You Have Been Reset

Greetings, everyone. I hope you’re enjoying your day thus far. Ohio has snapped a little bit colder this week, so winter does not seem to want to give itself up. So hopefully, by the time you hear this, it has, and we’re much closer to the spring.

You and I run into something every day. Every single day, we interact with it. And it almost doesn’t matter where you are in the world, because this applies from the heart of Africa to New York City and everywhere in between and all parts of the world. Every single day, you interact with technology in some way, shape, or form. It could be your computer, your smartphone, various devices, supermarkets.

Everywhere you go, technology has impacted your life, and sometimes not in very good ways. Think about it. People check their phones ninety-six times per day on average. And at first I heard that stat, I thought, “That’s impossible,” when I checked my phone. And you realize, you flick it up and it’s in your pocket like, “Oh no, I felt it vibrate.” So suddenly you realize, “Okay, is that an old stat because I may be slightly higher than that?”

But as we use our devices, computers, or phones, over time, they have something that starts to slow them down, doesn’t it? They get slower. And Windows called it Win Rot where every once in a while you have to reset your computer to get it to run faster again. You re-image it as we call it. If you have called tech support of any organization on earth, one of the first things they ask you is, “Have you restarted your computer? Have you restarted your phone?” And they ask that because most of the time it fixes the problem. Clears out the memory. But sometimes just doing that restart doesn’t do enough. Sometimes it just doesn’t work the way you want it to.

I was talking with someone recently, and their phone is annoying them because they have to completely reset it. It’s not opening apps, it’s having problems. I said, “You probably just need to reset your phone.” But they know, “I got to redo my passwords and update everything and install my apps.” All the work that goes into a reset after it’s been wiped clean. There’s a lot of work after it to get everything back to where you wanted it to be, to restructure it in a way that makes that device, that computer, that phone useful.

Brethren, spiritually, we’re really not that different, especially this time of year. As most of you hear this message, you have just taken the Passover and are looking ahead tonight to the Night to Be Much Observed and into the Days of Unleavened Bread. You went through last night, yesterday evening, the Passover service, a spiritual reset. Everything was wiped clean. God forgave Christ because of His sacrifice. Everything was removed.

A year of what you could say are bad habits, spiritual rot if you will, of maybe your prayer softened, or you’re not doing as much as you did with study, or some of the exercising of God’s spirit was just not happening in your live, lives, the way you wanted or the way I wanted. But then comes the Passover, and our slate is reset, wiped clean. All that clutter is gone. All those mistakes are forgiven, and now we’re given a chance to start over.

But just like that phone that would get reset and you have to put all the configuration back or computer, maybe laptop where you install all your applications again, the reset is the start of the process not the end of the process. That helps us clear it and have the clarity to be able to do what we need to do as we move forward. So what are we going to do? We’ve been reset, what are we going to do with it?

God expects us to take that clean slate and build upon what is now a cleared foundation for the year ahead. So let’s examine today how you and I can make our spiritual reset count. Let’s open Romans chapter five, book of Romans chapter five. I’m notoriously bad for resetting my computer. I do it every few months. I’ve got a system now, I can have it up and running in less than an hour, because I install and remove and add and test and play with stuff. And eventually, the computer just starts doing weird things, and I’m like, “Okay, I got to wipe it.” I do the same thing with my phone. It drives my wife crazy because no matter what, the phone takes even longer that I go down the technology rabbit hole for a while, and then I have to come out the other side. She’s like, “It was working fine.” Well, it wasn’t working perfectly. So sometimes I just have to reset it, and so do we spiritually.

So Romans chapter five in verse six, we’ll start in verse six. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die,” most wouldn’t do that for someone who’s righteous, “...yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,” we make tons of mistakes. We still make those mistakes. That’s why we have to be reset every year, “...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, that we’ll be saved from wrath through him.”

Through that sacrifice, through that change, repentance, growth, development, putting on Godly character, all of the elements that we have to do as we go forward. Christ reset our spiritual ledger, but we have to build off that reset. Verse nine, but, “Much more, now justified by his blood,” we read that. Verse ten, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Christ sacrifice that we pictured, witnessed, detailed on the Passover is why you and I have that slate that’s been cleaned. It’s funny, human beings, and I’ve done this for years myself, because we’re human, we sin, we get the wrong thoughts, wrong ideas. You walk away from the Passover service, and in your head you’re thinking, “Okay, how long can I go? How long before I do something that would be sin?” And you know, we can ask forgiveness, but there’s no other time of year where we’re sinless for whatever length of period of time that is. We’re cleared. We didn’t do anything. We just accepted Christ’s sacrifice. That wasn’t our efforts.

Let’s go back to the Old Testament, book of Psalms, one hundred and three, the hundred and third Psalm. Psalm one hundred and three. We’ll start in verse eight. Verse eight of Psalm one hundred and three. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever.” So God sometimes chooses not to correct us to see if maybe we’ll self-correct, and other times He does.

Verse ten, “He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” We should be dead. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin ultimately gets the death penalty. It took the sacrifice that we pictured last night for us to even have a chance. Verse eleven, “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.”

We can keep making mistakes. It’s all about getting back up and walking this Christian life right up to the end, right until Christ returns. Verse twelve, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” When God forgives us, when that slate is cleared, either last night or every time we get on our knees and truly show repentance for what we’ve done, God says, those transgressions are gone.

