Yeshua in the Feast of Sukkot

0:00 Proverbs 1110 says that when the wicked parish, the people rejoice. The reason I say that is because on the first day of Sukkot, by chance, if you believe in chance, by chance, a group of trainees and reservists happened upon

0:45 Swire by chance. I'm telling you, it was totally by chance. Again, if you believe in chance, it was totally by chance that, that they happened upon him. I happen to believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remains faithful. I don't mean to rejoice at the death of, at the loss of a life. However, he was an evil man.

1:35 He didn't turn evil on October 7th. In fact, October 7th, it now has come to light, has been being planned for at least three years. Uh, and his intent was actually to launch it a year earlier. But a couple things happened, and Cir was an exchange, a prisoner exchange 13 years ago for a capture soldier named Gila Shali. He was one of the, I think there were 126 prisoners that were released, something in that realm in exchange for Gila Elite who had been kidnapped and held

2:23 and tortured for years. Israel, by the way, if you didn't know this, Israel treated scene noir for brain cancer and removed a tumor so that he could have an extra long life, Which was then repaid on October 7th as he planned and launched what I would say is the worst, worst attack against the Jewish people since Hitler. I'm telling you all of this because it seems as if

3:11 we have perhaps come to a, a pivotal moment in the war where now things might change. Uh, I can only hope and pray as we all should be continuing to do for the, for the release of the remaining a hundred. I think it's 101 hostages, and his brother, S's brother is, is, uh, has survived. And it seems as if he's gonna take over control of Hamas. But, um, but I'm telling you, this is, this is a monumental moment, and it happened on the first day of Sukkot.

3:56 I, I can't, I can't express, I can't express what, how thankful I am. I, again, I, on one level, I hate to be thankful for someone's judgment on another when justice is brought about the righteous rejoice. Amen. So let, let me continue to encourage you to continue to pray for the remaining hostages that now that he's gone, xir is gone, perhaps there's some extra motivation to release them

4:42 and to bring an end to the war in Gaza. Uh, by the way, it's, it's amazing how when something like this happens, everyone in the West begins to take credit for it. You know, we've always wanted him all along, except for when we told you, don't go into Rafa, which is where he was found. Also, don't go into Rafa because it's only gonna make a disaster, which by the way, is where the last six hostages were found that were murdered by him. And it seems to be as if the remaining hostages are somewhere in the Rafa area. So don't be fooled by the world who stood against Israel and Israel's actions

5:30 because nobody has stood with Israel except for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So anyways, that's my heavy introduction. I'd like to invite Elder Barry to come. Yeah. As Casey was saying, and as Rabbi Sean was saying, and as I know Elder Barry is going to say, this is the season of rejoicing again, I say rejoice. Amen. A Venus sha sha may our father in heaven. Lord, I thank you for Barry.

6:16 I thank you for his, uh, for his heart and for his preparation that he has, uh, gone into today's message. Lord, I pray that you would open up our ears, that we can hear from you through his lips, through his preparation. We bless you in Yeshua's name, amen. Amen. Thank you Rabbi. Thank among Hako, Samaya, happy Sako Holiday and Shabbat shalom. I'd like to take, I'll give you a little bit of background on why I am speaking about this, uh, today. Rabbi Ari asked me what, a couple months ago if I wanted to speak, and as always, it's like, eh, I'd like to speak, but at the same time, it gives me fear and trepidation. So, uh, and he gave me two choices.

