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Transcript

Good afternoon, everyone.

I’m going to start today a little differently than normal as I’m adjusting. That was a lot of food last night. You know you’re looking at this... forgive me before I get into the message here. You start looking at your suits a little bit differently during the holy days, and you think, “Okay those will be the ones that fit me on the last day of unleavened bread. I’m going to set that one to the side. But I digress.

I’m going to go back in time. Go back to the moment when the Israelites were in Egypt. That time when they were bundled into their houses, doors were closed. Imagine after all of the plagues that had happened up until that point what they were thinking. Because I’m sure these are human beings who had not understood God for generations. So it wasn’t to them, and you have to imagine, they were scared. They were probably inspired because they weren’t being affected by the plagues, but they would have been also a little nervous like, “Oh, those frogs got a little close,” just depending on the circumstances, but they were probably full of tension.

They were in their homes, they closed the doors, they put blood on the posts. It got dark, and then because they didn’t have glass windows, they would have had open portals for windows, they’d start to hear screams of Egyptians from their homes. Death was starting to come all around that nation. And the Israelites would have been in the middle of it. They were slaves in the middle of that nation, and they would have been hearing those screams. They would have been inside their homes, their shoes fastened, their staffs clutched ready to go.

Probably their cloaks tucked, their belts wrapped around, bread prepared, again unleavened because they had to do it quickly. But they knew they had to be ready to move. There would be a call made that they were going to go. And they couldn’t hesitate, they couldn’t pause, and they couldn’t delay. They didn’t get to wait and leisurely pack like we’re going to the feast where we pack over a period of time. No, it was an urgent moment amidst what would have been chaos.

Egypt was a major nation and all around them, the firstborn and those families were dying. So again, you would have heard screams. God was actively at that moment delivering his people out of Egypt. He was taking them out of bondage. He was taking them out of slavery, out of what essentially was a death sentence because of how they were treated. Put yourself there. Imagine it. It wasn’t just a simple, “Oh, blood in the lamppost. We’re going in, we’re going to have our nice dinner, and then off we go.”

Well, of course, they looted the Egyptians, but there would have been fear. If you’re surrounded, even if you know God is on your side, and you’re surrounded by the screams of tens or thousands or even could be millions of people, you’d been afraid. But ultimately, he delivered them. He took them out of Egypt. He took them out of all of that trouble. And brethren, that’s pictured so you and I can experience, think about, know, understand, wrap our minds around that God is doing the same for you and I today.

We were called at a point. A switch was flipped in our mind. And from that point forward, we have been leaving Egypt or left Egypt. But I ask you, have we? Have we left Egypt? Have we put Egypt in our rearview mirror or are there times when we start to look back at Egypt? We think about what happens. We think about the things that we did before. We let our thoughts slip. So as we sit here on this first day of unleavened bread, as we picture putting sin, Egypt is a type of sin, putting sin out of our lives, we have to do it not just physically. We did that. We’re done. This place is deleavened. This campus is deleavened.

We are deleavened. And then anyone around the world who hears this would hear it next year. Your physical world is deleavened. But we have to do it also mentally. And it’s not just our outward, again, it’s inwardly. It’s not just for a time. Physical deleaven, yes. But spiritual leaven, no. It has to be for good. Complete. We can’t stop it. We have to keep our eyes focused on the future, not looking back from where we’ve come. Leaving spiritual Egypt requires much more than just simply a physical departure.

And it requires a complete transformation of why we left Egypt and what we look forward to. So that’s what we’re going to dig into today. We’re going to see what it’s like to leave Egypt spiritually, some physical as well, and then learn how we can stop ourselves from looking back to Egypt, which is fatal, even if we’ve escaped. Go to the book of Exodus. Chapter six, Exodus chapter six. And we’ll start in verse five. Exodus six, verse five. You all turning there.

Verse five of Exodus six, “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians kept in bondage; and I remembered my covenant.” Groaning, bondage. “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage.” It wasn’t good for Israel. It was terrible. And it got worse as time went on, making bricks with no straw, doing very hard labor. They were slaves.

Sometimes I think we can romanticize a little bit the picture of Israel. We think, “Oh, they worked hard.” We have pictures in the story books, and it takes away from the fact that they were slaves. The Egyptians wanted to break them. They were forced labor. Continue in verse six, “And I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments.” Verse seven, “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, which brings you forth out from the burdens of the Egyptians.”

It wasn’t just difficult in Egypt. It was bondage. It was slavery. You could imagine. They were beaten, and all of the aspects of we think about modern slavery, this is not an indentured servant like it would have been in Israel. No, this was slavery. So if they didn’t do the work that they were required, they were beaten. I’m sure their living arrangements were not all that great. Did they get a lot of food? No, probably not. They got enough. All the rest, all the good stuff, would have went to the Egyptians.

It was bad. It was tough. It wasn’t easy, and sometimes we can look back at our Egypt, and it doesn’t seem quite as bad, does it? But Egypt’s not... Egypt’s Egypt. It’s sin. It’s easy for us to look back at sin, and maybe downplay it a little bit. It tries to pull us back in. It tries to bring us back, and the Days of Unleavened Bread are picturing a time, and are experiencing the physical as we examined ourselves for the Passover, and now today, getting in, and getting that, rooting that sin out of our lives completely, taking that Egypt, and putting it completely behind us.

