and tribulations to make us a better ministry, a better church, or a better person of who we are, you're meant to be. And we're standing four years ago, four and a half years ago in front of these in front of these government leaders, and we've been given the keys to Bethlam, and we're thinking, what do we do with it? Just imagine. So here's what we decided to do. In 98% of the country, Pastor, 98% of the country will never set foot inside of a church. So we said, let's build a future church. Let's let's let's be more let's be more than just a Sunday church. So we put up this tent, this exhibit, and we said, look, Muslims, Jews, and Christians are drawn to Abraham. You know why? Because he mentioned he's mentioned in the Quran, he's mentioned in the Torah, of course, he's mentioned in the New Testament. So Abraham is a common denominator between Muslims, Christians, and who? And Jews. So we said, let's do a tent, put a couple exhibits in there. One with the prophecies of the coming of Jesus, Jesus as a salvation to mankind, started off with Abraham being the common denominator. There's a verse where God tells Abraham, Through you I will bless all the nations, or all the nations shall be blessed. You know what that means? It literally God's prophesying the coming of Jesus through the seed of Abraham. Does that make sense? So we start off with this exhibit, talking about Abraham. The first time we did it, Pastor, we expected 500 people to come for one week. We ran into the hall, put up some exhibits, very professionally done. Not just stuff, you know, not some Sunday school stuff, nothing against Sunday school. I love Sunday school, but nothing that's thrown together, some professionally done exhibits, professionally level done. We invited people and 500, we thought 500 would come. 5,800 people went through our doors. And we extended week one, week two, week three, week we extended four weeks and five weeks. Week number four, Pastor, our staff were tired. So I remember uh uh yeah, we're going like 12, 13 hours a day hosting people throughout this tent, an 18-minute walkthrough exhibit. I'll never forget it, forget this because I'm standing right there and a grant a head-veiled Muslim grandmother walks in this big hall. She comes in and she's very aggressive. She was she looked intimidating to me. I see her from far away. She walks in and she goes, Who's the leader? Who's the leader? Who's the leader? And I was this close that day, this close, to sending her to the guy on our staff I least liked that day. I didn't do that. She came back to me and goes, Are you the leader? She literally is just an amazing, aggressive, very energetic, head-veiled Muslim grandmother. Are you the leader? Yes. She grabbed me by my shoulder, she pulls me down, she goes, You need to extend this. Extend what? Extend the tent. So our our million-dollar question, the whole four weeks we extended was one word. Why? Why do you want us to extend this tent? Her response was so amazing, so heart, so heart-encouraging. I I literally started to weep like a baby. Because I want to invite my 22 grandchildren from Amon Jordan. I said, ma'am, this is only 18 minutes. We're in Batland. You want to bring your 22 grandchildren from Amon Jordan, which is another country, if you didn't know that, into Batland for 18 minutes. She looks off at me. She says, I do. I want them to know the truth about Jesus. Most hatred, animosity, and dislike the pastor. The pastor and I had a lot of hours of conversation about this. Most dislike, most hatred or animosity from some of the fanatics and some of the Muslims or some of the Jews towards Christianity is not based on facts and Bible facts. For example, they think we worship four gods, or they think we pray to three gods, they think we're the infidels, they think we're the pagan worshipers. So most of what they know, so they don't like you or not, not because of what they know, but because of what they don't know. So we did this tent to clarify misconceptions about Jesus. Every one of the 5,800 went through our tent experience, got to hear the gospel message. Eight out of ten people would sign up to become discipled. To you, that might not be a big deal. Pastor Curry, those are numbers are normal to us in America. Well, they're not they're not normal there because we would have 50 a year. If 50 years signed up for discipleship, that was a good year for us. To have over 300 sign up for discipleship in four weeks, now that's uh that's a triple home run. Say amen to that. So here's what we did. The government asked us, they said, Pastor Curry, would you create like this tent? Could you do it all year round? We're like, oh my goodness, slow down a little bit. Give us a breather. And we stepped out in faith. We did, we stepped out in faith. We bought the third largest empty land in Bethlehem. We still we we bought the third largest empty land in Bethlehem. And then we find out it takes about eight to twelve years to get permits to build. We got the permits in 14 months. So we got the land, we got the permits, and we just finished excavating the mountain. Pastor Matt was just there and he prayed over the land. Pastor Matt, the great news is as of this week, we're done bulldozing, we're gone done excavating. 70,000 cubic tons of dirt and stone has been hauled away. We don't talk about shaving a mountain. We literally shaved the mountain down a hundred feet underground as well. And today I'm standing before you a project in Bethlehem to bring Jesus back. So I'm in America. Before we show the video, I'm in America, traveling, speaking in congregations, sitting down with individuals, with high-level pastors, high-level business people, people that have foundations and family foundation, sitting down with them and sharing the news, inviting them in to come on board, to be a part of what God is doing. So I want to show you this video. It presents the vision. By the way, Carrie Summers, he's very heavily involved with us. Carrie Summers built Museum of the Bible. You guys been to the Museum of the Bible? Raise your hand. Have you been there? All right, a few. What about the Ark experience? The Ark in Kentucky and Ohio. Awesome. So Carrie Summers was a part of building all those. He built so much more. But check this out, and then right after this, we'll uh close with a statement and a prayer. Amen. Join me to see the future for Bethlehem.