Paula White (3:20)
For saying yes to the calling, for changing the world by filling the world with the glory of Jesus Christ today. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't wait to take God's word is your answer. We are entering a divine supernatural season set by God himself, the feast season of atonement. Now there's really three parts to that. It starts with Rosh Hashanah, which is the feast of trumpets on sundown, September 22nd till September 24th. Then we go into 10 days of all. But you say, what is all that about? Today we're going to teach about that. So get out your Bible, your notebook, your journal, because you'll see that this season is all as all the few seasons are all about Jesus. They're all about the blood covenant that God made with mankind. Which brings us to Yom kippur or atonement, that is October 2nd, which starts at sundown on October 1st and goes through sundown October 2nd. Then it goes into what I call party time. That's sukkot or tabernacles. Five days later, sundown, October 6th through October 13th, you see the harvest, that's where they go out and they would tabernacle with God. Why? Because when Jesus came what happen? He left the physical tabernacle and he tabernacles with us. So let's go to Leviticus chapter 23 and understand how this divine supernatural setup season is important to you as a New Testament believer and how you practice it and what do you do with it. Because the Jewish mindset, which is very important, when God had them build memorials, when they looked back, when they look back at Passover, when they look back at atonement, say take Passover, they came out of Egyptian bondage for 400 years, right? That's another divine feast. When they look back and remembered what God had done. Because in the spirit realm, it's much different than the natural. It activated that same spiritual release. So they believed that God would bring deliverance today to them. You getting it? So here's what we're going to look at with Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is going to be all about repentance. Now we think, oh, I've done that when I got saved, what, 22 years ago, 10 months ago, no God saying, stop. I want you to really examine yourself, to really take a deep look. Now, Paul teaches us that as we partake of the body and the blood atonement, that let every man examine himself. That if you don't repent, if you don't get this right, if you keep a grudge on the inside, live in unforgiveness, have an attitude, talk bad slander, gossip, sleep around, take the whole buffet of all the things that can offend you and separate you from God. Because God is holy. And he's saying, if you do these things and you just take up the body and the blood carelessly, he said, it brings sickness and even death to you. You see, we think there aren't consequences in God saying, I want to show you a pattern. This is a holy day. This is a time that I've set apart. Not for you to go slaughter a goat or a bull. You don't have to do that, a sheep or a lamb. But what you do have to do is recognize I already slaughtered the lamb of God. His name is Jesus. And through that perfect sacrifice, you aren't covered for your sin. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So I want you to remember the blood, remember the sacrifice, remember the price. And prior to that, I'm going to give you this 12, 14 day type of window. God says, I'm going to give you this window from Rosh Hashanah, which on the Jewish calendar is the head of the year or the new year. It's like our January 1st. And then they go into 10 days of all. I want you to examine yourself. So Leviticus, chapter 23, verse 1 and 2. The Lord spake to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel, say to them concerning the feast Moets, a divine appointment set by God. The feast of who? The Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy. Convocations, even. These are my feasts. Now, God set a divine appointment with you. And I'll say it over and over, you are in a supernatural divine miracle working season set by God himself. And God moves in seasons and cycles. And while we're not under the law, we're not to do away and say, oh, that didn't happen, or that doesn't apply to us. These are his special days. And the bottom line is that God wants to meet with you. So these feast seasons, and there are three feast seasons with seven different Feasts. We're going into the fall feast. And what's so important about this to us as believers? You'll see when we get to tabernacles. And you'll see as I teach this series of this divine appointment. The importance is Maranathan, you might say, oh, I don't even know what that means. Come quickly, Lord. The importance is Jesus is coming back and there will be a day that you will ultimately tabernacle with him. Passover has been fulfilled in the natural and the spiritual. Pentecost has been fulfilled. That's the birth of the church in the natural and the spiritual. The only feast which is now a rehearsal like we're practicing, to