Yom Teruah 2023 – Day of Trumpets • Messianic Rosh Hashana Celebration | Yeshua is Returning | Jesus

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Welcome and Today's Celebration

Jesus Shabbat Shalom, everybody, and welcome to this wonderful celebration today. I hope you'll stay after because I think we're having an Oneg—a fellowship meal together where we can break bread and celebrate together. Today is a very special day. In Scripture, we call it the day of Teruah, Yom Teruah, the day of the trumpet blast. And we're going to talk about it. In Leviticus 23, if you turn with me there, we have the religious calendar given to Israel. It has a list of seven or eight holidays—depending on how you count Sukkot—special days where Israel was supposed to celebrate in various ways, come together, and ultimately celebrate different attributes of God's goodness, mercy, and grace.

And it goes into great detail for each holiday because the point was to make sure the future generations knew how to keep the feast days, Passover—when is it? It's at twilight between the 14th and the 15th day of the first month. You do what? You eat the unleavened bread and the Pesach. First fruits: you take the first fruits of the barley harvest and make specific offerings, and bring oil and flour—no leavened bread. Okay, so no puffed up bread. No challah that week. Shavuot: we have a detailed prescription of how the wheat harvest is supposed to be waved and offered before the Lord in the form of two loaves of bread.

The priest would wave them before the Lord. Sukkot: huge description of the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23—all of the things that you're supposed to do with the waving of the species and the sacrifices, the offerings that come together, and you have multiple days of rest, or Shabbats. Lots of details.

The Significance of Yom Kippur and Yom Teruah

Yom Kippur—my goodness. We have a whole chapter in Leviticus dedicated to cleansing the multiple altars of God all the way up to the Holy of Holies, once a year, to purge the residue of the wickedness of Israel from the side of God. What a powerful service about grace! The high priest goes in once a year and does this purification process, taking the sins of Israel and placing them on the scapegoat, and he goes away never to be seen again, hopefully, and purges the essence of grace. But then we get to this day, Yom Teruah, later to be traditionally known as Rosh Hashanah. And here's what it says in Leviticus : "The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites, on the first day of the seventh month, you are to have a day of Sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated by teruah—trumpet blasts, clamor, loudness.

Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.'" And so this translation says you're to toot horns. Again, the word could be trumpet blasts, but it conveys the essence of shouting—using the breath to proclaim in a manner that's attentiongetting. Not a lot of details here, though. Toot horns and go, "Ah!" Like, that's what you get. And to add to the mystery, it's the only feast day that doesn't tell you a date of when it's going to be. It says it's the first day of the seventh month, the beginning of the month. That's great, but Israel was on a lunar calendar, and so this is the new moon.

And you don't know exactly when the new moon is going to be. Sometimes it could be tomorrow. It could be the next day. It could be... You don't know. Mystery. Hard to plan if you're a planner. This has led to so many different opinions and discussions throughout history about this unique holiday that God wants to meet us on.

Interpretations Throughout History

Philo, a historian in the first century and contemporary of the Apostle Paul, thought that the alarm, the clamor that was supposed to be made, was a war cry—a war cry to bring into mind the victories of God, right?

A more prominent ancient Jewish perspective regards it as a proclamation of the inauguration— a kingly inauguration. So you blow trumpets and you shout as a testimony that God sits on the throne. I love that. And that his love endures forever and ever and ever. It is the memorial and reminder that he's not moving. Nothing is going to get God's attention that's going to startle him to get off of his throne. That's just a reminder for me. Even when something surprises me and I lose hope, today we blow the trumpets to remind ourselves that God has not left his throne. And that perspective comes from, of course, Exodus 19. Remember, all of Israel gathered around Mount Sinai in anticipation, and they were about to be inaugurated, if you will, as the people of God, right? Another phase of the Abrahamic covenant to bring blessing to all nations and ultimately the people through whom the rescue mission of God would come. That was announced to us starting in Genesis 12—that humanity has not fallen so far that God has left us. This is the people who will do it, the light to all nations.

