“Halleluyah!” Sukkot Shabbat

0:01 All right. Yes, All done. What do you think? Hilly. So cool. Dad, Soko is my favorite holiday. Mom makes all that great food. And we get to sleep outdoors Though. First we need a few things. Oh, Let me do the shopping, please, mom. Well, okay. But be careful and come home before sundown. Hi, I'm Valentina. What are you doing? Oh, hi. I am hilly. My mom gave me a list of stuff to buy for Soko, except now I'm lost. No, you're not. It's just a few blocks away. Come on, I'll show you.

0:47 That's three of the four kinds. Four kinds of what plants? These plants remind us of living in the wilderness. And help us to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Only the market ran out of palm fronds. So where can I get those? I know. Just the place. Aww. And what is your name? Oh, that's Macchiato. And I'm Bree. Welcome to my cafe. What can I get you? Hilly and I are on a mission to find some palm fronds. Do you have any extra branches lying around? Oh Yeah. Take whatever you need. Hey, where are the willow branches over there?

1:33 After That? Corgi. So hilly. Now you have a pet. Uh, no. He lives in that new cafe. This is Rabbi Gottlieb. He's the Messianic Jewish leader at my congregation. And you are? I'm Valentina. Nice to meet you. Now I have everything I need. But Do you know why you have them? See, SKO is like Thanksgiving. It's a way to celebrate the bounty of the harvest and the many blessings that God provides. For example, it was the Lord who provided for the Jewish people when they were wandering in the wilderness, their clothes and sandals never wore out,

2:19 and food was miraculously provided for them daily. As for the four kinds, you got your rague. That's the Citron, the lu love a palm Fran, three Hadim Myrtle twigs, and two out of oak willow branches. Then tie them together and wave them in six directions, right, left forward, up, down, and backward as a reminder that God is always watching over us. That's so beautiful. It is, isn't it? God loves to tabernacle with us Tabernacle. Most folks think tabernacle is a noun, like a building, like the soka that Hillel's family built, which it is. But for us,

3:05 messianic Jews, tabernacle is also a verb to dwell. It means that Jesus, who is God wrapped in a fleshly tabernacle, dwelt among us. And that by his spirit, he dwells in the hearts of all who believe. And it is his plan that someday we will all come to Jerusalem and with the Messiah, Jesus, share Sukkot together. Sounds good. Sure does. Oh, it's getting late. We gotta head home. Happy holiday rabbi. Bye. Hug. Happy holiday. I'm glad to Meet you, Valentina. Thanks for including me, Mr. Stern At ko. Everyone is welcome. Now, who's hungry?

4:03 We are going to wave the lu. Love. Do can I trust y'all to stay up here for just a few more minutes as we wave the lu? Love? What do you think? No. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna invite David to give us a, a quick explanation. Not a whole lot to add after that great video, but um, yeah. If you are new to Sukkot, you've probably done a little bit of research. You've asked for rabbi buy Google or Pastor Bing, right? And you're wondering, what are all the lemons about? Uh, they're not exactly lemons unless there's some type of hybrid etrog, but this is what we're going to explain. So the scripture comes from exactly what tammar read.

4:49 This is Leviticus, uh, 23. Everybody knows Vira 23 with the the different festivals. Uh, verse 40 says, on the first day, you were to take the choice fruit of trees, branches of palm trees, bows of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and rejoice before adonai your God for seven days. So this can be considered a hookah. A hookah is the type of commandment where God neither gives a how or a why. We just do it. So the sages came together, they said, how are we gonna do this as a nation, right? And so in Tractate suka, in, in, uh, in five, it says, uh, that the sages said that etra would be the choice. Fruit of the trees, of course, the branches of palm trees. That would be the palm fron.