Brethren, this is the God who created the universe, who knows every detail, cell, cork, atom, galaxies, every hair on our head, but yet when He forgives a sin, it’s gone. Transgression is as far away as the east from the west. It means infinite. We should be doing the same thing, shouldn’t we? If we as Christians don’t follow the example God gives us and take that sin and say, “No, it’s gone. God’s forgiven it. I’m not going to drag it with me now through this year after my slate has been cleared,” because anything that happened in your life before you took the Passover should be in your mind, gone.

Don’t carry sin. Don’t carry your past that was cut clean last night, or we laugh at Christ’s sacrifice. That sounds harsh, but that’s what it is. If we don’t take that sacrifice and say, “God, the creator of the universe,” Christ suffered horrible things, and if we drag on the things that should be now wiped clean, we were reset. We’re not taking what we took for the Passover seriously. We have to move on. We have to accept that we were cleared. We have to accept that Christ reset our spiritual ledger.

Let’s continue on here. Go back to Romans chapter six. I think all that complicated in the verses we’re recovering today because really we’re at a funny time. Very rarely does the Sabbath hit where it hits. Last time, I think it was 2008, the way the Holy Days played, so rarely do you get to hear a sermon between the days, if you will, between taking the Passover, last night, and going into the Night to Be Much Observed and Days of Unleavened Bread this evening. That’s rare, so let’s take advantage of this today as we continue to look at what it means to make the transition to clean from clean to being the worker that rebuilds on that clean foundation.

Again, Romans six, you’re probably already there, and verse three, we’ll start in verse three. “Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death? Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death,” we died when we were baptized “...that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

That’s how we should be living, because the reset is not just an emotional response. “Oh, I’m reset. Great. Nothing changes in my life.” No, this is the day the most in your life should change, because now that we’re clean, we can put in place some of the things that may have gone soft throughout the year. Some of the elements of Christianity that may have softened or the zeal has weakened, where Laodicean attitudes may have slipped in. Otherwise, it was just emotions. We just took the Passover on emotion. God does everything for a purpose. Nothing’s done for not as the Bible says. So that purpose is we take advantage of things being cleaned.

Continuing on, walking in the newness of life. Verse five, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,” which we pictured in detail, “...we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” That’s our goal and we see it. It’s so close now. If we get through these days of Unleavened Bread, we should take advantage of every single minute to prepare ourselves, to build ourselves, to finalize what we need to be, to be able to be ready to be part of that resurrection, to be part of the family of God. Again, the reset requires lasting change, not just an emotional response.

Let’s go to Ephesians four. Ephesians chapter four. The change is hard though because we know the reset’s coming. If the reset comes and we know we have to do something about it, sometimes we’ll put it off. The number of people I’ve just worked with throughout the years, both spiritually and in IT, people don’t want to reset. No, the devil that I know versus the devil I don’t know. “I would rather just struggle through the thing that I’m struggling through, that’s making my life, my work less productive, making my life more difficult than have to restructure and start over, because what if I forget something? What if I do something wrong?” What if? What if? What if? What if?

As opposed to, “Oh, this is a great opportunity. It’s going to be painful because I’ve removed everything.” And especially if we examined ourselves before the Passover, we see the things where we started to go weak. We recognize the areas in our lives where we said, “Yes, I’m not doing that as well as I should be,” or, “That is a little too slack,” or, “I’m spending too much time on that activity that’s not helping me as a Christian,” or, “This entertainment slipping into my life that doesn’t focus my mind where it should be.”

But you were reset. And the key to that is if we just simply... We’re Jews, if we do it this way. So if we just simply take the structure that our lives were two days ago, move it over to the side. Let’s say, we sell it to our neighbor, move it over to the side, we come back, we take the Passover, we’re reset clean. Look at that. We’re going to the days of Unleavened Bread. We’re just going to enjoy the Unleavened Bread. And then we walk back over here. Now the days are over, and put it back down. That’s what Jews do. They sell their leaven so they can put the sin back in their lives when the days are over. We can’t be that way. What we took off from the year shouldn’t be what we put back. That’s the change that needs to happen.

Ephesians chapter four verse twenty-one. Verse twenty-one reads, “If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. That you put off concerning the former conversation,” or conduct, “...the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of our mind,” the old man is dead, “...renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Verse twenty four, “And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” We have a new man. We’re a new person today.

Brethren, this is the pivot point of the year. It’s not last night. Last night cleared it. The most solemn, important service of the entire year is the Passover service. But God doesn’t want us to be just clean, doesn’t want us to just reset, have zero out of our sins. No, He wants to use that so we can build off of it. We have to walk in that newness of life. And now we say, you know what? I’m going into seven days. Today’s a great day to analyze, especially coming off the knowledge that we learned about the fact that we’re not spending today getting rid of the last bits of leaven. That’s done.

Today is a day we should be thinking, “How can I make the days of Unleavened Bread the most productive building time in my Christian year? Taking the days of Unleavened Bread and making them into something that fortifies us to keep moving on. And at some point, Christ is going to cut that short, and we think very soon, but it doesn’t change how you or I or any of us behave or how we structure or look at our lives.

