Gary Webster: Sivan - Shavuot, Resolutions & Spiritual Habits [2025/5785]
Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Gary.
Shalom from the eternal city, Jerusalem. Tonight begins the month of Sivan.
Shavuot (Pentecost) is celebrated. We read the book of Ruth and eat dairy products.
We rejoice in the bounty of G_d.
Now would be a good time to look back and take stock. Let’s call it a biannual checkup.
Remember the resolutions you made in January? I am going to eat healthier. I am going to read a book a month. I am going to lose weight. I am going to be more frugal with my spending. I am going to strengthen my relationships.
How are you doing? If you have dropped the ball, don’t despair. Tomorrow can be a new beginning. Pick up where you left off. Be consistent. It will be worth it in the end.
I would like you to consider adding some things to your resolutions list: prayer, fasting, and tithing. The rationale for these three come from a parable of Jesus (Yeshua). Turn to Luke 18.
"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Three practices are mentioned: prayer, fasting, and tithing. Yeshua condemns the Pharisee for his arrogance and pride but commends the tax collector for his humility. Yeshua said nothing negative about the Pharisee’s twice-a-week habit of fasting nor about his giving ten percent of his income.
How is your prayer life? Do you pray daily? Three times a day? Hourly? Moment by moment?
There are two schools of thought about prayer. The first says, only talk to G_d about the big things. You can figure out the small stuff on your own. The second says, talk to G_d about everything. Communicate with Him all day long. I lean to the second school.
As you study the life of Yeshua, you will see a pattern. He was always praying. He prayed before He ate. He prayed before He selected His twelve disciples. His life was bathed in prayer. He sought His Father’s wisdom and direction.
In Luke 18, it says that Yeshua tells the parable of the unjust judge to encourage us to pray always and not give up.
The second practice is fasting. To fast is to abstain from food. The reasons for fasting vary. According to the Dictionary of the Bible, fasting is a token of sorrow. It is a sign of repentance (cf. Jonah and Nineveh). (I would add, Yom Kippur is a National Day of Fasting.) Fasting accompanies prayer during a crisis or time of great need. Fasting can also be a preparation for divine revelation.
During the time of Yeshua, fasting was a common practice, especially among the Pharisees. Traditionally, they would fast on Monday and Thursday. Yeshua is reproached by certain disciples of John the Baptist. They tell Him that they fast and the Pharisees fast, but Yeshua’s disciples do not. Yeshua’s reply is that there is coming a time for fasting, but it is not now, while He is on the Earth.
As a matter of fact, He gives guidelines for fasting in His Sermon on the Mount. He declares, when you fast, not if you fast. Fasting is not advised for those who are taking medication. Check with your doctor before you start a fast.
The third and final practice we will examine is tithing. Tithing is giving ten percent of your gross pay to G_d. This is a hot-button topic for many believers in Yeshua. They say there is no command in the New Testament about giving. Yeshua talks about money but does not command tithing. Paul admonishes the Corinthians to lay aside money on the first day of the week which he will collect when he comes to see them.
The strongest position on tithing is found in the Old Testament in the book of Malachi chapter 3:
"Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
There is a pronouncement and a promise. G_d accuses the nation of Israel of stealing from Him. They have been neglecting the giving of tithes and offerings. They have brought a curse upon themselves as a result.
G_d makes an amazing promise to His people. If you give Me what is Mine, then I will bless you beyond imagination.
My wife and I have put G_d to the test throughout our thirty-nine years of marriage. We raised four children on one salary and still tithed. None of us went hungry. All of our bills were paid every month. G_d opened the floodgates of heaven.
I dare you to put G_d to the test. What have you got to lose?
Rosh Chodesh Sameach! Chag Shavuot Sameach!
Moshe C.: Sivan - The Journey of Unity and Faith [2024/5784]
Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Moshe.
Shalom! Here we are again, celebrating the beginning of a new month, the month of Sivan! Tonight, as the new Moon rises on the horizon, expectations also rise in our hearts and minds. What this month will bring us? Will it be a good one or a hard one? This is the month we celebrate Shavout; after seven weeks of counting the days of the omer, we finally arrive at the moment we receive the Torah instructions to our people directly from God to us.