Go to Romans chapter six, back to the New Testament. Romans chapter six. Let’s start verse sixteen, Romans chapter six verse sixteen, “Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey;” So whoever we choose to obey, that’s who we’re serving. Because make no mistake, brethren, we are slaves just like those Israelites. We have it a little bit more cushy than Israelite slaves. We have nice clothes. We have air conditioning. We have electricity.

This is slavery lite, if you will. But we’re still slaves. Whoever we obey, that’s who are our masters. Continuing on, “Whether of sin unto death, or of obedience,” to God, “Unto righteousness?” We either follow Satan or we follow God. It is a binary choice. It’s clean and simple.

Verse seventeen, “But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin,” we all were, “But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin,” or you could say being made free from Egypt, “You became servants of righteousness. “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded to your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”

Basically, stop living the lives that we used to live. God freed us from that, helped us escape from Egypt, from sin, and now we have to change. Now we have to take the leaven out, completely flatten ourselves so we become more like Jesus Christ as we pictured just a night ago. We’re still in the New Testament, so let’s go over to John chapter eight. This is deliberate. Christianity is not autopilot, and the Holy Days are those reminders of times when we have to make deliberate decisions about what we’re doing.

Because any of you who were baptized and took the Passover, you heard talk about, I’m sure all of you have studied it, as about taking the Passover unworthily, or without reverence, or not thinking about, not examining ourselves to know, “Okay, I want this yearly contract to continue, that we go with the blood of Christ and the body of Christ.” But it’s a deliberate decision we’ve made, and that has to continue to be so. Chapter eight and verse thirty-four.

Verse thirty-four reads, “Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin,” because that’s the master we’re following. “And the servant abides not in the house forever: but the son abides forever. “If the son, therefore, shall make you free,” freed us from sin, “You shall be free indeed.” The change we made was different than, obviously, what Israel escaped. The change we made allowed us to be put on a path that has a trajectory that leads us to the Kingdom of God, leads us to be God beings.

I’ve said this so many times, but that statement is almost impossible for you and I to really wrap our mind around. It’s like, “How are you doing?” “Oh, I’m going to be God.” It’s so incomprehensibly big that it’s hard to understand that when we were freed from sin, it put us on a path to be God, the being that folds up the universe and poof, another universe. That’s what we’re qualifying to be part of. That’s what we’re trying to become. In each and every day, we take that leaven, pull it out of our lives, remain and become more flat, and then it puts that sin behind us more.

But we all sin, so there’s always a part. That’s why none of us are perfect. We all sin. So it clearly says if we serve sin, if we commit sin, but we all commit sin, don’t we? So there’s a part of us, our flesh, that’s always longing to serve sin. But when we make the deliberate choice not to, that’s when we start to put Egypt further and further behind us. It’s change, it’s repentance. It’s what’s needed to be able to resist the temptation to not look back and, if you will, romanticize the past. It was so much easier then.

And we know we have the example of it. It’s easy. Let’s go to Numbers chapter eleven. Israel did it over and over and over again. Numbers chapter eleven. It’s amazing. Sometimes it requires human beings to experience difficult things to understand the lessons we need to learn. But usually, if you’re open to learning, you burn your fingers on the stove once. You don’t test the stove to see if it’s still hot. You don’t come back, and you’re like, “You know what? It didn’t hurt that much. Maybe this time it’ll feel nice.” Nope, still burns.

Come back later, try it again. Nope, still burns. We’re not dumb. So you touch it the first time, you think... And you’re usually about this tall when you first do it, and then you realize, “No, I never want to have that happen again.” And we learn from the mistake. Israel, they loved the stove. Just over and over again. It wasn’t even... Because you would give them benefit of the doubt if a generation had passed. And then the new generation coming up... Because you’re young people, you understand.

Your parents tell you the thing, “Don’t touch the stove.” And you’re like, well, maybe you touched the stove wrong. And you laugh, but we’ve all been there for our parents’ generation and whatever it was. So if it would have been a different generation, you could have thought... I’m going to destroy this analogy, but you could have thought they would have said, “You know what? Maybe my parents weren’t right about Egypt. Maybe there’s...” But no, this was a course of days.

They’d just like, touch the stove, touch the stove, touch the stove. And this was with miracles. Numbers eleven, you’re already there. And verse four, Numbers eleven, verse four, “And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting.” Well, distraction. “And the children of Israel also wept again.” Okay, they just were... Again, they were in a house, let’s go back to the introduction, screaming around them because the firstborn died. They looted the Egyptians, left Egypt by the power of God of the most powerful nation on earth. And now we are, I’m exaggerating a bit, fifteen minutes into their journey.

And the mixed multitude that came with them, because we want to follow this God, well, for a while. “And then Israel wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?” I’m hungry. Verse five, “We remember the fish.” Remember back then, “Which we did eat in Egypt freely;” We had so much fish. We didn’t even have... There was never... I could eat freely. There was a smorgasbord of fish. They were slaves. There was not a smorgasbord of fish. We could eat freely. “The cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.”

It was so great in Egypt, except for the beating and killing, and being slaves part. But brethren, we do the same thing, don’t we? It’s so easy for you and I to look back at what our lives were and think, “It wasn’t that bad. Like most of the time, I obeyed God, or I did the right thing, if I didn’t understand. I didn’t make that many mistakes. And yeah, of course, I’m better now, but there were a lot of perks back then. The things that I could do on a Friday night or Sabbaths were available.”

