Prepared for Power Part 2
Prepared for Power • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Super Power
Super Power
For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.
The word for sins here is chattat חַטָּאָת referring to both accidental or unintentional and deliberate sins.
Today, the 10th day of Tishrei, is considered the most holy or highest holiday of Jewish feasts. It is Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. It marks the culmination of the Ten Days of Awe or ten days of seeking the face of God and repenting (teshuvah תשובה meaning to return; or turn back to what is right and pleasing to God), not only for the things we have done against Him and others, but also for that which is displeasing to Him within us. It is a time of asking for God’s mercies and continued favor upon our lives.
What thoughts, feelings, ideas and choices, that you know are not the will of the Father, are creating turmoil inside of you today?
The Ten Days of Awes are typically preceded with a 25 hour time of fasting and prayer. It is a time to search one’s entire innermost being for any kavanah (intentions) that are unholy or unrighteous and displeasing to God. It is to repent to God for any form of the spirit of idolatry or adultery or anything that breaks covenant with God.
It is believed that the first Yom Kippur was during the Exodus following Moses coming down and finding the people of God worshipping a false idol. He destroyed the tablets. They repented and God showed them mercy. He will do the same for you but you have to choose His way, His will and follow His plan.
It reminds me of a baseball story where the teams best pitcher refused to play.
Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, one of the most famous Jewish athletes in American sports, made national headlines when he refused to pitch in the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. When Koufax’s replacement Don Drysdale was pulled from the game for poor performance, he told the Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Walter Alston, "I bet you wish I was Jewish, too?”
Yom Kippur was the one day a year that the high Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
Before Yom Kippur one is to not only repent to God but reconcile and repent to all others they have wronged or have division with. This is not optional, this is a must.
So, with this brief description and history of Yom Kippur, what does this have to do with you? What is the point? Let’s see if you can start connecting the dots here. It reveals one of the absolute most powerful attributes of God that He has endowed you with through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is a gift more powerful than speaking in Hebrew or tongues. It is more power than any prophecy a prophet could give you or you give another. It is life changing and liberating. It has the power to heal broken hearts, overcome division, breakdown walls, restore families and strengthen marriages. It is a power that was prepared for you and you for it.
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Did you figure it out. There are all kinds of spiritual gifts God has given us. Even the disciples of Jesus were being prepared to heal the sick, cast out devils and raise the dead. They were being prepared by Jesus to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and spread the Gospel of Christ to the world. But if they could not embody this most fundamental pre-requite of spiritual powers, they could do nothing.
But Matthew 6:15 troubles many believers. Here, Jesus is laying out a precept and principle for what it looks like to be a true “Follower” of the Christ.
In the days of the Tabernacle, the High priest was the one who was to go into the Holy of Holies and seek atonement for the peoples sins. But Jesus is our High Priest. His perfect blood has made perfect atonement. That which the blood of bulls and goats could not do.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”
This atonement reconciles you with God but it was believed that God cannot choose to reconcile you with another lest you repent and forgive one another. You might be saying, “Yeah, but I was taught that Jesus forgive all my sins but forgiving others was not part of the deal.” You better read your bible closely.
It is here, when you reconcile one with another, that God’s mercy and justice meet and the work of Christ can truly atone for your sins.
If you were to truly open your eyes to the utter depravity of your own soul in light of the overwhelming redemptive work of God’s mercy towards you, then the wrongs of others against you would pale in comparison. To ask from God what you would withhold from another is an assault upon God’s character. Forgiveness is not yours to withhold anymore than the one tree in Eden was for man’s own pleasure.
Forgiveness is at the very root of surrender to the way of Christ. To grow you must plant, to live you must die, to receive you must give. Surrender is not defeat. Absolute surrender to Christ is a strength of life and it’s power is found in repentance and forgiveness.
What in your life are you doing on your own? What plans are you making that you have decided on your own void of any consideration of God’s desire? What is shaking your resolve to surrender all of you to the Savior and Lord? What weight are you carrying that needs the super power of God’s forgiveness, mercy and grace?
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Many of us have seen movies of great powers men have tried to harness like the nine rings of Lord of the Rings or the six stones in Marvel Comics. But the true power is in Christ. Christ prepared the way for you to walk in this super power. Today, Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) would be a good day to reconcile with others, or within your own heart if they are not available. As well, a good day to reconcile with God those things that are troubling you. The High Priest has entered in to the Holy of Holies. The blood of the Lamb of God has been sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of Heaven. The covenant has been sealed. The veil standing between you and the face of God has been torn. Full atonement has been made. Will you come?