7:01 I could speak, uh, between Rash Hashanah and Yam Kippur, the, the Shabbat of repentance, right? And I've done that a couple times and that's kind of heavy, but we need that sometimes, right? Or I could speak on Kote. So I, I chose Kote and I approached this by taking the biblical passages. Um, and just basically I've got an iPad usually carried around all the time. I took snapshots basically of those passages and I highlighted things that stood out to me and I wrote notes in the margins and things and prayed about, you know, what I should share. And I came up with questions that I had and questions that just might be just normal questions. And I'd like to go through, we're gonna go through

7:48 few passages in the, uh, we're gonna start off with Leviticus chapter 23, numbers 29, which which was the Torah portion read today. And Deuteronomy chapter 16 and just as light on a subject shines in from different angles. They're largely the same, but they highlight some different aspects of kot. So with that said, I wanna actually, I also prayed about it and I felt like, well, Yeshua's prominent in Kot, right? And how is he, how is he prominent? So we're gonna look at some scriptures in the Bri Hahah or the New Covenant. But anyway, the title of my message is Yeshua in the Feast of Kot. I'm gonna start off with Leviticus chapter 23, and I wanna read this.

8:36 And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel saying on the 15th day of this seventh month. And for seven days is the feast of booze to the Lord. Also, we know Sako is called the feast of booze or the Feast of Tabernacles. So you may see some different booze or tabernacles written in here. Anyway, on the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work for seven days. You shall present food offerings to the Lord on the eighth day. You shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work. These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you, you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation for, for presenting to the Lord, food offerings, burnt offerings

9:24 and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings each on its proper day besides the Lord's Sabbath. And besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings, and besides all your free will offerings which you give to the Lord on the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate Rabbi Sean talked about celebrating or rejoicing before. But you shall celebrate the feast for seven days. On the first day shall be a day of solemn rest. And on the eighth day shall be a day of or shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees, bows of leafy trees and willows of the brook. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, seven days.

10:11 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever. Throughout your generations, you shall celebrate it. In the seventh month, you shall dwell in booze for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booze that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booze when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. So first thing that comes to light, celebrate the fee should be celebrated for seven days, starting on the 15th day of the seventh month. This would be the third day of the feast here. After seven days, there is to be an additional eighth day

10:56 for a holy convocation. The assembly of the eighth, the first and the eighth days are to be considered a holy convocation. No ordinary work done on those days. First, first and eighth days shall be days of solemn rest. So we see, we see we have a feast of seven days and then an additional eighth day we'll talk about why in a little bit. Food offerings are to be presented for seven days. And this happens after the gathering in of the produce of the land. This celebration is to occur. So we're told take the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees, bows of leafy trees and willows of the brook.

11:42 Interesting to take those right? So branches and fruit, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, seven days. Now some of us are better, I think at rejoicing than others. I'm kind of solemn. You can't maybe have a poker face. It's a little hard to tell. We rocky, where are you? Rocky? Um, anyway, rocky, you can tell Rocky when he's celebrating, right? So he lets it be known. So, so you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, seven days you shall celebrate the feast to the Lord. Alright? Okay. Alright. It's a forever statute.

12:32 You shall dwell in booze seven days that your generations may know that the Lord made the people of Israel dwell in booze when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. So we see the uh, make up of the L lab, the four species that Sean showed us earlier. And thank you Rabbi Sean for that. We see rejoicing before the wailing wall. So soko is a time to rejoice before the Lord. So let's ask some questions. So why a, what is a holy convocation and why are we, why would we celebrate a holy convocation? Well, a sacred assembly or gathering that God commanded the Israelites to observe and why a holy convocation?

13:17 Because I think during kot we need to come together and celebrate. There's individual celebrations, but there's also celebrations together. Why seven days? And these verses seven days is, is delineated five different times. So it must be shown something important. Well, seven days was the creation period, right? The Lord created everything in six days and had a day of rest. It's the biblical number for completeness. But I think in this case those apply, but I think it's stressing the importance of this time and celebrating seven days is a lot longer than, you know, just a single one day feast. So why an additional eighth day symbol eighth symbolizes new beginnings,

14:04 resurrection, new creation. Maybe the eighth day is symbolizing that day in eternity when we're all gonna be with Yeshua for that for forever, right? So, so the eighth day symbolizes something new. So the feast is so important that it's seven days and then it gets an extra day added on it to continue. So why no work on the first and the eighth days? Well, God is our provider. We know that. I know Rabbi Ari has talked about, you know, when you work at your job and you think you're getting it all and whatever else, but it's really him that's providing. So his provision, I believe is the beginning and the end of things. So even though we have to work, some of us may like work, some of us may not like work so much,