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Hi, I'm Carrie Summers. I'm the founder of the Nehemiah Group and President Emeritus of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. I first went to Israel in 1983 after I heard a pastor who had been there many, many times. I happened to be at his church when he returned to the pulpit. And I turned to my wife and I said, We've got to go to Israel because I want to learn what he learned. And that was in 1983. And since then, I've made 130 trips to Israel over 41 years. Our vision was given to us by Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. And he said, Carrie, you need to design and build things that will attract people who will never set foot into a church. And that's what we've been doing for the last two and a half decades, with one of those being Nazareth village in Nazareth, Israel. That was starting in 1998. The idea was to put people in an immersive environment so they can feel, taste, hear, smell, as close as we could, what Jesus would have seen and heard and touched when he was ministering here on earth, and in particular in Nazareth and in the north. Fulfilling our mission of creating things that would attract people who would never set foot into a church. Taking us all over the world. We've taken on many projects over the last 25 years, and one of the several of the projects that you may be aware of is the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. We've also done projects in Ghana, West Africa, one that's under construction in Indonesia, and then we also have done work for the Magdala, Israel on the Sea of Galilee. Our whole mission is to engage people in the Bible, get them excited by it, and uh watch their lives be changed, not by anything that we do. And I think that's one of the things that interests us today in Israel, especially with the Nativity Encounter that's being done in Bethlehem.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

With misinformation about the life and person of Jesus running rampant in Bethlehem, the city is now divided by walls, conflict, and under a constant shadow of tension. The Nativity Encounter will be a 12-exhibit interactive experience built on a 160,000 square foot facility. The land is purchased, but currently there is no building. Pastor Stephen and Sherry Curry lead this initiative in Israel, working with Holy Land missions, having more than 43 years of experience serving the locals.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

This was a vision that Stephen Curry had and his wife, Sherry, to create similar to what we did in Nazareth village. Create an immersive environment, takes people out onto the land, but also has a study center attached to it so people can have a place to follow up later. But it's to immerse them in God's teaching, especially dealing with the birth of Jesus. So that we have we have seen over and over. And you're dealing with the teachings of Jesus, it takes on a whole new perspective on the depths of what people walk away with. So for believers, it strengthens our faith, it creates a platform that they've never had before. For those who are not believers and just curious, because of its immersive environment, it allows him to come in non-threatening and bring friends. Our first year we had 10,000 school kids come through, Nazareth Cambridge. 95% of those school kids were Muslims, and they were curious about who is Jesus. If you present it in a way that's not threatening to them, but they can really enjoy it, then you can really make big inroads. That's what the nativity counter would do in that line. After 25 years, we've learned this is maybe one of the most effective ways to reach very difficult people groups. If we hadn't done this for so long and had such great results, I'd be hesitant to even make that claim. Can say it does work and people are ready for it.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Amen, amen, amen. Now give God the glory for that. As we conclude this time today, uh, Pastor, we have uh we have an empty land sitting right now in Bethlehem. Now I would love to start building. And this vision, this mandate is a massive one. We can't do it alone. That's why we go to God, and God says, Go to America, share the vision, invite people in to be a part of this vision. If you're sitting here, you say, I'd like to know more, Pastor Curry. I'd like my company, my family to know more about vision outside of your Tyson offering. Come on, talk. I'll be at the table there. Let's pray together. I want to give you this booklet here. This booklet goes in depth about the vision, the project, uh, how to bring Jesus back to Bethlehem. You say, Pastor Curry, I'd like to talk to you about how we can get involved as a legacy partners. And just keep in mind we look the enemy in the eye every day, Satan, tell him, God's not done with us. Say, God's not done with me. Say, God is not done with me. You got to tell that every day to yourself, God's not done with me. Satan wants to distract you. Satan wants to put lies and deceptions in your mind and heart. And as we come close right now to turn it over to prayer and worship, as the Lord just settles this in your heart to keep in mind the greatest architect makes no mistakes in the good, bad, and the ugly in your life. He allows you to go through it to make you a better version to draw you closer to him. I'll be at the table. Come out there, I'd love to talk to you. By the way, there's some amazing stuff out there. Olive wood, handmade by Christians, suffering, hurting Christians. Do me a favor. I'd like to go back to Israel with that with empty boxes, empty suitcases. You know how it is for an Arab to travel through airports with duffel bags. You know the looks I get. Release me from getting all those weird looks at the airports. Um, it's just empty us out. Come out there. It's it's again, there's a story behind every olive wood out there. It's not nothing's from China. Everything's handmade in Israel by suffering believers. Come out there and and just clean us out. Let us I want to go home with empty bags. Amen. But more importantly, come out there, I want to talk to you about the the vision for Bethlehem to bring Jesus back to his birth city. You got an you have an amazing leadership, you have an amazing pastor, Pastor Matt. We've got to spend a lot of hours with him. He's just a man that's on fire to make a difference. You're blessed to have him. You're blessed to have him as your leader. Got to meet with Pastor Todd last night as well. Amazing, amazing man of God. And I get to travel around the world and see a lot of people, and he's such a unique man. He's passionate for Jesus, passionate to uh to be a part of good things. You need to be passionate as well, amen. Would you just bow your head for a second? As the worship starts. Let the Lord speak to you this moment about your marriage, about your home, your family, about your faith. Maybe about the nativity encounter. Say, Pastor Curry, uh, I don't want to have empty land. I want to I want the land to start building. We want to help you start building. Maybe it's about your faith, maybe it's about your faithfulness to Him. Let the Lord lead you as the worship prays.