Well, it's a joy to be back at Bible Baptist. And, uh, you know, you're only a very short ride from Brooklyn. I'm learning new roads. I never thought I'm a lifelong New Yorker in New Jersey, partly New Jersey. And I'm, you know, you turn the GPS on and say, where are they taking me? You know, but it was shorter. It was good. So finally it was right. Not usual. So there's a lot to say this morning. First of all, thanks from the Glazer family. That's my wife, Sahaba, my two daughters, Miriam and Jenny. Thank you so much for your support so faithfully all these years. And it makes a real difference because it's really kept us going in the ministry. And your prayers and your encouragement through the years. It just means a lot to us. And, you know, Brooklyn's a very friendly town, you know, and particularly the Orthodox Jewish folks love us being there. You know, that was satirical. So I don't think I'm going to win B'nai B'rith Man of the Year Award this year. But I do want to tell you that God is really blessing and Brooklyn has New York still has the second largest Jewish population of any city in the world. It's right behind Tel Aviv and actually, actually, actually has more than Tel Aviv. It does, even in the greater Tel Aviv area. And so Brooklyn, of course, some people say it has about seven or eight hundred thousand Jewish people out of three point four million people. We think it's higher because really the ultra-orthodox don't really fill out surveys, you know. And so it's been a really great ministry. I've spent the last almost 40 years trying to build just a messianic community in the heart of Brooklyn. And by God's grace, it's really happening. And I'm really thrilled. So we have a beautiful building on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue P, if you know it, it's right in the center, heart of things, it's in Midwood. And then we also have a Messianic congregation that meets there on Saturday. And that's wonderful. And of course, the most important news, you know, on a personal level, is I finally have a grandson. No granddaughters yet, but we'll take them too. But we have a grandson, and my daughter married a wonderful young man who I've known since he was born, and she's actually known since she was born. And we now have a two-year-old. But the really wonderful thing also is that he is now, I had no idea this would ever happen, But he is now the associate pastor of the messianic congregation we planted in Brooklyn. And so I think that's pretty cool. Generational, you know. And so we're excited about what God's doing. My other one, the little one, she's 37. And she just keeps going to college, you know, and one of those. But she will be getting her Ph.D. in classics from Bryn Mawr College this year. So she and so she's praying about where God would want her to teach. And so we're hoping it's close. But, you know, we'll see. She's the one who actually made Aliyah. She lived in Israel for five years. So she can teach Greek and Latin in Hebrew. Yeah, I'm a one language guy. Yeah. So the Lord is good. We also started a a theological seminary extension in Brooklyn to train missionaries to the Jews. And it's affiliated with Biola University, which is a West Coast Christian college. And I went to the graduate school there, Talbot School of Theology. And they've really been wonderful partners. And we now have over 45 graduates. And I would say 35 of them are serving in Jewish ministry. And so that's been over about 18 years. And so God has done really wonderful things. And, and, uh, you know, the leaders of our congregation in Brooklyn are all trained through there. And, uh, so it's, it's really been, uh, it's been a great season of ministry. October 7th, um, we'll go down sort of like September 11th, you know, It's when the Lord allows us to be reminded of the depth of evil in the world. And that's terrible and horrible and of course people's lives are lost and there's no getting over that. But it has given rise to new conversations with people who maybe were not really wanting to talk about the Lord. And that happened during 9-11, and it's happened regularly now in Israel. I told the Sunday school class that just a few weeks ago, over about a week's time, we baptized 14 Israelis. Now that's a lot for us, who have come to know the Lord, and most of them as a result of seeking God during difficult times. And they've lost trust in the government, their leaders, everything. And Israel was supposed to have the best intelligence and best army in the world. And it didn't work. And so where do you turn when the things of this world do not work? It's why we need to keep preaching the gospel, even when there's great resistance, brothers and sisters, we in Jewish evangelism and some of you are trying to been trying to reach Jewish friends for 30, 40 years. I know that sometimes, you know, we don't listen. It's because of the dark, terrible background there is between Christianity