Talk 6
BRO. BO SANCHEZ:
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path.
Leviticus 16: 1, 3,5:
“Bro. Bo what are we reading about? I don’t understand a thing of you just read.”
I’m telling you, we are going to look at the symbols. But more important, we are going to look at the meaning behind the symbols because they are going to speak to our heart.
I want you to put your hand on your chest and say: Father, speak to me.
You brought me to this place. This is a Divine appointment. From the very beginning of time, you planned this. And so, I am here, standing on holy ground, and I will receive Your Word that will change my life and that will bless me.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Today, I want to preach the message You Can Start Over.
There are people here, you’ve made some mistakes—and you are in a mess right now. Or, at least one area of your life is in a mess. Or, you did not make a mistake but other people around you made some mistakes and right now, you are caught in a bind. And in your heart, you want to start over.
And some of you, you’re frustrated. And you want to give up. But we just sang a song that says that Someone will not give up on us.
And I want to preach this as loudly, and as clearly, and as confidently, and as boldly as I can: You, if you’re losing hope right now, or, you are just tired, and you do not know what to do—I’m giving you God’s Word.
God is telling you: “You can start over.”
Everybody, inhale. Hmmm.
What does that mean? You’re alive. And while you are alive, you can start over. There is hope. Because God is our hope.
And I want to preach this as loudly, and as clearly, and as confidently, and as boldly as I can: You, if you’re losing hope right now, or, you are just tired, and you do not know what to do—I’m giving you God’s Word.
God is telling you: “You can start over.” Everybody, inhale. Hmmm.
What does that mean? You’re alive. And while you are alive, you can start over. There is hope. Because God is our hope.
I want you to tell… No, no. I want you to preach to seven persons around you: “You can start over. You can start over. You can start over.”
How many of you want to start over a specific area in your life? Raise your hand.
You want to start over! Wave at me! Wave at me!
Wave at God! Wave at God and say, “I want to start over!”
Now, I need to warn you: Before you start over an external reality, God will first of all start over an internal reality. You cannot change anything on the outside if you do not first change something in the inside.
You see, your spiritual life is the foundation of any other area of your life.
And that’s what God will start over first.
So, if you are ready, we begin…
A Tech Problem
Two weeks ago, my brand-new phone died. Yeah, brand-new, fully charged.
When I pressed the on button, didn’t want to work.
At that time, I was in a Holy Land pilgrimage. Okay. I was imagining that when I come back here, I’m going to a repair shop, have it fixed—hoping it will be fixed… Unless they say it’s dead, I have to replace it.
Then, my son called up, using my wife’s phone. And I told him about my tech problem…
By the way, imagine that you’re making a phone call…
So, I was talking with my son, and my son asked me:
“Dad, did you reset your phone?” Boom! Why didn’t I think of that?
I’m supposed to be an intelligent guy… Somewhat, right?
Immediately, I felt our 33-year gap.
Because old people, we don’t think… well, that’s me…
So, I googled how to reset a phone —three steps.
In 20 seconds, my problem was solved. Now, I’m going to ask you this question:
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if life has a reset button?
Two Problems
I just talked with two persons that had two different problems—and they wanted the same thing. They wanted to start over.
The first one was a woman who had a heartbreak.
She said, “Bro. Bo, when my Ex was courting me, I saw all the red flags you would write in your books. But I did not want to see them because I was in love
Very wise words, right? If you see a person in love with love, you tell that person, “Mag-ingat ka.—Be careful.”
So, this woman was telling me that it was a toxic relationship. It was eating her up. And it was killing her day by day.
Until finally, she said, “Natanggal yung helmet ko. – My helmet was removed.” She woke up. Finally, she broke up with the guy.
She said these words: “Bro. Bo, I am swimming in an ocean of pain. But I’m not going back to him. I want to start over.”
The second person I talked with—totally different problem… She said she’s in debt… Started very small… And then it ballooned to P800,000.
And here was the problem: “Bro. Bo, my husband does not know about it.” Oh, my gosh…
So, I told her, “This is what you have to do: you have to talk to your husband…”
“He’s gonna kill me!”
“No, he’s not. He’s going to be very angry… But you need help. You need to tell him.”
So, I was telling her that, and she said, “I wish I could turn the hands of time, go back to the day before I borrowed money… If only I could do that…”
What was she asking for? If she could start over.
My dear friends, God is a God who wants to help you start over. Not yet in the external reality as I said, but first of all in the spiritual reality—because this is what God wants you to do.
General Cleaning
My dear friends, what we just read was something that happened in the book of Leviticus. And this was the reset button in Leviticus.
It is called the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was God’s reset button.
In the past two weeks, we were talking about an incident about Nadab and Abihu—where they polluted God’s House. And what happened was that God had to do something because it was the worst impurity– there were two dead persons in God’s house.