Whatever is the particular cross, if you will, that we have to bear in our individual lives that we look back on, it becomes easy to think, “It wasn’t so bad. The garlic was good.” I sometimes have to poke myself because I came from a city with really good food in Toronto. And sometimes, I think that I’m like, “Wow, I am kind of lusting back for the leeks, literally the leeks, the garlic, the curry. Maybe not what they had, but it’s easy to look back and think, and then you do what we do now and again. We take a trip up there, get really good food, and then realize, “Wow, this is the world.”

We’re insulated here on the campus especially, but even anywhere in God’s Church, there is a level of insulation from what that is, unless we start to soften in our minds that the life we lived before God called us was a life that served Satan. We didn’t serve God. We were not good. We didn’t mostly do the right thing. We sinned. We were sinners. We had no idea what was right. And we have to look back at our previous lives before God called us, never mind baptized and moving forward, but before God called us and say, “No, it was bad. I sinned. I served the devil. I didn’t serve God.

And we can’t justify ourselves because it will soften the view of what we came from, just like it did with Israel. It softened them. Continuing in verse six there in Numbers eleven, you’re still there, the leeks and the garlic and the onions. And verse six, “But now our soul is dried up: and there’s nothing at all besides this manna,” that came down from Heaven, that was given to us by God. The same generation. This is the part that amazes Israel. And I think in a certain way, God picked a stubborn people.

I’ve got a lot of Israelite in me, so I can say that for personal speaking-wise, that would give us these sort of examples. Because I think most other people, they have been like, “Well, you know, the food did just fly out of the sky. Maybe we should enjoy this for more than an evening.” But no, no, we’re all dried up. Just this manna. They remembered the food. They looked back at the positive. They looked back at all the good things by forgetting the bad. And that’s human beings.

I think it’s something God put in our mind to help us cope with difficult situations. If you go through something extremely difficult, over time, the bad parts of what was difficult start to fade from our minds, and the positive of what we went through stayed. It’s how our brains work. It’s a coping mechanism that works really well. Otherwise, you would have all of the negatives of your life fresh in your mind. You will notice a very severe negative will burn into your memory, and you will not forget it.

You won’t feel the same pain of what you felt when you went through that situation. Could have been someone dying, what experience you had, whatever it was. The pain of that moment fades, but the memory may stay. Whereas with positive experiences, we tend to also remember the feeling of the positive. That’s what God did to our brains. It’s a great thing, but spiritually, it can be a dangerous thing. Because spiritually, it can allow us to downplay the negative and focus on the positive.

It allows us to focus on the food, but forget we were slaves, like Israel. Okay, let’s go to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Ecclesiastes chapter seven, just one verse we’ll read here to continue on. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, because as we get older, we all break this verse, every single one of us. Verse ten of Ecclesiastes seven, “Say not you, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.”

Everyone says, “Well, when I was young, we didn’t have what you all have. We had to go to school in the dark. When I was a kid, we carried a twenty-pound bag of puffed wheat on our backs to school, and it was uphill in both directions. This generation is weak because they don’t understand how difficult it was.” We all do it. It’s part of that human condition, which is why the Bible calls it out and says, don’t look back at the former days as being better than what they are today.

Is character going down? Yes, yes it is. Is the world going to a spot that it’s going to eventually crash into a wall? Absolutely. But it’s not because it used to be better. No, it used to be different. So what was sin, and people sinning, they’ve been doing it for thousands of years for all of mankind. We go back a generation, they just sinned a lot more quietly. So it was behind closed doors. They kept their sin private. Now people, they don’t care. So it’s out in the open. Does that make the previous time better, or does it make the current time worse? I don’t think we can say.

And the Bible says don’t. Don’t say that. Don’t try to make it look back because what it does, like looking back to Egypt, it softens the memory of what we came out of. Because, well, this generation is so much worse. This time is so much worse. I came out of a time when we were good and righteous, and no, you were not. No, I was not. We can’t soften what we came from because it allows us to start and look back and see it in a positive light. Again, we came out of Egypt, and we can’t look back. We can’t look back.

Luke chapter nine. We have to commit. Luke chapter nine, verse fifty-eight. Luke chapter nine and verse fifty-eight, “And Jesus said unto them, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” I have stuff to do. “And Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury the dead: but go you and preach the Kingdom of God.” That’s the duty. That’s the purpose why we’re called in this age to preach the Kingdom of God.

“And another said, Lord, I will follow you; but first let me go bid them farewell, which are at home in my house.” They were looking back, both cases. “And Jesus said unto them, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” So why is it so important that you and I get into a place where we properly frame where we’re from, what we’ve come out of, our previous life experiences? We learn from them. You, me, all of us are a sum of our experiences.

So what we experienced for our fifteen, twenty, fifty years, seventy years, whatever age we are, makes us who we are today. That can have positives and that could have negatives, but it’s who we are today because of those experiences. But we can’t look back with longing to what is behind us because the Bible clearly says here, we will be disqualified to be part of the Kingdom of God. Looking back, if you look back, is not fit for the Kingdom of God. Brethren, there’s so much about our lives, the Days of Unleavened Bread picture, that we have to be able to look at ourselves and then cut away things that would slow and inhibit our ability to grow.