If you’re a young person, you’re planning for college, expecting to be cut short. If you’re thinking about getting married, you’re thinking about children, or whatever it is, you expect God’s going to cut those plans short. That’s Christianity. Something’s going to be cut short, but it does not change doing the right thing in the moment it should be done. So we’ve got to continue to do it. And as we get into the days of Unleavened Bread, we have to then continue to dig, because you know what we’re going to find, and you always find this when you do leaven, leaven in places you never expect.

I thought that was a funny thing, because for years, especially as a single man or even just married, generally speaking, leaven didn’t wander its way to different parts of the house that I wouldn’t have expected. So there wasn’t often I would go into like a dresser drawer and open it and be like, “That’s toast.” There’s toast in the drawer, because if there was toast in the drawer, I put the toast in the drawer, and that wasn’t going to happen, or my wife put the toast in the drawer. No, that wasn’t going to happen.

Now, there have been times when we do leaven, and I think, “At some point in time, that was a bread product.”

When that was and when it transitioned into ashes, I’m not sure, but it finds its way throughout the house. Sin finds its way to get into the parts of our lives, and although we examined ourselves, although we were wiped clean, it wants back. Satan wants it back. He wants to get that sin back in our lives. He wants us to start focusing on the things that slowed our Christian walk.

Again, he’s not going to wait. It’s not like he’s, “Ah, well, they’re wiped clean. I got to let them do some sinning before I really can get them back into the place where I want them to be.” Oh, no. Roaring lion. He is ready to take us out. The moment we walk out the doors from the Passover service, Satan wants to start to pull us back down. So it didn’t stop the examination before the Passover. No, no, we just got wiped clean, so the examination now should be easier to do. Go to First Corinthians chapter five. First Corinthians five.

We will probably read this multiple times over the next week. First Corinthians chapter five and verse six. Verse six reads, “Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” That is such a powerful statement in the Bible that sometimes can be underappreciated. It takes so little yeast to multiply in bread to make it into a bigger lump. Just a little, just a tiny bit.

So verse seven, “Purge out therefore the old leaven,” get rid of it. Remember, we’re wiped clean, “...that you may be a new lump, for as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth.” Truth is such a fundamental aspect of what it means to be a Christian. You and I know, understand and have received more truth in the last years than you could imagine any Christian has known for the last a thousand or more.

So that’s how we keep the feast sincerity. We want this. We need this. We walk this in truth. Because if you walk away or simply just do nothing, that lump, we’re a new lump, so got some flour and water mixed in and we just toss it on the thing. I don’t know how to make bread. There’s probably more to it, maybe some salt. I have no idea. My wife makes bread. It’s delicious. I don’t have to think about it. I’ll be told later, “No, no you need to add this,” but I’m just going with flour and water, a little bit of salt. I’m not putting yeast in it.

I’m taking that and throwing that lump on the counter, and you hear, thud, right there on that counter. It’s a lump of what would be disgusting right now because it would be hard as a rock if I cooked that. But if I just leave it and do nothing, you know what happens? Starts to pull yeast out of the air, doesn’t it? Yeast lands on that lump, starts to feed on it. It starts to multiply, and eventually you have sourdough bread, and depending where you are in the world, it tastes differently because what yeast is in the air. Because it’s all in the air. It’s all around us.

Sin is all around us. And if it gets back in, and it will, then we have to root it back out. That’s what the days of Unleavened Bread are all about. Because we are clean, we are that new lump, so we start these days, we go into them clean, but like that lump that I made and sat on the counter, sin starts to get back in because it’s all around us, and we have to keep rooting it out over and over again.

We live these days, as we come into them, rooting out sin. That’s what it pictures. That’s why it’s a process. Seven days because it takes time. Imagine how simple it would be, we’d be robots, but how simple it would be if God said, “Okay, here we go, you are converted and now you’re God.” Great. That was awesome. I’m now God. I don’t know what... I’m wielding power. Things turn out bad, i.e., Satan, when character is not built. When time is not given. When tests, trials, triumphs, difficulties, accomplishments. Time is not given.

No, it takes time. That’s why it pictures multiple days. But Brethren, you and I will sin again. Sadly, you think of the woman, the glass house, “Go and sin you no more.” Sadly, she walked away and she sinned again. Maybe not the same sin, but she would’ve sinned again because we all do. We all, again, come short of the glory of God. We all sin, but these days should picture us watching for, rooting out, and avoiding that sin because we were reset. We were made clean at the Passover.

Go back to Exodus chapter thirteen. Exodus thirteen. I realize, since I’m speaking today, I’m taking away all the men’s messages that would be giving these verses on the days of Unleavened Bread. And then I remember I have the sermon on the first day of Unleavened Bread, so I’m taking away my own messages. That’s only funny to a speaker. Anyone else is just like, “Oh, that’s a shame.” The speakers are going, “Ha, ha, ha.”

Verse one, Exodus thirteen, “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place, there shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came you out in the month Abib. And it shall be when the Lord shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore unto the fathers to give to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, and you shall keep this service in this month,” talking about it.

In verse six, “Seven days you shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast unto the Lord. Verse seven, “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall no leavened bread seen with you, neither shall there be leaven seen in all you quarters.” Obviously, we took unleavened bread on Passover. We’ve come to learn to understand that day matters as well. That would be today and last night, but we are to eat unleavened bread. We are to consume it, to take in that flatness while at the same time examining and rooting out any leavening that is in our lives because we’re going to run into it.

