Days of Unleavened Bread 2025:

Good morning brethren. A beautiful day. We are officially in spring, thankfully. I can echo Mr. Schleifer’s comments. Really, I’m excited about spring. It’s wonderful to see it. The temperatures from here on look like they’re, at least in the Wadsworth area, look like they’re going to be nice.

So, we’re going to jump right into the message. Let’s turn over to Leviticus chapter twenty-three. Leviticus chapter twenty-three. We’re here on the last day of Unleavened Bread, so it’s fitting as God has given us these days annually. He’s given us all holy days annually so that we can keep ourselves in remembrance of these things. You know, we keep the Sabbath every week so that we can remember and look forward to God’s kingdom every single week.

Every single Sabbath, we get together for that purpose. God’s Sabbath is intended to be a rest for us so that we can look forward to God’s coming rest. Very simple, but we do it every single week.

The holy days are different. They’re annually, but in the same way, we do it every single year. We gather together. We’ve got a bigger group today than normal. We’ve got visitors coming in from various places around the United States and I’m sure brethren who are visiting in congregations or attending congregations around the world, maybe even having combined services in certain spots, your congregation might be a little bit bigger. It’s very special. It’s a time that we can focus on spending time together. And God wants us to be in remembrance of these things and the purpose of these days.

You know, we don’t just gather together for no reason. We get together because God wants us to learn something, to understand the purpose of this day, and the days of Unleavened Bread that we just came through. We’re already on the last day of Unleavened Bread. Now has anybody... maybe Dr. Viljoen will ask this in the afternoon service, but maybe I’ll beat him to it. Has anybody slipped? I’m not raising my hand because I did.

Okay. Okay, there is some slipping. That’s okay. You know, you won’t enter the kingdom, but other than that, you’re fine. Enjoy the rest of your life. No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. As long as it wasn’t purposeful, I’m going to chow down. I heard some interesting stories. You know, when you’re in God’s church for some time, you talk to brethren who have been in the church for quite a while. Inevitably, you’re going to slip up at some point, and it’s not because you did it willfully, but anyway.

So here we are, Days of Unleavened Bread. We’re reading in Leviticus twenty-three. Let’s just understand here on this last day of Unleavened Bread what this day is all about. And really, what are the days that we just came through? What are they all about? Leviticus twenty-three is a perfect place to begin. Verse four, “These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations,” meaning, we gather together, they’re holy gatherings that God has given us every single year.

Verse four, the second part, “...which you shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month that even is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread.” So, starting on the fifteenth day, after we had kept the New Testament symbols, the New Testament Passover the night before on the fourteenth, we begin to keep the night to be much observed, and from that point forward, it begins a seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Verse seven, “And in the first day you shall have a holy convocation: shall do no servile work therein. But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: and in the seventh day,” which is today, the last day of Unleavened Bread, it’s also a holy convocation, “...you shall do no servile work.”

So just like a Sabbath, we’re here, we’re not supposed to keep... we’re not supposed to work. We’re not supposed to do anything outside of what God has laid out so that we can stay focused. That’s the whole point. We’re here not working, gathering together on a Monday, at least this year it lands on a Monday, so that we can focus our attention on what God wants us to focus on today.

So, let’s turn to Exodus, chapter thirteen. Exodus thirteen. What do these days mean? We know that Leviticus twenty-three very plainly stated that we’re supposed to keep them, but we don’t really know why yet. So, we’re going back to Exodus. Let’s read Exodus thirteen and begin in verse one. Why do we keep these days of Unleavened Bread?

“And the Lord spoke to 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.” Through all seven days, it’s a type of God bringing Israel out of Egypt and out of sin. “This day came you out in the month Abib.” We’re 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 Jebusites, which he sworn to his fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.” We’re not supposed to forget this and the lessons that come from this amazing experience that we see anciently of Moses.

“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread,” and that’s a command, it’s not seven days you maybe could or might want to, or maybe you’ll enjoy to a small degree eating unleavened bread. No. “Seven days you shall eat it, and in the seventh day shall be a feast of the Lord.” Here we are, seventh day, “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with you, neither shall there be leaven seen with you in all your quarters.

You shall show your son in that day, saying, this is done.” Why? Why do we keep this day? Why do we teach? What do we teach to our children? “This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth: for with a strong hand has the Lord brought you out of Egypt.”

God brought us spiritually out of Egypt, but He wants us to remember the physical type, what happened anciently, that Israel came out of Egypt and that they were supposed to remain unleavened. Unleavened.

First Corinthians chapter five, if you turn over there. You know, it’s interesting how God uses food with respect to certain of his holy days. Really, if you think about it, all of his holy days involve food to a certain degree, whether it’s feasting at the Feast of Tabernacles, you get to enjoy.

