May 19, 1994 - Evening Sacrifice Boston, MA.
We have to see that it's not so easy to be restored if you willfully cut yourself off and don't come to the sacrifice. Whether you're cut off or not, you have to face the judgment. You don't have the right to cut yourself off and stay in bed - it's deliberate obstinance if you remove yourself from the sacrifice. It's a very serious thing that could even be fatal. Everyone is required to come to the sacrifice whether they are a citizen or not in Israel. Even if a woman is not covered by her husband (because she's not in submission to him), she still comes to the sacrifice without her headcovering. And a man, if he is cut off, comes too, but without lifting up his hands. It's not just that because you feel bad you miss the sacrifice and stay in bed, but then when your emotions get better you come and say you're sorry and get restored to all of us. It's Messiah you need to be restored back to, not "you guys." Just as the human body is one, so also is Messiah one. You must be spiritually reunited with Him and to the Body (not just - the Body). The Body has the say-so in restoration. They speak for the Head. You need to be reconnected to Messiah, Himself.
1Jn 1:6 - talks about practicing the truth.
If we claim to have fellowship, but we walk in darkness, we are
a liar and do not practice the truth. You should be suffering
deeply over what you've done. If you're cut off from Messiah -
the source of life - you can't live and you are in torment and
anguish. We can't just go on in pretense while we're walking in
darkness - 1 Jn 3:6-10 - because it can be a fatal sin 1 Jn 5:16.
(Hobab said he was told earlier that he
spoke too much at the sacrifices and that he shouldn't speak so
much.)
We have to be careful what spirit we are speaking
in. Unless what you say is building up, then you're speaking from
another spirit. Whoever speaks, let him speak the very utterances
of God.
Ahimelech - Yahshua is the light and in Him
there is no darkness. If you come to the sacrifice you're coming
to the light where you can be exposed. Light exposes darkness.
It's obstinacy to deliberately take yourself
away from the sacrifice. We can learn from the priests of old.
They could never miss even one sacrifice. They had to go and make
a burnt offering every morning or our Father would have cut off
Israel - because it was a fatal sin. At the sacrifice, the priests
would examine every part. You have to come to the sacrifice and
let your piece be examined. We are part of the sacrifice - if
we have a defect we to come and let it be known. We need to say,
"I am not fit for the sacrifice. I love my own flesh!"
Israel can't be built that way. We need to love our Master more
than our flesh - our Master didn't withhold Himself from us in
any way. He deserves all we have to give Him.
Sameach - A lot happened for us to be able
to come into His presence. Our Master experienced horror in His
suffering so we could experience life. When we cry out to Him
He goes to our Father and intercedes for us and our Father send
us grace. This is an amazing thing.
Ex 29:42 - Regarding the morning and evening
sacrifices; we don't just come together to be with each other,
but He meets with us here and He speaks to us ("I will meet
with you to speak to you there."). He speaks to us (the whole
Body together). There is not one missing part except whoever is
absolutely accounted for. He meets the Body. The Head and Body
come together and He speaks to us. We are preparing for the next
age - our Father will meet with us and speak with us throughout
the ages. For eternity we will be His total and exact representation.
It is not beyond our imagination that every morning we would meet
with Him before we go about our daily duties in the universe.
Why wouldn't we meet with the Head before carrying out the days
activities? We prepare now for the next age no matter what we
have to go through. What if we work and work on building the café
and store and it got taken away from us because we couldn't pay
or if our Father told us to go somewhere else? None of that really
matters because the most important thing is what's going on inside
of us - what is going on in Chayah as she labors in the kitchen
all day, or Phinehas as he works all night on the café.
Our being dressed and ready is the most important thing. We're
being made worthy, suitable, comparable, compatible for our Master.
What we're doing doesn't really matter (what we can accomplish)
- what really matters is how we respond to our Father speaking
to us and how we treat each other. We are His counterpart - a
part made perfectly to fit together with another part as one.
We are being made fit for the kingdom. Lk 9:62 - We are not worthy
of the kingdom if we look back (to our flesh which we crucified).
2 Thess 1:5 - We are suffering so that we may be made worthy of
the kingdom.