The thing with the Feast in the fall is we walk away from the world. For seven days, eight days, including the last great day, we walk away from the world, we’re separated from it. Our interaction with the world becomes, “Thank you. That was a wonderful meal. Let me give you a tip to the waiter or the waitress, or the hotel staff.” You aren’t interacting with them in the same way. You’re not surrounded by sin in the same way because we’re surrounded by God’s people. That’s why the feast pictures the millennium, the kingdom of God.

But during the days of Unleavened Bread, it’s different. We have our high days. We took the Passover. We have the Night to Be Much Observed, but if today wasn’t a Sabbath, many of you would be working. After the high day, you will be working. You’ll go back to work. You’ll be interacting with people. They’ll bring donuts to work more times during these seven days than any other time of the year. For some reason, it’s prince of the power of the air, maybe. I don’t know what it is, but treats will come into your office and be brought to you more often during the days of Unleavened Bread than any other time of the year.

Because for some reason, it just struck a chord, and if you’ve lived this way of life... I have an advantage, I have to admit, no one in my job are bringing donuts to work during the Days of Unleavened Bread. At least we would hope so. Although my wife told me she has a recipe for unleavened brownies. So I may have to bring them into the office and scare people because if they see that, they’re going to think it’s leavened, but they just heard the sermon, so never mind. I’m keeping all the brownies. Sorry, I digress. So days of Unleavened Bread, we have to root out sin. It’s the lifelong battle.

Let’s go to Romans chapter six again, a little earlier this time. Romans chapter six. This is less so for Christians in God’s church, true Christians, versus the world, because this is very much a thinking in the world. Romans chapter six, we’ll start at verse one. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound?” What kind of thinking is that? That is about the most human-based logic thinking human nature, “Well, you know what, if I sin more, more of God’s grace can be applied to me, so, therefore, I am glorifying God by sinning.” Okay.

But the passage continues in verse two. “God forbid,” of course not, “...How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Brethren, the wiping clean, the reset that we just experienced gives us freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. Because what will happen when our slate is clean, sometimes we start to feel a little bit more effective as a Christian. Like, “Ah, I’m clean as a whistle. Here we go. I’m starting my new year. I’m all fresh. I’m on top of the world,” and we stop being careful. Because that’s what happens to true Christians. It’s not, we’re going out and thinking, “My slate is clean, so let me go have a pork chop.”

No. With Christians, what happens is, my slate is clean, and we don’t consciously think this, but subconsciously, we may get into a mindset of thinking, “We don’t have to be as careful because we’re clean.” Don’t confuse a yearly reset forgiveness for being effective. We all have our weaknesses and strengths as Christians. We walk our walk. We are good at some things and bad at others. Don’t let a reset where it’s all been wiped clean to make you or me think that, “Wow, I’m good at this Christian thing because I currently am sinless.” No, no, no, that’s not where our minds should be.

We have to remain dead to sin. We have to then ensure that we don’t let our guard down because it’s easy to do. Unlike a guard in front of a castle or a jail or wherever they would be guarding, a bank, a vault, whatever you may say, that guard’s working a shift, isn’t he? He’s standing there, he’s guarding whatever he’s doing, trying to remain alert, watching the crowd, keeping an eye on whatever he or she is protecting, but after a while, his shift is over, and then someone else does it.

The guard doesn’t stay there twenty-four/seven, three hundred and sixty-five days out of the year, because, of course, at a certain point, the guard’s ability to watch and analyze and scope would start to dissipate, wouldn’t it? His cognitive function would start to fail. He would get tired. The guard would let his guard down. Well, sadly, we have to do it twenty-four/seven, three hundred and sixty-five. Maybe we can say three hundred and sixty-four because we get a moment in there where it’s all been cleaned and reset, but we don’t have the opportunity to go to sleep. Physically, yes we do, of course, but spiritually, we can’t. We can’t let our guard down. We can’t let the focus that we have wane.

Let’s go to Galatians chapter five. Galatians five. Start a little earlier from my point here. Give context in verse nine. So Galatians five verse nine, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Familiar, right? “I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubles you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offence of the cross ceased?” You just expect everything to be easy? “I would they were even cut off which trouble you.” I would rather have people,” he’s saying, “That can’t get to you.” I’d rather have them cut off, destroyed, removed from your life than they trouble you.

Verse thirteen, “For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Liberty does not give us the freedom to sin, it gives us the freedom to choose not to sin. We didn’t have that before because we didn’t understand it. Without liberty, without God’s grace in our lives, we can’t differentiate the difference between sin and righteousness. That’s the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That’s why the world is where the world is.

Look at politics. Look at everything today. It is the epitome of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. That’s why we can’t take sides, because it doesn’t matter if it’s Republican or progressive conservative or conservative or liberal or NDP or whatever government you have in the world, just hitting the parties of Canada and the United States. All of them have good and all of them have bad because all of them are from the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. Tell you, don’t take sides. There’s only one government that solves these problems.

But the verse continues to say, if you and I simply focus on each other, that’s what the liberty is for. It’s the freedom to put the sin behind and to be able to serve, love, care about, help, assist one another. We had folks going over to people’s homes to help them deleaven and came here to Headquarters and helped deleaven because that’s what you do. That’s what the liberty has given us to do.

