Midweek Lesson

Hello everyone. Welcome to our Midweek University, Cornerstone Apostolic Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's always a privilege and a pleasure to be with you. My name is Pastor Raymond Sloan, and I am excited to be with you this evening in our midweek study. Uh, every Wednesday night, we gather at 6314 East Briner Road in Chattanooga. We have our Bible lesson. Uh we have other classes as well. Uh a lot of things for kids and teenagers alike. But um this particular session is a just a Bible class. And I'm excited to be here with you.

You can go to our website if you want information about us. Uh cacchanooga.org and um click around in there. You can put prayer requests. It'll give you all the upcoming events and whatnot. I uh ask you to do that. It's so important to be connected and we ask you and invite you to do so. Okay. Uh we have spent the entirety of 2025 uh to date talking our way through the tabernacle. That was God's plan for um his people. It was the way that they were to interact with him, communicate with him, um spend time with him.

God gave to Moses all of the plans, all of the how-tos or what fours, uh what materials would be needed, the dimensions, how to put it together, all of those things you can read about in the book of Exodus. There's great detail there. uh I invite you to do so just just for the fact that if you better understand I feel if you better understand the way and the purpose that God initially wanted to spend time with man then it will help you to understand 2025 how much he wants to spend time with us as his church.

Tonight though for this lesson I just wanted to spend a few moments talking about the sacrifices that were made in the tabernacle. In January we began um this series through the year but in January we started with the basic reason why God wanted uh to spend time with man and how that he would accept what they did. And in so doing, we learned that God uh required a sacrifice. In order for he as God to interact with us as humans, there had to be a blood sacrifice because because the life was in the blood when it was shed for the purpose of honoring God, worshiping him the way he said to, then he would respond and he would interact with humanity.

God gave the plan to Moses and then Moses distributed those ideas and plans to those people that God gave wisdom to and so forth. The people would bring offerings, gold, silver, bronze, materials, so forth and and the workers would put together and assemble this tabernacle. But in the midst of that, the animals that God also had created through Genesis, God said now we you need to bring an animal uh without spot, without blemish, without um mites, without hair problems, without scabs and so forth has to be set aside for God.

Now, all the other animals of course were for humanity. um all the other animals that they had in their in their uh herds or in the groups of and they kept in their coups or in their houses or whatever that was for them. But God said, "If you're going to know me and you're going to spend time with me, then you need to bring one of those animals intentionally on purpose set aside ready to give to me as God. And then I will accept your sacrifice.

and in so doing I will spend time with you. Now I some might ask even in today's technology in today's world why is a sacrifice that almost sounds gross and probably it does. It almost sounds like it's unnecessary and and very possibly that could be the case in your mind. But when the God of all creation spoke and everything happened in all of the Genesis account that you can read day 1 2 3 4 5 and six, you'll discover that everything was done intentionally. We do not serve a God that is haphazard.

Okay? In so doing, God wanted to make sure that we had what we needed throughout history, throughout all of time to be able to communicate with him. So that's a really roundabout way of of basically laying a platform for tonight's session in that the tabernacle was God's way of communicating, connecting with humanity. And in so doing, there were different kinds of offerings that would be required depending on the circumstance or the situation. You could bring, for an example, a burnt offering. The burnt offering, of course, was um an example to you and I in 2025.

It was an example of of Jesus's work in us. Uh the burnt offering was to be a male bulock uh without blemish. had to be set aside, pushed aside, made sure that there was nothing wrong with it, no blemishes on that bulock. And it was given to God to say, "This is the best. This is the cleanest. This is the what we have invested the most time and energy for, and we give it to you." It also had to be burned on the altar of sacrifice.

And the burning of that clean flesh, if you will, was a savor, a smell, an odor that ascended up into the heavens. Uh, Leviticus, of course, is the the Levitical law that was given through the understanding that if you're going to have a tabernacle, a place that is holy and dedicated to God, it will take certain people to work in it. If your hands are bloody through war, if you're a conniver, if you're somebody that's not honest, if you're somebody that's not trustworthy, God said, "That's not that's not I don't need you here to do that.

I need somebody that's able to connect with me." Therefore, the Levites, they were called from the tribe of Levi. They were set aside for this priestly duty. It was up to them to make sure then that as the Israelites, the people of God would come with their sacrifice that they would assist them in doing so. Now, the burnt offering, um, you can read the details again in Leviticus chapter 1. You can read how that it was done, what it was done for, what to do with the meat, what to do with the flesh, what to do with the pieces of meat, uh the intestines and so forth.