5:36 Palm fron sounds so boujee, palm fron. Um, let's see, the hadas, the myrtle would be the BS of leafy trees. And then the volt, the willow, uh, would be the, uh, just what God said, willows of the brook, right? So they also tried to give it some meaning. And I'm gonna explain a couple of them, of course, because we can't just have one opinion. And so, uh, the first one is that the rabbi said, it's kinda like what Rob Shaul did, right? And in the book of Romans, he talked about different body parts. And each body part cannot function without the rest. And so they said each of these species is like a body part. So they said the etrog is shaped like a heart. The lu,

6:24 this long thing here is shaped like a spine. The hadas is, that's the Myrtle branch, right? And so that looks like these are very small leaves, right? So they look like eyes. And then finally the willow has, uh, longer leaves. So they look like a mouth. And all this is bound together. We gather them together and we enter the suka to be with Hashem as one body, right? The other interpretation, I love this, and this is my favorite because it pertains more to the prophetic nature of Sukkot. And so, um, and that's because in Sukkot, we know that Israel makes atonement for the nations for the rest of the world. And so they say that each species represents a type of Jewish person. And so we have the etra, which is, it is a fruit,

7:14 and it has, uh, pleasant ods, emanations. It smells good, right? So it represents the type of Jew who number one has fruit or the mitzvah, right? He does works. And the, uh, the aroma is that he bathes regularly, not really the aroma, I imagine Torah study like a sacrifice. And that sacrifice, whenever you do this, it's like a pleasant aroma to Hashem. So that's the Jew who has a, um, the pleasant aroma of Torah study as well as the works. The LOF would be, let me get this back up here. So it comes from a date palm, right? So dates are a fruit,

8:02 but they have no smell. And so that represents the Jewish person who has fruit, right? They have the mitzva, but they lack in Torah study, the hadim, the Myrtle, it smells good, right? And so that has, um, no fruits. And so that's the Jewish person who, uh, has Torah study, but lacks in Mi Mitzvah. And finally, the willow does not have an aroma, nor does it have fruit. And so that represents the Jew who lacks in both Torah study as well as mitzvah. And so I think that's such a beautiful interpretation because it represents how Hashem wants to bring us together into the Suka as, uh,

8:48 all types of Jewish people. But wait, there's more, because Yeshua did come just like what the video was talking about. And he expounded on the Torah, right? And he showed us all the types and the shadows, even through his death. God so loved what the world. So it's not just about one type of people. It brings everyone together. Of course, the Jews are our example. You guys have been doing this forever, right? And so now my prayer for everyone here is that we all come together into the suah, bring our guests, bring the rest of the world. And remember that Hashem is all around us. Amen? Yeah. Blessed are you, Lord, our God king of the universe who has kept us alive,

9:34 sustained us, and brought us to this occasion. Nu Right. And there's different turn it on. There are different ways of waving the lu love. Um, last year I turned in every direction. This, this year I'll kind of do it like the video where he just kind of pointed. Um, and also as we, as we shake the lu love, we say, uh, give thanks to Adonai. His faithfulness endures forever, right? And then we also say the blessing, which is, um, blessed are you, lord, our God king of the universe who has given us or has sanctified us with this mi vote with his commandments, and has commanded us in the raising or even better the gathering of the

10:21 lu. So, and we start, and I start north, south, east, west. That's east. Never eat sour watermelons. Which way is east? That's east. That's north. Yeah. So start at the north. Yeah, that's my thing. Okay. Um, Shabbat shalom.

11:07 Amen. This is a joyous occasion. Number one. I can be extra joyful today because now I have eaten onion Kippur. Uh, we were supposed to be joyous because our sins were forgiven, but we hadn't eaten. And so it's a little bit more difficult to, to really muster up that strength. Now, I expect tomorrow afternoon, evening, we are all going to be even extra joyous as we will then have eaten brisket. I'm gonna keep talking about the brisket until tomorrow,

11:52 and then we'll see if I stop talking about it next week. I don't know. David brought it up that the Jewish people, and I, and I, I think I brought this up at some point, maybe on Yom Kippur, that Aaron goes and gets atonement for his own personal sins before he can intercede before the Lord on behalf of the nation of Israel. And Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur gives us national atonement of Israel so that Israel can then intercede on behalf of the nations for the entire week of Sukkot. You see, during Sukkot, Israel offers up 70 bulls.