and Judaism. There's been a lot of persecution, misunderstanding. And so it's not exactly taking a Jewish person from zero or one, you know, to ten. It's like minus eight. You know, so it takes a long time. But it's really wonderful to see the way people begin opening up because and this is the end of Matthew 28. This is not a message on Matthew 28, but it's one of my favorite passages in the Bible as a missionary, of course. And this is just that little ending statement. Lo, I'll be with you even until the end of the age. Remember that part? You know, and that's the most important part, because you can't fulfill the Great Commission without the presence of the Lord. And sometimes we think it's up to us and we forget that the Holy Spirit is working before us, during our conversations and after us. It's amazing how we can share the gospel and nothing happens. And then you come back, you know, a month later or a year later and they say, you know, I've been wanting to know something or other because we are not the message. He is the message and we're not the power. Not the power of persuasion. He is. And so anyway, so God is doing some really good things in New York City. I can't even talk about all of them because some of them are really secret. But God is really doing some great things. So if you open your Bibles to your favorite passage, I know it is. We do have a PowerPoint, but I don't mind you using your actual Bible. It's good for the hand, you know, hand work, you know, it strengthens your fingers, you know. But if you would, I'm going to be looking at Leviticus chapter 23. I know some of you have that memorized, of course. So we're going to talk about the festivals of Israel. And just a point of introduction, I believe that the great festivals of Israel, and you'll find all seven of them listed in Leviticus chapter 23. And we'll look at them for a moment. But I believe that these festivals are what I call a roadmap to salvation. In many ways, they are prophetic. They're what we call types. And they are prophetic in that they paint a picture of something about God's person and God's plan that sometimes is fulfilled in the most dramatic way. I like to look at the festivals, at least the beginning of the festivals, as God's drawing a picture of his plan in charcoal. And as the Bible progresses through, more and more color is added. And then when Jesus, the capstone of all messianic prophecy, comes, then we see it in five-dimensional color. And so the festivals eventually lead us to Christ. If you remember that very moving story in Luke 24, you don't have to read that, but where Jesus is walking on the road to Emmaus. I just I just rode a jeep to Emmaus in Israel in June. Don't do it, especially if you have a bad back. I was on a jeep in the in the Judean hills, and I had never done it before. and nor will I do it again. And so the road to Emmaus is paved with potholes. But along that path, two depressed, despondent disciples approach somebody who is, it's kind of like in Star Trek terms, you know, how you can veil the ship, you know? They don't see it. So somehow Jesus is veiled, and they don't know it's him. And they're griping, You know, the Yiddish work fetching? It's a great word. Christians do it all the time. It's complaining. It's why we're warned against it in the Bible. So it's a natural thing to do. So they're kind of disappointed. You know, we thought that the Messiah was going to come instead. You know, he dies. And, you know, where is he? And, you know, and of course, they're talking to Jesus is walking right next to them. And then finally, he unclogs. And I would have loved to have felt what they felt at that moment. But then they got the best Bible study in the entirety of history. Then he revealed to them everything that was written about him in the law and the prophets. Wouldn't you want to be there for that class? Maybe we'll get the class in heaven. Maybe, who knows? Maybe it will be Sunday school in heaven. Although, as I told everyone, it'll probably be on the Shabbat. It'll be on Saturday, just so you know. And so Jesus reveals all that was written about him. I can't imagine that he didn't talk to them about the festivals of Israel. because in many ways they are prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. So let's look at it for a moment. So in Leviticus chapter 23, verses one through two, we have an introduction to this wonderful road to salvation. So let's just look at it just by way of introduction. The Lord spoke again to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, the Lord's appointed times, which you shall proclaim as holy conflagrations, my appointed times are these. Now, a lot of times this is translated as festival or it's translated as feast. It's the Hebrew word moed, simple little word, M-O-E-D in English. And the word moed in English means appointment. That's all it means. So, you know, The Bible translators like to