God says, “Whatsoever your heart desires at the Feast of Tabernacles for eight days,” ending with the last great day, “...whatsoever your heart desires,” food is involved. The day of atonement right before that is opposite. It’s a day that involves no food. Prior to that, it’s the Feast of Trumpets, a feast day again. Prior to that, it’s Pentecost involving the wave sheaf and the two wave loaves, food again. These are all feasts as well.

But prior to that, you’ve got the days of Unleavened Bread where God says that we’re supposed to alter the way that we eat, change the things that we eat on a regular basis, and focus on eating flatbread, unleavened bread. It really is an interesting thing how God has with every holy day involved food. It’s just a side point. It makes you understand better why in Colossians two, sixteen, it says, “Let no man judge you according to meat or drink or a holy day” and so on and so forth, because to the world, we’re looked at as being a little bit strange. You have to eat flatbread for seven days. What’s that about? You’re not eating today on the day of atonement? You just stop eating?

Wait. And then at the Feast of Tabernacles, you get to eat whatever you want in moderation, of course, not come back from the feast this big you know you’ve got a problem, okay? You’ve taken that command too far. All right. But anyway, God has given us these days and He’s told us that we’re supposed to alter our eating habits. On these days of unleavened bread, we’re supposed to eat unleavened bread instead of bread that’s puffy. And let’s understand a little bit more about why.

First Corinthians five, and we’ll read in verse six. Let’s just pick it up in verse one. “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you.” Speaking to the Corinthians, Paul speaking. “And such fornication as is not so much named among the gentiles.” They’re fornicating in such a way that the gentiles wouldn’t even do. Something like that. People outside of God’s Church wouldn’t even do something like that. “That one should have his father’s wife.” Committing fornication is one thing, but committing fornication with your stepmother? Very... that’s different.

“And you are puffed up,” he says. Okay. Puffed up. He uses that term. “And have not rather mourned.” You haven’t flattened yourself. You’re puffed up, but with sin, “that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you.” He was put out. “For I truly, as absent in the body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that has so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one unto Satan...”

This man was put out of the church, “Delivered to Satan, to the God of this world, for the purpose that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” He was put out of the church for fornicating so that there’s a chance that he could repent and come back and learn his lesson and overcome. God didn’t cast this person away. Paul didn’t cast this person away just because they fornicated, just because that one... Everybody sins, but if your sin comes to a level where you need to be put out of the church, it’s not so that you’re just gone forever. It’s for the purpose that you humble yourself and lower yourself. Because this person was clearly, as it says in verse two, “puffed up”.

They needed to flatten themselves and they weren’t learning the lesson on their own, so they had to be put out for the purpose that maybe that would help them flatten themselves, lower themselves, but they’re not cast away. Paul still had hope that that person would be there at the day of Christ. That’s an amazing thing to consider. That’s why we don’t judge anything, brethren. Verse six. “Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven...” A little leaven, “leavens the whole lump?” You let one little thing in, one little piece of leaven, spiritual leaven, sin here or sin there, it’s going to take hold and it’s going to puff the whole person up. Just a little leaven will do that.

This is a powerful lesson from the days of unleavened bread. So, what does Paul say to this person and to all of us today? “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep...” Coming full circle back to Leviticus twenty-three and Exodus thirteen, “let us keep the feast, but not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

So, let’s turn back to Exodus fourteen. Let’s spot through what ancient Israel had to do as they were coming out of Egypt. And it begins to set up... Again, this is foundational understanding. We’re just going through some of the basics of what is the last day of Unleavened Bread, the days of Unleavened Bread in general, but here, we’re going to get into more specifically the last day of unleavened bread as we transition into the second part of this message.

Turn over to Exodus chapter fourteen. So, you all know what happened, if you look back in chapters nine, eight, and seven, the plagues of Egypt occurred leading up to the firstborn being killed. We all know that the firstborn in chapter eleven, in verse five, the firstborn was killed on the first day of Unleavened Bread, the night to be much observed. And that began the days of Unleavened Bread.

So, if we come over to chapter fourteen, we’ve already read a little bit from thirteen, God commanded that we keep these seven days. And fourteen in verse one says, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against...” Boy, these words, I’m telling you, why isn’t it just Chicago and Atlanta? Okay. No, it has to be very challenging. Okay, we’ll skip over that. “For Pharaoh will say the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”

So, we’re coming all the way through. We saw just a few chapters ago, the night to be much observed was talked about. The firstborn died. Okay? This is the night to be much observed. You can even look back quickly if you want to, at chapter twelve and verse thirty-four. It says, “The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading ingredients being bound up in their clothes and upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment: And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,” and so on and so forth. That also is the night to be much observed.