That’s why we should put leaven out of our lives. That’s why we get it off our property, our domicile. We get it out of our lives because we’re trying to do the same thing with sin, and certain things will lead us back to sin. That’s what we’re trying to stop. We’re trying to stop the avenues for which Satan can tempt us and pull us back to Egypt in ways that may seem innocent, but ultimately lead to sin, lead to leaven, lead to us... if you keep playing it out, lead to us walking away from God’s way of life altogether.

I think all of us would say, “No, I wouldn’t leave God’s way of life.” Every person who left God’s Church at some point in time said, “I would never leave this way of life.” Every single one. And they said it with conviction, and they meant it. There was no joke. They meant it. But at some point, they started looking back. They started seeing the past. It amazes me, because I’ve seen this now many, many times.

People who, especially if they come to Headquarters, you get to know them more, who have come here, given up success, and money, and various other aspects of their lives, left their lives, came here for a period of time, and then eventually, if they moved on, they go back and try to relive the life they were gone. They go back into the same job, the same city. They try to go and have the same experiences because they started looking back at a point and longed for it. So they wanted to go recreate it.

They stopped focusing on the kingdom, what it means to be able to be part of the family of God, to be God, and thought, “You know what? That wasn’t so bad. I gave that up. You know what? I want that back. I want the leeks, the garlic, the onions,” and they had forgotten about the beatings and the slavery. Because it can happen to all of us. Because if we slow down, we look back, it does something else to us too. It causes us to not move forward as fast.

If you’re dragging something from behind, it doesn’t matter what it is, if you’re dragging it forward because you’re looking back, looking back at the thing you’re pulling with you, “Oh, my old life,” you’re not looking where you’re going. And if you’ve ever made the mistake, because everyone’s made this mistake where you’re walking... I walk into the office in the morning and the afternoon, and I have my cell phone, so I’m reading the news.

And there’s been a couple of times where people were out, especially walking their dogs, I can think of one in particular, and you’re almost careful to say hello to the person who’s staring at their phone, reading the news, because you’re afraid to, like, scare them. But I’ve done it a couple of times, and you realize, if you’re not paying attention, you’re not moving as fast, you’re not walking as fast, you’re not as focused, because you’re not paying attention to where you’re going, you’re doing something else.

It’s a distraction, never mind looking backward. Lingering, put it this way, strengthens temptation. If we linger, we don’t go fast enough, we don’t stay focused, it’ll strengthen temptation in our lives. Let’s go back to Genesis again, Genesis chapter nineteen. Lingering strengthens temptation. Genesis chapter nineteen. We know this account. We’ll jump around a little bit in it. Start in verse fifteen, Genesis chapter nineteen and verse fifteen. Story of Lot.

Verse fifteen, “And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot.” It wasn’t, “Lot, it’s time to head out. Here we go. Is everything packed? Let’s get everything. Let’s get in the car. Everyone buckle in. Here we go.” No, it’s, “The angels hastened Lot,” like, “Hurry up, we’ve got to get out of here. There is fire and brimstone coming down on this city.” “Saying, Arise, take your wife, your two daughters, which are here; lest you be consumed in the iniquity of this city.”

There was a time it was coming down from the sky, and the angels were pushing and lingering. But... and verse sixteen, “And while he lingered,” Lot was a little slow on the go. “While he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful to him,” i.e., I forgive you for not doing the thing that I said for you to do and get out of the city quickly, I’m showing mercy, was what God did. “And they brought him forth, and set him without the city.”

So, Lot didn’t leave Egypt. Lot was taken out of Egypt. He lingered. Think about what happened the night before, the beating on the door, all the folks outside of it, but he lingered, he delayed. He didn’t show a good example. He wasn’t the one leading the family and saying, “We’ve got to get out of this sinful city. We must move forward. God has given us an opportunity,” and shown leadership in his family. He didn’t, and he lingered and had to be pulled out, essentially, of the city by the angels. That’s a serious account.

For someone... we often think about Lot escaping. We kind of picture him escaping. No, the angels said, “Okay, you’re taking too long, you’re going to die.” And they took him out, outside the city. Jump down to verse twenty-two. “Haste you, escape hither; for I cannot do anything until you come here. Therefore the name of the city was Zoar. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered in. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; And he threw those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities over through, which grew upon the ground.”

And I could venture to say, because of Lot’s poor example, because of Lot lingering, because of Lot not showing leadership in his family, verse twenty-six, “But his wife looked back from behind them, and she became a pillar of salt.” That lesson should scream to us, brethren. There are multiple mistakes. Often, she’s the one that gets the focus. But Lot didn’t show leadership. He didn’t explain or lead and say, “We have to get out of here.” No, he lingered, and the angels had to yank him out, which made it easier for her to think, “Oh, I just want to look back.” And she did it once.

If we look back, we can disqualify ourselves from the Kingdom of God. It clearly says, disqualify... It says, you’re not fit for it. I’m not fit for it, if we look back. Ultimately, it shows where our heart is, doesn’t it? If we’re thinking about lingering in the past, looking back at the past, we’re holding it in, we’re showing where our heart is or is starting to go. That’s what the Days of Unleavened Bread help us fix because, throughout the year, things can be difficult. You could have trials or blessings.

Whatever it is, there is time for us to let our guard down throughout the year as we get reset in the spring and the fall. But as our guard is let down, we may start to focus on our lives, our past, our things that are behind us, before we were called, what we could have had. Every Christian on earth goes through... especially as you’re older, goes through as an exercise, good or bad, whatever you can frame it as, because sometimes it’s good to know what you gave up for you to look forward to what you can receive.