God's Power Made Manifest

And so they're gathered around the mountain, and then they hear a trumpet sound getting louder and louder and louder with thunder and lightning. And they trembled. But it was a symbol of God's reign and power, his strength and kingship. You also have this day referenced later in the Bible in Psalm 81. It's very easy to miss. In verse 3, it refers to the new moon and feast day—this has to be referring to this one. But what about the verses before this? Well, the two verses before this say: "Sing for joy. Sing for joy that our God is a God of strength." I love that. Is that our mindset today? That God is good?

The Breath of Life in Creation

In Genesis 2, we have a story of mankind being formed from the dirt—Adam. Adam is created from ha-adamah, the dirt. And God forms this mold of mud into mankind, and then he does what? He breathes the ruach, the breath of life, into him. And Adam becomes a living being. Mankind is brought forth as co-rulers of creation, according to Genesis . But God sees that man has an inadequacy. It happens. He had this inadequacy from the beginning. He needed a companion—what's translated as a "helpmate," but what really means a power corresponding to him. Dr. David Freeman, a language professor, translates it as an equal power to him. Man needed something to fill this void.

And so God brings the animals to him. And God forms all these animals out of the dirt. And he brings these creatures to him, and they all come before him. And he says, "Adam, I want you to name all of the animals. I want you to speak to the animals. Use your breath and proclaim with their names, and whatever their names are, that's what they shall be." It's a peculiar verse here in Genesis 2. It's weird the way it's phrased. But it essentially says that Adam named the animals, and then it calls them a living being. It calls them a living being after Adam used his breath to speak—kind of like how God used his breath to speak things into creation. As if the breath of life is not metaphorical, but it has real power. The spirit of life has something inside of it to bring forth life. And there are opinions about that because it's a weirdly worded thing. Were the animals alive before they came to Adam? Were they not? Did he speak life and make them come alive? It's a neat idea.

Adam and Eve

Animals didn't fill the void. So what does he do? He takes Adam, pulls a rib out or something— rib translated—and it says that he forms Eve, a woman. And it's the same way that he formed Adam out of the dirt. Adam is made of dirt, so he took the rib and he formed this other companion. And it says that he brought the companion to Adam. And Adam sings a song. It's the first song in the Bible. It's Genesis , and the man looks at her, and depending on how you picture it, she was either a walking, talking 35-year-old woman with long brown hair and alive. The text doesn't say that. It just says he molded woman and brought her to him, and he speaks: "And the man said, 'Now this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called Woman, for she was taken out of man.'" It's like, "Whoa, man.

Woman." For she was taken out of man. In this view and structure of Genesis 2—and there are multiple interpretations—but in this view, it seems that the biblical authors so valued this concept of the breath of life that it wasn't simply that God breathed and suddenly everyone was alive. No, it was something that God gave to humanity, and it was powerful. It spreads, contagious, because man was called to be rulers of God's creation. We weren't called to sit idle. We were called to work and be the gardeners of God's goodness and creation because we are made as his images, as his full representation. When people see you, as bearers of God's image, they should experience the manifestation of God's kingdom and presence.

And that includes the power of the Ruach and the breath that gives life. And I think that's a neat idea—that Adam had the breath of life and it spread, and he was a co-creator, a co-ruler with God, alongside God. I love it. Not to speak death, not to speak negativity, but to speak words and breath and spirit that animates. In the prophets, we see this same type of thing continue on, emphasizing words that are spoken with the breath that God gave you.

God Touched Their Mouths

In Numbers chapter 12, verse 8, God says to Moses, "I am going to speak with you mouth to mouth." God's going to touch his lips. Why? So that he can speak forth the power of God. It's not his breath. It's not when he raised the staff. When he raised the staff, the water split. It wasn't Moses' power. It was the power of God through Moses as his image. And here, the lips are touched by God so that he would be able to speak forth the goodness of God and the revelation of God and the words of God and the life-giving power of God. Isaiah chapter 6, the seraphim. You guys ever see these memes? I know, ADD time, going off the X-ray.