So, coming back to chapter fourteen. “Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, that they’re entangled at the land.” So, we’ve gone through the seven days of Unleavened Bread. Now we’re here at the last day of Unleavened Bread is where this setting takes place. “Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, They’re entangled in the land. They’re caught on their journey, and the wilderness will shut them in.” And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.

And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled. And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people. They wanted to go back after Israel.” Despite having seen all of these plagues. God turned Pharaoh’s heart yet again. Verse six, “And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him.” Took 600 chosen chariots. Imagine this picture. “And all the chariots of Egypt, and the captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and pursued after the children of Israel: and went in with a high hand.”

Now, verse ten. “And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were so afraid.” This is the last day of Unleavened Bread. Pharaoh is now coming and has been coming with his armies to come get rid of the nation of Israel with everything he’s got, all the forces that he has. “And they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?”

So, Israel, even before crossing the Red Sea, began murmuring. Let’s note that. They began saying, “Well, why don’t we just go back and then we can go back into slavery? It was kind of better over there as opposed to being in the in the wilderness.”

Verse twelve. “Is not this the word that we did tell you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone.’” Didn’t we tell you before, Moses? Leave us alone. Let us stay here. “Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.” This is their attitude. “And Moses said to the people, fear you not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you this day: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. And the Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

Skipping down to verse nineteen. And here we are. “And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar and the cloud went from before their face, and stood before them: And it came down between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; this massive cloud. And it was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, and it gave light by night to Israel: so that the one came not near the other all the night.”

Now, maybe you’ve thought about this before, but here in verse twenty it says that this is a night event. All the night, a dark shadow is cast over the Egyptians and a bright light was shone onto Israel. “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.” Try and imagine putting yourself in this picture. This is what happened. This is what we are commemorating on this last day of Unleavened Bread, God’s final great act of delivering his people, Israel, through this miraculous Red Sea parting.

Israel walked through on dry land, it says, “And the children of Israel went in the midst upon the sea on dry ground,” verse twenty-two. “And the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them in the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked under the host of the Egyptians.”

So, we’re talking about through the night here in the morning watch, the Lord looked under the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians. He came out of the cloud, scared them, and took off their chariot wheels that they drove them heavily so that the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, from the Lord. For the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” He dismantles their chariots.

“And the Lord said to Moses...” verse twenty-six, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to the strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.”

Now, brethren, that was an amazing miracle that God performed using Moses to hold his hands up and part the sea. But was it enough for Israel? If you just read a few verses later into the next chapter, verse twenty-one, Miriam answered in verse twenty-two. “So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur...” Chapter fifteen, twenty-two, “and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.”

So, we’re only talking three days. After probably one of the most memorable historic moments in mankind’s history, three days later, verse twenty-three, “And they were come to Marah, and they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” Three days. Do you not think that God can take care of you if you just saw waters parting and you crossed the Red Sea, and then they swallowed up the entire Egyptian army?

But no. Let’s go down to chapter sixteen in verse one. “And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came under the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.” So, this is now the fifteenth, one month later, three weeks later, really, three weeks later after they just crossed the Red Sea, what happened? “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger?” Again, they completely lost sight of what God was doing. They completely lost sight of these massive miracles culminating with the event at the Red Sea on the last day of Unleavened Bread.

And brethren, you just keep reading on and on, Chapter seventeen verses one through three talks about Israel murmuring, over and over. You can read them on your own, but you understand how quickly between the time that the firstborn was killed and when Israel crossed the Red Sea, they saw these great miracles, but then so quickly forgot them.

Now, there’s a lesson in here for us, and we’re going to briefly spot through the account of Jericho here in a minute, very briefly. We won’t go through it at length. We all understand it, but it’s good to understand that the principle of Jericho... we’ll come to that in a minute. But think about this, think about what these seven days were like for Israel. They were the days of Unleavened Bread, culminating with the last day of Unleavened Bread like we are now. But what they didn’t understand, and they saw that the promised land was out ahead.

But brethren, just like we’re coming out of the seven days of Unleavened Bread ourselves, we don’t have the promised land immediately out in front of us, do we? The promised land is not right here. It’s not like we’re all of a sudden just waking up into the Kingdom right now just because the days of leaven bread have ended. But Israel had forty more years to spend in the wilderness. Think about that. And they began to show a pattern of returning to old habits, if you will.

They returned to old habits right quick, murmuring and complaining and all of these things. The same principle applied for the seven days at Jericho. Turn over there to Joshua chapter six. The same thing occurred at Jericho. Seven days of Unleavened Bread. Israel circled the walls of Jericho.

Joshua chapter six, we’ll pick it up in verse twelve. “And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priest took up the ark of the Lord. And the seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rear one came after the ark of the Lord, the priest going on, and blowing with the trumpets.” Now, that was on the first day.