Now, last week, we were telling you—we made it graphic—imagine that a neighbor, a drunk neighbor, entered your house, with muddy shoes, and his untrained dog pooped on your carpet. And every square inch of your house filled up with revolting stench. What do you do?
You do a general cleaning—a day of general cleaning.
This was what God did. He had to do a Day of Atonement. This was God’s general cleaning day for His House and for Israel.
Design Patterns
Now, we shared a few talks ago, that if you read the Bible, you have to look for two words: design patterns– that have been woven into Scripture.
You know, I read books by atheists—very popular atheists–and they would basically lambast the Bible and say, “How could there be, you know, these stories about God being angry?”
I was just reading those books, and I said, “Hello, this is ancient literature.
You don’t read it on surface level. There are very deep symbols here. So, that’s what we are trying to teach you now: Design Patterns.
One of the Design Patterns in the Bible is something very subtle: Where a person goes could actually be a Design Pattern and could symbolize something.
For example: Anywhere in the Bible, when a person departs from God, in the story, it says he is moving east.
It starts with Adam and Eve—when they fell.
Let’s read Genesis 3:23-24
By the way, before I go on: “Bro. Bo, kumain lang sila ng mansanas, nagalit na si Lord? – They just ate apple, God already got angry?”
Hello? This is symbolic. And basically, what Adam and Eve were doing was they wanted to be God. That’s it.
Let’s continue:
“… to the east of the Garden of Eden.”
Surprise, Surprise!
Okay. No.1: The next time east appears is when Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, killed his brother Abel.
Now, let’s read Genesis 4:
“… in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Do you see a pattern?
I’ll give you another example… Generations later, there was the Tower of Babel. And again, it was not just building a tower. It was all symbolic. Again, it was about revolting against God – wanting to be God.
Where did they build the Tower of Babel? Surprise, surprise! Genesis 11:
“…people migrated to the east…”
“…people migrated to the east…”
God at the Door
I’ll give you a last example.
Have you heard the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?
These are two cities very wicked, very evil. And Lot, he left Abraham and he was going to live in Sodom and Gomorrah. And guess where he went?
To the east.
Genesis 13:11:
So, east was a symbol of exile. East was a symbol of people who: You don’t want God anymore, you want to be God, you go out to the east.
Now, here’s the thing: Do you know that the Temple of Jerusalem, which was patterned after the Tabernacle, in Mt Sinai and the journey to the desert, guess where the gate was?
The door of the Tabernacle—where was it facing? East.
Why? Because God is there, at the door, waiting for His people to come back home.
Everybody say, “Ahhh.”
Atonement Ritual
So, when I talk about the Day of Atonement now, east will be very prominent.
Why? Because that’s the symbol.
And when you think about Rituals… How many of you like Rituals? (Only one raised hand).
I don’t like Rituals, either. As a modern person, I like spontaneity. But you know what? I have grown so much in my appreciation of Rituals.
Rituals are prayers in the form of drama. Rituals are longings of the heart that are expressed through theater– movements and gestures. Symbolic.
They are powerful.
And so, on the Day of Atonement, this is how it is done:
Aaron, the High Priest, enters through the East Door. Just by walking through the East Door of the Tabernacle, what was that? It was a symbol—It was like Israel. Aaron as High Priest is representative of the people of Israel. The Israelites are returning from being banished, returning from exile. They are going through the cherubim, and the flaming sword, entering back into Eden.
That’s the Ritual. It starts with the High Priest going through the East Door: “I’m coming back, Lord! I’m coming home! Yeah! God is welcoming me!”
Back to Ground Zero
Then, the High Priest goes to the very place where Adam and Eve sinned against God. He goes to Ground Zero – where also Nadab and Abihu made that scandalous, blasphemous sin, polluting the Tabernacle. He goes to that very place.
And the High Priest gets the blood of a bull. Blood for them is cleansing. For us, it’s dirty, right? But it’s cleansing for ancient people. He cleanses. And then what he does, he goes eastward again and he traces the steps of exile, of departing from the Lord. He is tracing those steps. But the entire time, he is sprinkling blood.
Why? I’ll give you are fresher course. For them blood equals life. What he is doing is every step he takes, he’s sprinkling blood.
He is saying, “God’s life is defeating death. God’s life is defeating death.
God’s life is defeating death.”
Rituals are incredible. And if you understand rituals in this way, you’re going to look at the Mass in a totally different way. You’re going to look at it as theater. Very unique part of your going to look at it as prayers in the form of drama.
They are so deep because they are all prayers. But they’re prayers that are done in very beautiful symbols.
Now, after that, there’s going to be another ritual—which I am not going to preach about. Audee will preach about that.
