Messages
Every service features a special message on selected topics. Sometimes these messages focus on an upcoming holy day, a special insight into the Scriptures, or a pressing topic regarding current events.
Each week, and on the holy days, the messages are posted here online. Enjoy!
Psalm 91
083014sd By Rabbi Dennis Richards. When you build a foundation if it is built on the word of God it is going to be firm. If is built on religions and theologies, I guarantee you someday it will shake.
Religions have a way of keep evolving to fit into the world structures. God’s word does not mean to be fitting into the world structures . It is actually against the structures of the world. And that’s why they need to eliminate him. And they eliminate God through religion. Each religion makes up it’s own concept of who God is. What to call him how to call him. How to approach Him. Bring your first born and sacrifice your first born. That’s how the Mayans would do it.
Everybody has a different way of approaching God, but if you believe that His Word is based on the Torah and then based on the Messiah who came to show us what the Torah meant to live, then you need to keep evolving. And you’re here today because that’s the position God placed you in.
Today we are going to look at one of my favorite psalms psalm 91, but you need to understand the setting.
And to do that first we have to go into the life of the Messiah. And we go into Matthew Chapter 3. This is the beginning of Yeshua’s public ministry. He’s been around now for some 30 years. And people saw some of the signs and wonders, but not like they are going to start to see. And the first thing he does is he prepares himself by going into the mikvah. And from here again we have this mishmash called baptism, and everybody does it their own way. You think there was a special prayer that Yeshua said when He was going into the water? John, first of all his baptism was about repentance, Is there any repentance that Yeshua had to do? No, his baptism wasn’t one of repentance, his baptism was one of change of status, and in the Jewish mind, anytime you go from an unclean to a clean position, you go into the waters of a mikvah. It is not a one time thing.
And here we see Yeshua going in…(continued on audio)
John 3:16
Track 2 By Rabbi Paul Falk. So before we get into teaching today I want to clarify my announcement regarding the high days. Traditionally Yom Teruah is considered a new year. Biblically it is not, it is the first day of the seventh month. It is a season of being made new again, so if we take the idea of a renewed covenant it is a renewing time, but not a new year. So what I want to touch on today is John 3:16. John 3:16 is one of the most popular verses that people throw out there in the world. Sadly enough we throw it out, in places hoping it is going to make changes just because we see that. It sort of makes me wonder in some regard, that in some cases here is God’s Holy word that we’re just throwing out there to just… in certain scenarios may his word is holier than that, and shouldn’t be used that way. But also John 3:16 by most believers is taken out of context. You see, most theologians have come to John 3:16 and they go and read it and they pull it out by itself. You don’t hear 17 or 18, you don’t hear 19. You don’t realize that the Gospel of John, starts at John 1:1, to explain all of it. Nor are they going to take you back to say, you know this verse actually is built on all these verses in Torah, no, no, we pull the whole verse out, and we read it as it is and we make meaning with no connection. That is not how we need to read scripture. Scripture and truth is always validified by more scripture. At least two more times and specifically when we look a Messiah. So when we look at John 3:16 today, …
The Ant
081614sdBy Rabbi Dennis Richards. Question: If God gave you a command or admonition that was so simple that you didn’t have to do anything except read four (4) or five (5) words, and it will tell you exactly where you should be, would you listen to the admonition? Remember, most of us don’t like to listen to the word of God and only eat[meet] once a week, so we are spiritually undernourished. We wait until we go and hear a sermon or a teaching from somebody and that is supposed to last us from Shabbat to Shabbat or from Sunday to Sunday whatever the day might be. And after we leave, well “good message, ” Sometimes we’ll remember a word or two about it. But we are not like the Boreans, you don’t go home and look for yourself. … You are actually theological clones in most cases. You just take what you heard and that becomes part of your theology. God is not about theology. He is about showing us how to live. This is the reason he sent the Messiah to us. To show us how to live. It wasn’t something that was too hard. It was extremely simple, except what we do is we then take the words and we don’t teach what the Messiah taught be we teach about the Messiah not what he taught us. …
Prepare the Way
080914 sp by Rabbi Paul Falk. We hear this phrase quite often, especially as we go into the High Holy Days and the season we are going into. “Prepare the Way for Yahweh.” Prepare the way, prepare the way. … and I think if I were to give out a quiz, that wasn’t multiple choice and ask “What does it mean?” we all would give a good two to three (2-3) paragraphs, well I think it could be this, I think it could be that, but I think we would be not completely confident, a little insecure about the exact meaning of it. I’m not here to say it is exactly this, but what I want to do is cover a little bit. To some degree today becomes a little bit of review of what these high holy days are. Right now is a great time to go to Leviticus 23, and start reading through, so what are the days that are coming, what are the expectations? …and how do I prepare myself. So, how do we prepare the way? How do we do that. As we come to the Holy Days, the first High Holy Day is Yom Teruah. Teruah means to blow or a great noise, yom just means day. So of course we are going to have traditionally a trumpets blast. It could just be a scream. If you remember in regard to Jericho, they did the shofar blast cause they walked around the city, and after they did the shofar blast, what did they do, for those walls to come falling down. There was a huge shout. While it could mean a trumpet blast, it means a loud noise. This trumpet blast, hold on to that. So then, that is followed by Yom Kippur, a lot of people think that Yom Kippur is the climax of the season meaning everything is in preparation for Yom Kippur, to be honest Yom Kippur is a portal to actually get you ready for what is most important. But you can’t get to the feast…Yom Kippur by the way is not a feast, it’s a Holy Day, where you afflict the soul, you make atonement, which means make a covering before Yahweh. Which means I am going to go before Him which means my covering is correct and right before Yahweh…it’s a portal to get you to the feast…..
