Shemini Atzeret 5784

Me

One of my favorite Appointed Days is Sukkot. There’s just something special about the Holy Day. We come out of the Days of Awe, Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, we have come past this overly heavy contemplation on our sins and failures and on repentance. Now we come to this feast that is all about rejoicing, celebrating, and thanksgiving for all God has done for us. We build a Sukkah, we wave lulav and etrog, we recite Hallel Psalms, we sing and worship together with great joy and excitement. We gather under the Sukkah like we are this evening and there just something kind of magical about it… And yes, I use that term loosely and figuratively...

We don’t have cable at our house, not because we have anything against cable, just because we don’t want to pay the bill. We have had cable and satellite over the years, but it was amazing that no matter how long we had our service and were loyal customers our bill just continued to increase year after year.

So years ago we decided to migrate to internet and streaming services only. We have an Apple TV connected to our television and when we want to watch TV that’s what we use. And we love it… It is so much more convenient for us in general and we only watch what we actually want to watch.

But, every once in a while we have this weird issue. We use a nice Yamaha sound bar for audio for our TV. This thing has amazing sound, and has this awesome 3D surround sound effect available that I love to use when we’re watching movies. We have everything for our TV running through the sound bar, whether we’re watching something off the Apple TV, or watching a move, or playing a video game, all audio goes through the sound bar.

Every so often when we’re watching TV we have noticed this odd issue. Every so often there will be a weird audio cut out, it’s very brief and you only miss maybe half a word when it happens. It’s such a brief interruption that we don’t even notice it right away. Sometimes we’ll get fifteen or twenty minutes into a show before we realize it is acting up, and it only ever does this with the Apple TV. But when we do notice it, it is extremely annoying.

As a lot of you have probably noticed, I can hyper-fixate on a problem. Ask our worship team anytime I walk in on a Saturday morning and notice the blinds are turned the wrong way or a few chairs are out of place… But, once I realize that audio skipping is happening it is all I can think about and it drives me absolutely nuts…

I have figured out the fix is pretty simple, I will pause the show, back out of the particular app we are watching from on the Apple TV and then hold two specific buttons down together on the Apple TV remote until the Apple TV shuts off and the light on the front begins flashing. In essence, this performs a soft reset on the Apple TV and the device restarts. This reset, as simple as it is, seems to fix the issue every single time. Then I go in, reopen the app we were watching from, and pick up whatever we were watching right where we left off and the audio is perfect again.

The solution was as simple as just a little reset…

We

Honestly, life in general is a lot like my Apple TV.... Sometimes we just need a reset, a little break to recalibrate.

We got through the work week every single week. Some weeks are worse than others, but they are all draining in their own way. Then Shabbat comes around and we get to take a break, a breather, an opportunity to reset mentally and emotionally.

We work all year long, sometimes just completely getting our tails handed to us… The year is draining, taxing, and physically beating us up… But then vacation comes around. We get a chance for a week or two to walk away from it all and to completely unplug from the workplace and reset and restore. We get to spend time (in theory) not even thinking about the fact that our workplace exists… And usually, we come back to work after vacation feeling refreshed and renewed.

As parents, we experience this around 8 or 9pm most nights… We go through the day with our kids being kids. Some days are awesome, and yet others are more taxing than we could have ever imagined. But, no matter how much we love our kids and no matter how fantastic or terrible they were that day, bedtime rolls around… And when bedtime rolls around every parent in the world exhales… It’s time for a breather, a refresh, a parental reset. This isn’t to say we don’t love our kids, we do. But it is a very important time for us to reset and recalibrate.

God

The reset is probably one of the most important realities we can grasp. It is an opportunity for us to realign our focus and to refresh. A chance to forget about all the terrible things that have happened and to catch our breath and be ready to move on.

And here’s the thing about it, in the spiritual the reset isn’t just because we are worn out or worn down… It isn’t just because we are beat up and broken… It isn’t just because we are hurt and wounded… It isn’t just because people are mean and nasty to us…

The spiritual reset has a lot of purposes, but the most important is to keep us from falling away, from falling to temptation, from thinking things are so good we don’t need anything or anyone else…

In the observance of Sukkot we see a unique spiritual purpose…

Principle: Sukkot is an opportunity to reset and rejoice in all G-d has done for us throughout our journey.

(Repeat)

Let’s look at the Scriptures together today.

Leviticus 23:39–43 TLV

“So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you are to keep the Feast of Adonai for seven days. The first day is to be a Shabbat rest, and the eighth day will also be a Shabbat rest. On the first day you are to take choice fruit of trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and rejoice before Adonai your God for seven days. You are to celebrate it as a festival to Adonai for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations—you are to celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in sukkot for seven days. All the native-born in Israel are to live in sukkot, so that your generations may know that I had Bnei-Yisrael to dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am Adonai your God.”

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Principle: Sukkot is an opportunity to reset and rejoice in all G-d has done for us throughout our journey.

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2 Chronicles 7:7–10 TLV

Moreover, Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was before the House of Adonai, because there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat. At that time, Solomon observed the feast for seven days and all Israel with him—a very great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast for seven days. On the 23rd day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Adonai had done for David, Solomon and Israel His people.

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2 Chronicles 7:11–16 TLV

Thus Solomon finished the House of Adonai and the king’s palace. Indeed, all that Solomon had on his heart to accomplish in the House of Adonai and in his own palace, he successfully completed. Then Adonai appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself for a House of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, when My people, over whom My Name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this House so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.

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Principle: Sukkot is an opportunity to reset and rejoice in all G-d has done for us throughout our journey.

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Nehemiah 8:14–18 TLV

They found written in the Torah that Adonai had commanded through Moses that Bnei-Yisrael should dwell in sukkot during the feast of the seventh month. So that they should proclaim and spread this message in all their towns and in Jerusalem saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees to make sukkot, just as it is written.” So the people went out and brought branches, and made sukkot for themselves, each on their own roof, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the House of God, in the plaza before the Water Gate and in the plaza of the Ephraim Gate. The entire assembly who had returned from the captivity made sukkot and dwelt in the sukkot. Since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day Bnei-Yisrael had not done so—and the joy was very great. Day after day from the first day to the last day, he read from the scroll of the Torah of God. So they kept the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, according to the regulation, there was a solemn assembly.

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Principle: Sukkot is an opportunity to reset and rejoice in all G-d has done for us throughout our journey.

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John 7:37–39 TLV

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now He said this about the Ruach, whom those who trusted in Him were going to receive; for the Ruach was not yet given, since Yeshua was not yet glorified.

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2 Timothy 1:4–7 TLV

I remember your tears, and I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I recall the genuine faithfulness within you, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure it is within you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and self-discipline.

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Revelation 2:1–5 (TLV)

To the angel of Messiah’s community in Ephesus write: “Thus says the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks in the midst of the seven golden menorot:

I know all about your deeds and your toil and your patient endurance, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. You have tested those who call themselves emissaries and are not, and have found them to be liars.

You have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.

“But this I have against you, that you have forsaken your first love.

Remember then from where you have fallen. Repent and do the deeds you did at first.

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Principle: Sukkot is an opportunity to reset and rejoice in all G-d has done for us throughout our journey.

You

(Call worship team up and unmute)

We