14:51 but the Lord's our provider and he wants to remind us of that. So why remember the people of Israel dwelling in booze when the Lord brought them out of Egypt? Well, remembering the shelter and care God provided his people and this was at a time when they weren't in their familiar surroundings, right? So God provides, God provides when things are looking good and we're comfy and God provides when they're not so great. So, and also I think this was mentioned today early in the service, remembering how temporary our lives are. So a kind of temporary looking, uh, kote there, um, won't dwell on that too much.

15:37 Um, but why take fruit in branches? I believe they symbolize God's provision, you know, branches for protection in the, on the kote that you know covering, right? And fruit su sustenance, right? So symbols of God's provision. Why a forever statute? Why do we need to do this forever? What we always need to remember God's provision and God's protection. Then why the commandment to rejoice. Like with some of us it's easier to rejoice than others. So we're commanded to rejoice. Some of us may not be feeling so great, maybe you're going through a really hard time. It's probably a bit harder to rejoice now. But rejoicing in the Lord is, is important.

16:23 And we know the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. So recognize that God is our provider by rejoicing. So when we rejoice we realize that he's the one that provides for us. So how can I present a food offering to the Lord? You know, those sacrifices that read about today, those, those don't exist, right? So how can I present a food offering to the Lord? Well I think we should give a portion out of what God has provided. Maybe that's our finances, maybe our time, our worship, our prayer, our praise by producing spiritual fruit. That would be a way away. Perhaps we're gonna take a look at John 15 later.

17:09 Perhaps producing spiritual fruit and abiding in Yeshua is important. Alright, let's move on to numbers chapter 29, the Torah portion that was read today. And I won't read all the 29, I'm just gonna highlight some days on the 15th day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work and you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days and you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 13 bowls from the herd, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old, they shall be without blemish and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil. Three tenths of an epi for each of the 13 bowls, two tenths

17:57 for each of the two rams and a 10th for each of the 14 lambs. Also one male goat for a sin offering. Besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. What do we see here? Just looking at these, these verses, this is a pretty big offering, right? 13 bulls, um, you know, two rams, 14 male lambs and a and a goat plus each of those animals had its own drink and grain offering associated with it. I'm not an expert on this, but that almost sounds like the animals weren't good enough by themselves. They had to have something to make them a little better. And we all know right from the book of Hebrews that the blood of bulls and goats really didn't take away sins 'cause they had to be offered again and again

18:42 and points to Yeshua. So on the second day you'll notice something different. The number of bowls went from 13, I mean down to 12 and everything else stayed the same, still got the same number of lambs and so forth. On the third day, down to 11 bowls from 12 on the fourth day, 10 bowls on the fifth day down to nine bowls, everything else being the same on the sixth day, eight bowls on the seventh day, seven bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old without blemish with the grain, offering the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs and the prescribed quantities. Also one male goat for a sin offering besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.

19:29 Alright, we're almost there on the eighth day. Now this is the eighth day, the additional day that the Lord added. You shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work, but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. One bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish and a grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, for the lambs and the prescribed quantities. Also one male goat for a sin offering besides the regular burnt offering, it's grain offering and it's drink offering. Now to help me, uh, oh, let me read this and then I'll go on these, you shall offer to the Lord at your appointed feast. In addition to your vow offerings, your free will offerings for your burnt offerings and for your grain offerings

20:16 and for your drink offerings and for your peace offerings. So Moses told the people of Lord, the people of Israel, everything just as a Lord commanded Moses. So we have the normal offerings plus these extra offerings at this time. Now mentioned that I'm an engineer by trade, I like data and I've tried to put this in a table. So, um, so basically we have a table with the first column is the, uh, you know, the day of the feast, first through eighth, whether there's a holy convocation or not, whether ordinary works allowed or not. The number of bulls as they go down from 13 to seven and then one on the eighth day rams at two to one and uh, male lambs 14.