All of that was done intentionally. Once the burnt offering was understood, then there was a second type of offering and that was in Leviticus chapter 2. It was called the meat offering, the meal offering. And that would basically be flour. It would be something that was fabricated from the field, the wheat, ground down into fine flour and it could be brought to God as well. Um, it symbolized his deity uh the the that Jesus's deity to us in 2025. Uh, it symbolizes to us that it's pure, symbolizes to us that it's clean and refined, that it doesn't have any impurities in it.

That's the meat offering. Again, Leviticus 2 would give you all of those details. And then Leviticus 3, Leviticus 7, you can go to what is was called the peace offering. Um, the peace offering was basically a portion of the offering that was brought would be used to make things right between the person, the individual that did the wrong against someone or against God or against their family. They would bring that and a portion would be go would go for the offering and a portion would go for the priesthood.

And what it was for was to make amends, make peace if you will, between the person who had done the offense and the things of God. Um, again, you can read in Leviticus 3 that history and you can find all the specific details of it. It's very very much drawn out there. And then lastly, uh, the sin and trespass offering. That's Leviticus 4, Leviticus chapter 5. Uh, the sin offering was for the nature of sin. Um, trespass offering was when you actually committed a sin that you knew about.

You did something it was wrong. You went against the law of God. You did not uh fully commit yourself to the things of God and you would stumble, fall intentionally, maybe. Well, there was a way for you to be recompensed, brought back to, and that was through the sin or the trespass offering. Now, I went quickly, really quickly, through the five types of offerings. There are other offerings that were also done. There was a wave offering, a heave offering. Uh there was all kinds of offering.

You could just bring an offering to God just because you love him and you just wanted to worship him by bringing this to the tabernacle. But the reason I wanted to go over that was to bring it to a point of one time a year specifically um the people of God were required to once again realign themselves with God. Imagine if you will if there were 30 people involved in this. It would be pretty simple. You could say your day is Monday, your day is Tuesday, your day's whatever and you could just simply put that together.

But when it's three million plus people, things can get convoluted. Maybe things can kind of take a turn. Things can happen that um you're not sure about. Things can get put out of order. And as good as the le the Levites were at keeping things in line, keeping things in conjuncture one with another, there would be a day of atonement, it was called. And of course, we have found out through our study that atonement by its definition is simply to be at one with to once again align yourself with God's purpose and plan for your life.

And that would be a day that was set aside where the high priest would take off his normal priestly garments that he wore in the typical day in and day out. And he would basically dress himself in different Leviticus 16-1 17 again uh you can go and read each of the details. And he would dress in complete white attire. He would take a sacrifice. He had two uh animals brought. He would one of them he would kill. He would make the sacrifice. He would go wash in the labor, he would change his clothes and he would go in with the blood into the holy place.

And then from that point, once the shoe bread was there, once the candlestick, once the altar of incense, everything was in conjunction there, he would then go into the mercy seat and sprinkle the blood. He would come out when he was finished with that procedure back through the holy place out into the outer court and he would take the blood and on the second goat he would apply blood to the head and that would transfer the sins of man to that goat and then that goat would be taken out into the wild.

That was the day of atonement. Now some of you may be sitting here wondering what does this have to do with the price of tea wherever? Well, the fact again remains as I stated at the outset of this lesson. Um, if we don't understand the best that we can the things that have gone on in the past, then we stand a chance of forgetting the things that are going to happen in the future. I I will say this, the older I get, the more that I uh am more interested in my family history.

I'll go there. my grandparents, my greatgrandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins from in distant places. And the reason that it interests me, I may not have been near as interested at 20 years old as I am now, but the reason is because it tells me more and more about myself that why that that my family came from a certain part of the world or why that this particular action or activity happened at a certain time in my life. And if I understand that, then I stand a better chance of helping my children, grandchildren to understand it as well.

And what our history, what our past does for us, it always helps us to stay aligned to our future. Now, the thing about uh the history of the word of God, man, it's deep and wide. You can jump in it, you can study, you can dive as deep as you want to go and you'll find so much cool information that was intentionally put there by the writers to make it relevant to where we are today, 2025. Allow me to say this. I am thankful that I can better understand through the study of the word.

I can better understand why God required certain things to be done a certain way. It makes me to understand more so the fact that God was so detaileoriented that things matter with him. Um there's a lot of things, actions, activities in life that can be very haphazard. Uh driving in Chattanooga, an example. Uh you take your life in your own hands. We understand that. But when it comes to the things of God, I don't want to be in the driver's seat trying to figure out how to navigate it.