12:41 That is 140 briskets, you know, 'cause there's the left and the right. So anyways, Israel offers up 70 bulls on behalf of the 70 nations of the Earth. And you should say, I'm pretty sure the UN has more than 70 nations in the Earth. Yeah, that's probably true. However, according to Genesis 10, we understand that these are the 70 appointed nations of the Earth. And then according to Deuteronomy, we understand that the land allotment for the 70 nations, which occurs in Genesis 10, was given according to the number of the sons of Israel,

13:28 according to the number of the people of Israel, which is amazing because the people of Israel didn't exist in Genesis 10. And yet their land allotment was so, was, was, was allotted according to the Sons of Israel, which we read in Deuteronomy, Israel offers up these 70 bulls on behalf of the nations. It's traditional during the time of Sukkot to every day read the Halal Psalms. So these occur in the a hundred teens.

14:13 And today I'm gonna focus on one of those. But before I focus on the Psalm, I just want to talk about a little bit about the Psalms before we actually get into the Psalms. The book of Psalms is, Well, I thought I had the, the Book of Psalms is this much Of the whole Bible. It's not a lot, but the Book of Psalms

14:59 is a towering book when it comes to the entirety of the scriptures. Why? Because the Book of Psalms, it teaches us in a different way. It has a special place in the Jewish library. Its name to heli means praises, and it obtains and it contains many praises and supplications to God. We call it the Book of Psalms in English, which comes from the Greek word, which means instrumental music. So it seems to me as if the Book of Psalms is at once both instrumental music, but also a worded praise before the Lord.

15:47 It is the Psalms of halel, which means praise that often contain the word hallelujah, which means praise God. This word appears a total of 24 times in the Book of Psalms, all of them in the final third of the book. And never anywhere else in scripture, or at least in the, in the tenah. The Book of Psalms is often connected to the, the book genre, if you will, of poetry, what we call poetry. Poetry. The power of poetry comes through the vivid use of language.

16:36 So we have in Psalm 42 as the Dear pants for streams of water. So my soul pants for you, the language used, you can, well, I at least I can. Maybe we don't see it with a deer. What if this is gonna sound less poetical? So pardon me, but what if I say, what if I say as the dog pants automatically? You, you, you just thought about the dog who's got his head out the window going. That's the use of language. That's the, the, the amazing thing about words.

17:23 Our words can create a picture which then begin to settle within us. And it describes something within us that we didn't know how to put to words such as what my soul is longing for. I don't know how to put it, except as the deer pants for water or as the dog is panting with his head out the window. So my soul is yearning for you, Lord. It's this use of vivid imagery that we find in the Book of Psalms, Also in poetry. We have often one line, and then the next line will be a, a repeating line, but it will be different. And so it helps paint a fuller picture of what is trying to be,

18:10 uh, portrayed. The Psalms and other poetic sections of the Bible communicate ideas, but they especially express emotion. They show life in its fullest. In fact, poetry often expands or deepens our understanding of a particular topic. Now, I will tell you, our school system requires language, arts and math. Language arts and math are what we would call pillars for our learning.