“And on the second day they compassed the city once, and returned to the camp: so they did six days. And it came to pass on the seventh day..” Here we are, the seventh day. “that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and encompassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.” So, each day, they went around the city for seven days in a row, but on the seventh day, they circled it seven times.

“And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, ‘Shout; for the Lord has given you the city.’ And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that were sent.”

Let’s know, verse eighteen, and among these instructions, verse eighteen says, “And you in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest you make yourselves accursed, when you take of the cursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.” Once God is done tearing down these walls and you’re allowed to go in and do all that God commands you to sack the city. Do not touch anything. Do not take anything. It’s accursed. Do not touch it.

“But all the silver, and the gold…” verse nineteen, “and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.” So, verse twenty, “And the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.”

Now, again, just like what we saw about Israel coming out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, the amazing miracles that occurred then, and then immediately turning back into sin, what do we see here in Jericho? These powerful miracles, God miraculously destroys these walls of this great city. And then we see in chapter seven, verse one, it says, “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing.” They just couldn’t help themselves, could they? They just couldn’t help themselves. They had to go and disobey God right away. And you’ve got this man named Achan, the son of Carmi, and Zabdi, and so on and so forth, but this man named Achan stole these goods.

So, you come through the chapter, and Joshua is so displeased, God is displeased, He’s disheartened that these Israelites have done this, and you come down to verse sixteen. “So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: They brought the family of Judah; and took the family of...” these other families, “and he brought his household...” verse eighteen, “man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, and the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give, I pray you, glory to the God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what you have done; hide it not from me.’

And Achan answered Joshua, ‘Indeed I have sinned against the Lord of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils of the goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and I took them; and behold, they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.’

Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and, behold, it was hidden in the tent, and the silver under it, and they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and all the children of Israel, and laid them before the Lord. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and asses, and sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. Joshua said, ‘Why have you troubled us? Why have you taken the accursed thing? The Lord shall trouble you this day.’

And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, and after they had stoned them with stones...” so the children as well. “And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day,” as a great lesson.

Israel began to murmur when they came out of Egypt, having seen massive miracles. And Israel went right back into sin, even with Jericho, with Achan. So, after seven days, some in Israel still never learned their lesson, and they fell back into sin.

And this is the point, brethren, is that Israel built a habit of sin, of falling into sin. Now, habits are something that God has talked about all through the Bible. You may not think of them as habits, but they are. Consider this, Psalm fifty-five, if you can turn over there. Psalm fifty-five, and verse seventeen. We could see this verse as a habit that King David had. It says here, verse sixteen, “As for me, I’ll call upon God; and the Lord shall save me.” Verse seventeen, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” David built the habit of praying throughout the day.

You can think about that for all kinds of different things in our lives. We have the habit... we need to build the habit of Bible study as it says in Second Timothy two, fifteen, “Study to show yourself approved.” Well, in order to study to show ourself approved, we have to build the habit of studying God’s word. We can’t just do it whenever it comes to mind, “Oh, yes, that’s right. Seventeen days ago, I studied the Bible, I should probably do that again.” No, build a habit. We should build a habit of studying the Bible.

Titus one and verse eight says that we should build the habit of being hospitable. Hospitable. Do we have people over? Do we host people? Are we friendly to them? The Bible is full of habits, full of them. Proverbs twenty-two and verse six says that we should build the habit of training our children properly. Everything that we do in life, a lot of what we do in life comes down to habits. Good and bad. Because the Bible speaks a lot about bad habits too.

The Bible says in Proverbs twenty-six verse fourteen, that if you sleep in your bed too long, like a door hinge turning, you just keep rolling over in bed, keep rolling over in bed, snooze, snooze, snooze, and God says that that’s a habit that’s called slothfulness. He names that habit. We can think of these as character traits in a way, but really if you think about it, they’re just habits. I’m in the habit of sleeping in too late in the morning. Well, really you’re in the habit of slothfulness, that’s what it says. God says.

First Timothy five and verse thirteen says that if you’re a widow, it really applies to anybody though, you don’t have to be a widow for this to be true, you have to be careful not to be a busybody or a gossip. People can get in the habit of being busybodies and gossips, getting into other people’s business, wanting to know inside information about other people, and then sharing it with other people. That can become a habit, a bad habit. Ephesians five and verse five says that we need to build the habit of cleanliness, so it means that we can have the habit of uncleanliness too. Pretty much everywhere you look in the Bible, it’s full of habits, good and bad. Now, let’s turn over to Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two.

Titus two and verse six. This is speaking to young men, but again, I’ll tell you it definitely doesn’t just apply to young men. But in a curious way, young men, whether it’s physically young men, but I would argue it’s not just physically young men, we’re talking about even young men, young men and women in the faith, those who are maybe not necessarily young physically, but young spiritually.