us as New Testament believers that has not been fulfilled is atonement to the Jewish people. They want to leave and they want to open up their temple on the mountain of Jerusalem. There's. There's a lot taking place that you need to be aware of right now that is setting things up for us as Christians. We believe that the Lord will come back and he will come during this. We don't know the day, we don't know the hour. No man, not even Jesus knows. But we do have quite a few clues. We can see through the mysteries of God's word that it will most likely be in the set time of atonement during this time. So we rehearse. We're rehearsing. So these times serve as occasions to honor God, to release special blessings. During this appointment, there are times that he calls us, as I said to say, stop. Submit yourself. Dedicate all of your spiritual activities to these holy days to Him. What they do is interrupt the ordinary, everyday occurrences of lives. They give a spiritual powerful consecration for the future that God has for us. If you just look at his calendar to get you to for the next few weeks to really focus in on God, think about the spiritual elevation that will happen in your life. These are expressions for us of worship, of dedication, of our love, of our commitment of our service to the Lord. The feasts of Israel were all built on the foundation of God's blood covenant with mankind. They were physical rituals that we don't have to do to help the children of Israel understand and align with spiritual truths and prophetic events. And that's what I'm trying to get to you. Because these divine appointments, these feasts, had threefold application. Number one, they're just practical. Number two, they're spiritual. And number three, they're prophetic. Now, we already know you've been redeemed. If you're born again by the blood of Jesus Christ. You don't go get saved again. You're not required to follow the ancient blood sacrifices for our sins to be atoned. That was settled at the cross when he was crucified, buried in a borrowed tomb, descended to hell, conquered death, hell and the grave, rose again on the third day and ultimately ascended to heaven, sat down at the right hand side of the Father after He put his blood on the altar and atoned for our sin. Now, in the book of Hebrews, it says that he did this once and for all, which means one sacrifice would be ultimately made to break the power of sin over mankind because of the first Adam. So we're not trying to get Jesus to atone for our sins. That's been done. We are recognizing that he has atoned for our sins. That he became the Passover lamb, that he gave his only begotten Son, that He laid down his life, that the joy of the cross was set before him. The joy that he was joyful in doing this so that you and I could have relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So while we don't celebrate in a legalistic way, James, chapter 2, verse 10. It's impossible to keep exactly these feasts. It is beneficial for you and for me to honor, honor God during these times. And we always look at principles and patterns and we rehearse them to activate them. What God desires is a heart after him and obedience. So the Lord is saying through these feasts his divine appointments. Remember me. Remember the price I've paid. Hey you. Paula. Most of all, remember my love for you. When the enemy tells you you're not worthy, when those voices are just rearing in your head that makes you feel like a failure. When you think that you're unlovable and you're depressed and that there's no future and that that power of sin cannot be broken over you. And your mama was this way and your granddaddy was this way. Remember me? Okay, so let's go and find out how we apply this to you right now. We're going to go all the way back to Genesis. I'm not going to take you to Revelation not in one show, but Genesis 1:1 14. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then God said, let lights in the expanse of the sky be separating the day from the night. They will be for signs and for seasons. That word, seasons, is moadimoad. It's the same word as feast. And for days and for years. So why did God create the sun, the moon and the stars? You're going to say, oh, so we could look up and say, beautiful nature. Oh, so I could have sunlight and moonlight. They are not just ornaments strung in the sky for decoration or instruments to tell time or navigate us or for the earth to stay together perfectly. Instead, the purpose was creation points to the Creator. Have you ever looked up at a moon, a full moon, and just been like, in awe? Have you felt the beam of the sun and just looked up in the sky even maybe perhaps before you knew God and you thought, this is so magnificent. This is so glorious. The sun, the moon, the stars, they usher God's people into worship. Even the pagans look to all that, to worship and create all these gods until God revealed himself as the one, the true, the only God. That's what God desires. He wants real intimacy