You guys ever see these memes that are like, "Oh, a biblically accurate angel?" And you see these weird looking creatures, and all the younger folks are like, "Yeah, all the eyeballs and monsters, right?" So that's not necessarily an angel. That would be the seraphim. Crazy looking, yeah—angels look like us apparently. But the seraphim, eyeball seraphim, the thing with the wings and the wheels. This heavenly creature is told to go and take a coal off the altar of God and place it where? On the lips of the prophet. Why? So that he can speak forth life and speak forth revelation and speak forth the word of God that empowers and changes lives.

Jeremiah, he says, "I have put my words in your mouth. I have put my words in your mouth." Jeremiah 1, so that he can speak forth the life-giving word of God. Ezekiel, "Open your mouth so that I may feed you." It's going to feed him a book. Why? God touched their mouths so that they would be able to speak the truth of God's word and the revelation of God, the goodness of God. And that's something that mankind, we have all strayed from. That's the story of the Bible. It's not just one of us, but we strayed from that because we like the fruit, don't we? We like the fruit of determining good and evil for ourselves.

It's so funny when you read the story. Adam and Eve take the fruit and now man knows good and evil. It's like, "Oh, this is not a bad thing, right?" And then the more we read the story, they obviously don't. Now they've assumed the position of God of establishing what is good and what is evil and who is good and who is evil. And when everyone gets in a room and does that, guess what? What breaks out? A fight, violence. What happened with Cain when he did that? The city that Cain built, what happened with that? Why did God flood the world and it didn't stop? Adam could have spoken the breath of life at the tree, but he remained silent.

I think there's a principle in that, that we need to get back to the place where we recognize the spirit within us and the breath within us has power because according to the word, it's not yours to begin with. It was given to you so that you could participate in the good, good creation of God.

The Breath of New Creation

Yeshua, our king, in John's painting of the gospel account. John was big on new creation. He loved that theme. And so that's why we have this hyperlink. John starts his book in the beginning. And of course, we all know that goes back to the Genesis accounts—creation, but it's a new creation through Yeshua. And how does John end? Well, in chapter 20, the resurrected Yeshua sees his disciples praying. And what's he do to them? It's such a weird thing, like if you saw it in a movie, what's he do? He breathes on them. I mean, okay, all right. And he says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." And that's just always perplexed me for so long.

Like, that's weird and kind of awkward. And I don't understand why he did that. And what does that have to do with anything? That's when I realized, wait, wait. We forget that Holy Spirit, Spirit Ruach, Spirit Wind, Spirit Breath are all the same word and concept. "Receive the breath of God. Receive the Ruach." It's going back. It's a hyperlink back to the creation of humanity. But now Yeshua has inaugurated a new creation and a new humanity that has the vitality of God that they lost. We have the Ruach within us. We have the Spirit and we have the breath of life that speaks forth the promises and the hope and the reality of God's strength and power, that speaks forth the testimony of who our king is.

And that's something that we need to utilize more. It is the breath of new creation that is within you now. And it is the breath that goes out through the trumpet that sounds the alarm or the proclamation of God's kingship. And it is the shout that we will shout today to give us the hope that you've received, to tell us about the goodness of God, to tell us how God has raised you or someone else back to life in the most incredible way, to tell us how you've seen the breath of the Ruach of God work in your life.

Tell Us About the Goodness of God

And so I would like for you, if Holy Spirit is speaking to you now, I would like to invite you up here for a moment to tell us about the goodness of God. Ed was first. You want me to bring it to you or do you want to go up there? Can you hear me? I don't have a... I'm going to give you a microphone if that's okay. Can I? Give me that. I will. Since I've had these strokes and stuff like that, and now heart trouble, my voice doesn't sound the same to me and it probably doesn't sound the same to you. But I've gone through about five or six... They're not big strokes. They're kind of little strokes, they call them mini strokes.