But we all do it in moments of weakness, where you think, “Well, if I wouldn’t have been called, this is how my life would have been. I would have done this and this and this and that and the other.” Not having any frame of reference because we’re literally just making things up in our head of, “Well, if I wouldn’t have been called, then I would have been a rocket scientist, and then I would have went to Mars, and I could have been the President of the United States, and I could have taken over South America,” which is kind of a parallel to modern day.

But we can’t know what would have happened in our lives. We couldn’t know what it would have been like without God’s blessing in our lives. No, it happens, but we have to say no. God picked me and called me at the right moment in my life to respond to that calling and to be able to make a change. Because I can look at myself personally, I’ll use myself as an example, if He would have called me or tried to call me a year or so before I was called, I wouldn’t have responded. Nope.

I can look back now, and things were going way too well in my life. Everything was positive, I was having a great time, I was enjoying living in a big city, and all the perks that came with it. I wouldn’t have been interested. I wouldn’t have paid attention. It would have been like all those times when everything was going great for Israel, and they forgot God. Didn’t know him. But He orchestrated things in my life to make it in such that I would, at the moment when he chose to call me, just like you.

When the moment... Young people, when he starts to flip that switch, and you think, “I’ve got to make a decision,” look for His actions in your lives. It doesn’t matter if you’re called and the world changes, but if you’re raised in the Church, the same thing applies. There is a time when you get around that nineteen, twenty age range that you start to see, “Okay, these are the positives about why I live this way of life, why my parents do, why they’ve taught me. What am I really losing?” Because that’s usually what pulls a young person out, is “What am I missing out on because I’m living this way of life?”

And it’s hard when you’re nineteen, or eighteen, or twenty, whatever it is, to frame what missing out actually is in the context of life because you will have so many experiences in your life. The thing that you think is big now isn’t big. I’m sorry, it’s not. You will find a career, you will have success, you will do all the things you get to do. As a Christian with God’s backing, you’re not missing out. When we were called, it was the right moment, when we were called, all of us. God chooses our lives, guides our lives in a way, because Satan wants us to look back.

He wants us to bring that Egypt back into our lives. He wants it to be more difficult. And when people leave, this is often the case, for a short period of time, things are better. It’s amazing. I’ve seen this happen with people over and over again. They leave the Church, and things get better. You know why? Because Satan wants it to stick. He wants them to stay out. So, it’s not Sodom, where, “Okay, that’s it, I quit.” Boom, fire and brimstone, lightning. No one would... Everyone would be like, “Oh, never mind, I’ll sit back down.”

Like, that’s not how it works. Because if it was, this Church would be the size of the entire planet because everyone would be terrified, which is how the Kingdom of God is going to work. You can’t disobey. If you do, there’s consequences. But in our lives, it’s a little bit different, isn’t it? It’s not so obvious. So, sometimes things look more positive because Satan orchestrates it so it will look that way until you’re too far gone, you’ve left the picture, and then he’s... And then you know what Satan doesn’t care about? You, me.

So, after a point, “I don’t have to take care of this person anymore. It’s not my job, I’m Satan.” And then things go south. So, remember Lot’s wife. It’s the key. Remember Lot’s wife. Okay. So, why must we leave Egypt behind? We said a lot of it so far, but let’s go to Numbers fourteen. We’re in the Old Testament still. So, Numbers fourteen. So, why do we have to put this so far behind us? But why do we have to put sin, Egypt, behind us, completely behind us, not looking back? Why?

Numbers fourteen, verse two. fourteen, verse two, “And all the children of Israel.” It wasn’t even one. Like, it’s amazing. Generations haven’t passed. So, verse two, “And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God have us died in the land of Egypt! or would God have us die here in the wilderness!” So, God’s just going to have us die, so why didn’t we just stay back in Egypt? Could you imagine being Moses?

Like, it’s not often that you want to spank an adult, but anyone who came forward... But you were a slave. Like, even Moses, “I was ruling over people at a time, and you were slaves,” and he had compassion. And these people murmured, all of them, the whole congregation. “And wherefore has the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be prey? Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?”

You know what they weren’t happy... What they were experiencing as an emotion? They were discontented. They got manna. They got food. They weren’t making bricks. They probably... I’m sure, they weren’t being whipped. Slaves are beaten. So, the hard job that they have now is walking. They were given food. They were given water. But yet, they didn’t realize the blessings they had. They were not content with what they had. They weren’t happy with what God had given them. And that’s part of a twin danger. If we are not content, we can do something else.

Go to Hebrews chapter three. Hebrews three. Start reading in verse twelve. Hebrews three and verse twelve, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have been made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”

When we become discontented, it causes us to do something else with our Christian walk. We stop having our confidence being steadfast, or you could say another way, we become half-hearted in living our Christian lives. Discontentment leads to being half-hearted, just not trying, going through the motions. That was math class for me in high school. I joined math. It was very easy for me. I had negotiated a deal with my teacher that I could sleep in math class as long as I did well on tests.

And I didn’t really need to have... I just went through the motions. I knew I didn’t have to work very hard at it. I didn’t have to put a lot. I look back now, I probably would have done the same thing. But as a teenager, you’re tired. You need the time to sleep. But I could have had a lot higher grades. But I had some easy math. This wasn’t hard. So I was kind of discontented, and I just half-heartedly did what I needed to do just to get by.