“Young men...” and women “likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things, all things, showing yourself a pattern of good works.” What does that say? God is saying develop patterns or habits of good works. Make it a habit to have good works in all things, in doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned. Make a habit of having sound speech. Make a habit of showing uncorruptness in doctrine, and so on and so forth. God specifically tells young people; you could say in the faith. You don’t have to be young for this to apply physically, He wants us to establish good habits. How do we build good habits coming out of the days of Unleavened Bread? Seven days we have just spent de-leavening ourselves, flattening ourselves, practicing, getting sin out of our lives. Prior to the days of unleavened Bread was our self-examination time. A time when we really focused on where we needed to change.

We looked deeply at ourselves. We asked ourselves, “How can we? What areas do we need to grow in?” Through these last seven, now the seventh day, through these last six and apart days, we have sought to put those things that we saw about ourselves out of our lives. In effect, what we’ve begun doing, brethren, is to begin building habit of good works through these seven days. That’s what these days are about but the days are about to be over.

Like a good Catholic, a good Catholic would say, “Well, days of Lent are over. Now, I can go back to the things that I fasted from for forty days,” because in Lent, they cut something out of their life. They maybe stop cursing or they stop eating candy or something like that through those forty days but then when the forty days are up, they’ll go right back to it. Do we want to be like Catholics, brethren? No, of course not. The thing is the better way to put that is do we really want to be like ancient Israel?

Ancient Israel saw massive miracles for seven days straight. They were physically coming out of Egypt, crossing the Red Sea. Then just because they were now out, oh, it’s okay to go back and start murmuring again, complaining, whining at Moses, telling him all of his problems, why it’s his fault that he brought us out of here. No, no, no, no. They went into forty years of the wilderness just like us, brethren. We’re coming out of seven days of beginning to build a good habit. We can’t fall into the same trap that Israel fell into. We have to continue.

Now that we’re entering, you could say the rest of the year, however long it is until God’s kingdom comes, we’re entering into the rest of the year, and we’re trying to keep and maintain the habits that we’ve developed over the last week. We have to learn the lessons from Israel. So, Brethren, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done before, or exactly. I’ve never quite structured a message like this, but I’m going to use a book, the three summary points from a book titled Atomic Habits by James Clear.

You’ll see that you’re thinking, “Well, wait a minute. What are you bringing in this secular book about habits?” Well, you’ll understand if we’re trying to build habits, if you go to pretty much any book out there, you’re going to see a lot of the very same things that we’re talking about today. How to properly build habits. But the thing is it doesn’t matter whether it’s this book or any other book you find about how to build habits. This one just had very, three very simple, easy-to-follow steps. But my point is, it’s not about the secular steps. It’s about the fact that God proves these steps in the Bible.

I will show you today that these steps are biblical. It’s not just some secular book that we’re going through. Yes, we’re using that as the structure, but it’s God’s principles that are being laid out. So, let’s look at the first lesson on how to continue to build good habits now that these days of unleavened bread are coming to a close. The first lesson is this, build identity-based habits. Now, let me just read the summary of what he says and then I’m done talking about the book, at least for this section. Then I’m going to go into all kinds of other things about scripture.

Let me just read what he means by building identity-based habits. You can just listen carefully to this.

“The key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity. First, your current behaviors are simply a reflection of your current identity. The things that you do in your life are a reflection of who you define yourself as, as you identify as. What you do now is a mirror image of the type of person you believe that you are, either consciously or subconsciously.

If we want to change our behavior, if we want to change our behavior for good, you need to start believing new things about yourself. You need to build identity-based habits. Changing your beliefs isn’t nearly as hard as you might think. There are two steps. Decide the type of person you want to be and prove it to yourself with small wins. Your identity emerges out of your habits, and every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

Now, that may sound kind of fluffy and psychological, and hard to understand. Here’s what it really means. You are who you are right now, but we all have been through or maybe some of us haven’t yet been through, but if you’ve been through baptismal counseling, how many of you remember the four yous? The four yous are simple. There’s the you that you know, there’s the you that others know. You all have a different perception of me than I do personally of myself.

Then there’s the you that God sees. God sees us differently than even we see ourselves or others see us and then there’s the fourth you, the you that you want to become with God’s help. Now, that’s what this point is about. It’s about figuring out who you want to become. Here’s a short way to describe this. It’s goal setting. Fancy mumbo jumbo about building identity-based habits. Goal setting is the point and your goal, here’s your goal, to become the best you, you possibly can. The person that God wants you to become. That is our goal.

We can say the guidelines for “New identity.” Let’s just say our new identity is the fourth you. It’s the person that God wants is to become. We don’t have that identity yet, but we’re striving for it. We’re striving to be the best person that we possibly can be. The guidelines for creating this new identity are all laid out in the Bible. And if you think about it, this first point is pretty well already done. You all don’t have to think too much about it because we did it in self-examination. Stop and think.