But nonetheless, I've walked away from every one of them. And I thank God for doing all of that. And the last time I had a stroke while I was in the hospital, they wheeled in this kind of device and some lady running it, she determined that I had heart trouble. I didn't know that. And I still don't feel like I've got heart trouble. Not as bad as they say it is. But God has been good to me. He walks me through these things. He's given me a wonderful family, a wonderful congregation here with you folks. It's just been so good to me. So I praise God for where I am, where I've been, where I'm going. Thank you, folks.

He's Been So Good to Me

So sometimes we forget when we come up on stage, like, "Oh, I don't want to uplift myself on stage." You're speaking the word of God and the testimony of God today, and that deserves to be up on stage. What God has been showing me lately is how to love him completely with my whole heart, mind and soul. That's a topic I've been exploring on a lot of different levels and realizing that we never reach that goal completely while we're on this earth. But he is worthy of everything that we have and everything that we are and everything that we think and everything that we do. As I think back over my life, tell about things that God did.

There's so much, there's no way that I could tell it all. But even when I was in a state of rebellion against him and literally told him, "Look, you can do whatever you want. I don't care if you hang around or you don't hang around. I'm going to do what I want to do." He still stayed with me. He still protected me. He still stepped in when I was about to make some of the worst mistakes of my life and he stopped me and he gave me a choice and he said, "You can go my way or you can go your way," and he showed me a picture of what would be the result either way and I realized that the only intelligent choice was him. And he has protected me and guided me.

The Only Intelligent Choice

And when I was in Salem, Oregon, a job had just ended and I said, "What should I do tomorrow?" And he didn't answer me that night. But when I woke up in the morning, he said, "I want you to start packing. You're moving. You're going to South Carolina." And I said, "But I don't have money for that. I have to give notice at my apartment." And he said, "Do it today." And so I did. And 21 days later, I was leaving my house, pulling a trailer. And I had not wanted to pull the trailer, but he said, "Handle it. You'll be fine." And I said, "Okay." It was a lot to handle, but he was there and he took care of it. And he took care of every detail all along the way. And when I arrived here, though I'd never been here before and didn't know anyone, I felt at home. Because I knew I was in the center of his will. And I've followed him where he's led ever since. And I'm just learning to love him more and more and more.

Learning to Love Him More

And I can't recommend it highly enough to give everything to him. Don't let yourself fear because fear is not of him. Don't let yourself be anxious for tomorrow because he's got that. All we have to do is what he tells us to do right here and now. And praise and worship his holy name because he is the Creator and he gives us all the power and all the glory that belongs to him.

The Darkest Point in My Life

Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all having a very blessed Sabbath. And honestly, when I originally started my walk, I was in the army and I hit the darkest point in my life where I lost two very close friends and my grandparents. And to be perfectly honest, I woke up one morning, walked out. I lived on the third story. I looked down and said, that will do.

From Despair to Hope

And then I stopped and I said, you know what? I wasn't of faith at that moment. I said, if you're real God, just give me something worth living for. That's all I want. And I went ahead about face and went down the stairs, went through the day, and it was an unredeemable day to me. Like nothing of that day could make me happy, I guess you would say. And at the end of it, I ended up going online and talking to someone I went to high school with. And at the end of the conversation, what gave me hope to the next day was, I look forward to talking to you tomorrow. Well, then we started talking every day and I drove 14 hours just to basically hang out over a weekend.

Now, during that time, I was on lockdown, by the way. That's the disclaimer there because they already knew my mental state was not the best. Just to be proclaimed that, let you know. But I was still able to do it and come back. And then two weeks later, after that date, we decided to just get married, whatever. Who cares? It'll be fun. So then we got married, and that's over 10 years ago. And I went from every other word being not what you should be saying and just constantly being angry, stressed, worried, fearful, to now just being a golden retriever full of energy and happy-go-luckiness, just grateful for everything I have.

