Eating Unleavened Bread Daily

Good afternoon, brethren. Good afternoon, brethren.

That's a lot better.

Thank you very much for the choir. As my daughter was saying to me, it sounded just like a professional choir. I wonder how much you're getting paid for it.

But obviously we do know it's brethren in the church that are putting off their labor and love. And God and Father, God and Father in heaven and his Son, our Savior Christ, are thrilled to hear when you all serve one another the way you do and the way you did, the beautiful conduct and the approach and the meaning of the messages that we heard at the Passover service. We sincerely appreciate and enjoyed it thoroughly. Thank you.

Bring your greetings from the Home Office, from Mr. Luca and all the leaders there at the Home Office. I just want to mention to you that it really is a pleasure to be working at the Home Office. Every Monday morning we've got a meeting, and it's like coming to church and to get the people to keep quiet. It's quite a job, and it really is a pleasure, and it is a joy to work together as a team, and that has not always been so, and it is a pleasure the way God is blessing it now.

And we can see the fruits of the growth in the work. The fruits are seen in various areas. We can see growth in Dallas. I lost time I was here. It was about a year ago, maybe more, maybe less, I'm not sure, but about that time, and I do see growth. Also, I'm a pastor responsible for Louisville and Lexington. In Louisville, beginning of last year, we had three people left, and in Lexington, we had seven. We merged the two church areas into one, so we had 10 brethren, plus my wife and I, our average attendance was 12. Currently, our average attendance is excess of 25.

So that is a blessing. God is adding some new people, and it's not work of any of us. It's actually the work of God, and we are just watering the garden. It's He who gives the growth, not us. So we're very grateful for that. Also, I have a responsibility for the Portuguese language work.

Currently, we have 17 booklets in Portuguese printed. The 18th is currently being printed, so by next week, we'll have it at our office, which means we have more than 50 percent of the booklets of the church now in Portuguese. And that is a blessing that we've achieved over the last two years and a bit more.

So we're very grateful for that. God has provided opportunity for us to do. Next Tuesday, I'll be leaving to Brazil, flying out of the yard at about four o'clock in the afternoon. I will be getting to my first destination Thursday morning at two o'clock in the morning after basically two nights and a day of traveling. Then try and sleep a little bit, and then in the morning we'll hire a car and try and buy some food, additional food, for the brethren out there, certain things I'm taking across.

And then, God willing, we have two hours drive. Not that it's a long drive, it's only about 20 miles, but takes us two hours because the conditions of the road and if it rains, could take a lot longer. So hopefully then we'll get in there. We used to stay in a building that the brethren built in that Indian, Amerindian, Indian area. And regrettably, I could have brought notification that the people that took over those assets are not allowing us to stay there any further. So I'll have to drive there on Thursday, drive back off the sunset, back to the town, two hours drive, depending on weather, at night in bad roads.

Then on the next day, the high day, that will be... Yeah, that's Thursday, that's the day before the last day of 11 bread. Then on Friday, I'll have to drive there for two hours, then give two sermons, lunch, then off the sunset, drive back. Then the next day on the Sabbath, again drive two hours, and then give a Sabbath service in the morning, a Kingdom of God seminar lecture out there in the afternoon, and then off the sunset, drive back again.

Then on Sunday, drive there again, and then give some leadership training course for the brethren there, and some baptism counseling, and any address, any questions and things that may be there. And then drive back in the evening to actually catch a flight at two o'clock in the morning, that's now Monday morning, to Brasilia, and then from Brasilia going to Sao Paulo, getting to Sao Paulo, and that will be Monday afternoon, about two o'clock, hire a car in Sao Paulo.

It's a fairly large city of 20 million people. Never been there, never drove there, so I asked for the GPS, so we'll see. See if I get around, and then after that, at the other Kingdom of God seminar that evening, Monday night in Sao Paulo, we're dealing with a few people that are interested, from Church of God Seventh Day and other groups that seem to be disbanded and a bit disorientated, so there's going to be a lot of challenges to address, a lot of things to address, and then they want to talk to me on the Tuesday.

That's after 11 bread, of course. And then on the Wednesday, I have to drive four hours northeast, northwest, to a place called Ribe Rompreto, where somebody wants to talk to me and counsel, then stay there at night, and then drive back another four hours, and then drive into Sao Paulo downtown, because somebody wants me to see that evening, and then I think that brings us to Wednesday, Thursday night, and then early on Friday morning, driving into Mont- driving into the airport, getting flying to Montiplieros, where there's some brethren there, and then on the Sabbath, do a Sabbath service, and the Kingdom of God seminar there. And then, I'm tired of just talking about that. I don't know about my physical body, so I appreciate your prayers for health, for strength.

We're doing it for God. It's God's work, and then flying back, yeah, and then back home. So getting home, probably, run about by Wednesday evening. That's the 26th or so, or 24th of April. So that's going to be busy, but we're looking forward to it. See the brethren, and see what God does. So please do pray for spiritual insight and for health, because we're doing it for God, and that's what why we're going there.

Just wondering if we had some more here somewhere. Okay, so if somebody could get me a little gloss of water, I'd appreciate it.

Brethren, we are the 11th, and we have meditated and prepared ourselves for the days of unleavened bread, and we have done our recommitting of ourselves through the preparation work. Thank you.

And furthermore, we symbolize that mental preparatory attitude through the food washing, and so we recommitted our vows, which we initially made at baptism, the vows of the New Testament of the New Covenant. We recommitted those vows at the New Testament Passover.

In my case, I've recommitted that. I remember when I did it. The man who baptized me is right here today, believe it or not, and I remember that day, and I've recommitted now 43 times that day, that baptism. Brethren, I want to start by asking you to turn to Exodus 12. We just want to read a few scriptures there as a form of introduction. So in Exodus 12, we're going to start in verse 15. So seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Now, I want you to emphasize a verb which is quite common in here, an action word. In this case, it's eating. But look at it. On seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off. And then a bit further, in verse 18, in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, that evening, you shall eat, again the word eating, unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month, at even. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or an active in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwellings, and you shall eat unleavened bread. And then a bit further, on chapter 13 verse 3, chapter 13 verse 3, and Moses said to the people, remember this day. And that was the day they left Egypt. That was symbolized last night by the night to be much observed, in which you went out of Egypt. So today is the day they did that, and I usually like to spend a bit of time asking.

And we did that last night as well, asked some of my children sitting there and said, what made you, even though you raised up in the church, what made you realize that you had to make a commitment to God and not just to Dad's church? What made you realize? Because this, remember this day in which you came out of bondage. And so it's good for us on this day to remember and to meditate how we came out of sin. And what were things made us believe in God? And now, in other words, we came into God's church. And so, for by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out of this place. And it is, brethren, we were in bondage. And for us to live wherever we were, it required God to shake ourselves sometimes to near death, to shake ourselves out of the conditions we were in, because we were in bondage by Satan, as we saw in a herd in the sermonette. Our Satan is the ruler of this world, and he has us in bondage. And again, no leavened bread shall be eaten. So again, the verb is about eating. And then a little further in verse 6, a little further down, seven days shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. And then in verse 9, this it shall be assigned to you on your hand as a memorial within your eyes, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth, for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. In other words, out of sin. And you shall therefore keep this ordinance in each season from year to year, and that's why we're doing it today. But the point here is that we are to eat something. We are to eat unleavened bread. Obviously, we have to keep the feast with unleavened bread, and we have to eat it every single day. We have to eat it every single day. That's what it says in the Bible, and there's a doctrinal paper coming out that the Council is working on supporting that understanding.

And there is a meaning in it. There is a reason. There's a spiritual intent in it.

And today we're going to talk about three New Testament implications of the days of unleavened bread that we have to observe for seven days. And the reason why I want to spend a bit of time on that is so that you and I get a deeper understanding of what it means to observe the days of unleavened bread and to eat that spiritual bread. As it was mentioned during the Passover, Paul, when he wrote 1 Corinthians, there were a few challenges and a few problems in the church, and he wrote it during the days of unleavened bread. And if you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7 and 8. 1 Corinthians 5. And we're going to do quite a lot of finger exercise today in the Bible, brethren. So get your fingers ready. We're going to look at a lot of scriptures. But in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7 and 8 says, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.

Since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven. So the first New Testament implication of this is that we have to purge out, in other words, clean thoroughly and remove the old leaven.

Because it says, purge out, therefore let us keep the feast not of the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness. Have we read this and understood what it's meant by this? Or we kind of just read that says, oh well, we've got to take center of our lives and that's it.

You know, brethren, it says purge out because it says, yeah, let us keep the feast not of the old leaven. What is the old leaven? Nor, which means something else, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness. What is that? What is the leaven of malice and wickedness?

Paul, in Ephesians, in chapter 4, explains a little bit more about this. So if you turn with me to chapter 4, verses 17, Ephesians 4, verses 17, starting there, this I say, therefore, anticipating the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds, having that understanding darkened, being eliminated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness and greediness, but you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts. That is the old leaven that you put off the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts. That must have been put off at baptism. Regrettably, sometimes a little foot comes out of the water, but we have to put that off. We hear elsewhere that the heart is desperately wicked. That old man needs to be put off. That old leaven needs to be put off.

Let's jump to verse 25 of the same chapter in Ephesians 4. We will read the other verses a little later. Therefore, putting away. Now, look at the verb putting away.

In verse 22 is that you put off. In verse 25 says, therefore, putting away. Can you see the difference? One, in a sense, is past. You've put off the old man.

The other one is present continuous, putting away, which is present, putting away, continuous. I usually refer to it as phase one and phase two. You know, phase one, you put away the old man, but phase two, we're going to be putting away other things in addition to the old man.

And as you read these things, most of them are related to the mouth, or basically, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so, therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for you are members of one another. Then it says, be angry and do not sin.

Now, this is a quote from Psalm 4, verse 4, not going into there at this stage, but remember, if you read it in context, it actually means that when things happen, you are agitated, you are stirred up, you were frustrated. It does not mean angry, per se, because it says a little bit later, let all anger, clamor, and things like that be put away. So it's not that you have an excuse now to be angry until the sun goes down. No. It said when things go wrong, you get a bit agitated, you get a little bit frustrated, you get a little bit rattled. Put it this way, but don't sin, don't sin. And then it says, no give place to the devil. Let him stall still no longer, but let him labor working. And then it says, verse 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth for what is good, for what is good for necessary education, that it may impart grace to the heroes. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed, after baptism, by the laying of hands for the day of redemption. Again, verse 31 says, Lord, all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice. Bingo! Didn't we talk about put away the old leaven and the leaven of malice and wickedness? What is malice? Malice is something that is a thought. Wickedness is an action. So out of those evil thoughts, proceed evil actions. And therefore, let us go on putting away, even though we've put off the old man, we've got to be careful with our words. We've got to be careful how we speak to one another, because even though we've been baptized, how many times have we kind of, in the heat of a moment, said something that we should not say? We all have done it, and we've got to be putting that away, present continuous. That is what I call, as I mentioned before, phase two of putting away leaven. A parallel scripture to this is in Colossians chapter 3. So let's go there quickly to see this. Colossians chapter 3, let's start in verse 5. Colossians 3 verse 5. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire, covenants, which is idolatry, because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of obedience, in which you yourselves once walked past, once walked, which means you don't walk in these things anymore. Pass, that's the old man, phase one, put away, that's the old leaven.

Verse 8. But now, present continuous, phase two. But now, put off all these anger, we are not to have anger.

That comes from the mouth, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so, out of the abundance of the heart, that's malice, the mouth speaks, wickedness. So this is put off. But now, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, out of your mouth. They're all from the mouth.

Do not lie one to another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, so that old man is dead. So now, as we see in verse 8, put off all these as well. So the first implication of the Days of Unleavened Bread is to purge that old man.

That's phase one, passed, dead, gone. And putting away wrong attitudes of the heart, and the subsequent words that may come out from that. Let's call it phase two of that.

That is the old leaven and the leaven of malice and wickedness.

But continue then, reading in Colossians chapter 3 verse 10 says, And have and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. So we've got to put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him, according to the image of Christ who created us.

Wow! There is another case, proof in point, Christ created us. Anyway, we have to be renewed in knowledge. Where is the knowledge? It's in this area where the gray matter is, you know. That's where the knowledge is. We've got to be renewed in our minds. And so, let's go back to Ephesians 4 where we were a moment ago, because we skipped a few verses, like I mentioned, we skipped a few verses. Ephesians 4 and look at verse 23, which we skipped, because first part was put off that old man which grows corrupt. Second verse 23 says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

So the second implication of the New Testament Passover is that our brains have to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. What is the spirit of your mind?

Again, during the Passover, it was mentioned. It's very significant how Paul explained there is a spirit of man in man, and it is that spirit of man in man that makes us able to think like a man and not like a baboon. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11.

1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Man and woman, of course. We know the things in us as mankind, man and woman.

We can understand, appreciate a beautiful choir. We can appreciate music. We can have capabilities of thinking like a human being because of the spirit in man, the spirit of man which is in man that makes us able to understand these things of man. And that's what it says here in verse 11. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

If you and I don't have the spirit in man, we will be no different than an animal per se. But God has given us the spirit of man to give us the capability to think like a human being. Even so, continuing verse 11, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God.

And so brethren, you and I understand spiritual things because we have God's only spirit.

And the world does not have God's only spirit, so they are spiritually discerned. It's simple as that. Just like a dog or a cat, and I know it's a bad analogy, but it's reality. An animal or another creature or species cannot understand the things of man because they do not have the spirit of man. And if we do not have the spirit of God in us, we cannot understand the things of God. As simple as that.

And so he continues explaining there in verse 12, he says, for now we have received not the spirit of the world. So there is another spirit, the spirit of the world. So the spirit of man, the spirit of God, and it's the spirit of the world. But the spirit who is from God, or maybe better, which he is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. And then you can go on reading that in your own time, but to save time, let's go to verse 16 that says, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? How do we know the mind of God? Unless, as we saw earlier on, we have the spirit of God, right? We have to have the spirit of God to understand the things of God. And he says, but we have the mind of Christ.

Yes, because it's the spirit of God, and it's also the spirit of Jesus Christ, we have the mind of Christ. And so, we have to be renewed in the mind by having God's spirit in us.

Now, let's take thinking briefly of what happened at the Passover. We took bread. What is that bread? That bread is symbolic of us taking part of the body of Christ and Christ living in us. Let's see how Christ explained that in John chapter 6. John chapter 6, starting in verse 30.

Therefore, they said to him, what sign will you perform then? Then we may see it and believe you. What work will you do? I mean, if you go back, you just fed 5,000 people with a couple of loaves of bread and things like that. So, what sign? Who do you think you are? Or whatever they say.

Brethren, these people were always trying to trip Christ. They always tried to get it. They went trying to ask questions to learn. Sure, they were asking questions, but they were not asking questions to learn. The Spirit was not a learning, neat, teachable Spirit. The Spirit was one of criticism. And so, they were asking questions to nail him. And so, then they said, our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. What a great miracle! They had bread for 40 years. You gave us just for a... And then Jesus said to them, Most surely I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to Him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am. Oh well, remember about the story in the burning bush. When they asked, Moses asked, who shall I tell them you are? And he says, tell them I am. I am who I am. And so he said, I am the bread of life. And that really agitated those Jewish people. And you comes to me shall never hunger and you believes in me shall never thirst. But I say to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. And so, brethren, we can see some very important points. And let's jump to verse 41. Then the Jews then complained about Him because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, is He not the carpenter around the corner? Yeah, who does He think He is? Who does He think to say, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, do not murmur amongst yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Brethren, this is such an important verse that Christianity in this world cannot understand. And if you draw the attention to them to this, they get quite agitated, quite agitated.

And then it goes on in verse 48. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate a manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. And then later on, you can read how they said in verse 60, this is a hard saying, and then from there you can see in verse 66, many stopped. From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Brethren, Jesus Christ is the bread from heaven.

Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the bread that you and I need to eat every day. There's not one day that I cannot ask the Father to give me His daily bread.

Because the daily bread is the Holy Spirit and it's Christ in us.

I don't want to venture into the world without God's Holy Spirit.

I want to ask God in His mercy to give me of that bread every day.

And so what's the implication of us eating unleavened bread for seven days? It means that for every day we have to eat the spiritual bread, which is Christ through the power of God's Holy Spirit.

Therefore, therefore, we have to eat unleavened bread every day. I know some people, and in fact we had a piper in the church saying that we did not have to eat unleavened bread every day. But that is incorrect, and the Council is updating it.

And I support that, and I'm very happy with that. We have to eat unleavened bread every day. We have to have the Holy Spirit in us all the time. That is the meaning, the implication of having unleavened bread for seven days. Seven means complete, and that's what we need to have. Turn with me to Luke chapter 11, please. Luke chapter 11.

That's the model prayer. Oh, we all know the model prayer, don't we?

Now in a model prayer, it talks about when you pray, our Father in heaven, and goes on, and Luke chapter 11 says, give us this day, give us day by day our daily bread.

Day by day, our daily bread.

Have we ever prayed this prayer, and have we ever considered what it says?

Give us this day our daily bread. It's not just, oh well, I don't need bread a few days. I just need some days. