Part 1 - The Hidden Joy of Adar

[00:00:00] Foreign shalom, guys and gals. [00:00:09] So we've had a lot of things happen today that really are going to emphasize the message for today. [00:00:16] So what's the message? The hidden joy of adar. We had technical difficulties to start off. The video feed was messed up. We had problems with the instruments and different things. And so this is. This is the kind of curve balls we're talking about that we need to be able to figure out how to navigate through and bring joy. So last Shabbat, we entered into the Hebrew month of what? [00:00:48] Anybody remember? [00:00:50] Adar. There we go. We entered into Adar, okay? And the Talmud says, adarbin b'simcha, which means when adar begins, joy increases. So everybody's, like, on cloud nine, right? [00:01:11] But this one little statement, this is what is going to be our focus for the next two weeks, okay? As we explore the hidden joy of Adar. Why? [00:01:21] Because this joy that we are sort of trying to find or whatever, it's actually hidden in plain sight. You guys ever found something that was actually hidden in plain sight? You search for and search for, like, you know, the other day, my glasses were on my head. And how many guys have done that? I'm sure we've all done that. Or you've got your phone in your hand and you're looking for your phone, you know, or your keys, you know, searching for your keys. [00:01:48] We are going to search for joy, and we're going to find it, okay? [00:01:54] Because joy, like I said, is hiding in plain sight. But most of us just walk right past it, and we never give it the time of day. If you notice in the little picture, there's a little tiny smiley face right in the middle of all that clutter, okay? And it's easy to miss. So I want to help us all pull back the curtain to reveal something precious and something real that we can take a hold of and carry not only just through the month of Adar, but carry forward hopefully, for the rest of our lives. Okay, so let's begin by talking about today. Today's a special day. [00:02:29] It is called Shabbat Zachor. You guys heard of that? Shabbat Zachor. Okay, Shabbat, of course, Sabbath Zachor means remembrance. So it's the Sabbath of remembrance. But the question is, do we remember what we're supposed to remember? [00:02:47] Right? What are we supposed to be remembering? And how does this relate to our joy increasing in the month of Adar? I mean, how can we even connect them if we don't know what we're supposed to be remembering? So I Have to apologize. I got about half of these slides done and I forgot to do the rest of them. So we'll have a few of these. So you can see the text I'm going to be using. But if you would pull up the one in Exodus, chapter 17. So this is the. Let me give you the context. So the children of Israel are entering into the promised land. They're working to get into the promised land. And as they're going along in the wilderness there, they go into different areas and they ask if they can pass. And they say yes or no, whatever. And at some point they're going, they're marching on, minding their own business. And those people of Amalek, or Amalek, they attack Israel from the rear. They come in behind them and start attacking them from the rear. They don't charge them head on. They've already had that opportunity. But they go, they sneak around, they come behind and they start attacking them from the rear. And if you remember, this is the battle that Moses, he's up on the mountain watching as things takes place. And he's holding his hands up and he holding a staff. And as his hands are, are remain steady and Emunah faithful, okay, Israel wins. But when his hands get tired and they come down, Israel begins to lose the battle. So his two compadres, you know, Hur and. Who was the other one? Joshua? Was it. I think it was Aaron, actually. So Aaron and Hur come and they hold his hands up, okay? And so it says this, the scripture right here at the end of this, it says. It says, then the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the years of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it. The Lord is my banner. This is where we get the name. You'll hear it in churches, everything, Jehovah, Nissi. But it's Hashem Nissi. The Lord is my banner, saying, a hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. That's pretty serious stuff, right? Okay, so what. Why am I reciting this? What does this have to do anything? Well, this is actually what we're supposed to be remembering, this Shabbat. Now we've got another passage. Pull up The Deuteronomy, chapter 25, right as they're going in the promised land. This is actually. Let's see, that one was in Exodus when they were leaving Egypt So I got my context wrong. They were leaving Egypt. This one is actually as they're entering the promised land in Deuteronomy, chapter 25. Do you have that slide? [00:05:55] There we go. And the Lord tells them, remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt. So this is 40 years later. And. And they were remembering back. They attacked. Now we're going to remember again how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail those who were lagging behind you. And he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that the Lord your God has given you for inheritance to possess. Okay, you're all settled in. You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. [00:06:35] That's some pretty serious. I mean, it's been 40 years, right? Roughly. [00:06:40] And God tells them, this isn't something you just let bygones speak of bygones. You will not forget about this. You will blot out his name, and you will not forget this. You will remember this. As a matter of fact, there are actually six daily remembrances that we recite in the sewer in the morning prayers, and they are based on the scriptures that God tells us not to forget. And these are the six we're not supposed to forget. We're supposed to remember the exodus from Egypt, a revelation at Sinai, the giving of the Torah, Amalek's attack on Israel, which we just talked about. The golden calf and the rebellion in the desert. And the fifth one, Miriam's negative speech and punishment for speaking against Moses. And the sixth one is remember the Sabbath. Right. And keep it holy. So these are the six things that God specifically says I want you to remember, and I want you to keep it on your minds. So why do we remember Amalek and our responsibility to blot out his name from under heaven? I mean, what's up with that? I mean, what. What purpose does it serve? How does it benefit? Okay, and why are we doing it now? Why now are we having this Shabbat special? Shabbat to remember this particular commandment? [00:08:01] Well, it's actually all about this holiday coming up called Purim. Okay, Purim. So let's talk about it. Give a brief overview of Purim. I'm not going to go into details. You can read the Book of Esther, find out more. You can show up Thursday night, experience it. [00:08:21] Except you. Okay, but you'd be out of here. But you can Enjoy that. And we'll have. We'll actually be reading the Book of Esther in its entirety. But on the surface, Purim, if you've ever been to a Purim celebration, seems to be more like an excuse to party, right? [00:08:47] Seems to be more like an excuse to party. I mean, think about it. We have costumes, we have noisemakers. There's drinking, there's feasting, there's shouting, laughing, booing, you know, all kinds of crazy stuff going on. [00:09:03] But our sages actually say that in some sense. [00:09:10] Hold on to your hats here. In some sense, Purim is the holiest day of the year. [00:09:19] What? [00:09:21] What? Why would they say this? This almost seems blasphemous in a certain regard, right? Like, all this just crazy materialism almost. You know, what is up with this? Why would it be considered the holiest day of the year in certain respects? Well, there's a commentary, ancient commentary called Yahut Shamoni that says one of the reasons that we connect this is because Yom Kippur, there's an illusion that Purim is connected with Yom Kippur. Okay? If you pull up that slide, we'll see that the Hebrew of this Yom ha Kippurim, that's the way it appears in the scripture. Yom Hakippurim. That's the way Yom Kippur appears in the scripture. It literally means day of Atonements. Okay? And below that, you'll see the. The. The word Purim. [00:10:13] Purim. This is how it's spelled. Now, if you know anything about Hebrew, the ha Kiporim, the. The hey in front of Kiporim, that means the. [00:10:25] Now, Kiporim is one word, but if you look at it as the kaph being a prefix. There's a prefix that kaph is used for that second letter. Sorry, you can't really point it out, but if you put it in front of word, Anybody know what it means? [00:10:44] Like or as? [00:10:47] So we can also read it as a day like the Purim or like Purim. [00:10:55] Yom Kippur is a day like Purim. What in the world? Yom Kippur is like Purim in what way? [00:11:05] And they actually say that Yom Kippur and Purim are the only festivals that will actually continue after Mashiach comes. Of course, we know Yeshua has already come. Festivals haven't been canceled, but we're talking about, like, in the messianic era, messianic age. And they base this off of two scriptures. Esther, chapter 9, verse 28. It says these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of those days cease among their descendants. So it's basically a command that says, this should never stop. Okay. And then we have the Passage in Leviticus 16 about Yom Kippur that says, and this shall be a statute forever for you. That atonement may be made for the children of Israel, which once in the year because of all their sins. Okay, so it's a play on words. And these connecting scriptures are about being eternal. But here's the deal. [00:12:05] How are they connected? I mean, it seems like polar. Polar opposites. They really are, in a lot of ways, polar opposites. I mean, what happens on Yom Kippur? [00:12:16] Fasting. Right. What happens on Purim? Feasting. Right. So everything on Yom Kippur is about, you know, mortifying the flesh. Everything about on Purim seems like it's about feeding the flesh. Right. And so on Yom Kippur, like I said, we mortify the flesh. On Purim, however, we lower our inhibitions. We celebrate our salvation, our deliverance, and we remember the constant battle against the Yetzer Hara. On Yom Kippur, we have less distractions to lure us away from the Lord. But on Purim, we search for him in the mundane, pushing through all of the distractions of this material world to find Him. And on both days, we removed the barriers, the excuses that have kept us from serving the Lord properly. [00:13:13] So today, Shabbat Zachor, we are in a constant battle with Amalek, a battle that the things. A battle with the things that keep us from serving Hashem. [00:13:29] And I believe that a lack of joy is possibly the greatest factor that will keep us at a distance from the Lord. Think about it. [00:13:44] If we have a lack of joy, then we're not going to run after the things of God. We're not going to trust him because we don't believe that he's good. And this is really where we're going with all this. Many of you guys have known, I've talked about this before in different teachings. But for several years, I served the Lord faithfully, but I didn't trust in his goodness. [00:14:15] I didn't trust and really, truly believe that he loved me and that he had my best interests at heart. [00:14:25] I felt sort of like, Tevye, why can't you go pick on someone else for a change? Choose somebody else for a change. Right? And Fiddler on the Roof. [00:14:35] And it wasn't until I chose to believe that he truly loved me and he had my Best interests at heart, that I found that joy and all of the things and circumstances that I was struggling with began to change. Now, I'm not saying that's a magic bullet. What I'm saying is that when we believe in the goodness of God, as we're gonna, we're gonna move through this and push through this in the next couple weeks about all of this and the what ifs and the, you know, all that kind of stuff, that we begin changing the way we are attached to him. Okay? Think about this. In a relationship, me and my wife, if I don't believe that she has my best interests at heart, if I don't believe that she cares about me, if I don't believe that she has good intentions, then we're going to have problems, right? There's going to be a distance there, okay? Now, whether she does or not is irrelevant. It's my belief that hinders it, right? So I have to change my belief in order to get close. [00:15:48] So our sages teach that even the spirit of prophecy could only come upon a person that was filled with joy because the person has to be in a condition to welcome the ruach hakodesh, the Holy Spirit. And so my question to us this morning is, are we in that condition? [00:16:08] Are we in a condition to receive God's presence maybe at, you know, 11:00 on a Saturday? Right. What about 10:30 on a Monday or 4:30pm on a Thursday? [00:16:24] Okay. Or Friday afternoon or any other time that life just isn't going our way. I mean, this morning we had several opportunities to just say, you know, throw up our hands, throw in the towel, get frustrated, get bent out of shape. [00:16:42] But our team pulled through. Our team pressed through and we continued to worship. Travis's guitar wasn't even where people could hear it online. He was still praising God. Right. And leading us into that as well. [00:16:59] And so I'm very thankful for the, for our team and, you know, the lessons that God is teaching us. [00:17:10] And so maintaining joy is the key to everything really, in life. And so let's go back, talk about Purim and put this whole thing together here. [00:17:20] So Purim, as we know, is the festival of Esther. Okay, so you guys really know the story. I mean, it goes back to the Babylonian captivity. Jews were brought into Babylon during that time. [00:17:35] And I'm going to leave a lot of stuff out, but here's the gist. During that time, the king's right hand man got upset with a certain Jew named Mordecai and said, oh, he's a Jew. And this is how it happens, like throughout history, it just sort of repeats. It's like one person gets stereotyped and the rest of the Jews in the world get punished for it or whatever. Okay. It's like, oh, I don't like you. You're Jewish. I'm gonna kill all the Jews. So that's basically how it goes. And then God delivers them through Esther, becoming queen and being able to talk to the king and all that kind of stuff. Okay. But the whole story is interesting because it seems to be a series of more like luck or happenstance than divine intervention. You know, there's absolutely no mention, at least on the surface in the actual literal text of God in this whole incident, this whole storyline takes place. We're like, where's God in all this? Why is this even in the Bible? In a sense, you know, there's this man named Haman. [00:18:48] Boo. There you go. Good, good. You're on your toes. And you know, he plays a central part in this. And it's particular to this day. And this is why we have Shabbat Zakur today, because of this man, Haman. [00:19:05] He was the son of Hamitata the Agagite. So what's an Agagite? It's not a type of stone, metal, precious stone? No, he was the descendant of King Agag. Okay. We actually read about this in our haftara portion this morning in our Torah service. [00:19:24] King Agag was the person that Saul was supposed to have wiped out. Him, his family, his people. Because the prophet Samuel told him, go in, annihilate them once and for all. Because he said the scripture that we read earlier, once you're in the land, then blot out their memory. [00:19:45] So King Saul goes in, he does a partial job. Has anybody ever done a partial job on something? [00:19:52] How did that go? Bad. [00:19:55] Bad. That's right. So unfortunately, historically, I've been the king of partial jobs, and that has not gone so well for me. And I am starting to learn my lessons and complete my jobs now. I still have a 3,000 piece puzzle that I'm not quite finished with that's been going on for nine months. But don't hold me on that. Okay? [00:20:19] So partial job, and especially in this case, it did not go well for Saul. Saul. And one of the things that Sabrina pointed out in the haftara this week, God told the children of Israel to not have pity, not show pity or mercy on Agag and the Amalekites, okay? Do not show them mercy, do not show them pity. Why did he have to tell them that? Because Israel, the Jewish people, are naturally a compassionate people. And he had to tell them to hold back that compassion to be able to fulfill this commandment. And so, I mean, even the little details, he counted the people by counting sheep and not people, those little details like that, right? And so God told Saul, wipe him out. And Saul said, okay, I can do that. And he did. Partial. A partial amount. He held back all the best animals and livestock and everything because, oh, we're going to sacrifice that to the Lord, and then we're going to feast. [00:21:33] And he held back Agag because, like, you know, we killed everybody else, but, you know, he's a king. He's important. This will show status or whatever. He had mercy on him. [00:21:46] And that did not go well. [00:21:49] Samuel, when the prophet Samuel came and he saw and he heard what was going on, he made chopped liver of the situation really quickly, literally. [00:21:59] So he took care of Agag for Samuel, for Saul, because Saul would not obey. So why is it so important to obliterate the memory of Amalek? [00:22:15] So this is one perspective, and I think it's a good one, because Amalek had just witnessed talking about when Israel had just left Egypt. This is back in the Exodus passage. Amalek had just. The people of Amalek had just witnessed the numerous miracles that God had performed on behalf of the Jewish people. And even despite that, despite seeing God's hand at work in the lives of the children of Israel, they attacked Israel anyway. [00:22:49] And so they represent the one who knows his Creator and his intent and is intent on rebelling against him. [00:23:00] Okay, so Amalek represents rebellion, basically. I know the good to do, but I'm going to do the opposite. [00:23:09] So Amalek, as we know, attacked Israel from the rear rather than head on. [00:23:16] They did not want Israel to make it into the Promised Land because they would be fulfilling their mission and their purpose. [00:23:24] So they tried to do everything they could to thwart them from doing that. And so in my mind, Amalek represents anything that tries to keep us from serving Hashem in our full capacity. I want you to think about that. Amalek is what keeps us from serving Hashem in our full capacity. [00:23:48] What is that for you? [00:23:51] Think about that. [00:23:55] That spirit of Amalek, it's alive within us. [00:24:01] But it's our job to remember and to obliterate what is holding you back. [00:24:21] When the dark comes, joy increases. [00:24:26] This is our job. This is a difficult task. When Adar came, guess what happened? I don't remember the Details. But it seemed like Adar hit and everything just went. [00:24:39] Even building up. The two days before Adar, I was talking to somebody in our congregation. I was like, it feels like everything's going to pot, so to speak. It's been very difficult. I've been working through it. I've been struggling through it, trying to focus in, but it's been difficult. [00:24:59] And they reminded me that it's because we have to go through the pains to receive the blessing. We have to go through the struggle to receive that blessing. And so the blessing is the joy. And the joy also brings the blessing. So it's like a. It's like a interwoven connection, right? And we have to push through this. Joy is extremely important. It's so important that God tells Israel that he will bring curses upon Israel if they don't serve him with joy. Listen to this. Deuteronomy 28. You guys have that on there. [00:25:39] Says, all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you're destroyed. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and statutes that he commanded you that they should be a sign and wonder against you and your offspring forever. Did I have this from Deuteronomy 28? No, sorry. Okay, but here's. If you want to look it up, it's Deuteronomy 28, 45, 47. But here's the key passage, the key verse. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyness, joyfulness, and gladness of heart. [00:26:16] This is why all the curses are happening. [00:26:20] How many of us have been in that same situation? I know I have. I'm doing it because I gotta. Or I'm just, you know, dragging my feet and I'm just. [00:26:38] Just going through the motions again. Amalek is keeping. Anything is anything that keeps you from fulfilling your purpose, but it's also anything that keeps you from serving Hashem with joy. [00:26:57] So whatever it is, is it a guitar? Is it video equipment? Is it my situation of whatever at work or my relationship or whatever? [00:27:09] This is the battlefield. [00:27:11] This is the battlefield. Daily there's a war raging within us between our knowledge that God is both good and sovereign versus our desire to handle things in our own way. And in doing so, push God out of the way for something we feel is better, more satisfying or more powerful somehow than God. [00:27:36] That's idolatry. [00:27:39] But yet we do it all the time, don't we? [00:27:42] We think, God, you're not going to handle this. So I'm Going to. [00:27:47] And we trade God in for X, Y, Z. And in the process, we lose that joy because we are stressed, we're working through all this stuff, and we have put God on the shelf. [00:28:05] This is where we are left searching for the joy that is hidden right in front of us within arm's reach. [00:28:13] You know, one of my favorite psalms is in the daily psalms we read. We don't read it on Shabbat. And the reason why we don't read it on Shabbat is connected to the sacrificial system. But it's Psalm 100. Psalm 100 is the Psalm that you would bring when you brought your own offering to the temple. You would recite this psalm, okay? And we don't do it on Shabbat because the offering, personal offerings, were not offered on Shabbat. But it begins, make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Okay? It means more says. [00:28:51] That's the part. Et adonai simcha. Anybody know what that means? You shall serve the Lord with gladness, with joy. Right? He wants us to serve him with joy. [00:29:06] It says, come into his presence with singing. [00:29:11] Come into his presence with singing. Don't just come in and just mm, mm, mm. I mean, you know, at angel's ceremony, we blessed God even though it was a painful situation, we experienced God and blessed him, sang to him and rejoiced in Him. [00:29:36] This is how all of life should be, no matter our circumstances. Know that the Lord, he is God is he who made us. And we are His. [00:29:48] We are His. Does the potter have the right to tell the. I mean, the clay have the right to tell the potter what to do or how to do things? We are His. We are his people. The sheep of his pasture enters gates with thanksgiving. His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever in his faithfulness to all generations. [00:30:15] So we've had a week to increase our joy. Adar began last Shabbat. [00:30:20] So how have we done? [00:30:23] No. No raising hands, no testimonies right now. [00:30:27] Most people either didn't get the memo or are probably still struggling to have joy. But today we have a reminder of our reminder, and it should cause us to seek out joy with a renewed fervor. Okay, so let me just backtrack for a moment and say this. Shalom Macon is a place of joy. If you've been in here for any length of a time, you can attest to that. Shalom Makin is a place of joy. And you guys online know it as well. [00:31:03] There is when people come together, people are happy. There's love, laughter and joy all around. [00:31:12] This only goes so far. [00:31:14] Where's that joy the next day, a few days later, when we're isolated, when we're apart from one another? [00:31:23] Where's that joy when your spouse does something that irritates you? Or your children disappoint you? When you get laid off from your job, or your car breaks down, or your water heater? [00:31:36] The bottom goes out on it the day before Rosh Hashanah, which is true life, real life experience. [00:31:45] Our joy, or lack thereof, says a lot about what we truly believe. [00:31:51] We believe that God is good and he's a good God. He's the one that loves us. He's working on our behalf behind the scenes. Or do you believe that God just wants to pick on you and punish you? Or that he's hiding from you? I did a series almost exactly to the day, it's one week from now, last year, called When God is Hiding, and we touched on this topic. This is a very similar topic. But our image of God, just like our image of anybody, determines our attitude toward him and our perspective and our life in general. Sometimes God does hide. That's just part of who he is. He does hide. [00:32:37] And right now, he is hiding in a way, and especially during this time, it's our job to seek him out, to find him. [00:32:48] It's our job to find God. Because think about this. At Pearl, we read the Book of Esther. There's no mention of God, but yet there is profound evidence of God. And God's divine personal name is interwoven in the story as well to show that he is behind the scenes. He's not like the wizard of Oz, just all smoke and mirrors, right? You know, man behind the curtain. But he really is behind the scenes, controlling and doing things on our behalf. [00:33:24] This is why we wear costumes on Purim. Do you realize that this is the reason why we wear costumes on Purim? To remind us that things aren't always as they appear. [00:33:37] We can look at something and behind the mask, behind the scenes, there's something entirely different. And that's the way we need to look at all of life. Because sometimes all we can see is negativity or our problems or a broken shoe, right? [00:33:59] But God is doing something in the midst of that. He's weaving something beautiful. Have you ever seen a tapestry? Okay. Have you ever turned it over, looked at the backside? The front side is gorgeous and beautiful, right? They've spent Countless hours by hand making something like that. You flip it over and oh, my goodness, it's like quantum string theory or something. I don't know. It's just. It's just a big mess. [00:34:26] Looks like Dave wove it or something. I don't know. No, no ribbon there. [00:34:34] But you know, it is. Because behind the scenes, it depends on what side of the canvas we're looking at. We can be looking at the wrong side the whole time and what a mess. [00:34:45] But when we flip it over, we're like, holy shmoly. [00:34:49] That is amazing. [00:34:52] It's simply about perspective. [00:34:56] Just as Hashem is hidden in the Book of Esther, so is joy hidden in our trials and our circumstances. [00:35:04] Let me say it again. Just as Hashem is hidden in the Book of Esther, so is joy hidden in our trials and in our circumstances. Because that's where we find true joy when we push through those circumstances and we can come through it with joy. [00:35:27] That's true joy. True joy isn't based on our circumstances. It's not contingent upon if things are going the way that we want. True joy is consistent throughout our circumstances. [00:35:44] And we can't have joy when we don't believe that Hashem is in control, that he is good, he's working in the background. [00:35:58] When Adar comes, joy increases. So I'm going to throw in a little allusion to Rabbi's Romans series. [00:36:10] This is the interlocutor's response. [00:36:14] But, Darren, how can I increase my joy? You don't know my situation. I'm struggling to survive. I can't pay my bills, my car just broke down, my spouse is being a jerk, and my kids are out of control. On top of that, on top of all that, I got bronchitis. Ain't nobody got time for that. [00:36:31] If I were to take my joy right now, multiply it by 10, I would still have zero. Sort of like my pickleball score with the Turners. [00:36:40] How do you expect me to have joy when my life is a wreck? [00:36:51] Do we have the ability to actually choose joy? [00:36:56] I mean, you know, we can struggle to feel joy, that's fine. But how do we get past our negative state of mind to experience true joy? I've given you the goal, but I haven't given you the tools quite yet. [00:37:13] And here's the power punch. Everybody hold on. [00:37:18] I promise I won't hit lower than the waist. [00:37:21] Followers of Yeshua should be the happiest people on the planet. [00:37:28] And I'm going to help us find that joy. [00:37:31] Next week, Shabbat Shalom if you enjoyed this teaching, I want to ask you to take the next step. Start by making sure you subscribe to our channel. Next, make sure you hit the like button on this video so that others know it's worth their time to watch. Last, head over to our website to learn more about Shalom Macon, explore other teachings and events, and if you're so inclined, contribute to the work that we're doing to further the Kingdom. Thanks for watching and connecting with Shalom Macon.