I still graduated high school and moved on and went to post-secondary education, but that doesn’t apply for Christians. Half-heartedly living our way of life, because you’re not going to be zealous all the time. Don’t get me wrong. We are not just walking around bundles of zeal. “I love this way of life. This is great. Brethren, hugs.” No, sometimes you’re just tired. That happens. You probably all feel it right about now, or if not now, right about after lunch. And if you have a lot more energy, you’re going to feel it about seven o’clock this evening, after the Passover, and last night, and then tonight, because you just get tired.

So you can get tired, but that doesn’t mean we can go at Christianity half-hearted. We’ve got to throw ourselves into it, and by being content with what we have and where we are, it’s easier to do so, because now we’re not longing for something else. These are all the things that Israel did, all aspects that parallel our spiritual walk. If we do any of them, if we parallel Israel, we will lead to the same results that Israel had. We’ll experience the same thing, but we’ll experience it spiritually, far worse than what they had.

We have to focus. Think how the Bible describes Laodicea. They’re lukewarm. That’s basically saying they’re doing it half-heartedly. They’re walking through Christianity. We’re doing the basics. I’m tithing. I go to Sabbath services. Sure, it’s the basics. And you know what the Bible calls that? An unprofitable servant, when we’re doing it halfway. We’re expected to be able to do everything that God would have us to do, and then go above and beyond to qualify. Because again, what are we qualifying for? To be God, to be able to be part of the Kingdom of God, to be part of the ruling class of the government of God for all eternity.

Eternity is something we can’t even understand, and we get to be part of it. When our brains, our little human brains, can wrap around any little part of what that means, we should feel inspired that we get to be a being that could... Stop for a moment of talking about the universe, because sometimes this sort of stuff gives me chills. This is a God who created the universe, never mind can fold it up and bring it back. There was no universe. This is a God who will then redo it, new Heavens, new earth.

You, I, can be a being... Let’s make it feel more like Star Trek, Q, or whatever you want to say, so you can see a TV in your head if you’ve ever watched Star Trek. We are qualifying to be a being that can create universes. Could create universes. I don’t know if we will, but we’d have the power to do so. That’s why we have to look at the example of Israel. That’s why we have to be able to get the things that are going to hold us down, that’ll drag us back, that will make us linger, and get them out of our lives. Because we are so close to being able to be at the point where we make it to the Kingdom of God, and to fail now, oh, brethren, we can’t.

That’s why we have to take advantage of the Days of Unleavened Bread. And by doing so, we’ll become stronger and be able to move faster and grow more because we have those burdens that Israel is more than happy to go back to, but we have those burdens spiritually out of our lives. Okay, so if we looked back, we start to look forward. God freed us from that burden. We saw, and we read, freedom indeed we have through Christ. Let’s go to Exodus chapter nineteen.

We heard this talked about in the sermon yesterday, but we’re here in a year. It wasn’t yesterday, so I’ll cover it a little bit more here. Exodus chapter nineteen. So if we have freedom, we also have a responsibility and a purpose. So freedom requires responsibility and purpose. Exodus chapter nineteen, and verse four, “You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” Verse five. “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.”

Israel’s special to God. Even through their foibles and backsteps and mistakes, they started and made this covenant and just didn’t do it well. They’ll get another chance. “Peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” Verse six, “And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel.” They were freed. But when they were freed, God said, as we’ve referenced here already, you weren’t free to do... God doesn’t give us...

Put it another way, God doesn’t give us independence. We don’t have independence. We have freedom. Israel did not have independence where they could just go do whatever they so choose. This is a country, especially, because I think America, because it was built out of the rebellion and leaving the crown, there’s a spirit of, “We have to have our freedoms, our independence.” And it’s built into the core of America.

But that’s not how God expects you and I to live our lives. We don’t have independence. We have freedom from sin. But with that freedom becomes the responsibility that we have to, like Israel, keep the covenant. They were told to do it. It’s a little bit, “You want to go back into Egypt? Well, you don’t have to keep the covenant.” Do we want to go back into sin? Well, we will if we don’t keep the covenant, if we don’t obey God. We don’t do every aspect of what it means to be a Christian.

We have to reflect God in everything we do. All our actions, our thoughts, our interactions have to reflect that we have been purchased by Jesus Christ, by the blood that we pictured on the Passover, and we have to live our lives in such a way that we say, “You know what? I appreciate what I’ve got to experience, what I’ve got to be able to walk away from. I appreciate that I have been freed from Egypt. I understand, God, that I have a responsibility to do the things that you required us to do because your son was killed to give me access to the Father,” as we saw.

That’s a huge responsibility, but it’s also our purpose. That’s what we do. It’s how we walk forward. Let’s go to Romans six. Romans chapter six and verse twenty. Romans six and verse twenty, “For when,” not if, but, “When you and I were servants of sin, we were free from righteousness.” We ever start to look back at our old lives and think, “Oh, we weren’t so bad. I did a lot of good things.” God says, “No, no, no. You were free, completely free. You were completely free from righteousness.”

Like, “Oh, okay. It’s not the free I’m looking for, but that’s what the Bible says. We’re free from righteousness when we serve sin.” “What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?” We look back and think, “Oh, that was not... I wouldn’t do that the same way now.” “For the end of those things is death.” Wages of sin is death. So all the sin that we did, all the Egypt we were embroiled with in our past lives, the ultimate end of that is death because we were free from righteousness.