On this very night, 3,300 years ago, the Torah tells us that Israel camped before the mountain. We are talking about Exodus 19:2. Initially, the verb "they camp" is used in the plural form, "va-ya-ch-noo" but then it changes to "v" in a singular form. What does this small change teach us? When God gave the Torah to Israel, we arrived here as many different people, but then suddenly we camped before Him as one. We were there together in unity, with one heart. When God promised Abraham that he would bless him and make him a great nation, I'm sure our Father Abraham did not consider all the ramifications of this promise. Because of this promise, we had to be put through the desert; we had to be purified, tested, trained, and isolated from all the nations around us. Because of this promise and the responsibility of being light to the world, we have been ostracized, criticized, demonized, and martyrized throughout the centuries. This is the price Israel had to pay when we were chosen to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Was it worthy? You tell me! If we have Western Civilization today, it's a consequence of the church's expansion in the last two millennia. Everyone has access to God's words and instructions; they were revealed to us, Jews, and protected since that gathering when Israel was camped in front of the mountain. Judaic-Christian traditions transformed humanity from pagan tribes fighting each other to the modern and complex society we see today. As I said before, Western civilization represents today almost 50% of mankind. One third of all the people alive today are Christians, and all of this happened as a consequence of God's influence on the smallest of all the peoples. Even today, Jewish people represent 0.2% of the world's population, yet we are holding 22% of the Nobel prizes. Was it worthwhile? Yes, it was, and everything happened because one rash chodesh Sivan 3,300 years ago God assembled one small and powerless group of people in front of a mountain, and a week later gave them their biggest and most valuable treasure—His Torah!
Shavat and the giving of the Torah represent the essence of the Jewish soul. This holiday is the center of God's plan to redeem humanity. But a thousand years later, right here in Jerusalem, the God of Israel put another piece of His plan into place. He assembled a group of broken people, hopeless people—the rabbi who was supposed to continue His teaching and healing among the poor and the needy. Their Rabbi was killed, murdered by the politicians. Their Rabbi was killed, murdered by the politicians.
Those disciples had such hope, such joy following Him and seeing Israel being touched by His personality, by His loving presence. But 50 days earlier, in the worst Passover of their lives, the teacher was brutally taken from them. He was judged too fast and too hastily, and none of the great rabbis who were there, supposed to be the wisest among Israel, not one of them defended their Master. Instead, they traded the life of their good and gentle Rabbi and released a violent criminal in his place. Although many of them testified His resurrection a few days later, still they were feeling lonely and forsaken, almost defenseless.
As the people of Israel did once, they gathered together in one place, with one heart. Suddenly, the presence of God fell upon them, as the clouds covered the Sinai a thousand years before. The winds of the Spirit were heard, and the fearful sound emerged from everywhere. God's voice echoed inside of them, and everyone saw when it split in the 70 languages spoken at the Sinai. By God's power, those uneducated disciples started to testify in the tongues of every nation about Yeshua, about His works, about His atonement, and that God had made Him, Yeshua, Jesus, the man they crucified, both Lord and Mashiach, the Messiah!
So I ask you again, was it worth it? Every single tear we shed and every single pain Israel ever felt is nothing compared to the gift we received through the atoning gift Christ gave to each one of us. Israel was indeed a blessing to all the nations of the earth, not because of the ethics and morals we shared, not because of the Nobel prizes we earned, but because our people and our calling as a kingdom of priests made us vessels for God's glory and instruments of His redemption. We are still the smallest of all the nations. And look around: even today, year 2024, society has not changed. Israel is still being persecuted, raped, and murdered. The nations and their politicians, in their delusions, still defile God's election and plan our eradication. I'd like to leave you today with some thoughts.
When will the church, our younger brothers, realize that their older brothers, the Jews, are on the front line of a spiritual battle? When will you notice that your intercession and your fellowship are not only a moral obligation but the main reason you were grafted in the olive tree, according to Romans 11? And most importantly, don't you know that the deliverer will come from Zion and that He will turn godlessness away from Jacob?
Listen to me: in the end, Jacob, Israel, will be saved; all Israel will be saved. God wins, and this is His promise! I don't know who will see this video; actually, I don't really care. However, I know that God will bring this video to the right people, to the right person—real believers like you and me, brothers and sisters in the Messiah, who read the scriptures. Don't you want to be on the right side of history? Don't you want to be on the winning side of this awful battle? Aren't you supposed to fight everything evil and be on the side of truth? If so, there's a way of showing it: praying for and defending your family here in Israel.
You have brothers and sisters here, not only among Jewish believers in Yeshua but all Jews are your family. You were adopted as one of us, and grafted in the same tree. John 8:44 says about the devil that when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Yes, we need your love and your prayers, but mostly we need you to keep sharing the news and the truth about Israel. We need you on our side. May God bless you; may you have a wonderful month of Sivan! Blessings from Zion.