Prior to Passover, we all sat down and diligently looked at our lives, and we compared ourselves to God’s word. We asked, “How do I measure up and where do I want to grow in my character so that I can become that fourth you. The person that God wants me to be with His help.” We measured ourselves presently against that person that God wants us to become. So, we’ve already done this first point. We’ve in effect, had this already laid out for us in the Bible.

We all have lists of areas where we want to improve in order to build this new identity. So, there is no reason to really spend much more time at all on this first point. We all know who we want to become. Maybe we’re struggling with covetousness. If I know that I’m struggling with covetousness, I already know that I’ve come through the days of unleavened bread and I’ve already started working on covetousness.

Maybe I’ve struggled with lust or anger, or hatred. Whatever issue we may face personally, we’ve already identified those areas, but we can’t forget them. That’s the key. That’s the key. We can’t forget where we must go. Now, here’s the second point. So, first point, first point. Second point is going to be a little bit longer. Now, this book says, forget about setting goals. Second point, now that you know what your goals are, forget them, he’s saying, and focus on the system that gets you to those goals instead. Okay?

Here’s what he says, goals are about results you want to achieve, but systems, meaning the process that you take in order to achieve the goal, systems are about the processes that lead to those results. So, if you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t necessarily you, the problem is the system. You don’t know how to reach that goal properly. We don’t know how to properly achieve that goal.

The goal may be to stop being covetous. Well, that’s a high and lofty goal. How do we get to that goal? How do we reach that? Bad habits repeat themselves again and again, not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system. We keep falling into bad habits because we end up not having the proper structure process to achieve those goals. So, in the end, you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And this book helps with that.

So, what does this mean in practical terms? How do we make this real? Let me just show you the definition of the word habit. What does it mean to have a habit? It’s an automatic reaction to a specific situation. We can react to certain things automatically when something... when we’re in a certain circumstance. So, let me just explain to you this, let’s say I’ve got the habit, this is a physical habit, let’s say I’ve got the habit of getting Starbucks on the way to work.

If I’m driving by Starbucks every single day on my way to work, I’ve grown a habit of stopping and getting that Starbucks coffee. But what if I want to stop? If I want to stop that habit, seeing the Starbucks is, in effect, a trigger or a cue to start going to that Starbucks on a regular basis. So, if you want to stop the habit, the best way to stop habits, brethren, and we’re going to get into how this works spiritually as well, because physically speaking, this is an easy concept to understand.

The best way to stop that habit of getting Starbucks is to take a different route to work. Take a different route to work. It might be a longer route, but what it will do is help you stop habit, stop that habit. A lot of us have good intentions. We can, in our minds, we can say, I really would like to stop this habit, but that willpower in and of itself, generally speaking, isn’t enough. It might help for a little bit. Maybe I want to go to the gym more, maybe I want to exercise more but that willpower generally speaking isn’t enough.

And it’s why you see New Year’s resolutions typically don’t work. What happens is people get to the gym, they get their gym membership, and they go for a few weeks. And because they don’t have... they haven’t changed anything about their lives, they fall out of the habit very quickly. So, the best way to build and develop habits is to change something physical in your circumstances that trigger that habit.

Like the trigger to the Starbucks is driving by Starbucks. If you don’t want to go to Starbucks anymore, change that habit by going someplace else. Studies have shown, again, I’ll just reiterate, studies have shown that if you want to change a habit, it has less to do with willpower and more to do with changing the little cues or the triggers that lead to that habit. Again, just think about driving to work at Starbucks.

Now, this is a godly principle. Let’s turn over to Psalm one hundred and one. Psalm one hundred and one. Psalm one hundred and one and verse three. Verse one it says,

“I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto you, O Lord, I will sing, I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O, when will you come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; and it will not cleave to me.” Verse three is the key. The first part, “I will set no wicked thing from before my eyes.”

So, let’s imagine that maybe we struggle with lust. I gave a sermon on lust a while back. If we want to stop that bad habit of having lust, you have to be able to know what causes the lust, to begin with. Most of us right now, if we would struggle with lust, we’re not struggling with lust in this room. We’re not sitting there and thinking, “Oh wow, I’m just so lustful right now.” You wouldn’t think that because there’s nothing in this room right here to trigger that reaction, that emotion, that negative reaction.

Oftentimes what happens is with all kinds of different sins that we face, it’s something that triggers it. Maybe if you’re at work and you have a coworker that you work with, that every time you interact with this person, it gets you angry, makes you upset. That person in and of themselves is in effect a trigger or a cue that causes you to now battle anger. Okay?

