Tikvat Israel Sermons

How do we trust our Heavenly Father, even when things go badly?  Even if we die, He has a plan to vindicate His own reputation:  you must become a disciple of Yeshua, who said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid (disciple).  Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot ...

In Luke 15, some of the Pharisees are criticizing Yeshua for eating with sinners. He responds with a story.  If you have 100 sheep, and only 99 are with you, you are not complete as a shepherd.  Like a woman would count her coins to make sure she had all ten, so too God counts us.  And so we too should look around our table and say, “Who is missing here? Whom do I need to invite to the table of the Lord?” God loves those sheep in h...

Has this ever happened to you?  “Oh no, I got a paper cut!  Blood is coming out of my finger. Well, guess I’ll go visit the Holy Tabernacle and/or Temple.” But the priest says, “No way, Moshe!” Tired of not knowing how and when to approach a holy God?  Well, have we got a book for you!  Try Leviticus! That’s right, the Bible’s ultimate guide to holiness, purity, and weird bodily fluids. Learn what’s clean, unclean, and how to deal...

A dad is driving and two brothers are in the back.  And they’re poking and bothering each other.  What are his possible words of discipline that he can say?  He can say, “Don’t make me turn this car around.” He can say “Don’t make me separate you,” that is if he has access to the new invisible force fields that are available for backseats.  Or finally he can say, “Don’t make me come back there.” But what if there’s a fourth option?...

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill, and ev’ryone a scribe by trade; to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

--Frederick Lehman

This week we heard from our visiting speaker, Michael Templeton from  MAPS Global.  His encouraging message was to be rooted in the deep...

Are you ready? Is that what you’re gonna wear?  This week we see how God has clothed His people throughout Scripture. From the garments of skin given to Adam and Eve in Genesis, to the veil Moses wore after encountering God on Mount Sinai, to Esther’s royal robes, each piece of clothing symbolizes a deeper calling and identity in God. So, consider what we are wearing--not just physical clothing but putting on the attributes of Mess...

The epistle of Y’hudah (Jude) verse 3 exhorts us:  “Dear friends, I was busily at work writing to you about the salvation we share, when I found it necessary to write, urging you to keep contending earnestly for the faith which was once and for all passed on to God’s people.”  That faith includes the history of the God of Israel and His people as well as those who have been grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel through the death ...

In the wake of unimaginable personal loss, Haratio Spafford wrote the well known hymn: "It Is Well with My Soul.” Spafford's story, marked by grief and tragedy, invites us to explore how we can find shalom amidst life's deepest sorrows. Drawing on Scripture, including the rabbinic idea of God’s Shekinah (abiding presence), we discover two enduring truths that enable us to say, “It is well with my soul.” First, God is with us, holdi...

Just like a toddler develops a will that we must guide and understand, we too face a process of learning to follow God’s Torah, even when we don’t fully grasp its meaning right away. We say: "Na'aseh, v'nishma" – "We will do, and we will hear, or understand" – as Israel committed to obeying God’s commandments perhaps before fully understanding them. Through this, we are reminded that following God isn’t just about doing things beca...

The Lord is on a mission to answer all our questions, to rescue us, and to wipe every tear from our eyes.  God is the one who writes the end of our stories, and the end of our stories is not death, but Resurrection. Now that is good news.

The question is: what day are we on? There were three days between the death of Yeshua and the raising to life of Yeshua.  Sometimes we are in that in-between part. Not only that, but sometimes we...

In this week’s sermon, "The Shopping Spree of the Lord," we explore the profound concept of God’s acquisitions or purchases throughout Scripture, with the Hebrew word "kana" serving as the anchor word.  Through the powerful imagery of God's acquiring the people of Israel, the land of Israel, the Torah, and the Temple, we reflect on our own relationship with the Lord as His "acquisition." We are extensions of God’s purpose and our l...