21:04 And then the last day, seven, the grain and drink, I'm sorry, the grain and the drink per animal always remains the same, right? You just changes by the number of animals. And the male goat for a sin offering was always there. So that's a lot of animals. If you add up all the animals, it's 199 animals gave up their, their existence for these offerings. So doing a little research, the number of bulls as being 70 for the first thir, the first seven days represents the nations of the world. And then on the eighth day, the number of bulls is one, represents the nation of Israel.

21:52 But I think what I see from this, the number of animals and the magnitude of this sacrifice or this offering, you know, we're told it's to coat, to rejoice and to celebrate, right? But even at a time of rejoicing, a reminder that a sacrifice or a blood offering is needed and it's a significant offering, it's not a minor offering, right? I believe this points to our Messiah, Yeshua. Alright, let's move on to um, Deuteronomy chapter 16. This'll be the numbers passage kind of had a focus on the offering being highlighted in the magnitude of the offering. We'll see what we see in Deuteronomy 16.

22:38 You shall keep the feast to booze. Seven days when you have gathered into produce from your threshing floor and from your wine press, you shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns for seven days, you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose because the Lord your God will bless you in all your pro, bless you, in all your produce and in all the work of your hands. So that you will be all together joyful three times a year. All your mail shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks. And at the feast of booze, they shall not appear

23:25 before the Lord empty handed. Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. So the focus here seems to be who can celebrate and giving to me. Not that other elements aren't in these passages. So after the gathering in, after gathering in the produce, we see the same thing. Keep the feast of boos for seven days you shall rejoice in your feast. Now here we delineated you, your son, your daughter, male and female servants, the levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. So I think that's probably everybody or just about everybody. So who is supposed to rejoice at this time? If we look at all of us, it would be all of us to rejoice

24:12 and celebrate in the Lord. Now we see this God will bless you in your produce and the work of your hands. So you will be all together joyful. So the Lord will bring a blessing. Everyone should give as they are able. Now I've looked around at different translations of this verse. I'd like this one contemporary English version. The bigger the harvest that the Lord gives you, the bigger your gift should be gathering in implies current blessing, right? If we couldn't gather anything in it wouldn't be blessed at all. The Lord will bless you implies a future blessing.

24:58 So why rejoice for seven days? We talked about that before. Uh, seven days creation period. Biblical number of completeness signifies something important. Why is rejoicing emphasized during this feast? I think it's recognizing God's provision in all types of circumstances. We trust him, we thank him for what he's provided and we realize that without him we're basically toast, I think. Um, so thankfulness at this time is important. Why is giving emphasized during this feast seems to be here? A focus on resources or giving things, um, as God provides, we should give,

25:45 we should bless the Lord, bless others. Now, who is this harvest for? Well, I think the people of the Lord, but something else. The Lord is looking for his harvest too. So we get blessed when uh, when others give. Rabbi Ari mentioned, um, somebody did today about Baruch Hashem who's already couldn't exist without people giving of their time, right? A congregation like this can't afford to pay everybody. No church or synagogue can it, it it needs people to give. Um, so we're blessed but the Lord is blessed by fruit that we're that we bear, right? So we wanna bear fruit for the Lord and we'll talk about that more a little bit later. So bearing fruit's a form of giving.

26:34 So highlights from these passages after gathering in God's provision, it's really recognizing God's provision. So you may not a farmer, right, but God has provided, uh, I'd encourage you to recognize his provision at this time. Need to dwell in booths to remember God's provision and protection. God has provided, God will provide rejoice and celebrate in the Lord as God provides we should give. And one more thing, the significant offering is required. So even in all that rejoicing and giving and everything else and offering still needed.

27:19 Alright, let's move on to a little bit harder passage maybe from Zacharia chapter 14 verses 16 through 19 than everyone who survives, of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain. There shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booze. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to ke keep the feast of booze.