So, if we’re going to build the habit of not being lustful anymore, having this lofty goal of, I just want to stop being lustful, that’s wonderful to see the end goal. It’s wonderful to know where we want to be eventually, but if that’s all we think about, is I just want to stop lusting, we’re not going to get there, brethren. We have to address the smaller points in front of it. We have to understand what causes us to lust, what leads to that feeling of lust in our minds or our hearts.

If we can find that, then we’re getting somewhere, then you can begin to say, how can I remove that from my life so that I remove the temptation at its root? I think I’ve told you this story about my glasses at the gym. I would take my glasses off at the gym because I can’t see very far. Physically, I would do this so that I wouldn’t lust after any of the other people at the gym.

You know, when people are at the gym, they’re not wearing a lot of clothes. It’s just the way that it is. So, there’s a lot of temptation there. And I would take my glasses off back in college just so that I wouldn’t see it, so that I could physically put that barrier, and what it would do is it would help me. Now, if we take our glasses off, proverbially speaking, or let’s say we’re at work and we’ve got this problem with a coworker who just really angers us at times with the things that he says or she says, and maybe it’s mean or whatever, you know that that person’s the problem.

But here’s the thing, maybe you won’t be able to necessarily avoid that person all the time. How do you change something about yourself, maybe? What can you do to change yourself? Maybe you think to yourself, this person might be having a really bad day or really struggling with something, and as soon as you see them, you anticipate that and you think through that this person might be going through something, it will maybe put you at ease and be able to handle the situation better.

Brethren, there’s an infinite number of examples I could just go through, but that’s not... to help illustrate this point, but the whole point is God says in his word, “I will not set anything, any wicked thing before my eyes.” To stop a spiritual issue or to get into the habit of eradicating lust or any kind of spiritual issue in your life, there are physical things that you can find, that you can change and manipulate so that you can begin to address that concern.

Covetousness, same thing. How can you avoid... maybe you’ve become covetous. You’ve learned that I’ve just spent too much time on Facebook marketplace or some of these other things, and I really love... and you found that you’ve end up spending too much money that you didn’t need to spend just because you were browsing through Facebook Marketplace too much. How would we address that?

If we’ve come to realize that I’ve actually got a little problem with covetousness, how can I address that? Well, I know that I go to Facebook Marketplace 10 times a day and I keep checking these things, and looking over here, and maybe I just cut it out until I absolutely know that I need something, then I’ll check it, rather than checking it routinely all the time.

There are things, there are ways, brethren... and this is where you have to take the baton. I’m handing you the baton now. You have to take the baton and find those physical triggers in your life that lead to the temptation so that you can address it. So that is, in effect, the second point. Once you’ve found from the first point, once you’ve set your goal of who you want to be, “I want to eradicate covetousness. I want to eradicate anger from my life,” then stop...

Now, the second point is stop thinking about those big, lofty goals that are hard to wrap your head around, and start thinking about the physical cues that you can change in your life that lead to putting out those bad habits. So now, here’s the third point. Here’s the third point. Small habits make a big difference. The book says, it is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, improving by one percent isn’t particularly noticeable. If you try to improve yourself by just one percent every day, it’s not particularly noticeable. Maybe even sometimes it’s totally unnoticeable, but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. So, it doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on a path towards success. Focus on getting one percent better every day.

Now we can appreciate this as Christians. Turn over to Psalm chapter one. You could even get your hymnal out and turn over to page number one, if you want. Psalm one. God wants us to constantly improve, but He doesn’t say... He actually doesn’t say, “Try and make all improvements right now and make it happen. Just improve yourself to the fullest extent right now, and by next week, I want you to be a complete Christian.” That’s not how it works. God has given us our entire lifetimes to overcome, and it takes an entire lifetime to overcome.

Let’s read in verse one. Psalm one, one,

“Blessed is a man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law does he meditate day and night.” Verse three, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.”

God likens us to trees. Okay. How does a tree grow? Let’s really look at the mechanics of how a tree grows. When it first is planted, imagine you’re planting an oak tree, red oak or something. It’s small. And maybe that first year, just like a new Christian, it’ll put on a lot of growth in just one year. Remember what it was like when you were being called out of the world or called into God’s truth. “Wow, I have to stop keeping Sunday and I’m going to start keeping the Sabbath, and I got to keep the holy days, and I got to learn how to tithe properly, and I have to stop eating unclean meats.”

There’s a lot of big growth early on as a young Christian. And every year, you learn more and more, and more. But when you’re a few years in, even just a few years in to being God’s Church, there’s nothing as big as starting to keep the Sabbath from Sunday. You’ve already kept that. You’ve already made that part of your tree, if you will. But you start to grow in other ways, smaller ways, more spiritual ways, things that are maybe a lot more difficult to grow in. But every year, we are like trees that grow and, in its season, produce fruit.