Let’s go to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. Start verse one, Colossians three one. “If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Brethren, to take advantage of this reset, we have to set our affections, our focus, our desires, our goals, our everything on above. What that says, I’m going summarize it in a short, we have to remain spiritually focused.

We can’t let things get in the way. You and I live in this world. We get in physical things. We get in our car to drive to work. We go to our job, we sit down at our physical computer, we go drink our physical coffee. We do all these things that are physical because we are physical. We need food and water. We need air. We need all of those physical things, but that shouldn’t be our focus, especially this time of year but all year, really. Our minds should be focused on the things above.

We should be looking through everything with that spiritual lens. The thinking in our mind, “Okay, how would Christ handle this situation?” I hate the triteness of it, but the term you hear out there, it’s a very Christian bumper, sticker term of, “What would Jesus do?” But there’s some truth to that. They turn it into something that’s ridiculous and demeans the fact that Christ suffered and sacrificed himself so we could have access to the Father, but as we live our lives, we should be in our minds thinking, “What would Jesus do? What would Christ do? What would God do in this situation?”

I have to live this physical life but I should be seeing it through the lens of how God would interact, because I’m focused up, not focused down. I’m focused on, “I’m building character. The person at work is difficult. They’re always on me every single day. You know what? I got a plan. I’m going to come up with a way to kill them with kindness, and if that doesn’t work, I’m going to try something else because I’m building character. And in the kingdom of God, I’m going to be working with difficult people and I can’t just incinerate them.” “You’d have the powers, God. Oh, that was a tough one.” Okay, next.

I guess maybe if you did that a couple of times people would step in line a little bit more, but would we have wanted God to do that with us when we made mistakes? No. And He didn’t. If there’s one thing this prophetic series has shown me personally as we’ve gone through it, besides all the knowledge we’ve learned and gained, it’s the mercy of God, how much He gives human beings. When we go back to what we used to teach, there was basically you had a path and if you mess that path up, then you’re done.

God has shown so much more mercies. I wish everyone to be safe, so here’s an off ramp, and here’s an off ramp, and here... Eventually, you run out, but so much more merciful than what we understood. So we focus on the above. We look up and we extend and give that same mercy to those around us. We see the tests, the trials in our lives as opportunities to build character. That’s seeing it through the spiritual lens, not a, “Oh, my flat tire, my day is ruined.” Like, “No, I’m building patience. I am trying to figure a way to solve this. I’m applying the laws of success because it’s building character.” Does it make it more pleasant? No, but it does make it easier because we see the greater picture.

It’s like anytime we’re in a situation where we don’t appreciate our circumstances and something... if we run into, let’s put it this way, a First World problem, and the air conditioner’s out. We had the power go out a week ago, and we were, “Okay, we’re going to have services,” and the generator went down, and then the battery backup unit didn’t keep the servers online, and then I was like frustrated. So I had to run into the office and make sure everything was shut down correctly. And then in the moment after I kind of laughed at myself and said...

I was a little frustrated and like the day didn’t play itself as it should, and I was upset over the fact... not upset, but frustrated over the fact that the generator that was connected to the battery backup systems on the air-conditioned building on the beautiful campus didn’t do exactly what I wanted it to do when the power went out. I thought, “Oh, I should put myself in a little bit of perspective and remember, there are places around the world where consistent power is very consistent... inconsistent power is very consistent.” But we all make that mistake.

Sometimes we get caught in the moment and we don’t set our affections on above. And then that makes whatever test we’re going through, whatever trial more difficult because we don’t see God guiding and shaping and building us in that moment. Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six and verse nineteen. Matthew six nineteen, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and dust does corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor dust corrupt and where thieves do not break in or steal for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Brethren, one of the ways we set our affections on above, where do we put our money? Where do we put our treasure? And it’s not just currency, it’s not just our offering, but that is a part of it. When we give offerings, we’re saying, “This is where I want my heart to be.” That’s a big statement. When we give tithe, offerings, assistance, fundraising, help kids go to AYC, whatever it is, we’re saying, “This is where our heart is,” but it’s not just financial.

Where do we put our time? If we put our time in heaven, if we put our time with brethren in the church and God’s way and building, we’re putting our hearts there. It’s the out of the abundance of the mouth, the heart speaks. Well, out of the abundance of the heart, so we do. Where our heart is, we will follow it. And if you’re hearing this today, you have an opportunity to give an offering tomorrow.

So don’t ever let your mind think Christ is going to return. Brethren, let your mind think Christ is going to return. Don’t get me wrong. We hope and pray and want that to be, but when you prepare an offering, it should never be done with that in mind. It should be done with what if time goes on? What can I do to make the work go on? What can I give to help that seat sitting next to me be filled? That’s what your offerings do. Your offerings juice the work unlike anything else throughout the year. Your ties are kind of that expense.

You know, just going along throughout the year, offerings are a boost, it allows us to do things we wouldn’t normally be able to. Same with Common, it changes things. That’s what we should be doing when we put our heart... our treasure where our heart wants to be. And we have an opportunity to think a little bit today before we give that offering tomorrow. “Setting our affection above.” This is a transition day. This is an important day. Okay, let’s go to Galatians two. Galatians chapter two. Brethren, if time does go on, I hope you remember this day because it’s not going to fall on a Sabbath again for a long time.