And it's that breath that I get to just come up here and tell you, hey, it's going to be okay, and you all are amazing and loved. And just thank you for your time today. Someone needed to hear that today. And so thank you.

The Prayer of Eliezer

So nine years ago at Yom Teruah, I was at my house. I had built this house, planning on living in it all by myself. And I got on my hands and knees and I prayed to God the prayer, what I called the prayer of Eliezer. Because when I was a kid, I went to a Christian school from kindergarten to sixth grade. And there, around 10 or 11 years old, I was in the principal's office for getting in trouble. And I prayed with him. He wanted me to pray the prayer. Do you accept Jesus into your heart? I said, yeah, I do. And I prayed the prayer and I meant it. I meant every bit of it. And around 13 years old to 30, I walked a line where there was life on one side and death on the other.

And I can't tell you the places that I have been and the things that I have done. Literally, I can't tell you. But later in life, I had been working in Antarctica. I came home and my mom was sick. I stayed home with her. And I had met this person once. I thought they were going to be the person that I married and got with, but that turned out to be not true. And I was just heartbroken. I was in a place, I was in a really bad place. And I got down and I prayed the prayer of Eliezer. I said, God, send me Rebecca. I need Rebecca in my life. I want to have a family. I had already asked God to show me what it means to be a father, because I didn't know what a father figure was.

I didn't know what that meant. And because I love my father, but he was every bit of the death that I was leading towards. And so I didn't have that example, and I had done those things, but now I have all this experience and guidance in the Word, looking to God to show me that, and I thought, here I am. I was like 38, 39, something like that, and I was like, man, this is it. That's done. I'm done. I'm just going to be alone. That's cool. I went to Yom Teruah the very next day to promo my tents at Rochester, New York with Michael Rood.

Rebecca

And there was a lovely tall Dutch lady there. I hit it off with her. And just so happens her parents were visiting the United States for the first time in their lives. And I got to meet them. And so we're texting back and forth when I'm on the way back home. And hey, do you want to go on a proper date when we get back? And we were sitting there talking before the date, outside. And I'm just trying to make conversation. And I was like, so what's your middle name? She said, Rebecca. Rebecca. That's my wife. She is amazing and wonderful and the most awesome person I could ever tell you about. But God has blessed me in life so many times.

And I look around, we've got four beautiful children. And I look around and I think that one, two, three, four, I can't even count them all. Like, it's just, man, I'm telling you, the life that I have that God has given me, and it's not just happenstance, oh, man, that could have happened. That might not have been God. It was God, putting his stamp on it, saying, no, this is me. And I know that it's him. And just with everything. So I love you, Father. I love this congregation. I always have. And I love Matt because I met him at Michael Rood's, and we hit it off. And so, anyway, that's what I wanted to say. God is good.

God's Encouragement

So, like many of you, I've been diagnosed with a chronic illness. And sometimes you're in a good headspace and sometimes you're not, depending on how you feel. So a couple weeks ago, driving to get blood work done, and I've got a half an hour drive, so I'm just like, okay, God, I know this is happening for a reason. I have no idea why, but you're in control. But I need some encouragement. And as my family can tell you, about that week before, I just wasn't in a good headspace. I was weepy all the time, and here it comes again. But I was just saying, look, I need some encouragement. I don't know how you're going to do it, but I need some.

So actually, I guess it started the day before I had a meltdown, and Al, God bless him, he wants to fix it, which I would love for him to be able to do. But he sat there on the couch and let me talk, and let me cry, and he just held me, and he says, I just don't know what to do. And I said, you're doing exactly what you need to do. You're letting me get it out, and you're holding me, and you're letting me cry. And then he prayed for me. So that was encouraging enough, but of course, I need more. So the next day I was driving and asked God for more. Get up there. So the phlebotomist who's taking my blood, I had my myositis shirt on, because that's a condition I have.