19:00 But it does seem to me that the arts provide a fuller understanding of the foundation upon which language arts and math provide. So we, language, arts and math, they give us a stable foundation, but the arts are what give a greater range of emotion and understanding of the way we are as humanity. You see this in in music. We're gonna see it tomorrow night in music. Actually, we're gonna see it tomorrow night in music, art, drama and poetry, which I mean, that's almost a full range of the arts in and of itself. And that's all gonna be, I'm,

19:46 I'm giving you guys way too many teasers for tomorrow night's, uh, uh, event. But we're going to experience what this means. What our faith as Jews and Gentiles, uh, okay, I'm going into tomorrow night, but I'll, I'll, I'll do that and I'll come back as Jews and Gentiles expressing together what it means when it becomes enhanced with the richness of the arts. We can exist together in knowledge and education, which is what we do really well at Berk Hashem in my opinion. But now we have the arts that help supplement and bring greater depth and understanding to what we already know, because we exist.

20:31 When you think about things that have lasted in the world for centuries, I imagine you think of old structures like churches that are a thousand years old in Europe. The church is not just brick and mortar, but it's an expression of art. And you can look through the whole church and every every design was done intentionally. You can look at synagogues throughout the world and you can see every culture's, uh, impression that it made on the synagogue by its design shape in every different culture around the world.

21:20 So I'm telling you all of that because we come to the Book of Psalms and the Book of Psalms brings greater depth and breadth to everything that we already at least think we know. So I chose this psalm and this is the, we're gonna, we're gonna go through this Psalm verse by verse. We might be here all day. Now. I'm gonna do Psalm 117. It's two verses. We still might be here all day, but 'cause those of you who've come to Bible study know, I get stuck on verse two, almost always. So let's just, I I read the psalm this morning. Let me read it again. Praise Adonai. All you nations glorify him.

22:08 All you peoples for great is his loving kindness toward us. And Adonai's truth endures forever. Hallelujah. Now, the Book of Psalms is often attributed to King David. Now we recognize that there are, there are different authors of different psalms within the book, but I think I can make a case that all of the author, all of the, or maybe I should change the word, all of the scribes. I think that's what I've been using with the, with Luke, all of the scribes throughout the Book of Psalms. They're all from the people of Israel. So I, I just want you to understand that because there's some context that you have to understand because the first verse is talking about the nations.

22:55 And the second verse is talking about his loving kindness toward us. It's not the nations. I just wanna point that out before we get into the Psalm. So let's, let's get into this. We're gonna go, uh, basically word by word. We're gonna start with the first phrase, praise Adonai, all you nations. So the word that's used here is em or gentiles. All you nations, praise the Lord, all you nations. I just have a question, what does it mean for us to praise? Like, what does that look like? We often say, oh, I love the praise and worship time of the service. Now I'm, I'm gonna about to stomp on everybody's toes who believes that

23:46 or who, who says that about a particular segment in the service? Because the reality is, is the praise and worship time of the service is the whole service. It's not just the musical expression that occurs for three or four or seven songs, however many of that is the root of the word connotates being sincerely and deeply thankful to God. And, and we are to extol the greatness of him and his works. And that, that extolling him is an act in and of itself of worship Or praise. The most frequent use of this word in scripture is related to the praising of the God of Israel.

24:32 And it stands in direct contrast to the praising of the God of that particular country where Israel might actually be dwelling at the moment. And you say, wait a second, I, I I just lost you. Well, it would be today. We don't necessarily have it at least as formally declared as it might have been back then, but it would be as if there was a God of England, a God of France, a God of South Africa, a a God of Argentina. Well, we praise the God of Israel. All of these nations had their own gods. But the praise of the God of Israel stood in contrast

25:19 apart, set apart from the praise of the gods of the other nations. This idea is then reaffirmed by the next word, praise otai. So in this text, it, it doesn't show up in the English, but what it is, is it's the use of the Y Hey Vahe, which is the name of the God of Israel, which we find in the book of Exodus, Yohe. Vahe is only ever used throughout the scripture to indicate the God of Israel. And so we have here, if I could elongate it, praise the God of Israel, if I could just add a couple words to clarify some understanding, praise the God of Israel. So who's doing the praises? All you nations,