28:06 That sounds pretty harsh. So we see the survivors of the nations that have come against Jerusalem will need to observe the feast of booze yearly. So not observing equals no rain plague, lack of blessing, it seems so why, why So soko is a picture I believe of the need to rely on God and his provision abiding in that provision. The need to recognize God's provision, the need to rely on God's provision, not relying on God's provision equals lack of blessing and protection. Alright, let's move on to more encouraging verse.

28:56 Um, so from John chapter seven, on the last and greatest day of the feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said out of his in innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Now he said this about the ruach whom those who trusted in him were going to receive for the ruak was not yet given since Yeshua was not yet glorified. So what's the historical connection between Sako and living water? Why did Yeshua at pick this particular time to say this? So I did a little research, I found an article one

29:42 for Israel article that kind of explained this. So I just, I'm just gonna read from that. At the time of Yeshua, a water libation ceremony had become part of the tradition of the festival. It was called sim bait hava or water drawing Festival. Priests would go down to the pool at SLO and fill a golden vessel with water. They would go up to the temple through the Watergate, accompanied by the sound of the SHO fire. They would pour the water over the altar along with wine from another bowl. They would pray earnestly for rain and they would greatly rejoice. So in the Talmud there's a passage that I'll read that talks about this water drawing festival.

30:30 He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life. So I'll repeat that again. He has not seen the rejoicing that the place of the water drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life. At the conclusion of the first festival day of Tabernacles, they descended to the court of the women where they made a great enactment. There were their golden candlesticks with four golden bowls on top of each of them four ladders to each of, to each and four use drawn from the priestly stock and whose hands were held jars of oil containing 120 log, which they poured into the bowls from the worn out drawers and girdles of the priest. They made wicks and with them they kindled the lamps

31:16 and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem, Jerusalem that was not illuminated by the light of the place of the water drawing. Men of piety and good deeds used to dance before them with lighted torches in their hands and sing songs and praises and levites without number, with harps, liars, cys, trumpets and other musical instruments were they're upon the 15 steps laid down from the chord of the Israelites to the court of the women corresponding to the feast or to the songs of the ascent of psalm. So we see a great rejoicing and the connection between water and and sko. So this verse I think is, is appropriate. Uh, behold God is my salvation.

32:02 I will trust and will not be afraid for the Lord. My Lord God is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation with joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation. So let's go back to John chapter seven. On the last day and greatest day of the feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Now he said this about the ruach whom those who trusted in him were going to receive for the ruak was not yet given since Yeshua had not been glorified. So what do we think of with, uh, living water?

32:50 Contained water that's moving is always very beautiful, right? You have just vibrance energy, uh, just life through that. Cool, refreshing, right? So our Messiah, Yeshua is our living water. So what are we told in John seven? If one thirst, if one believes in Yeshua, they can come to Yeshua and drink and out of their heart will flow rivers of living water. And by this he was speaking about the Holy Spirit or the Ruach Hakodesh. So thirst, I think thirst is seeing a need believe.

33:38 So if you see a need, then you gotta believe if you're going to come to him right, if you don't believe he is who he said he was, you're not gonna come to him. So see the need, thirst, believe come to Yeshua, drink, talk about abiding in the vine and then living water flows out and living water could be equated with bearing, with bearing fruit. We know from Galatians chapter five that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. If you don't have a lot of those or if there're lacking, the Lord does right and he provides the the living water. So why did Yeshua proclaim this on this particular day?

34:25 Yeshua provides living water in its fullest sense. What greater thing could God provide us than his spirit to give us life, sustain us and make us fruitful. Repeat that one more time. What greater thing could God provide us than his spirit to give us life, sustain us and make us fruitful. So what does thirst mean? Everybody knows what thirst means. When I'm thirsty for water, my body is telling me that it needs water to function properly. If I don't get water over a long enough period of time, I'd have physical problems and I'll eventually die. Thirsty for God implies really knowing that we need him and wanting him. If we don't get his water, we'll have problems

35:13 and eventually die. So what stimulates thirst in the natural right? Salt. You eat some salty food, you get thirsty. Or if you exercise that stimulates thirst. How about in the sense here? Maybe the more well sense here. The word of God stimulates thirst outta what we know. We, we know it all from the word of God, right? The spirit of God comes, he lightens the word and so forth. But, but, but the word of God is, is vital. We've realize our need for Yeshua. Maybe we come to an end of ourselves, realize that we can't do it and each of us probably has a different point that that may happen, right?