She goes, what's that? So I gave her some bullet points. And I can't remember what she said, but I said, "Well, I don't know if you're a woman of faith. But I said, I know that God's got me, whether He heals me or whether He just walks me through this." And she goes, "That's right." And so she just kept talking. When I was done, she walked me to the lobby. She stood there for five minutes and encouraged me in the Lord. And then she gave me a great big hug and told me to have a good day. So I was like, getting to the car, and I'm like, "Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. That was awesome." So I'm just going about my day running errands.

I'm up there, decided to go to the chiropractor. My favorite one was there. And we got to talking about gardening and everything. Well, this is a place where you don't have an appointment. You walk in, you get your adjustment, and you leave. She spent 30 minutes on me just because she knows what I have. And so she was like massaging certain muscles because it affects your muscles. But the woman spent 30 minutes when it's usually a five-minute visit. So that was another one. Next day, running more errands, going to the pet store. This gentleman going into the business next door says, hi, gorgeous. And like most women, I really fought the response of going like this, because he's not talking to me.

So I just stopped and I said, thank you. And I smiled and I went and I thought, hmm. But I did look out the window just to see if anybody else was there. And nobody was. So I'm like, okay, thank you, Lord. And then again, running errands. And shoot, brain cramp here. What was the fourth one? Do you guys remember? Yeah, it was another encouraging thing, but I'm trying to remember what it was. Anyway, I got another one. So within three days, I got the encouragement from my husband before he'd even asked. And then within two days, I got four more. So I just want to encourage you. When you need it, he'll give it to you.

And in the most surprising ways, people you would not even expect. So anyway, just wanted to encourage you on that.

Every Story Has a Helper

Every one of these stories, there's always someone else that comes along that God has put there to do his good work.

A Place to Grow

So I've been thinking a lot as we go into this fall holiday season about seasons. And when I started coming here, I was coming out of a really hard season. I was very hurt and I had hardened my heart in some ways. And this fellowship, I came in the first time and Ashley was speaking the Torah portion. And what she shared, I just knew that this place would be a place where I could grow. And that has been the case for the past one and a half years that I have been here. And just the ladies and the fellowship, especially the women's Bible study, have helped me to grow and grow. My trust in the Heavenly Father has just grown by leaps and bounds.

I'm approaching a new season. I am engaged to the most incredible man I know, and we are getting married at the wedding feast, Sukkot. I can't believe it. We are going to walk forth that mission of speaking life into the world. I'm just so excited for this new chapter, this new season. And I thank you all for the role that you had in my growing here. I'm sure we have at least one or two more testimonies of God's goodness. People holding their chairs—yes! I can say it myself. Can I just stay down here? Ms. Heather spoke about children being—or the word says that children are a heritage of the Lord. And Ms.

Heather said that recently in her teaching. For about 41 years, I was with a different ministry. But one night, my son, Jacob, said, Mom, I've got something to tell you. And I want you to listen, but I'm not sure how you're going to respond. And I said, okay, son. So at the time he was living with another family in Ohio. We laid down on the bed across theirs, and he began to share things with me. And it was the word. And so it connected because I love the word and God knew I loved the word, but God knew that there was a hole that only he could fill. And what I had been doing— for 43 years at that time—he called me to do that, and I was faithful to that.

So I thought, because I thought I was loving the Lord, and I thought I was doing the Word, and I thought I was doing what he wanted. But children are a heritage of the Lord and his reward: speaking life back into us. My son that night, after three and a half hours, spoke life into me like I had never heard before.

Speaking Life Into the World

And what I thought was the Lord before—the Lord lifted all the shrouds and he said, no, there's a better way. And my son breathed life back. No—they were not my son's words. They were the Lord's words, but it was the perfect time. And so deliverance after being in what I thought was the way brought me to the way. So I am very thankful for that, and for being here, and for the encouragement to speak out life, because it's not our words. It's his, and he called us, and we're here because of his love and grace. So thank you. Shabbat shalom, everybody. Hope you guys are all doing well. What's funny is I wasn't even going to say anything at first, and then during the last testimony, something popped in my head.