That is what is going on in us. You've been
bought with a price - your life isn't your own anymore to do what
you want. Your old life is hidden in Messiah - your new life is
what you sacrifice every day to Him.
It was a very serious thing what Hobab did
- he thought he could pick and choose what he wanted to do this
morning and then just come back to the sacrifice and say, "I'm
sorry." When you cut yourself off it's like leaving the body!
You didn't physically leave, but you left the life and hope, just
like others have done; committing a fatal sin. Sometimes whole
household or whole clans will be cut off and a sacrifice will
have to be made. In Israel they had to make sacrifices for the
whole tribe (the whole community) because of unconfessed sin.
Ahimelek - In the nations if you join the army
and go to battle and desert the battle you could be imprisoned
or even killed. (A deserter is worthy of death - if he falls into
the hands of the enemy he will betray you.) It's a serious thing
to be in a battle and desert your troop. You have to see that
we're in a war here. This is our Father's army and you can't so
easily come back. We made a pledge at baptism not to leave.
That's right. You may as wall have just done
what others have done when they left the Community. What you did
by staying in bed was just as bad a sin against Messiah and His
Body Acts 22:8. Eph 4:16 - We only grow up into the Head as each
part works together as one. We think a person is in fellowship
but they are dead, not a live wire communicating life to the rest
1 Jn 1:6. They have leprosy and are giving it to everyone else
too because the body thinks that person is in fellowship when
they're actually lying. Lev 13:45 - When you come to the sacrifice
you should tear your clothes, untie your hair, and put your hand
over your mouth and cry, "Unclean! Unclean!" Let others
know you have leprosy - Let others know you are out of fellowship.
Expose your self and ask for help. It is a serious thing. You
were almost dead here and we don't want it to happen again. It's
possible that a whole household could be cut off from Israel if
they are complaining and don't repent. That's how the first Church
fell away. All of the first Church fell away because they started
coming to the sacrifices and giving ear to evil spirits that came
counterfeiting as righteousness 1 Cor 11:14-15 - not as they were
commanded Rom 11:23; 12:1,2.
Just a few people in Sardis were left in fellowship. In Laodicea they knew the ropes - they were methodical. They thought they were doing fine. We live by the Spirit, not be learning the ropes. Make sure you're not an obstacle in the Body.
(Talking to Hobab - "Do you remember when we talked about obstacles?" "No?")
Sometimes we don't really pay attention. We
don't listen, so we don't hear. Our Father said He was going to
remove every obstacle Isa 57:14. If you're an obstacle it's a
fatal sin - Matt 12:30, and He'll remove you. If I'm an obstacle,
He'll remove me. If we claim to be in fellowship and we're not,
we need to repent or He'll remove us. A person who comes to the
sacrifice after severing themselves, ought not fall on their face
and repent. To take yourself away from the sacrifice is a sin
as if one left the Body - it is fatal Heb 10:25,26.
(Yoneq speaking to Hobab) - If you had really wanted to do something about your
withered condition, you would have been here this morning to expose
it to let us know. But you didn't come - you obstinately and deliberately
stayed in bed - so you may as well have packed your bags and deserted
Messiah. If the Holy Spirit is willing to forgive you, we are
willing. We are waiting to hear what our Father's judgment is.
Of course, we don't know what our Father is going to speak until
He meets with us here in this place. We can't say "Amen"
unless the Holy Spirit is saying "amen." There is no
way of pre-planning or pre-determining what our Father will say.
1 Chron 23:30 - We are to stand - Lk 21:35
- in preparation for that day, praying and giving Him praise and
thanksgiving - THANK means confessing His name. THANKING means
confessing continually Ps 116:1,12-14. Heb 13:15 - Continually!
1 Chron 23:31 - the word "regularly" in the New International
Version is not the same connotation as in Heb 13:15 - it's a continual
sacrifice. A continual sacrifice means without letting up - Lev
25:8-10; Rev 11:15; 1 Cor 15:49-54; Col 1:22,28 - every morning
and every evening for the rest of your life (or until the Jubilee).
