Parshat Vayigash: In the middle of the story of Joseph is the story of a man named "Praise", Judah. Judah descends into sin, but God uses his fallen state to effect deliverance for Israel and activate his calling to be the forebearer of the Lion of Judah.

Parshat Vayishlach: Jacob contrived multiple plans to escape the wrath of his brother Esau. But when he encountered Esau, something happened that he didn't expect. Esau had a heart change, and hugged and kissed him. We have our plans, and we devise ways out of our difficult circumstances. But God is the God of Surprises, and He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can hope for.

Parshat Vayetze: Leah had weak eyes. Rachel was attractive. These are examples of labels that people put on us, which we can spend our lives trying to tear off. Yeshua wants to remove the labels of limitation that were placed on us and stick them to the cross of Messiah, where they belong.

Parshat Chayei Sarah: God never wants us to forget that death is not permanent in His Kingdom. This is why "sleeping" is used to describe death throughout the Bible. And when we're sleeping, we can be awakened.

Yeshua said that if we don't receive the Kingdom as children, we will not enter in. We encourage our natural children to eventually leave father and mother, and find their own way. With our Father in heaven, we should never lose our child-like dependence on Him.

Not a sermon, an assignment. When we repeat patterns that are not in line with God's truth, speak life and truth to counteract the lie. Do this for three weeks. Three weeks to change the pattern.

Rabbi Brian speaks of revelations received on their vacation to Europe and how they relate to our preparation for Rosh Hashanah and the Day Of The Lord.

We didn't choose Yeshua. He chose us. And He gave us His Holy Spirit, so now, with His help, we can make good choices.

Sometimes when we are going through tough times, we need to remind ourselves that God just may be saving the best for last.

On Tisha B'Av, we remember that the Rabbis attribute the destruction of the second Temple to "Baseless Hatred." When are our feelings "baseless?" They are baseless when they are not fully based on fact, but based on our internal biases.