Before I leave the stage, I want you to understand that this is the God we worship. The God who puts the door of His heart facing the east.
Because He says, “You can start over.” The main man: Bro. Audee!
AUDEE VILLARAZA: Tell your neighbor: You can start over.
We continue with our study. We are on Genesis 16:7-10:
A Preview
Now, I want you to highlight that phrase Aaron shall. This phrase
is repeated at least more than 20 times in this Chapter alone. So, the author is emphasizing to his readers that Aaron shall, or he shall. What the author is trying to say is that it’s Aaron himself who will do this and nobody else. He has no help, no assistant, nobody there with him.
And what’s interesting is that on the days leading to the Day of Atonement, the Tabernacle was always a very busy place. You know, there were priests, and Levites (members of the tribe of Levi, assisting priests), and people making their offerings. But on the Day of Atonement—check this out— the Tabernacle was empty—except for one man who was doing all the work.
Now, I’m trying to highlight this for somebody here today because this is an amazing preview of the perfect work of Atonement that would be done by Jesus on the Cross one day.
Think about it: There would be disciples together with Jesus, right? He would have his followers, yes? But isn’t it true that it would only be Jesus, by Himself, who would do the actual work of salvation on that Cross?
One Man, and one Man alone—Jesus by Himself would stand in front of Death—for you and me.
I mean, I think that deserves a little credit, don’t you think? Can we all clap for seven seconds and praise Jesus for standing in your behalf so that you can receive salvation?
The work of one Man, to save all of mankind.
Two Goats
But you know what? The Bible says this: there were two goats. And according to the Bible scholars, those two goats, although different in nature, they needed to be the same in terms of size, value, and color.
Now, I found this amazing when I was studying this: the first goat was meant to be a sin offering—so that God would forgive the sins of man.
So, the priest would kill the goat, slice it up, and then he would sprinkle the blood all over the Tabernacle. Which kind of make you think how bloody that place must had been. That place must had been filled with blood.
Now, the second goat was a bit different. The second goat was called the scapegoat. This is different because what the priest would do was instead of killing the second goat, he would actually place his both hands on the goat and then confess all the sins of the entire community onto that goat.
He won’t kill that goat. Instead, he would open the door, and send out the goat into the wilderness, heading eastward–there’s that term again: eastward— never to return.
So, the second goat is the scapegoat– in the sense that it escapes Death, and the goat gets to start over.
Now, when I was reading this, I was like, “OMG!”
The first goat was Jesus—in the sense that Jesus was the Lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the world.
God of Chances
Remember that scene in that brutal movie,
The Passion of the Christ? That was one of the most violent films we’ve ever watched. Remember that scene, Scourging at the Pillar, where they were tearing up the flesh of Jesus?
I wonder if that was the interpretation of the director, signifying that this was the first goat whose blood would be sprinkled all over the place, on that altar.
And if you think about it, the second goat was actually a representation of you and me. Why?
Because you’re the goat that was saved, the goat that
could start over– simply because the first goat was sacrificed. You were led into the wilderness. What is that called? That’s called a restart.
You get to start over.
They used to say God is a God of second chances. But you know what
I believe? I believe that God is not very good at counting. Why do I say that?
Because in my life alone, God did not give me only a second chance. He gave me a third chance, a fourth chance, a fifth chance, a sixth chance…
So, I believe that God is not a God of second chances. He’s a God of many chances. And He’ll continue to give you a chance. You want to know why? Because with every chance that God will give you, it’s a chance for you to change and to become a better person. And I want you to believe that today. That you have the power to change. You have the power to do it. You can.
You have the power to choose to change. You can quit smoking today if you want to.. You can quit cheating if you want to. You can quit lying if you want to. The choice is yours. And God will continue to give you that choice again and again.
But make no mistake, my friend. A time will come when you will run out of chances.
That happened to the Pharoah. Remember our study on Exodus? God gave the Pharoah so many chances to repent. But what did he do? He refused to go to the Lord. And the Bible says that his heart was hardened.
So, I want you to think about that for a moment… Time will come when your heart will harden as well. So, make no mistake.
But God will continue to give you your chance to change. That’s the Gospel for today. You can repent. You can change your ways.
You know what the Jews called the Day of Atonement? They called it the Sabbath of Sabbaths.
That was their main event. And they looked forward to that event—once a year. Why? Because they believed in the Sabbath of Sabbaths. That even if their external situation hadn’t changed, they already believed that they were already dwelling in the Garden of Eden. They already believed that God had saved them.
I wonder if you and I can behave that way. That when you come before Jesus and when you receive Him in your life, I want you to behave like that.
You know that you can trust that God is already making a way for you to have your restart. You can start over. You can have a better chance.
The Day of Atonement was just once a year.