35:58 Yeshua said that he came for the sick and not for people that believed they were well, three different passages, this kind of paraphrase of that. But if we think we're well, why do we need Yeshua? Right? So Yeshua came for those that realized they had a need. Are you thirsty For the Lord? Is your godly thirst indicator working? Alright, let's move on to John chapter one. This passage was mentioned several times. Today the word became flesh and tabernacle among us. You know, some think that Yeshua was born during kot. I'm not sure that sounds pretty logical to me. Uh, but that's not the point of this message. But let me just read this passage.

36:44 He was in the world and the world was made through him, but the world did not know him. He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But whoever did receive him to those trusting in his name to these, he gave the right to become children of God. They were born not of a bloodline or human desire, nor of a man's will but of God. And the word became flesh and tabernacle among us. We looked upon his glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father full of grace and truth. Alright, a picture of a grapevine or grapevines, beautiful fruit, maybe close to getting harvested. So we're gonna spend some time kind of the final time of this message in uh, John chapter 15.

37:31 It's a passage the Lord put on my heart. Gosh, long time ago, probably really close to when I first became a believer. Um, I had something that was, let's call it emotionally difficult to deal with and he illuminated the, this passage to me. So it's always been kind of a special passage and I'm gonna read all of the passage and you'll see some, there's a few things in here that are hard in this passage, right? Most of it's it's easy, but there's a few and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna diminish those. Um, but I wanna read this passage. So Yeshua is the true vine and the father is the vine dresser. I'm the true vine. Yeshua speaking, you are the branches.

38:19 Alright, let's see. I'm in the wrong way. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in meat that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I've spoken to You abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me. You can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish

39:07 and it'll be done for you by this. My father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the father has loved me. So have I loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you, no longer do I call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all

39:52 that I have heard from my father. I have made known to you, you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. A good verse is a lot, a lot in there and we're gonna kind of break that down. So back to our vines bearing fruit. So Yeshua is the true vine and the father is the vine dresser. It's one of those hard verses I mentioned. Branches that do not bear fruit are taken away. This is more of an ouch verse.

40:37 Branches that bear fruit are pruned to allow even more fruit. You ever feel like God is pruned something? Right? Taking maybe something that was distracting us, I don't know but so branches that bear fruit get pruned, but what's the idea? So that they will bear more fruit. Abide in Yeshua. Yeshua will abide in us through the ruach or the Holy Spirit. Abide is kind of like dwelling. We dwell in booze to remember God's provision. We dwell or abide in Yeshua and experience God's provision. Soko is a feast where we are reminded of the need to dwell in booths, remembering God's provision and his promise of continued provision.

41:25 We need to continually, I dunno if you're like me, we need to continually remind ourselves of the need to abide in Yeshua to experience the fullness of God's provision. We see in verse four, a branch cannot produce fruit unless it abides in the vine. We cannot produce fruit unless we abide in our messiah. Yeshua. If we abide in Yeshua, we will bear much fruit apart from Yeshua says we can do nothing. Branches that do not abide in the vine are thrown away into the fire and burned. And one is proved from verse eight to be a disciple by the fruit they produce.

