Erev Yom Kippur – Do You Have An Appointment?

0:08 Oh. you here

1:13 if you like to share a few words with you this evening. Coming from the scripture that are dead and Dana. read earlier from Leviticus chapter 23 I don't know I said to Moses the tenth day of this seventh month is Yom Kippur. You were to have a holy convocation. You are to deny yourselves and you are to bring

1:59 an offering made by fire to Adonai. You are not to do any kind of work on that day because it is Yom Kippur to make atonement for you before Adonai your God. anyone who does not deny himself on that day is to be cut off from his people. And anyone who does any kind of work on that day, I will destroy from among his people. You are not to do any kind of work. It is a permanent regulation through all your Generations no matter where you live. It will be for you a Shabbat of complete rest. And you are to deny yourselves you are to rest on your Shabbat. From evening the 9th day of the month until the following evening.

2:45 This scripture enjoins us to do a few things number one to have a holy convocation. Well, we do more than one we have multiples and we go all day tomorrow, so you're welcome to join. No, but number two to deny yourself. So to deny yourselves as traditionally been understood as to fast and to deny your body sustenance generally known as food and water. And it's traditionally been interpreted to be for about 25 hours from right before Sunset, which I guess would have been. Nearly an hour ago. Till tomorrow evening when we break our fast together or if you're not here when you break your fast at home.

3:32 It also enjoys us to bring an offering made by fire. And it says do not do any kind of work to make atonement for yourself. And finally, it tells us that today you don't keep poor is a Shabbat. So what we have here on the 10th day of the seventh month. Is an appointment. That God makes with us. It's a yearly recurring appointment that the Lord made with his people Israel. In fact when he Stuck it on his Google Calendar. He's selected repeat yearly. on the same day of the month You know because Google Calendar does the this month? No, I'm

4:18 just playing. But it is on repeat on this same day of the same month every year. And it's an appointment for us to meet with God. to draw near to him In fact Yom, Kippur actually sets the tone for the whole season that we actually have just come through. you see we're at the tail end even just for our community of 40 days. of fasting Now we've fasted from a variety of different things. We've removed objects from our lives that perhaps might impede us from Drawing Near to the Lord.

5:03 But this season itself was about us removing things that would prevent us from coming to the Lord and replacing those with time spent with him and with one another to edify the Lord now you see we can spend time with one another and not edify God. But that's not the time that we're replaced that we're utilizing. We're utilizing time with each other to edify the Lord. This season is a season of self-examination and repentance. It starts with a lule. It gets a little with the whole month of Allure gets a little bit more intense at Rosh Hashanah and then we have 10 days. Of which we have now completed and we're now to Yom Kippur but we have 10 days which is even more.

5:52 filled In fact, if you were here on Shabbat, we had a wonderful service and Rabbi Sean gave us an excellent message. Excellent word of encouragement. In fact I left on Saturday. Feeling like the season was done. And in fact, I was I was at my parents house studying. I think it was yesterday. And I said I feel like young people has already passed. But the problem is is now I have to go through your own keyboard. So it wasn't quite done and you know, sometimes we get that way we feel like we're done but we're not quite there yet. And that's the moment when we're encouraged to persevere and to push onward.

6:38 even elul Though we use a little to Mark the beginning of the Season it actually is not we actually go through this intense season and it goes back even a little bit farther a few weeks prior. To Tisha Bob to the 9th of which Marx commemorates the destruction of both the first and the second temple. And so we have this season of of introspection. That's really several months long. And now what I would like to share with you is from is from Rob Shaw wolf from Rabbi Paul. And he says in second Corinthians Chapter 13 Verse 5 test yourself.

7:23 To see whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. This is what we've been doing now for for 40 days examine yourselves or don't you know that the Messiah Yeshua is in you. Unless of course you have failed the test. And he goes on and the whole passage is worth reading and I would recommend just going and reading it, but I want to point out. That Rob shall tells us to test ourselves and to examine ourselves to ensure that Yeshua is within us. Leviticus 16 which will be reading tomorrow. sets the instructions for how Aaron and his sons are to draw near to the Lord on Yom, Kippur.

8:11 It tells us it leads with the fact. That Aaron's two oldest Sons failed at their job and were subsequently consumed. by the Lord's fire perhaps they did not examine themselves enough. or test themselves enough Before they became before they came before the presence of the Lord, perhaps they were presumptuous. in the fire that they were bringing I'd like to read to you a story. short story In 19, excuse me, not 19 and 1888 Alfred Nobel the man who invented dynamite.

8:59 Was reading his morning papers win with a shock. He found himself reading his own obituary. It turned out that a journalist had made a simple mistake. It was nobel's brother who had died. What horrified Nobel was what he read? It spoke about the dynamite King who had made a fortune with explosives. And Nobel suddenly realized that if he did not change his life. That was all that he would be remembered for. At that moment. He decided to dedicate his fortune to creating five annual prizes for those who had made outstanding contributions in physics chemistry medicine literature and peace.

9:47 Nobel chose to be remembered not for selling weapons of Destruction but for honoring contributions to human knowledge The question Yom, Kippur forces on us is not so much will we live? But how will we live? For what? Would we wish to be remembered? As I mentioned a few minutes ago, we have spent the last 40 days. Fasting and examining ourselves here in our community at Brook Hashem. I can't tell you how many. Testimonies how many stories positive Reflections I have heard?

10:35 In the last month a little over a month. The ruach has a lemon has illuminated some places even in my life and in some of our lives that needed tending. You know, sometimes we have to set an appointment or we have to see the appointment on the calendar in order to remind us. To look inside and see what's there. That's the benefit of Yom Kippur coming around every year. You know one let me share with you another story. My father was sharing with a group of pastors about a gathering and it's in its significance that it was on Shabbat Shiva, which was this past Shabbat.

11:23 Because Shabbat Shiva is the Shabbat of repentance. And he said this is a wonderful thing that we're we're Gathering to do together. And it's especially wonderful because it happens to fall in Shabbat Shivan. I know nobody planned it that way, but it's just it's God guiding us.