My question is: Was it enough that it happened just once a year? Is it enough that you guys get to go to church just once a week? Is it enough that you get to church only on your birthday? Or only on Holy Week? Is it enough that you get to go to church only on Christmas?
It’s not enough that the Jews would hold the Day of Atonement only once a year. Because we know we have to come to the Lord again, and again, and again.
My question is: Was it enough that it happened just once a year? Is it enough that you guys get to go to church just once a week? Is it enough that you get
to church only on your birthday? Or only on Holy Week? Is it enough that you get to go to church only on Christmas?
It’s not enough that the Jews would hold the Day of Atonement only once a year. Because we know we have to come to the Lord again, and again, and again.
The Permanent Solution
Just like if you bandage your wound and not tend to the wound, what happens? Sometimes, you see that there’s still an infection underneath that bandage. It’s just a bandage solution. A band aid solution.
That’s why you realize sometimes, God would cut off something in your life– it’s not to harm you but to cut away the spread of the infection. So, praise God
for what He is cutting off in your life. God wants to cut the infection.
And I believe that’s what He did—He had a permanent solution to cut away the spread of the infection and the solution is not a thing. It’s a Person.
His Name is Jesus.
The book of Leviticus is particular in saying that the two goats, although different in nature, different in how they looked like, they were considered just One Offering.
And when you go to the Gospels, when you read through the Gospels, they are very careful in saying that actually, the two goats were both Jesus.
The first goat was Jesus in the sense that He was slain for the sins of humanity.But the second goat was also Jesus because Jesus was the scapegoat when they led Him outside to be slaughtered. It says in Hebrews 13:12:
So, the author was making this assumption that the readers could find that connection that Jesus was the second goat.
A Perfect Sacrifice
To this day, Jesus is the scapegoat.
He’s that spiritual garbage that takes away the sins of man.
So, it means that when you come to Jesus, He is taking away your sins from you. And that’s really what it is. Jesus is the scapegoat. Jesus would let all our sins die with Him.
And if you’re not convinced, Hebrews 9:12-14 says:
Thank You, Jesus.
Some of you might be thinking: “But you know, Bro. Audee, ang tanda ko na.—I’m already old. Can I start over? My restart had already passed me up. I’m senior, I’m in my exit season. I’ve had my habits already in place.
Or, I’ve been working for that same company for 35 years. It’s hard to start over.” But I want to close with a story that I borrowed from a very good friend,
George Gabriel.
A Restart Story
Not too long ago, George Gabriel was here leading us to Worship, preaching the Word of the Lord.
When you’re at a certain age—at the age of 40—some of us think that 40 is the half-way point of life, in the sense that the average senior age of a Filipino is 71 years old. At the age of 40, that’s more or less you’re over the half point of your life. At the age of 40, some of us have already grown roots—we’ve gotten our systems down.
But at the age of 40, you know what George did? God called Him to a different place—to migrate to Australia. So, George uprooted his family — his wife Dinah and son Anton–they had only one child back then. At right, picture grabbed from his Facebook: George, Dinah, Anton, and Andrea.
When you ask him was migrating hard? He’d say, “Absolutely!”
“Was it difficult?” “You bet.”
After four months, I called up George and I asked him, “How are things? Do you have work already?”
You know, for some reason George could not find a job. But there was this distinct feeling– and I remember it today– that when
I was talking with George, I was the one panicking for him. I was the one stressed out. I was the one anxious.
I asked, “Aren’t you scared that you don’t have work? It’s been four months… and you guys are alone there.”
But for some reason, there was this deep sense of calm in George that I could not understand– until a few weeks later, George finally landed a job. You know the job that he landed?
I’ll tell you the background of George first…
Before he left for Australia, George was working for the Shepherd’s Voice Radio and Television (SVRTV) Foundation. He was the creative director for the entire Light of Jesus Family. He was the Worship director– he directed all events such as the Kerygma Conference (now called Feast Conference).
George was working in a Ministry. You know the job he landed in Australia?
Somebody hired him as Ministry consultant for small gatherings in Australia.
Start from the Cross
You know what I realized? The reason migrating was not scary for George was he was not starting from scratch. He was actually starting from experience. He was not starting from nothing. He was starting from something.
So, what is my point? My point is this: You’re not starting from nothing. When you start over, I want you to look at the Cross right now. The Cross is the finished work of Jesus.
The world likes to say: Finish what you started.
But today, Jesus says to you: Start from the work that I finished. It is finished. The finished work of Jesus is our starting point. His finished line is our starting point.
So, guess what? You’re not starting from defeat. You’re starting from victory! You’re coming from the finished work of Jesus. Yes, Lord!
So, you can start again—with Jesus. Come before the Lord and ask Him:
Jesus, cleanse me. Forgive me. Renew me. Make me brand-new.
I’m ready for a restart. In Your Name. Amen.