and relationship with you. And he says all the way over in the New Testament, look, if you don't praise me, the rocks will cry out. He said, all of creation points to my glory. That's what God says. So deeply woven into the very fabric of creation is worship. And worship's not what you just do on Sunday morning. All of creation also points us to the Jewish celebrations. Now you go. Okay. What am I supposed to get from this? Stay with me. God created and instituted these divine appointments as Israel and to be for all of mankind, his cycle of worship. So the Hebrew moad means appointed time festivals. It's used here in Genesis 1:14 and in the same way it appears in Leviticus 23. These Moabs, these festivals. So the heavenly bodies, such as the sun and the moon, lights in the expanse of the sky, are appointed times. Moedim from Leviticus 23. We understand that the appointed times are not the seasons of the year, Spring, fall, summer and winter, but they're the times of worship set forth by God as these festivals. So God wasn't saying, hey, I want to institute a fall back and spring forward, change your clock. That was instituted by a government. What God wanted to institute was cycles of worship. Have you ever thought about that? So, yes, we're commanded to go to church, not forsake the assembling of ourself. That's the very basics. Yes, we're commanded to bring his tithe into the storehouse to give offerings. Yes, we're commanded to pray all these things, but God says, I want a little bit more. Now, if you really live by the New Testament, the early church gave all everything. They went from house to house every single day. Worshiping God, having church service. They went to church seven days a week. So God's saying, this is how I instituted. If you grew up in church, in a denomination, maybe you went to camp or. When I got saved, I went to Delmarva, which is Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee. And we would go every summer we would go to camp meeting. And I remember I was 18 years old, I heard Perry Stone preach for the first time on the ashes of the red heifer. And I was like, it blew me away. He's probably still preaching on it. But I looked so forward. I took off work for that week. I got my stuff ready for that week. I found a place close to stay. Why? Because I wanted to spend a week with God. We would have revival, we'd have an evangelist and come in in the first fall and he would preach for seven days. And we would be in all night prayer, we would fast, we would pray, we'd be in morning service, afternoon service, evening service. Remember what I'm talking about? That's kind of how God instituted it. We're so far from that in our modern day culture. We give God 30 minutes and think we've done a big favor. And God saying, I want you to remember these things, whatever, how many ever days. It's going to be 20 days. Some are one day, some are, you know, 12 days. I want you to set aside this time. And it's not a literal do it like the Old Testament, but it's a remembrance. Our life is to be ordered around these dates, these divine appointments that God himself set up with you. These get togethers with God. Not shifted based on availability, but God saying, hey, this is my calendar, I didn't change it. They're to be kept eternally. And though you don't practice under the law, I still want to meet with you. And the importance of the meeting, of this atonement is for you to understand. I sent my son and saved you not just to get to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth. There's many so, so much that might be missing in your life that God wants to release. And it's not just blessing after blessing. There's obedience, there's requirements, there's assignments, there's purpose. You can be living a life, die, go to heaven. And you have missed the whole purpose of you coming to earth. You're carrying something great and God wants to reveal that to you. God wants to, to make your life with. When I say with ease, I don't mean like happy, easy in purpose. Because when you're in purpose. Though the devil fights you, though all hell can break loose, there is a grace on your walk because you're in alignment with God. Rosh Hashanah provides us with a clean slate, a fresh start, a do over from anything in our life that we feel is wasted, are unworthy. Rosh Hashanah is repentance. It's the opportunity to start again. And that's what God is reminding you of on Rosh Hashanah, the first head of the year, the new year. That's a holy appointment that starts the days of all. For 10 days. God saying, I want you to search your life. I want you to get alone and not be in front of the tv, not be consumed with all your to do lists and what you got to do at work and working your three jobs. I need you to really look because you're going to waste five years, three years, three months if you don't get a hold of yourself and really look where you are versus where I want to pay. Place you and there's no time in the realm of the Spirit. God can do a work like