But the day is always after Passover and before the Night to Be Much Observed. And since we’re not finishing deleavening, this gives us a chance today to focus on all the things that I’m talking about. Even if it’s not a Sabbath where you’re hearing it in a sermon, you could pick up your Bible and study it, too. Galatians chapter two and verse seventeen. “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? No, God forbid, no. For if I build again the things which are destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless, I live,” yet I... not I but, “Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Brethren, this is simple. Christ lives in you. Draw strength from Him. This is impossible, what you and I do. This is absolutely impossible to live Christianity the way we’re supposed to do it.

It’s also impossible to have our sins forgiven too. It’s also impossible to take a flesh being and turn them into a spiritual being. But through Christ, all things are possible, aren’t they? He’s in us now, that slate is clean. You and I should have a better connection through Christ to the Father than at any other time of the year because of that connection. Because all of that clutter that rots spiritually, that builds up throughout the year, that causes us to have to have a reset is gone.

So we have a connection to the Father unlike any other time of the year, which also gives us a connection to Christ, which also gives us power. But only if we take advantage of that power. Only if we get out of the way, and let us, it says in Galatians, Christ to live through us. He has to live in us. He has to be that strength. He has to be the reason why we’re able to overcome and do the things that are impossible for human beings to do.

Everyone out there in the world can choose things that are good and bad, but to change who we are, that’s impossible. To be able to put out wrong thoughts, that’s without God’s spirit, impossible. But again, we have a power that’s so much greater than what anyone outside the body of Christ understands. Let’s go to John fifteen. John fifteen.

John chapter fifteen, verse one. “I’m the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he purges that it’ll bring forth more fruit.” Just like on a fruit tree. “And now you are clean through the word which I’ve spoken unto you,” which we are at this moment clean because of what we took last night. And verse four, “Abide in me and I in you.” We’ll read this and we read this on the Passover. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine.”

We have to be connected to the body of Christ. That is lost knowledge to the most of people in the world today who have God’s spirit. There are tens of thousands of people who think they can abide in Christ but not be connected to the body of Christ. It is... When you think about it at the simplest terms, if we cut off our arm and throw it out there and we’re the arm, the arm’s walking around, I guess on the fingertips, walking around saying, “I’m perfectly fine. I’m growing and developing,” and as the blood is kind of coming out, okay, it’s getting a little visual, but and slowly but surely that arm dies.

It’s got to be connected to the vine. But there are tens of thousands of people who don’t think so. They think they are. They’re not, but they think they are. Continuing here, “Except that abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I and him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.” Because without Christ, it’s impossible. Brethren, draw strength on your Savior.

No other time of year do we think about Christ’s sacrifice and what He did like we do leading up to the Passover. Draw strength from that connection that you’ve built. Let’s go to Numbers fourteen. Numbers chapter fourteen. This is a tough one because, again, time passes, and when it does we feel that leaven that’s floating around get back to us. So Numbers fourteen verse one, “And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we died in the land of Egypt? And would God we had died in the wilderness? Would God just have let us die in Egypt, or is He going to take us out here and make us die in the wilderness?”

Verse three, “And wherefore has the Lord brought us under this land to fall by the sword…” Whine, whine, whine. Murmuring. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt where we were crying out to God under bondage and making bricks out of straw, or without straw, and all of the things that Israel cried out to God to get out of. And now they’re going through tough times somewhere else and maybe it wasn’t so bad being slaves. Maybe it wasn’t so bad back there. Maybe that grass was greener.

Was my life really that bad before God called me? The people were really… were they’re not that bad? I had a lot of good things going on. Was this the right choice to make, obeying God, being baptized? I’m about to become an adult. You know what? Maybe the world isn’t so bad. Maybe I should go out there. Maybe I should walk away from this way of life. Brethren, don’t drift back. Israel did it over, and over, and over again. But we don’t have to look at all the accounts through hundreds and thousands of years, we just simply have to look when they left Egypt.

It didn’t take them very long before they thought, “You know what? Maybe bondage wasn’t so bad.” Maybe that life full of sin and repression and the hard path that doesn’t have God, Christ in us, giving us power, maybe that was better. We can do the same thing, and it’s easy to do, especially because we live a life where we have blessings. So when it’s easy, we see the things that we would rather have. Or, as a Christian, we live a life that has trials, and you think... it’s easy to think, “I never had so many difficult times before I was called. It seems life as a Christian is much harder than before God called me.”

Brethren, it is. It is. Before you were called, you didn’t have the promotion on the table that you have now. When you start a job, it’s easy doing the stocking a shelf in a grocery store. Much easier job than running the grocery store, and the difference is shown in your paycheck. What’s the compensation that you get? So sorry, yes, for me and for you the compensation package of Christianity is eternal life, family, being part of the family of God. So yes, it’s hard. Is it wonderful? Do we have the most amazing people around the world? Do we get to experience the abundant life? Yes, we do, but it’s not easy.

We are not doing what they’re doing out there. We’re living a different way of life. We’re saying no to what people say yes to. That makes it harder. And the younger you are, the harder that seems to be. Both either by age or spiritual walk. Over time you start to see and experience, and patience, and God teaching, and overcoming and delivering you, eventually you start to overall see His hand in our lives. And if you’re younger, sometimes it’s harder to see because you grew up with it.