How often have we ever seen a fifty-foot-tall red oak all of a sudden shoot up and put another fifty feet on of growth? That doesn’t happen. That’s impossible. It doesn’t happen that way. The way that trees grow and the way that God says that we should grow are like trees, incrementally small year after year, but growing, constantly growing, getting bigger and bigger, producing more and more fruit. Every single year that we grow, we’re producing more and more fruit.

This is the principle of this third lesson, that we’re supposed to make small habits, small differences in our lives. If we don’t focus on trying to just all of a sudden overcome lust in one full swoop, then what we’re going to do, the practical way to address lust is to just step by step, day by day, growing like a tree. Second Peter chapter three. Second Peter three.

Second Peter three, sixteen, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware less to you also, being led away with the air of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

That word grow just means to enlarge. Don’t retract but grow. Get bigger, every single year. Be in it for the long game. Oaks can live 300 years, but they just keep growing little bits and little bits. Are we like those big oaks? In First Peter chapter two. You can just turn back one page. First Peter chapter two and verse two... just pick it up in verse one. Peter an apostle of... excuse me, I was reading chapter one.

First Peter two, one, “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere work...” excuse me, “Milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” Now do we as Christians think about when you feed a baby, do you just all of a sudden feed that baby a steak or a giant, you know, like a turkey leg or something like that. You can’t feed a baby something like that. You have to start small.

Piece by piece, that baby will begin to learn, oh, I can eat a banana or I can eat a carrot. I can eat this, that, or the other thing and eventually work up toward the stronger foods. We have to see ourselves like that, brethren. If we want to continue, because we’ve already started, you’re seven days into this habit building process. If we want to continue to build good habits, we have to think in small terms.

Just like this book says, if there’s some way that you could figure out how to be one percent better every day. Whatever that means, whatever areas you’re facing in your life, how can I get just a little bit better today? Maybe if, again, covetousness, just come back to that with Facebook Marketplace, an easy example. If we do struggle with something like that, do we? Because every once in a while, you’re going to have those cues. If you’re on your phone for any reason, you might say, “Since I’m here on my phone, might as well go over to Facebook Marketplace.”

We got to stop. Fine, that’s the cue. That’s the trigger. That’s the thing that can lead us to covetousness. We have to recognize that. Once we recognize it, how do we address it? Maybe the way that we address it today is we say, if you feel that temptation to turn on to Facebook Marketplace, just say, “No, put it in your pocket.” Put it in your pocket. Just turn it off. Say, “Limit yourself.” Don’t all of a sudden think that you need to move heaven and earth in order to stop.

Spiritual sins, brethren, are not easy to overcome. Again, it takes an entire lifetime to overcome all of these things. They ebb and flow. Sometimes we struggle with some things and other times we struggle with others. Brethren, where you are right now, the whole point of this is find a way to just grow a little bit, day in and day out. There’s an old poem I was reading in a book of virtues on my bookshelf at home and I saw it. Now it was written in eighteen seventy-two by Josiah Gilbert Holland. You got to take it with a grain of salt.

He talks about heaven and so forth, like reaching heaven and so forth, but replace the word heaven with kingdom and you’re fine. Heaven is not reached in a single bound. Truly, this is fascinating and it speaks perfectly to this lesson. “Heaven is not reached in a single bound. We build the ladder by which we rise from the lowly Earth to the vaulted skies and we mount to its summit round by round slowly. I count this thing to be grandly true,” eighteen-seventy-two, this is written, “that a noble deed,” one noble deed, “is a step toward God. Lifting the soul from the common clod to a purer air and broader view.”

Doesn’t take a lot, brethren. If we just focus on, maybe we found in ourselves just, this last year, I just didn’t serve enough. I want to serve more. What can we do every day? What little thing can we do every day to fulfill that? Do we wake up and ask ourselves, “Who am I going to set out to serve today?”

It’s a little thing. Maybe just somebody needs a glass of water, somebody needs help with something. What can we do to improve just by one percent every day? Brethren, when you improve one percent every day, that one percent piles up and fast. Let’s turn over to Matthew chapter six for one final verse. Speaking to this principle of making little, small, bite-sized progress in habit building.

Matthew six and verse thirty-four says this. “Take therefore no thought for the morrow.” Don’t look at tomorrow. “For the morrow will take the thought of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Brethren, we have enough going on in our lives just today to get through. Don’t worry about tomorrow. The struggles that we’ll face tomorrow, we’ll face tomorrow. But let’s just look at what we have to do today.

Brethren, if we do that in conjunction with finding those cues that help us to overcome, practically speaking, help us to overcome certain sins, brethren, we are well, well, well on our way toward building not just a habit for seven days, but a habit that will last until God’s Kingdom.