that. It doesn't matter what you are carrying today, where you came from, what you did, how much of last year was wasted, or last decade. God is offering you a new beginning. And that's what this is all about. A do over a fresh slate. Rosh Hashanah trumpets, the Feast of Trumpeth trumpets. That's what it's known as, is the day of the sounding of the shofar. The blowing of the shofar is why the holiday is known as that. Now I bet there's not hardly a person here that's not been in a service somewhere that there is a trumpet, right? A ram's horn, a shofar, and somebody is sitting there blowing it. You're laughing right now because you always make fun of that person. But what that shofar is, is a spiritual alarm. And the main theme of Rosh Hashanah is repentance. Return to God. Now, how many of you I know you've said this, Joel, chapter two. You've always said, the cankerworm, the Palmer worm, the locust, all these plagues that have devoured you, that the Lord will restore to you the days that were wasted, the years that were wasted. And you go, yes, that's me. The years that were wasted. But what does he say before that? Restoration. Because remember, this all leads to somewhere. Repentance to the blood, to restoration. Blow ye the trumpet in ZION. Joel, chapter 2, verse 1. Sound the alarm in my holy Mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. It means a coronet, a clear sound, a ram's horn. The shofar blast was intended to bring trembling self reflection, get rid of complacency, self contained independence. It's a return to the Lord. He says, before I restore the wasted years, return to me. What does that word mean in the Hebrew? It means turn back. It means return, come back, return, restore, refresh, repair, bring back, make requital, recompense, reverse. Repentance is this. And I'll leave you with this. It's a movement back to the point of departure. It means to reverse a direction. It means to return along a path that has already been traversed. Repentance has to do with reconsidering our ways for his way. It means I turn 180 degrees, not 360. I turn around to the place I've departed. So let me ask you, how are you treating your loved ones? What's your attitude? What do you wake up and think about the first thing in the morning? Who are you agitated with? Who are you? What triggers you into anger? Examine yourself. That's what Trumpets is all about. My dear friend. It's about repentance. And that's a word that modern Christianity and progressive Christianity wants to do away with. But this Bible never changes. There is no way to God without repentance. And this Jewish holiday that was celebrated by the disciples and Jesus himself and all the way through Revelation is to remind us New Testament believers, you don't get to the blood without repentance. That's what Trumpets is about. And I want you to take the day of trumpets and the 10 days of all and reflect. Look at your life. What needs to be changed, what needs to be turned around? If you do it, I promise you the blessings. When I say blessings, I mean everything gets okay overnight. The real blessings, the alignment of God, the promises of God, the purpose of God in your life will come to pass. God's appointment with us is an opportunity to honor him for what he has done in our life. So as we honor this time, remember these are holy days that have been set by God from Genesis to Revelation. No, you don't have to do this Legalistic, you go get to do this. To honor God, to reflect, to repent. Days of all 10 days. Look on the inside of you. Remember the blood. Anyone that tramples the blood, that you make Jesus guilty and a partaker of that trespass. The blood is everything to us. And I promise you he's coming back. He's coming back for a spotless bride. He's coming back for you. So atonement, what do we do during trumpets? We repent. What do we do during atonement? It's prayer and fasting. It's giving, it's studying God's word. It's a fresh commitment. And I believe that this is a season of sacrifice. And God says in Deuteronomy 16, don't stand before me empty handed. Not because we give to get something from God, but when we give our very best, we honor the blood. What can I give God for what he's done for me? You can take every possession I have I've ever had, it won't even be a drop in the bucket. Not even drop in the bucket. He took a messed up Mississippi girl. He saved her. Every prognosis against me was I'd never be anything. I'd probably be in prison, I'd probably be an addict. I would definitely be a mental basket case. But God said, no, no clean stuff late. Paula, do over, do it my way. And watch. I'll make you a new creation. What gave me the power to do that? The finished work of Jesus Christ through his blood. So during this time, what do I give to God? My very best. And that's all I want to give you an opportunity for. Think about the price, think about what he did for you. Make it fresh in your life and really put pray about what you want to honor God with as an atonement offering.