You’ve seen God’s hand in your life, you don’t know what the other side is like. And sometimes, sadly, people go out there and experience it and think, “Oh this is hard.” And then train up a child in the way he should go and then eventually as they grow old, they’ll return to it. But if you’re young, don’t let that verse be a crutch either. Think, “Well, I’ll just return to Christianity when I get old,” unless Christ returns before that happens, or more likely you forget what it was that you once believed until life beats you up enough to make you remember.

Often that verse of returning to something when you’re older, this way of life, what you’ve been taught as a youth comes because life beat you up. We don’t consider our ways until they’d become difficult and think, “Wow, I remember all these things I’m running into da da da da da.” So don’t let that be a crutch if you’re young and think, “I’ll just come back to it later.” No, live Christianity, walk in this path, but still live your lives. Go to school, get a job. Focus on a career. Build yourself to be ready for marriage. You do all those things, but do them with Christ in you. Don’t let yourself return. Don’t let ourselves drift back to what there used to be.

Second Peter two. Second Peter chapter two verse eighteen. Second Peter two, “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity,” verse eighteen, “They allure through less of the flesh, through much wantonness. Those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is bought in bondage.”

If we serve sin, we serve Satan. It’s as simple as that. It’s many ways Christianity is clean. If we serve God, we’re under bondage. We are slaves. That’s what the words mean. We are slaves to either Satan or God. We take our pick, because there’s no third option. There’s no, “Well, no, I’m not a slave. I’m just going to be myself and I’m free and I’m the one.” Nope, that’s not how it works. You either choose God or the default of not choosing God is choosing Satan.

Verse twenty, “For if after they escape the pollutions of this world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ, they’re again entangled there and overcome, the latter end is worse than the beginning. But what has happened unto them according to the true proverb, a dog has turned to his own vomit again, and the sow has washed to her wallowing in the mire.” I have watched for decades, when people leave God’s Church, something in them changes.

The younger they are, thankfully it’s not, but once you’re converted, once you’ve been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, if you let that spirit go out, and every single person who leaves, no matter what, they leave with the theology in mind. They have a reason. It’s either doctrinal or spiritual or this or that or the other. Ultimately, simple, they don’t want to obey God because no one, very few, maybe there’ll be a couple that’ll go to a splinter immediately, but generally speaking, almost everyone who leaves this church either goes completely back to the world or wanders pretending like they’re Christian. Because that’s what they’re doing.

If you’re sitting out there, because they listen to our sermon, so take a moment to let them hear it. If you’re sitting out there and you walked away from the body of Christ, you’re not Christian. Because if you’re Christian, you’d go associate with other people who have God’s spirit and at least go to a splinter. But if you’re sitting out there going to nowhere, you are not Christian. Maybe you still got a little glimmer of God’s spirit left, get somewhere. If you’re not going to be here, gather with those of like mind.

The problem is every other splinter group... every splinter group out there, people believe different stuff than even the same organization. So you won’t get like mind, but at least you’ll be gathering together and keeping the Sabbath, because if you’re not, you’re not paying tithe, you’re not keeping the Sabbath, you’re not keeping the holy days, you are not Christian. Plain and simple, even though you want to tell yourself you are. And ultimately those people get bitter.

Oh, the people I’ve seen, their goal is to attack this Church and I bet it’s annoying, isn’t it? Can you imagine... Could you imagine someone who made their life goal to take down God’s church? Because that’s what they’re trying to do. They don’t say... think it’s God’s church, but let’s just put ourselves in their shoes. Their goal is to take down that church, that organization, and we keep growing, we keep moving forward, we keep getting bigger, we get more polished and more professional and have more ministers and brethren. That’s got to be frustrating.

Carnally speaking, good, maybe it’ll cause the people to think about what they’re doing and repent. But we, brethren, we can’t drift back, we can’t let it happen. Go to First Samuel. First Samuel chapter sixteen. First Samuel chapter sixteen. Remember, clearly said that we are keeping the feast of sincerity and truth. So First Samuel sixteen. We’ll jump in the middle of the account here where they’re trying to find someone, if you will.

Verse five, we’ll jump in, “And he said, peaceably, I come to sacrifice and the Lord, sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice. And it came to pass, when they were come, he looked on Eliab and said, surely this is the Lord’s anointed.” Look at him. Polished, professional, tall, handsome, well to do, the eldest.

Verse seven, I’m jumping a little into the verse, “For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Brethren, we have to live unleavened lives outside. How we interact with people, how people see us, how our physical actions around us, both with brethren in the world, remember, this is a week where we will be working, but we have to live unleavened lives inside us too, in our minds, and the private times when we’re away from people. It’s easy to put on a show in front of other human beings because you don’t have to do it for very long, but when you’re in private, is that change? Was it just a show?

You know when I’m in front of the brethren, I’m in front of someone or whoever it is, I got to put on the act. We could go back to one Corinthians five, eight, but we already read it. It’s the feast of sincerity and truth. Sincerity, we have to be sincerely personally deleavened in our lives, all aspects of it, everything we do. It can’t just be a show we put on. An outside appearance. We have to work very, very hard to control all of our thoughts, which again, is impossible except for the fact that we have Christ in us to give us that power we need. Brethren, this reset that we just experienced is huge, and today is the day we focus on to build us to be ready for what’s in front of us.