Isaiah 40
Track 1by Rabbi Dennis Richards. If you listen carefully, to what people say you can find out where they are coming from especially when it comes to the scriptures. People say a lot of things that they don’t understand. For instance, why do people have such a hard time reconciling the God of the Torah, and God of Yeshua. Somehow they think they are two different Gods. Like the God of the Old Testament is mean and cruel, but the God of the New Testament is love. Yeshua repeatedly pointed to the Torah and the prophets and validated them literally. He never distanced himself in any respect, so His focus of teaching was everything that came from the Torah the writings and the prophets. Right after his immersion in the Jordan He is getting ready now to start His three and a half (3 1/2) year ministry, He is led the Ruach, the Spirit to be tested by the adversary. The reason He is going into the wilderness is the sole purpose of being tested. … (continued on audio)
YHVH’s Will Part 3
072614sp By Rabbi Paul Falk. A look at the most common use of the ending of prayers by believers of …”in the name of Yeshua”. What does the scripture really say about this use of prayer? Did the Messiah even teach this type of prayer? The significance of the scriptures that appear to use those words and the context and source of this way of prayer.
YHVH’s Will Part 2 Mattote (Numbers 30:2-32:42)
071914spby Rabbi Paul Falk– Moses spoke to the tribal leaders of Israel…Torah portion is Mattote. It is the last two in Numbers before we go into Deuteronomy. So the first few Hebrew words that we’d be reading. Now what’s intriguing is this means “said.” usually we’d say “Bada-behr YHVH” This Torah starts with “Bada-behr Moshe” Now, I am continuing with what I started last time. We started talking about this idea of YHVH’s will. Now I’m going to spend about six (6) slides doing a quick review, to catch our minds up. And then we are going to start off in a different direction. So, in regard to YHVH’s will, last time we met, this is what we talked about. We said, putting our plans aside to allow his to be accomplished. It was humbling ourselves, to serve Him. It was truly being willing and open to change. Probably the hardest one for us is the flexible expectations, because our expectations are our goals, they’re what we are striving for, and that they could be changed on the way, is very difficult. I brought up Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth, It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” What we talked about last time is YHVH’s will is always based upon His word…
YHVH’s Will
By Rabbi Paul Falk. 071214sp There is only problem with going off to vacation, for me, because I get off to vacation and it gives more study time. we’re driving some where and I go, Hon, you got a piece of paper, I need you to write this verse down, and this verse down and this verse and she did, and that’s basically the teaching. I don’t have control over when He is going to reveal something to me. There’s a good chance that what we are going to start with today, is going to have to lead over to another session. Cause even though I will mention one aspect, we only going to mention one aspect of Yahweh’s will, okay, and that’s really what he put on my heart, was trying to understand this concept not just the will has people have taught it, but what is his will, what is the foundation, what it is based on. When you have a request.
We are going to start with Yeshua teaching on prayer. And this is the thing that is important because it says here that when you have request, isn’t that prayer. This is how Messiah teaches us how to ask God for that. So this is Matthew 6,7,8, and “when you pray do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask Him.” See Yahweh already has the future planned out, which to me is something, especially in the last few weeks, the realization, you know why He knows what you’re going to ask for, because He has already set up the problems and situations before you got to them. So He already knows. He is sitting here going, 3, 2, 1– is he going to pray? or not? See, He already knows, He’s creating some the problems that you need Him, alright? So, He goes on from there, Matthew 6, 9 and 10, in this manner therefor pray, “Our Father, who is in heaven, Holy is your name, ” now, when you say your name, you’re speaking about Yahweh’s authority, authority means having power over something. So you are saying, Your authority is set-apart and different from everywhere else, because You have authority all things. Okay, “Your Kingdom come” there’s your first prayer. What You want for a Kingdom, You build it, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” Those four words usually are mentioned the hardest part, some of the toughest times in our lives. And usually when we are mentioning them, we are mumbling them or struggling, ….we go… Y-o-u-r W-i-l-l be done, whatever it is going to be. That ties in to the point of His Authority. Okay. In understanding that, His authority, and that He sees it from a bigger perspective, He sees is from heaven, we see it from ground level. He sees a bigger plan. Your Will Be Done, what is the meaning of that….(continued in the audio)
But You Have Heard It Said
by Rabbi Dennis Richards. The Messiah made statements that were intended to clarify the commandments, yet the present day believeing world interprets them as replacing the original covenant. Some misinterpretations of words used in the translation also contributes to these misunderstandings.
Scriptural Meditation
by Rabbi Dennis Richards