We wouldn’t get righteousness. “But now,” verse twenty-two, “Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end of that, everlasting life.” That is our purpose. But we have to be free from sin. It doesn’t mean we never sin, of course. It means we’re free from the penalty of sin, but it also means we are working so we don’t sin. It’s very different than what most people believed when the law’s hung up on the cross. All you had to do was believe Jesus. No, it’s not that.

The reward is greater than what they even understand, but the work is harder. For most professing Christians in the world, the reward is going up to Heaven and doing whatever you do for eternity in a cloud. But they don’t have to do any work for it. It’s pretty much equal. That would be fun for about fifteen minutes. You think, “Oh, this is great. I’m in a cloud. I’m in the sky. What’s for lunch?”

And then eternity. But you didn’t have to do anything. But God says, “No, no, no. The reward I want to give you is so far beyond what anyone can even... even if we’re told it, understand what it means. But I have expectations.” You have to be free from sin. You have to put sin out of your life. I have to do the same. We have to get it out of what we do. We have to de-leaven ourselves as we picture on these days and now for the next seven.

As we take in that unleavened bread, our mind should be thinking about that, “I’m trying to put Jesus Christ into me, symbolized with that unleavened bread, as I root out any sin, any leaven that may pop up.” If you find leaven during the week, you’re not going, “Oh, I’ve missed that piece of toast. You know what? Better not to have it waste, [num, num, num].” No. You’re going to take that toast and be horrified. This was just funny. This is atonement, not Days of Unleavened Bread. But we were across town at the other building, and we were doing the Church CBLs, the Children’s Bible Lessons.

We’re halfway through them, so the area in the back, it was... Pretty much most of the space we had over there was about the size of this room at the time, and there was a hallway, which was our mail room, and we had some of the Children’s Bible Lessons back there sprawled out. And we were trying to get something ready because I think we were about to hand them out to some kids for maybe the Holy Day lessons. And we were back there. It was a Day of Atonement, and I was with a fellow back there, and he just turned, and he was working at a desk at a time.

He turned, grabbed the water that he had left on his desk, picked it up, and started drinking. And then I watched the expression in his face drop, and then the water come flying out of his mouth. That’s the horror. If you find bread in your life right now, you think, “Oh, that’s a...” It’s why you don’t want the minister on the last day during announcements to be like, “Okay, who slipped?” And you’re like, “Maybe he’ll forget this time.” No, because we’re horrified that that sin, that’s symbolic of it, slipped back in our lives.

That’s the responsibility of a Christian. We have to be able to do that, and when we do, when we take that and put it behind us, we don’t look back, we put Egypt behind, we don’t look, we start to do something else. We start to build momentum. If you’re running, you’re running, you build up that momentum, you get the motion. If you’re that ball rolling down a hill, or you picture that snowball that becomes larger and larger as it rolls down and rolls down, it gets bigger and builds up momentum.

Momentum is a fun science equation because it really does make a difference when things get moving as they continue. Go to Hebrews twelve, books over. Because victory for you and I is in front of us, not behind us. Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one, Hebrews twelve, one, “Wherefore seeing we are all compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,” take the things off that are weighing us down, “And the sin which does so easily beset us,” sin’s easy to get a hold, “And let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” not to the side or behind.

We take the weights off, we take the things that slow us down, and we focus ahead. It’s the race in front of us. If you’re ever in a race and you’re running, we’ve had campus races, a couple of times, you hear footsteps behind you, and you think, okay, you want to look back. But if you look back, that’s the time you trip over your feet and stumble to the ground, and that person is right past you. No, you have to just focus on the end and get faster and work harder and build that momentum. Verse two, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, for who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down now at the right hand from the throne of God.”

So anytime the race gets a little more difficult, we’re not on a cross. We’re not on a stake. We’re not being hung up. It doesn’t make trials easier. But trials with context are always more manageable, because no matter what situation you’re in or what you’re experiencing, sometimes life can be really, really, really difficult. But we weren’t put up on a stake. We get to experience eternal life. Again, the reward is great, but the requirements are there. We keep running. We keep moving ahead and be able to do all the things that are required of us.

Go back to Numbers fourteen. I probably should have stuck a marker in there, but we’re almost done, so don’t bother. Numbers chapter fourteen and verse four. Numbers fourteen and four. Verse four, “And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt,” because Israel just didn’t get it. “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb of them that searched the land, rent their clothes.” So all the ones who did all the hard work and said, no, no, we can take on these giants. We can receive the land that God had promised us.

“And they spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against the Lord.” That’s the problem, not the foes, not the trials, not the things that we experience in our lives. Those aren’t the things that will stop you, brethren, or me. It’s when we rebel against God, when we pull away from God, we forget all that Christ did to give us access to the Father. That’s what will slow us down.

“Only rebel not you against the Lord, neither fear you the people of the land,” Neither fear your employer, those around you, “...for they are bred for us.” If you have a bad employer, you’re not going to kill them, but God can work it out. God sorts out our trials. “Their defense is departed from them, the LORD is with us, fear them not.” Whatever difficult situation you and I are going through at any point in our lives, it could be today, it could be tomorrow, or whatever time before Jesus Christ returns, don’t fear the trial, the people, the tests.

Know that God says, “I want you to go through those. I need you to build the character because, again, I’m giving you Godship, family, part of the family of God to be God, the being who created the universe.” You want to have fun speculating? What else did he create that we don’t even know about? I don’t know. He created the universe. So the only way to know the answer to that question is to keep walking this way forward, not looking back.