He will inspect the sacrifice, and if we are not free from blemish
- Phil 2:15 - we'll be cut off. When we thank Him we are confessing
His name. When we thank, we confess. If we don't confess Him before
the Body, He won't confess us before His Father. We can't thank
Him, we don't know Him. No one can confess Him except by the Holy
Spirit - Ruach ha Kodesh. That's why He inspects us. We have to
be here where inspection goes on - we can't miss it. This is a
priestly duty.
Heb 13:15; 1 Peter 2:9 - It is not just a few,
but all (let us mean ALL of us) who offer a sacrifice - no one
can make our sacrifice for us. The life of the Body depends on
the whole sacrifice - Rom 12:1 - "You" is plural (all
of us together - tribe by tribe; household by household, clan
by clan, tribe by tribe) - 1 Cor 12:12,26,27; 1 Peter 2:4-12.
It is made by the Body, standing as one man before our Father
as a burnt offering. Heb 13:15 - Confess His name. GIVE THANKS
and CONFESS are the same word. It carries over from the Hebrew.
Confess doesn't just mean to acknowledge, but it's greater than
that. A confession comes from the center-most pat of you - from
the deepest part of your being. No one is saved until He confesses
that Yashua is Sovereign. Rom 10:9-10 - You haven't been saved
unless you have made the confession that you are deeply thankful
for your salvation and you believe. That's salvation. It's important
for man to believe in his heart that God raised Yahshua from the
dead. Christians believe in their minds.
Sameach - What do we have that' s greater than
our attachment (staying connected) to our Master, Yahshua, and
His people? Do we think that we can put aside our life for awhile
and leave the Community and go out and do other things and then
come back? Why would you want to give up your connection to our
Master?
It's not just our wanting to, but it's the
evil one coming in and deceiving us with His cunning and schemes.
We want to give a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving tonight.
You can't give what you don't have. If you don't have it you will
give it from your brain, not from the depths of your heart - the
difference between gnosticism and reality. Reality is something
that we've seen, touched, and felt - it's real and tangible. The
gospel is the corporeal reality of brothers and sisters that love
one another. We have something real - we are friends. It is something
that the enemy tries to take away.
Hobab, I want you to see what you've done so
you will never do it again. We want you to speak, but only words
of life. The spiritual know when our Father is speaking and when
He is not - then the spiritual can't say "Amen". We
must be hearing and passing on the word, but not from our brain.
If we do it's sin - then we are seeking our own glory. Do you
have peace? Pass on what our Father says to you - faith comes
by hearing.
(Hobab said he wanted to repent for missing
the morning sacrifice and not exposing his withered condition
so that he could be helped.)
Do we feel like he should be restored or cut
off for a few more days so that he can see the severity of what
he did? (There was a short silence and no one responded, so
Yoneq persisted in asking.) What should we do? Do we want
to restore him and help him? You decide. You're the body of Messiah.
He totally identifies with his people. When you touch the Body,
you touch our Master. Should we restore Him or not? (Silence).Alright,
everyone who thinks that Hobab should be restored, raise your
hand. (ha-Emeq and a few others raised their hands, so Yoneq
asked ha-Emeq what she was thinking.)
ha-Emeq - We've heard that we don't want to
force people to do penance. He told us he was sorry and we have
to believe what a person ways - that they are sincere. We can't
go past that. If we wait it won't be any different three days
from now unless we wait and "make him do penance". So
I think we should restore him.
(Hobab started to cry and repented for
putting Yahshua to public shame and for not coming to the sacrifice
and extending his withered hand.)
He's sorry for not coming and extending his
withered hand. Let's bring him back and restore him. If a brother
repents we forgive him. We don't wait until he does penance. (Michael
Skinner repented for not being his brother's keeper because he
had noticed that Hobab was still in bed and he didn't say anything
to anyone.)
AMEN!
The order that our Father has established in the Body is so wonderful! Eph 5:22 - Wives submit to their husbands because their husbands are in submission to our Master, who is the Head of the Body. A woman isn't required to life up her hands because man does it for her while she holds the baby or takes the children out to deal with them. You women wear a headcovering for us as a sign to the angels and we lift up our hands for the women. The women wear the headcoverings. The men don't. They wear them because they are in submission and the holy angels see that! The angels just love what's happening here! God, Messiah, man, woman - it's a wonderful order.