make things more grand, you know? And they are grand, but the word's not very grand. It just means appointment. And so, the Lord's appointment schedule only takes one word, really. The Lord's appointment, so the appointment schedule, which you shall proclaim as holy congregations, my appointed times are these. NASV does it a little clearer. And so these are the appointments. And you know, when God makes an appointment with you, you actually don't want to miss it. It's worse than missing a doctor's appointment. Those are impossible to reschedule, right? Actually, you can't miss a holy appointment. It's supposed to be on the day that God said it should be on. I was talking to one of our non-Jewish staff members, and the Chosen People is a great place to work. If you're looking for a job, we give all the Jewish holidays off. It's Christian holidays off. We're like the New York City school system. Nobody works during the holidays. One day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is a complete day off, fast day, was on a Sunday. And so a very well-intentioned non-Jewish member of our staff, who's kind of new, said, Mitch, do we get a compensatory day off? I said, you obviously don't get it. I was much nicer to them. I said, well, look. If we're working, we have a synagogue two doors down. It doesn't look good, we say we're Jewish, and the office is rocking and rolling on the day of atonement, when we're all supposed to be in synagogue. We might as well put a sign on the front of the door of our office that says, you are right, we're no longer Jewish. And so we don't wanna do that. But I said, the holidays are specific. They're exact. God told us when to do it and what to do on those holidays. Very specific. And so they're part of the Jewish calendar. And again, they are a roadmap to redemption. We can look at the first holiday, which I think will give us some help before we jump to the others. Verse three. It's the Sabbath. For six days, work must be done. But on the seventh day, there's a Sabbath of complete rest. So you don't get the complete rest on the fifth day or on the fourth day. You get the rest on the seventh day. A holy convocation. Don't do any work. It's a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. Now, Jewish people understand that the Sabbath points back to creation. You understand it points back to creation. God worked for six days, rested on the seventh, correct? Right. I just, you know, I gain insight from speaking sometimes because I do polls. So I'm taking a poll. Okay. How many of you believe that God rested because he was tired? Raise your hand. Nobody. We teach him well. Yeah, you get the most wild answers as to why God rested. He needed to take a breath, you know. It's only musicians that know the truth, honestly, because musicians understand the nature of arrest. Arrest in music is not, I'm a guitar player and a piano player, it's not so I can rest my fingers. It's so we can give attention to what was just played, give a pause so that you get ready for what's coming next. And that's the Sabbath. God rested and said, boy, this is not only good, but the creation of man, it's very good. He changed this too in a few chapters later. But it was very good. And so the Lord wants to call attention to the beauty and majesty of his creation. And so we not only rest, but we reflect. And that's what Jewish people do on the Sabbath. We not only we rest and we reflect. It's not that we don't do anything. We spend the day studying God's word, but we recalibrate our lives, re-understanding that he's Lord over all things. So if he's the creator, he's the Lord. And every Jewish person is supposed to know that. And so that's the first festival. But you notice that it looks back Doesn't it? To creation. But also, every Jewish person who knows anything about Judaism knows that the Sabbath points to a day when Messiah will come and there will be an eternal Sabbath for the Jewish people. When everything will be at rest and at peace. That day hasn't come yet, in case you're wondering. And so we look forward to that hope. Jewish people, do have a hope. They're supposed to have a hope that one day the Messiah will come and the peace that will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea, the presence of the Lord, there will be rest. So we look back and we look forward. Almost every one of the festivals looks back and looks forward. That's part of the nature of the festivals. And they're symbolic. They are types. they teach us what to expect. So let's look, if we can, at the spring festivals for just a moment, beginning at verse four. And I'm not gonna go through these in any depth because Eric's gotta invite me back for the spring. It's good marketing, okay. So there are four festivals in the spring, three festivals in the fall. The four in the spring are Unleavened Bread, Passover, those are two, two distinct ones, First Fruits, and then the Festival of Weeks. And the Festival of Weeks is usually called Pentecost by Christians. And so you'll find those here. Now, I don't need to explain this to you who read both, both, both Bibles, the old and the new, right? You do like the new also, right? How about the old? You read the old? Okay, that's good. I have a favorite Bible scholar, Walt Kaiser. Love him, great Old Testament scholar. He preached on the New Testament once and a young, I was there for the conversation. Guy came up to him and said, Dr. Kaiser, you preached on the New Testament. I thought you were an Old Testament person. He said, well, I preached on the New Testament. It reminds me of the old. So we have one testament, the old and the new. And so you understand the nature of Passover, don't you? You understand the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is symbolic of a lack of sin because sin and leaven go together, right? Well, in the New Testament, we worship the Lamb of God who's taken away the sin of the world, amen? And so the blood of the Lamb that was smeared on the doorposts and side posts of the house of the Israelites the blood of that spotless, unblemished lamb that was smeared, almost like, you can see the shape almost. And then God passed over every home that was protected by the blood of that innocent lamb. He told the Israelites to hide behind the doors, don't come out. Trust only in the smearing of the blood for the redemption of your firstborn at that time. That's symbolic. It paints a picture. That picture is eventually fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus, our Messiah, the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world. We look back in order to look forward. The problem with my own family and with the Jewish people is they don't look forward enough. And that's what we try and help them see. First fruits. Oh, my. You understand, according to the text, you'll have to read it, we don't have time, but the text tells us that the first celebration of first fruits of the harvest is observed on the day after the Sabbath. What Sabbath? The rabbis discuss it for years, hundreds of pages. But the ultimate right opinion, is it's basically the Sunday that's attached to the Sabbath of the Passover. That's usually what it is. And so Saturday's always Saturday, and I'm glad this is a church that knows the difference. If Sunday's the Lord day, Saturday's still the Sabbath. We didn't change, okay? They're both good days. And so Jesus died on Friday in the grave three days, part of three days and three nights. He rose on Sunday. What a coincidence. He died on Passover and rose on the Feast of Firstfruits. And in First Corinthians 15, Paul calls Jesus the first fruit from among the dead. It's a road map to redemption, you see. The festivals look forward to the person and the work of Jesus. He's unleavened, sinless. He's the lamb of God. And he rose on firstfruits. And then, 49 plus one, 50 days later, we celebrate the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot in Hebrew, Pentecost, right? 50. And what happened on that day? On that day, the Holy Spirit fell upon a group of over 100 Messianic Jews who were in an upper room in Jerusalem, praying and waiting for the promise of the Father so that they could go out and do what Jesus just told them to do, which was to make disciples of all the nations. And the Holy Spirit fell upon them on that 50th day. Do you know what Jewish people call the Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks? We call it the birthday of the coming of the law. Jewish people believe that the law was given on Pentecost, Shavuot. Now, is that in the Bible? No, not really. But, you know, since when does Jewish tradition have to be in the Bible? You know, but every Jew knew it. Every Jew knew it. The Lord, in a sense, gave this fulfilled new revelation by the presence of his spirit on the same day that Moses gave the old revelation. Not only that, if you go back to Exodus 19, you see that the old revelation, the giving of the Torah, the five books of Moses, At Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai was rumbling, it was smoking, there was fire, there were signs in the heaven. What happened on the day of Pentecost? Signs and wonders, smoke and fire, right? And God gave this new revelation. And so there's even a lot more to it. I don't have time. So you can see that the festivals were sort of like a railroad track that the message of the gospel traveled on. And as the train progressed, the information got more and more complete until it was magnificently completed in the person and work of Jesus. Now, the fall is like the spring. So there are three great festivals in the fall. And we can go to the next slide. There we go. The first is the Feast of Trumpets, and we call that Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year. The Hebrew word, that's Hebrew. The Hebrew phrase Rosh Hashanah is never really used in Leviticus. Actually, it