I was like, well, if Matt says there's one more, then I guess I'll come up. And even that, I was like, all right, fine. I see you, Lord. But I just want to say that being here in the Carolinas alone is God speaking into my life and a miracle, I feel, in and of itself. I know I'm much younger than most here. I've always been one of the youngest in the congregation, especially with the young adults group. But I've already reached moments where God reached out to me in points of cluelessness, confusion, despair, and just complete not knowing what to do with my life. And I just want to say that God answers signs.

He answers our questions and our prayers. In a time when I was deciding between what to do for my schooling—whether to come back down to my home here in North and South Carolina or go all the way out to Oklahoma—it was a toss-up. I could have been going out to Oklahoma for the last few years and learning out there and having a completely different life. And I remember being lost and confused, not knowing what to do, just praying. And I was right next to a bedroom window, praying, "God, if you want me to stay here in the Carolinas, if you have a life for me down here, if there's something for me down here, just send a shooting star."

I don't know. It was just the first thing that came to my head. And I didn't see anything, and I was kind of discouraged, and I just kept praying. And I was like, all right, well, whatever happens, happens. And after I prayed, I saw a shooting star go, whew, across the window. And that's when I knew what God had in store. Well, a little bit.

The Shooting Star

And during those first few years with this congregation, I was developed and grown and protected and cared for by the connections and the men and women here who helped shape my life, helping me grow and develop as a believer and as a man. And everything from my car breaking down—Zach and Julia both reaching out to me immediately and letting me use their car while my car was in the shop getting fixed—to Jonathan gifting me a lug wrench the moment my car's tire went flat and I didn't have one. It was just perfectly timed. And all of the young adults did several interventions on my questionable diet going through college. Just the care, the love, the protection, the safety net, and the counsel that I've been shown from this amazing community—I've been very encouraged by it.

God still answers prayers. He still gives signs, and he still watches out for us and loves us through his people. So thank you guys. Shabbat shalom. Please. Guys, this is encouraging. I really didn't want to come up here. I'm new. Hi, I'm Annie, and that's my husband, Austin. He doesn't like it when I put him in the spotlight. But it seems like everything has been covered today. And I can definitely say for sure that just about everything in my life has been covered by the Lord as far as him stepping in.

It's All Been Covered

But there's one thing in particular that has been going on just since I became a believer about 20 years ago when I was in college. I grew up Jewish, so for those of you who are familiar with the Jewish culture, becoming a believer and accepting Yeshua as Messiah isn't exactly something that's happily received. And so when I did become a believer in the middle of college, it wasn't well received, especially by my little brother, who I was very close to at the time, and my father, who I was also very close to. And that was heartbreaking. During all of the hubbub of it all, I focused on the scripture that said a prophet doesn't have any honor in his own town.

So it took some time. I was very naive, and I thought, I'm so excited about this, I'm so excited about Jesus, why isn't my family excited about this? But instead, there was disowning and all that stuff. But what's incredible is the way that the Father works when we think there's just no hope. Over the years, as I stepped away and just didn't bring anything up, I just loved on them and spent time with them. I really just focused on honoring my parents. And the prayer that I focused on was that the Lord would surround my family members with people who loved Him—not me— because of the scripture and the truth behind that, so they could see how he works in their lives.

Twenty Years of Prayer

Well, I'll tell you this. My brother—I don't want to say there was any hostility. It was just more of a big wall as far as wanting to get to know the Lord and understanding what it is to be a believer. Well, about 10 years ago, he met a young lady whose family is very faithful to the Lord. And they fall in love and they end up getting married a year later. My brother does documentaries, has his own film production company, and currently he's working for a very well-renowned radio show host. He also has his own podcast that's very famous. I'm not going to get into who he is or anything like that, but the people he has met are absolutely incredible, including Jim Caviezel.