I I want to know that through the eons and generations of time that there has been concerted effort to preserve, to understand, to wrap your mind and heart around the things that God wants us to understand. The day of atonement for us, for you and I, is so important in that in all of the craziness and all the wickedness and all the the stuff that can happen in our lives, if we can get ourselves back in line with God, it allows us one more time to thank him, to love him, to serve him, but also more than that, it lets us to know him and his faithfulness to us.

There's nothing like the peace of God there. There's nothing like the love of God that that allows his his life and his breath to breathe into us hope and joy. I don't know about you, but there are there are many times in my life that I'm confused. Quite honestly, I not sure why things have happened the way they have or maybe I'm I'm not really understanding the reason or the purpose of something. and and I know that God is in in my life and I know that God is in control, but there are times when I I have to be reminded of the fact that it is truly his plan.

And if I get out of sync with him and I I take off on my own tangent to try to figure out the better way that I can do things, then I find myself again in the mess. So, I'm thankful for the day of atonement today, 2025. What does that mean for you and I? Well, let me introduce you to the man Jesus. It is through the blood of Jesus Christ, that sacrifice that was given that we too are given the opportunity today to know him and to realign oursel with him.

Uh the the only perfect human that we know of in history was Jesus himself. and that sacrifice of his life. If you can go back into the Levitical law, find what the purpose of those sacrifices were, then we can better understand just, if I can say it this way, just how valuable we are to him. I'm thankful for the blood of Jesus. How about you? I'm thankful for the cross and what it means in my life even today. I'm glad that he doesn't let me just wander around in darkness, but I can be at one with him.

Um, in this lesson tonight, I know that there's a lot of directions that we could have gone. There's a lot of things we can look at. I I ask I invite you to come to our website every week. You'll find new information, updated lessons and messages and and and connect. Follow the string, the line through the messages and the and the lessons being taught because it'll help you to better understand what God has in store for you. The blood of Jesus still works. Yes, you can call on the name of Jesus with your heart.

You can believe, trust him, focus on him, get away from all the mess and the stuff that you're perhaps a part of. You can ask forgiveness of sins and he can wash you. He can cleanse you. He can give you your mind back. He can give you your joy. And then as you've repented of your sins, you can make a decision. You know what? I need these sins to go away. I don't want to just reshuffle them. I want them to go away. And you do that through baptism in the name of Jesus.

When that blood of Jesus is applied in baptism, that name is put on your life. Those sins then are what the scripture says are remitted. They're paid for and they're washed away. And then he doesn't leave you in that state to again fall back into a position to where humanity takes over. Sin begins to creep back in and you mess up again. You you now are floundering around not knowing what to do. But the promise is for you that he will fill you with his spirit.

He confirms that through the word of God by the infilling of the Holy Spirit into your life. You'll know that that's happened. There'll be no question about it because you'll hear yourself speak in tongues as the spirit gives utterance to you. Listen carefully. There there can be a lot of confusion about what it takes to make heaven your home. I I declare to you that the tabernacle gives us 100% the answers that we need. And that is follow the plan. Understand the sacrifice, what it's for.

Give yourself to the things of God and watch the plan of God step by step unfold in your life. I love you and and I I think God has great plans for you. Uh I don't know where you are today. you driving home from work or you're maybe sitting at your desk or you could be laying in your bed in the middle of the night just trying to figure out what to do. I I invite you to call on the name Jesus. Understand that he wants you to be at in sync with him, at one with him, and through the sacrifice, through the blood, he can cleanse and wash you.

You can have joy and peace. you can live a life that's overcoming and you don't have to deal with all the stuff of your past. I appreciate so much you joining with us for our midweek session here. I want to pray with you before you go. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you so much for the power of the blood. Thank you, Jesus, for the sacrifice that you went through on Calvary, dying on a cross, going into a tomb, and then on the third day for rising from the dead.

I thank you for that. I believe Lord, you have a plan for every individual, every family, every home, Lord, every heart that's hungry for you. You can become real to them. You can make them one with you. Lord, I pray right now, Jesus, that you would bless every hearer, every listener, Lord, as they go forward this week, God. Encourage them in the Holy Ghost. Give them strength. Let them find, Lord, salvation in your name. Help them, Lord, as they grow. Let them understand better and better each day your will and your purpose for their lives.

In the name of Jesus, we commend this time to you. We're thankful, Lord, that you've allowed us time together. In your precious name, we pray. Amen. Again, one more time, I invite you to come and connect with us here at CAC uh the website cacchanooga.org. You're welcome to join us there. Come see us in sir in person 6314 East Brainard Road in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I love you guys. Till next time, I believe in you. Have a wonderful weekend