has a completely different name. And so the name of the festival, if you look at verse 23, is not Rosh Hashanah. It is the reminder by blowing of trumpets. And the blowing of trumpets might be in italics in your Bible, and it is in my Bible, because that's not what is stated there. It's called Yom Teruah in Hebrew. Yom Teruah. Say Teruah. Okay, that was perfect Hebrew. So congratulations. So Yom Teruah means the blowing of the teruah, which is an untranslatable term. It is actually the sound that the ram's horn or shofar was supposed to make. So if we were to retranslate this, we would call it the day of the tutut. Unless you want me to start doing Louis Armstrong imitations, which you don't want me to do. OK, and so it's it's it's the day of the sound. And it's but the rabbis made it into the new year. So that's why the new year falls in the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Actually, the real new year. Guess what is Passover? That's the first festival. That's the first month of the Jewish year. But why is it the seventh month? Well, if if you know you can convert to Judaism, OK, because no Jewish person knows. But we had different years, right? We have different years. We have the church here, the fiscal year, the calendar year, the school year. And Jewish people have a lot of different years in the Jewish understanding. Rosh Hashanah begins the civil year. Passover begins the religious year. So now you now you know more than your average Jewish friend. OK, but that's that's the difference. And so the Feast of Trumpets has all we do is supposed to blow the trumpet. And, you know, the Jewish people read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac on Rosh Hashanah to remind us that It's really interesting that God himself provided a sacrifice for Abraham because the ram was caught in the thicket. God told Abraham to not pierce Isaac through. And so in Judaism, we blow the trumpet to remind us of Abraham's obedience as both an example And in the Jewish mindset, Abraham might just have some leftover merit from his obedience. It's not quite a spiritual ATM, but Abraham has some leftover spiritual merit that we can claim when the time comes for God to seal the books on the Day of Atonement to know whether or not we will have a good year or a bad year. Okay? I know it's complicated, but why not? The rabbis recreated Rosh Hashanah. And what the rabbis did is they said that Rosh Hashanah is the time for the season of repentance. According to Judaism, the books of life and death open in heaven on Rosh Hashanah. And then 10 days later, on the Day of Atonement, they're closed. So you have 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and the Day of Atonement to make things right with God through repentance and with individuals that you've offended through apologizing. And so if you had a Jewish person come say I'm sorry during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they were basically trying to make it, you know. What I always suggest is that Christians, particularly Gentile Christians who offend a Jewish person, or you think a Jewish person might have something against you, apologize during the 10 days of repentance. Hey, you have to be tricky. And then the Jewish person says, wait a minute, you're a Christian, why are you, you say, because it's the 10 days of repentance. And so it's a good time for me to say, I'm sorry. The Jewish person will scratch their head and say, what just happened? You know, but it really is a good testimony. So the Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the Jewish year. And on the Day of Atonement, we offer the sacrifice. The high priest walks into the Holy of Holies through the curtain with the blood of a bull and goat and spills, pours the the blood on the mercy seat. And in the ancient temple, the Shekinah glory, the presence of God, dwelled on the mercy seat. The presence of God dwelling above the mercy seat actually left with the Babylonian captivity, if you look at the history of Israel carefully. And so the Jewish people replaced it with a stone as a reminder that the presence of God had left. Now, the only person who ever saw all of this was the high priest, and they only saw it one day a year. And so all of the rest of the Israelites actually had to exercise faith that the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, did what they were supposed to do, and put the blood on the altar, whether the presence of God was there or not. You know, there's a book called the Talmud. Have you heard of it, Talmud? Allegedly, it's the commentary on the Old Testament, but it's much more than that. It's filled with stories and traditions and things. Well, there's a whole story about the secondary high priest. There it's a very important Jewish tradition. Now, it's not really in the Bible. It's it's in Jewish tradition. So there was a secondary high priest who is all dressed up, cleansed, like Leviticus 