He conducted a whole interview with Jim Caviezel that was about two hours long regarding that recent movie that came out. And before that—this is really incredible—20 years later, I went over for Thanksgiving dinner in Nashville, and he was the one who led the prayer before dinner. My brother was a staunch atheist. And because of the people he's surrounded by, his heart is opening up. For the first time, he read the Bible last year. And because of the work that he did, he went with one of the directors, another producer. They did a documentary that's, I don't know when it's coming out, on Western civilization.

So they toured the Vatican, Haifa, and Jerusalem. He went to places, including the inside behind the Western Wall, where they had the secret meetings with the other Jews who wanted to have them, since it's under the Temple Mount. And they're technically not supposed to be under there, but he had access to that. He got to see things that I haven't even been able to dream of yet. But I've also been partnering in prayer with his family, or his wife's family. And I just want to encourage you all that no matter how hopeless it seems for your loved ones, as far as them opening their hearts and their minds to the Lord, be patient.

It's been 20 years for me. It may be more. My grandfather gave his life to the Lord four days before he died. And it wasn't even because of me. It's because somebody came to his group home and shared the gospel with him. And then he shared the gospel with my father, who at that time said, "I don't know what he's talking about."

The Power of Speaking Life

And I'm like, I do. I do. But I'll never forget what he said. He said, I feel more, and he's 94 years old, completely lucid at the time, but he said, I feel more Jewish now, believing in this Jesus, than I ever did. So I just want to give you all hope for those of you who have lost loved ones. That is the power of speaking life. So thank you for the significance of speaking forth the goodness of God today.

Testimonies of Life-Changing Things

We're going to do something kind of special. Today we're going to celebrate the day of making a clamor of the goodness of God. We're going to do that. And who brought their horns today? Couple people? Very good. We are going to, if you would, either stand or you can come up here, and I think we have a whole tribe, a small little army of trumpet blowers that are about to come in here. And parents, you will get a taste of your lives for the next month and a half before it mysteriously disappears, right? But, guys, I hope you heard the testimonies today. And these weren't small things that God has done for those who share today. These were huge, life-changing things because that is who our God is. He's the God that brings forth life and gives forth the wind, the breath, the ruach, the spirit that animates and brings forth goodness.

A Day of Trumpets

And so please stand as we prepare for worship and closing out in an offering of praise. Avinu Malkinu, we thank you. We thank you, we thank you, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for our King Yeshua. We thank you for the opportunity to pass from death into life in the inaugurated new creation that was enacted the moment Yeshua walked out of that tomb. That we look forward to the fullness of that kingdom being manifest, but we know that within us we have the breath of life to speak forth now, to represent your kingdom now. And Father, I ask if there's anyone in here today that may have not had hope when they walked in, maybe going through a situation they never thought they would be going through.

Maybe they are hurting from a situation that happened a long time ago, and they don't think that healing will ever come. That the same spirit that resided in Yeshua, that your word says resides in them now, would do its part in giving the peace that only you can give and giving the hope that only you can give and giving the healing that only you can give. And that when we blow these trumpets, the proclamation of who our King is would go across the world and through our hearts and that healing would take place once and for all. Father, we thank you so much for your grace, your mercy and love. And we thank you for this day of trumpets.

Your breath of life within us would go out and create all kinds of a clamor. In the name of Yeshua, our King, we pray. And everybody said, Amen.

Shout to the Lord

Now we are going to toot some horns before we go into the song for Yom Teruah. And I think they're coming out now. So when these trumpet players come in, would everybody give them a round of applause for what they're about to do? Guys, I can't tell you how good a practice you just did. We got one, and he went away. Well, that was good practice for the applause, wasn't it? They're doing it out there. Here we go! These are the trumpet players that are going to lead us in blowing the shofar today. Guys, come on up. Everybody go. Hold up. Everybody right here. Guys. Stand here. Everybody, let's give it up. Let's give our shout to the Lord. Blow your trumpets if you got them. Sing the Shema. Shema Yisra'el. Bokshen Yotah. Hallelujah. Amen. Shabbat Shalom. Amen.