This is one of hundreds of teachings given by Yoneq, Elbert Eugene Spriggs, the "super-apostle" of the Messianic Communities.

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.