16 tells the high priest to be cleansed. And they wore the same robe with bells on the bottom of it. OK, now, if that first high priest did something wrong, they offered an inferior sacrifice, or they did it in the wrong spot, or they did something wrong, then that high priest would die. Pretty serious. That's according to Leviticus 16. So that extra high priest was waiting in the wings, listening very carefully for the bells on the bottom of the other high priests to keep ringing. If they stopped, they were up. But all of this was accepted by faith that the priest was doing the right thing. Now, could the blood of bulls and goats bring forgiveness of sin? No. Could repentance bring forgiveness of sin? You understand, we talk about repenting of our sins and embracing Jesus as Messiah, his person and his work, his death and resurrection by faith. Romans 10, 9 and 10. That's how someone is saved, right? Repentance can never save because repentance is a work of man. Atonement is a work of God. You can't atone for your own sins. Number one, you're an unworthy sacrifice like me because you've sinned. Therefore, you would never be dying for your own sin. For anybody else's sin, you'd be dying for your own sin. Only one was perfect who could die for the sins of all humanity, and that's Jesus. Repentance is a gateway to salvation. but it cannot secure salvation. You know, there's an interesting tradition on Rosh Hashanah. It's called tashlich from the Hebrew word to throw or to cast. And some of you have seen this and you wondered what was going on. But you see a bunch of religious Jewish people gathered by a pond or by a living body of water. Anybody ever seen this? Yeah. And so they're standing there and they turn their pockets inside out and cast whatever is left in there on the water. And it's from Malachi chapter seven that God will take our sins away. And so we sort of, we symbolize our sins with whatever garbage we had in our pocket. Sometimes people put crumbs in their pocket just to make sure they have something to cast. And so we watched them go away in the water. And we understand now that God has delivered our sins as far as the East is from the West and all that. But every Jewish person knows that there's always a few crumbs left. In other words, if that symbolizes repentance, we understand that repentance is always imperfect. There was only one thing that was perfect. that takes away all sin. And it's not something that we can do, it's something only he can do. Now, how do you respond knowing that the high priest has made atonement for all the sins, by the way, that you didn't know about? Did you know that? That's what they were doing. The Jewish person was responsible for making atonement for their own sin, but only the sins they know about. Now, when you accepted Jesus, answer this question. Did you repent of every sin you had ever committed? Did you know every sin you ever committed? Of course not. You couldn't possibly. Listen, brothers and sisters, this is unbelievably good news. When Jesus died for our sins, he died for all of them. The ones we committed, the ones we knew about, and the 75 to 90% that we didn't know about. And the ones that were future. Do you realize how comprehensive our salvation is. When we say the death of Christ is all sufficient, you're not kidding. And when Jesus in John 19 cried out, it is finished, it meant that all of them were finished. That was the symbolism of the high priest going to the mercy seat. but it only portrayed a future event because no bull or goat nor human being could ever do anything to take away all sins. Only he could. So what's the response to that? Well, hopefully it's to be happy. Go to the next slide. I already said all this. But every priest stands daily ministering, offering time after time the same sacrifices, which never take away sin. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. So keep going. And let's just get to tabernacles. So there are two or three main parts of the Feast of Tabernacles. One is are the booths. Anybody here ever go into a tabernacle or it's a very nice looking Jewish lean to. You've never done it. Hey, you want to have fun next year, build a sycophant on the property of the church. OK, and just put just put happy Sukkot to our Jewish friends and then do the booth. Now, you're supposed to live in the booth for seven days to remind yourself Jewish people to remind ourselves of the frailty of life and that how God provided for us in the wilderness. And we lived in booths. for 40 years, which is why Jewish people don't like camping. It's my only joke for the day, really, but it happens to be true. So for seven days, we are supposed to sit in these booths. Now, if you think they're comfortable, let's go to the next slide. You'll take a look. There you go. That's Brooklyn. You're not allowed to use nails. It gets covered with palm branches. You have to be able to see the stars so that you can understand the frailty of human life. The rabbis definitely compared the sukkah booth to our human bodies, frail, completely dependent upon God for everything. And so you're supposed to live in the booth, you and your whole family, for seven days. And if you aren't that dedicated, you eat your meals there, if you're not that dedicated, you have one meal a day there, and if you're really not that dedicated, you go visit your friend's booth. And, but, this is where, Judaism is wonderful for teaching children, because things are so tangible and visceral, you know? And the symbols are so meaningful. And so, maybe one day you'll you'll go visit a booth. One day, the presence of God will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. And in that day, do you know all the Gentiles who are alive at that point will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles? So you may as well train early. Okay, go to the next slide. Look at this passage in Zechariah 12. This is all about the second coming of Jesus. By the way, this prophecy could never have been fulfilled. a post-exilic prophet, Zechariah. These prophecies could never have been fulfilled until Israel was back in the land and Jerusalem was in Jewish hands. Look at the text. So a part of the House of David on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look on me whom they have pierced. So the day is coming when Jewish people alive at that time will recognize that Jesus was the one who died for our sins. Now, there might be a lot of time between then and now, so we don't want to wait for this to see Jewish people hear the gospel and get saved. Do we? Or else Jewish people would not be hearing the gospel for the last 2,000 years. So we don't know when this event will come, but we know that it will come. And then look what happens in chapter 14. It will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths, Sukkot. And it'll be that whichever of the families of earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. In Jewish tradition, Sukkot is the only Jewish holiday where in the synagogue we pray for rain. Why? Very simple. It's the last of the fall festivals. All the festivals are harvest festivals and you need rain to have a harvest. So we pray that when we enter the next cycle of harvest, that God will provide rain. Now, the Jewish people also understood that rain had a double meaning. One, it means literal rain. Two, it's a reference to the Holy Spirit. And so the Feast of Tabernacles and the salvation of Gentiles, which is what this is talking about, has always looked forward to a future day when God would pour out his spirit on all the earth and even the Gentiles will come to a living relationship with God. So that's the hope that we have. And right now, we need to pray because we understand that we might be getting closer. Let me tell you why. I'm not going to tell you exactly when Jesus is going to return because. You know, I do know, but I'm not going to tell you, but. So we don't know. But what we do know. Is that Israel will be back in the land, Israel will be surrounded by enemies. and the Spirit of God will fall upon Israel and all Israel will be saved. That should not come as news to us. That's Romans 11, 25 through the end of the chapter. Paul understood it. Romans 11, 25, I believe is Paul's commentary on Zechariah 12. The day is coming. So we need to be faithful in bringing the Jewish people the gospel. so that we can have a hand maybe in seeing this happen. I don't know if we can move the dial, make it happen faster. I wish I wish we could, but probably not. But how close are we? Well, Jewish people need to be back in the land. Jewish people need to be back in the land as unbelievers. What do you think? Good chance of that? I can give you about seven and a half, eight million reasons why that's true. Israel needs to be surrounded by enemies. Any possibility? Jerusalem needs to be in Jewish hands. 1967. Listen. I only like to speak about prophecy being fulfilled when it's obvious. I never want to be wrong, but I want to tell you that everything is set up for that great future day of Sukkot, of tabernacles, when even the nations are gathered in to the fold. That day is coming. People always ask, do you think it's soon? And I'll tell you my standard answer. Sooner than we think. Sooner than we think. Why? Jesus said, be ready. You heard what Mark said in, you know, you won't know the day of the hour. Things will be normal. Everybody will think it's happening later, but then it happens. So Sukkot is a good reminder of the joy we have in knowing our sins are forgiven. But it's also a reminder of the hope we have that the Lord is coming soon. Now, these are really important. Take these out, unfurl them, and we're going to count to three in Hebrew. Then we're all going to rip at the same time to demonstrate our unity in the Messiah. You'll see it works every time. So count after me, echad, shtayim, shalosh, rip. We