Go to Hebrews chapter ten. This is a bit more of a warning. Hebrews chapter ten and verse thirty-eight. Hebrews ten, thirty-eight. “Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” We can’t draw back. Why do I read that verse? Brethren, God is never, ever leading you back to Egypt, ever. That’s not how God works.

Let me make it practical. What do you mean? Of course, he doesn’t lead me to sin. No, God led you to the true Church of God. If you, in your mind, think this is not that place, study more, counsel a minister, because God does not lead you to a place and then lead you away from it to go back, because anything you do is leaving God’s way of life, it is going back. So if you, in your mind or mine, if we think, “Okay, maybe is this not…” No, that is the devil trying to pull you back, not God moving you forward.

Forward steps led you here. Forward steps lead you to the kingdom of God. Going back never does, and God’s never in it. No matter how much we pray up God or say, “Well, I prayed about it and I fasted.” No, you didn’t. Human will, that’s all that is. God never, ever leads us back because we never pull back. We always step forward. Okay, so with a little bit of time we have left, a couple examples of what we can do to make sure that we stay focused and we don’t, turn or look or think or go back.

Exodus thirteen. Exodus chapter thirteen and verse seventeen. Verse seventeen of Exodus thirteen reads, “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near,” that was an easy path. They could have gone. It wouldn’t have been as difficult. “....for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.” If it’s easy to get back, then it’s easier to turn back and go back to Egypt, to go back to sin, go back to our old lives.

Verse eighteen, “But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea, and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. It’s hard to go back through the Red Sea that God parted and then closed back up. There wasn’t an open button on the other side of the Red Sea. “Oh, well, I made a mistake. Come on.” No, God made it hard. And he does it on purpose.

In our lives, we have to choose to make the return path hard. We have to burn bridges to Egypt. And that can mean a whole slew of things in our lives. It could mean there are friends in your past life that pull you back to things that you used to experience. You have to burn the bridge. It’s hard. It’s harsh. But at some point, you can teach them the way of life that you chose to do. But if they’re pulling you a direction, you have to burn the bridge. It could be a job that’s making you compromise the Sabbath, or get dangerously close to it, or it’s a constant struggle. You have to burn the bridge.

No matter what it is, it’s your decision to make, and that’s a sliding scale of what it is. It doesn’t mean we isolate ourselves 100 percent from all the people we ever knew, or we’re not an example. No, there are many other verses that say we’re a light, we’re an example. But if there are people, experiences, careers, whatever that thing is that could pull us back, could make us look behind, we have to burn the bridge.

We don’t give ourselves way out. That’s what I’ve said before. That’s why common is an amazing thing. We don’t have a golden parachute. We don’t keep a bunch of money stored away because we burned the bridge by giving common. We focused on the path forward, not looking for a way back out again. So if we run into things in our lives, again, we have to burn that bridge.

Go to Psalm one-oh-three. Psalm one-oh-three. There’s another thing we can do as we come to a close. Psalm one-oh-three and verse two. Psalm one-oh-three and verse two. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgive all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.” We can’t forget all of the blessings that we have. We have to remember, catalog, know them, all of the elements that God blesses us in our lives.

Now, go to First Thessalonians five. Let’s attach these two together. First Thessalonians five. If we remember all the blessings, all the things he does for us, all the doors he’s opened, the things he’s healed, all of those things, then this becomes easy. First Thessalonians five and verse sixteen. Verse sixteen reads, “Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Brethren, if we can catalog the things that we have received by God’s blessings, it becomes very, very easy to be grateful for what he does for us. If we’ve burned the bridges of the things that can pull us back and we look forward at the blessings in front of us, it could be personal or it could be the people around you. It’s so much easier to be grateful that you have the support of these people walking, living, going through, experiencing, suffering the same things you are, same things I am. It’s easier to be grateful. And gratitude will save us and guard our lives and block out Satan almost more than any other aspect of who we are. We do it every day. In everything, we give thanks.

But we need to be able to capture in our minds what we’re thankful for, what we’re grateful for. That’s why we have to think about all the blessings that we get, as we probably just did as we gave an offering. Don’t let those slip away as the days of unleavened bread slip away. Keep them in front of our mind and let’s rejoice, but again, in everything, give thanks. God didn’t call us out of this world for us just to stand still. We’ve seen that. He wanted us to move forward. He wanted us to walk on a path that led us to the kingdom of God. It’s not always easy. The journey is not sunshine and roses all the time. We’ll be tested. We’ll have trials. We’ll have hardships.

God wants us to say, “Okay, he’s not going to look back. She’s not going to look back. They’re focused on the kingdom of God.” But we have to look at the bondage, the sin, and the death of Egypt, and it’s got to be behind us. We can’t even look back at what we left behind because that’s what happened to Lot’s wife. In front of us is eternal life. It’s joy. Everything God has promised you and I.

But the days of unleavened bread are seven days, eight days with the 14th, for a reason. Ask yourself as these days progress, “Is there any part of Egypt still inside me, still clinging on? Are there any hidden longings of the life I once had and was supposed to leave behind?” If there are, put them away. Put the leaven out. Put Egypt behind. And then we can walk forward toward the kingdom of God with faith, encouraged, excited, grateful. But in the end, in the end, let’s take Egypt, put it behind us, and then never, ever look back.