26:08 praise the God of Israel. All you nations. Now you have to think about this. This is at a point when all you nations, I don't, I'm not, I'm not saying all you like in the, but when all the nations had all the gods, And this is praise the God of Israel, all you nations, all you groups of peoples. And now we come to the second, uh, part B, if you will, of verse one, which is another way to say part A, uh, in the, in the t l v it uses the, the term glorify. You can use extol loud praise him. All you peoples. It's a, it's a, it's a, an echoing of what's happening,

26:54 but it's using different language, different words in the Hebrew, it adds a greater depth of expression to what is, is their present in the first line. In other words, praise is not limited to one word or one expression. What praise is praise of the God of Israel is it's an all-encompassing, if you will. Now, you guys are gonna think I'm nuts, but I used to work here at Brook Hashem. I know I still do, but I'm lemme go, lemme go. Before I used to work here at Brook Hashem and I mowed the lawn and I tree trimmed the trees and did out outdoor stuff. I will tell you the times I experienced the praise of God the most

27:45 before I turned 30 Was in the process of mowing the lawn. It wasn't in the process. I I'm not, I'm not discounting music, I'm not discounting anything else, but it's where I found my connection, my whole body connection with the creator God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel. And I found that, and it so happened to be while I was mowing the lawn, it happened while I was repairing a fence. In fact, I I was Scrolling on Facebook yesterday, it's a dangerous thing, scrolling on Facebook yesterday. And I happened to look at a, a post of a pastor friend of mine,

28:31 and he posted a picture of this window with smudgy fingerprints all in hand, prints all over the window. And on the other side, you can see that there's like a, an indoor playground. And, and I thought, man, that is dirty. Look at how much work that's gonna be to clean up that window where all these children had just been like, like licking their hands and like sticking them to the window. I just want to point out what he said. He said, I thank the Lord for all the fingerprints on the glass at this church. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to minister the to these children

29:17 every day of every week. You see, often what we see, it's just about our perspective. What do we thank the Lord for? I I, I know if you've been here at for any given time, you've heard Cheryl say it, but when the stall is empty, it's clean. But when there's a lot of ox in, a whole lot of work gets accomplished, but the stall is no longer clean. And in fact, it requires a lot of work to clean it. It's the same thing. What is it that we praise God about? Do we praise God about the clean windows and the lack of opportunity to minister to others?

30:05 Or do we praise God for what he has given to us as an opportunity, as messy and dirty as it may be? Praise. Let's see, where am I? Well glorify him all you peoples. Here we go. All you peoples. That's where I forgot this is a different word than, than in the first line in this word. If the, if the in the first line, if it points towards nations, this one points toward tribes, all the, all the people. So it's not just limited to the nations. Now it's all of the peoples, all of the tribes of the earth. It's not just all of the nations that have to praise the God of Israel,

30:51 it's all of the peoples. Again, it's creating a fuller understanding of what we first read when we read this text for great is his loving kindness. We move to verse two, for great is his loving kindness toward us and ized truth endures for hallelujah, For great. We're gonna start here for great is his loving kindness toward us. We, we, maybe what we could say is, if I could, if I could rewrite it or retranslate it for you, we could say, praise Adonai all you nations. Praise him, all you peoples because

31:40 great is his loving kindness toward us. You see, the because in the four are, are relatively similar, um, in, in the, in the translation of this word. But all of the nations will praise the God of Israel. Why? Because they will realize how great his loving kindness is for Israel. So let's, let's talk about this a little bit more. Great is the same word that means from the same root. That means mighty or strong. Uh, excuse me. Um, the Lord mighty in battle, great or mighty or strong, is his loving kindness.

32:28 This loving kindness comes from the word sed, which means his unfailing love, or it's often it's most often connected with his covenant faithfulness to the people of Israel. In other words, when he makes a covenant, he will never go back on that word. He will never break his word. And so toward us, if we go back to how I opened toward us, it doesn't matter if it's David or one of the other authors we recognize that is really toward the children of Israel. The Lord has shown his covenant faithfulness to the Jewish people over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, and again and again, and again and again.