need to perforate these better. Good job? Okay. Okay, so what I want you to do is I understand the church has pens. That's like really rare. Okay? I would love it if every one of you fills one of these out and we'll collect them from you when you pass by the offering basket. Whether you're able to give or not, please put this in. And here's the good news. Every single month, someone from the Chosen People staff will be coming to your home for dinner. We don't eat a lot, but leave the pork out, OK? So fill this out. if you would, because we really have some wonderful information, the newsletters and all of the e-blasts and things like that, and a lot of great videos. We have a great team that puts that together, and it will keep you informed. So fill that out. On the reverse side, there are a number of boxes, and you can check whether or not you want short-term, full-time opportunities, tours in Israel, They're going really cheap right now, the tours in Israel. It's not a good time to tour. But you can pray for me. The soonest I can really get in is January, so I'll be going in January. And I just want to encourage our staff, and I really miss the bomb shelters, you know. So... So pray for what's happening in Israel. There's a little congregation that one of our staff leads in Nahariya. Nahariya is six miles from Beirut. And yesterday they were supposed to have their services and it was just so unsafe that they did it on Zoom. Which after COVID, nobody wants to do things on Zoom. And so it was a big sacrifice. But it's a congregation, maybe 25, 30 people. It's a beautiful, sleepy little beach town. If you hear an Israeli IAF plane flying over Nahariya, it's in Beirut at the count of five. And so the missiles are flying, but that's typical of just so many places in Israel. There are lots of Israelis there, but I just really want to remind you that there are a lot of believers there, thousands of Messianic Jewish Israelis who really need us to stand with them and to pray with them. So can I close in prayer? Maybe we'll just have a moment of prayer for them. Lord, we love you so much. We thank you. Lord, we thank you for these great festivals that point to a bright and glorious future. And Lord, selfishly, we pray, Lord, that that future would come soon. And we say, even so, come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha, Lord, we desperately want to see you face to face. But Lord, in the interim, there are so many loved ones that we have, both Jewish people and non-Jewish people who don't know you, and we pray, Lord, that they will come to know the one in whom we can have full and complete atonement and forgiveness of sin. And so, Lord, we pray, Father, for the testimony of the mostly messianic Jewish Israelis in Naharia, in Tel Aviv, in Haifa, in Jerusalem, in the Galilee, Lord, in the Golan Heights even. Lord, we pray, Father, that you would be with them. They are under such constant pressure and threat. And so, Lord, we pray that you might be with them, spare them, keep them safe. Lord, for the soldiers among them. Lord, it's so difficult for the believing soldiers who love you and and regret having to take a life. And so, Lord, I just pray that you would help them cope with all of these various levels of stress that they have to deal with and the guilt, Lord, that comes with it. But I pray that you would just keep them focused on you and, Lord, just walk with them even into battle. And so, Lord, we entrust our brothers and sisters to you. Thank you for what you're doing right here. Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful programs among youth and among adults. Thank you, Lord, that Bible Baptist Church is a bright, shining light in the middle of this community in New Jersey. And Lord, that they're shining the true light of your son, Jesus, who indeed is the light of the world. We pray in his name. Amen. Thank you, Mitch. We'll take an offering for Chosen People Ministries. Write checks out, too. Give generously. If you want, you can give online, too, right, through your website. There's a table in the back. He's got books called The Fall Festival. I have it. It's a great book if you want to learn more about Well, listen, the Bible's a book about Jesus. You'll learn more about it. So let's pray for the offering. We'll do doxology, and then we'll go home. Lord, thank you again for this time. Thank you, Lord, that you're building your church. Lord, you're building it in Israel. You're building it in America and around the world. It's your church of which you paid for and which you're building. We ask that you continue to do your work. We ask that you bless these gifts for chosen people ministries, Lord. And we know it's going to go and be used for the propagation of the gospel to Jewish people. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. We invite you to stand. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. God bless you all.