Again, we can’t just take that person and stick it to the side and then put it back in eight days. We have to build it internally because, you know, if we build it internally, you know what happens, it shows up externally. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What’s in our heart, what’s in our minds within our doings internally in private is how we’ll behave in public. Otherwise, we’re hypocrites. We’re lying. We’re faking it.

Okay, let’s go to First Corinthians five, I said we’d go back there. We were there earlier, but we’ll read something a little different here. Oh, we’ll read the same passage, but slightly different context. First Corinthians chapter five verse six. Again, we read this before, but we’ll read it again here. “Your glorying is not good. Know you that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that you may be a new lump, that you may be unleavened.”

Brethren, cleansing is just that, we have to have unleavened character. It can’t just be a one-time thing. We have to be completely unleavened forever. And without physical bodies, that becomes possible, but until then, it is a process we have to keep doing over and over again. And it won’t always be easy. It’s not always easy because we will run into things that make it difficult in our lives. Go back to First Peter five. First Peter chapter five and verse six. First Peter chapter five and verse six, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” In due time.

It could be in this life in certain aspects, but the ultimate culmination of us being exalted as being born into the family of God. “Cast all of your cares upon him.” Verse eight, “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.” Satan wants to destroy us, not after the eight days, the seven days of unleavened bread and Passover and all that is behind us. No, no, no, no. He wants to destroy us. The moment we took the bread and the wine, we were a fresh target for him.

He said, “No, I’ve built up all this spiritual clutter in their lives throughout the year that made their Christian Walk, I’m going to go at it harder because I don’t want that person to have what Satan never will have.” Knowing, ultimately, he’s destroyed. He will never have what God has offered you to receive. What the Passover allowed us to have access to. What the days of unleavened bread, let us build the character to be able to grow. He’s going to seek to undermine you, and he’s not going to wait.

So we can’t let ourselves slide back. We will have tests, we will have trials after our commitment has been reset to test that commitment. That’s what this walk is, day after day after day with Satan, the world, society, and our flesh, trying to let leaven get back into our lives. We have to keep walking. We have to keep doing. James chapter one as we start to wrap up here. James chapter one. And we have to expect trials. They’re coming. They’re going to come during the days of unleavened bread. They can come when you’re sinless.

People could leave the Passover service and have a trial when they walk outside because that’s life. Remember, the reward, the compensation that we get at the end of this is eternal life. So yes, sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes God tests us and sometimes Satan puts trials and tribulations in our lives. But we have Christ in us that gives us that power to get through it, to get the sin out, to get back down to being unleavened, and we can get the reward because of it.

James chapter one verse one, “James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse or various temptations or trials.” That is so much easier said than done, isn’t it? Count it all joy. We should be joyful when we have tests and trials. You know these verses. “Knowing this,” verse three, “That the trying of your faith works patience.”

Over time, you know what we get better at? Understanding that patience builds us. We can continue reading this if we had time. But our faith is built by patience because we watch God deliver us. We know Christ is in us and giving the power to overcome. And as that happens and God delays it or it goes too long, but He delivers us and you live this Christian Walk. If you were baptized yesterday, and I guess you wouldn’t be baptized on Passover, but figuratively, or you’ve lived it for ten years, it’s a very different place.

When you’re new you have a zeal that it’s just on fire, but it’s not a zeal according to knowledge because you’re new. There’s nothing wrong with that. So you don’t yet see all the times God will deliver you. But if you’ve lived this way a life a while, you get comfortable in the fact that God’s going to deliver me because He promises, so He’s not going to break His promise. But at the same time, we may not have the same zeal we had when we started.

That’s why a new person is so inspiring to someone who’s been in God’s way for a long time and vice versa because they lift each other up. But we’re going to have trials, no doubt about it. But again, the reward is great. Let’s go to Revelation nineteen. Revelation chapter nineteen. The last passage here, Revelation nineteen. We’ll start in first verse. “And after these things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. For the true and righteous are His judgments, for He has judged the great whore that did corrupt the earth with her fornication and avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.”

Looking head now to the day of the Lord. “And again, I say, Alleluia and her smoke rose up forever and ever. When the twenty-four elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia.” Brethren, just this verse alone what have we learned? Twenty-four elders, so many things, we could stop. “And a voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God and all you, His servants, that you fear Him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude.”

We’re doing this for other people so we can help them. “And as the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia for the Lord God, the Omnipotent reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him for the marriage of the Lamb is come.” We’re looking for an earlier one, brethren. We’re striving to be the firsts, the lasts that go first. That’s what we’re striving for, but we’re striving for the same thing these people are.

“The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife...” You and I, the firsts. “And his wife has made herself ready.” Brethren, Passover reset us. We were cleansed by Christ’s sacrifice and given a new beginning, but it doesn’t make us perfect. It gave us a starting point to look at, to restructure, to refocus our Christian Walk. The days in front of us we should look at with vigilance. They call for sincerity. They call for spiritual focus.

We must now, after we’ve been forgiven, walk in the newness of life. We have to put the leaven out of our lives completely, striving to stay spiritually unleavened until that day when Christ returns. So I’ll say to you, as I also say to me, you have been reset. Now let’s go forward and make it count.