42:13 Keeping Yeshua's commandments will lead to abiding in his love. Yeshua said this so that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be full. Yeshua's commandment is to love one another as he loved us. You know that's not always easy to do. So we have a congregation and the congregation has lots of different ministries and you know those ministries or those efforts, they sometimes bump into each other, right? And it's sometimes can be difficult, right? And you know there's some absolutes in the word of God

42:59 that we can't compromise on, right? But sometimes maybe something I want in the multimedia, maybe I don't need that, right? Maybe we don't have to do that. Maybe we go with something else or something in a different ministry, right? So we don't want the things that we do to be able to get in the way of loving one another. Yeshua from verse 16 appointed us to go and bear fruit and that our fruit should abide. Interesting verse. He will provide whatever we ask the father in his name. I think it's in the context of abiding, but that's a pretty big promise right there. We're to love one another. I believe love is a form of giving. Giving is emphasized.

43:48 Emphasized in kot. Love is a significant factor in abiding in Yeshua. Let me ask a couple questions. Is love the result of abiding or is love a catalyst that helps one abide? So is love the result of abiding or a catalyst that helps one abide? I think the answer is yes to both. 'cause we see that love is a fruit of the spirit. Abiding produces fruit. But I think we can help in the process through loving one another. And again, loving, I don't think loving is a license to accept anything that may be wrong. It's not right. Sometimes one needs to be tough,

44:34 but in those things that we can give on those things that really don't matter, right? And we need to do that. We must abide in the true V or in the V in the true vine to have true life. Life comes from the true vine. Our purpose is to bear fruit. We can't make fruit. We must bear fruit. Bearing fruit is good for the branches and those around the branches as we bear fruit, it's gonna be good for for other branches and for us and for those around maybe those that don't know the Lord. But remember fruit is also for the vine dresser. The vine dresser is looking for fruit.

45:22 The only way to bear true fruit is to abide in Yeshua. So how do we abide in Yeshua? Do you thirst? If anyone thirst, let him come to Yeshua and drink. Thirst is recognizing a need. So come to Yeshua and drink. Need to trust him. Need to believe in him. Do you ever find if a problem comes up or you get distracted by something you know, your first thing you might do is think about your resources. Is there enough money to do this or whatever? We really need to remind ourselves to come to Yeshua first, right? He provides, and maybe there is plenty of resources in that particular area, but just the need to remember

46:09 to trust him, to believe in him. What things stimulate trust and belief in Yeshua. Well, rejoicing in the Lord I think may be also a catalyst for that. So when you feel down, you feel bad time to just try to, you know, Dave Pyles and Raquel, they used to one thing that with the prayer ministry, and Raquel, I'm sorry for your loss, it was lost to all of us. But um, but they would put on a worship cd, you know, and march around the room. And I remember doing that. It's like, what kind of crazy thing is that? Right? But, but it makes a difference, right? So praising the Lord in a, in a time where something's difficult.

46:55 So rejoicing in the Lord, spending time in the Word need to act upon our need, with our belief and trust in Yeshua. Call on him with all your heart. Receive the rah Hakodesh. Many of you may have already done that, right? But receive him loving one another is crucial. It keeps us from being self-centered and it's a catalyst in the fruit bearing process. So is your godly thirst indicator or alarm working properly? Do you recognize your need for Yeshua? Perhaps everything is going fine and you feel self-sufficient. You may have a blind spot not allowing you to see your true need. Perhaps you see your need but you don't know where to turn

47:42 or maybe lost faith in God or even think that he has had enough of you because of your sin. Turn to Yeshua today, even now. So as we summarize here, continually recognize your need for Yeshua as the source of living water. Abide in the true vine. Trust God for his daily provision. Ask God will provide. Be thankful for God's provision. Be thankful for Messiah Yeshua. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice expression.

48:29 It's an expression of trust. Love one another. The vine dresser is looking for fruit, bear fruit through the Holy Spirit working in you. Alright, let's bring it up one level as we continue to celebrate the Feast of Kot. Remember, God is our provider. He has provided He will provide. Yeshua is the significant offering that's required. Be thankful, rejoice, celebrate, give. Remember that you need living water. Believe on Yeshua, welcome God's spirit in your life. Abide in the true vine, abide in Yeshua. Ask for what you need. Love one another.

49:15 Bear fruit for the vine dresser Shabbat shalom. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

50:15 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shalom.