33:16 And the Lord's truth endures forever again. This is the use of the Y va, particularly pointing toward the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, the Lord's truth. This is the, the truth of the Lord endures forever. It's interesting when you take these two verses together, the Lord's loving kindness in the Lord's truth. What we have is Emmett, which we recognize from another passage which is often translated as grace and truth or mercy and truth, loving kindness and truth. And we,

34:02 and it comes from another passage that we find in connection with yo Va. Exodus chapter 34, verses six and seven. This is when Moses says, Lord, show me I wanna see your face. And the Lord says, well, you can't handle the face, so let me just stick you here in this rock and I'll put my, my hand over you until I, until I pass by. And it says, the Lord passed before him. Uh, Exodus 34, 6 and seven, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord. Again, this is Y ffe y ffe the Lord, the Lord a God, merciful and gracious,

34:48 slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression in sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. You may not have recognized it because it uses different words in the translation, but right in the middle of this passage, it talks about God and his abounding, steadfast love and faithfulness. This is the use of the terminology Emmett. It is central to the nature or the character of God himself. And he ties his character, uh, okay,

35:37 not a playground. Come on, go see mom, please. The very nature of God, the centrality of God's nature, he connects to the people of Israel. In other words, God's character, who he is, the faithfulness to who he says he is and who he, uh, will keep his word to, is tied direct directly to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So if I can put this another way,

36:24 if the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, if they can be wiped out and removed from the earth, then the very character of God, the very nature, the centrality of the nature, the character of God will be ripped asunder and, and split into two. And God himself will no longer be who he says he is. It is very interesting because God's character, his covenant faithfulness, his faithfulness to his covenants with Abraham, Isaac,

37:12 and Jacob are so, it is so deep that he sends his only son to take on flesh, to take on mortality as an expression of being faithful to his people because his people are trapped in, if I can put it this way, because all people are this way. Uh, if you've ever heard the saying, Jews are just like everyone else, but more so We're all the same way. We were caught in repetitious sin without a way to get out,

38:00 or maybe I should say without an effective way to get out. And it took Yeshua coming and offering his atoning sacrifice as a way to show God's covenant faithfulness to his people. And Yeshua says in John 14, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So if Yeshua is God's physical expression of his Sid and Yeshua says, I am the truth, then Yeshua is also Emmett the very central nature of God himself.

38:45 And we come to the conclusion of this psalm, which is hallelujah. You see, because all of the nations at this point are against Israel. Now, there will come a day again when all of the nations will come against Israel, and they will, in fact, it's this week's off tour portion, it, they will march up toward Israel and Zechariah chapter 14, they will come against and it says, the nations will come against Israel, and then the Lord Will come down and put his feet upon the mountain of olives and it will split the mountain in two,

39:33 one side moving to the north and the other side moving to the south. And it's through the visible appearance of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that then after all of that, after the destruction that occurs in that time period, that all the remaining part is what it says at the end of Zechariah 14, the remaining part of the nations will come to Jerusalem, every Sukkot to worship the God of Israel. Now, we happen to know that the one who comes and sets his feet upon the mountain is Yeshua, and he isn't gonna leave. He's gonna stay there. And then all the nations will come up and praise Yeshua as the God of Abraham,

40:22 Isaac, and Jacob. So this psalm, what it says is, it says, all nations, all peoples without exception will come and fully praise the Lord because of his faithfulness to his covenant with Israel, the Lord reigns, he is king. The Lord reigns forevermore. Can I I just wanna play an audio clip for you, a teaser for tomorrow night

41:14 On a faithful and true, hear the mighty to the heavens proclaim that he is our king. Let him faithful that he's king. Let forever I had to, uh, we had to make an abrupt cut because it, it, the song moves quick, but you get it. The Lord reigns, he is king, and the Lord will reign forever and ever. I mean,

42:04 so what does this mean for you and me? Well, first of all, it means you're probably gonna wanna come even more for tomorrow night. But, but secondly, apart from, apart from shameless audacity of promoting the event tomorrow night, why do we praise the Lord? Is our praise limited to one facet of our being? And is it not all encompassing? You have to ask that question of yourself. I can't answer it for you. I can, I can look at myself and I can say, why am I praising the Lord? And then I can say, is that reason is that,

42:49 is it an all-encompassing praise or am I holding something back? Is there a reason that I'm only doing it this way? So number one, why do you praise the Lord? Number two, can you see that our existence is proof or evidence of the covenant faithfulness of the Lord? I, and I'm saying that here, em, can you see that just the fact that we exist is proof or it's evidence to the Lord's covenant faithfulness. Now, let me explain that. I recognize not everyone in here is Jewish,

43:40 but as those of us who are Jewish and now have accepted Yeshua as our Messiah, our continued existence is proof that God has not forsaken his people. Our existence is proof that God has not forsaken his covenant with his people. And as Gentiles who have chosen to be here, you are praising the Lord because of his faithfulness to his covenant with us. And you are now recipients of his blessings because those who blessed the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be blessed.

44:25 So together we gather and we choose to build community together as Jews and Gentiles. And whether or not you have yet realized it, if you stay here long enough, you will. The fact that Jews and Gentiles can praise the name of the Lord together in unity is a miracle. Yes. And I mean that in both the positive and the negative manner. It's miraculous that we can do this together in a unified way

45:10 so that the miraculous nature of us praising the Lord together in unity speaks to the power of God, the the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his ability to change lives. Therefore, we become a sign to the Jewish world and to the nations that the Lord can use us to draw his people and the nations to him. And this is one of the ways that we allow the light of Yeshua to shine through us and into a world that is growing darker and darker every day. If you, if you didn't connect it, that is our vision for Bru Hashem.

45:58 If you're in the new members class, I just gave you another way to express the three-legged stool. If you've been here long enough and, and you all of a sudden you're going, what's the three legged stool? Then I suggest you go back through the, through the vision class one more time, uh, and, and catch it because it's important for you to understand why we exist. It's great for us if, if you don't understand why we exist at, at a minimum, it's good for us to gather together and study the Bible, study the scripture, study God's word. Because the reality is, I think I said this on Yom Kippur, the reality is I, I, I recently heard a pastor say that if we keep coming to God and ask him for a fresh word, but we are unwilling to open up his word, he will not give us a fresh word.

46:49 So it's good for us to come and study his word. I'm not discounting that. But if you truly understand the reason why we are here together, then it will exponentially allow the Lord to work through you, to shine through your life into this world that we live in, into the Dallas community, the D f w community that we live in, and that we can then begin to act knowingly instead of unknowingly as emissaries on his behalf. Yes, it certainly helps when you know what you're doing as opposed to just doing it and you don't know what you're doing though I'm not saying God can't use unknowing servants. He certainly used a donkey in the Tanah,

47:35 in the Torah so he could use any one of us of Venus, Shaba Sha May in our Father in heaven. Lord, we come to you on this Shabbat, this Shabbat of Ko. Lord, we ask that you would search us, oh Lord, that you would reveal to us anything within us, Lord, that is holding back anything that is not yielded to praising you. Oh Lord. Lord, we ask us that. We ask you to give us a fresh perspective into moments when we can praise your name

48:22 From those moments when we would've grumbled for those moments when there's dirty windows and we look at the cleaning as opposed to the ministry that is happening. Lord, we ask that you would give us a fresh perspective during this Sukkot, Lord, that you would open up our eyes, that we can see your love for your people and for the nations, and that our hearts can join with yours in that we bless you and praise you in Yeshua's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

49:08 May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

49:55 The name of our Messiah. Yes, sham.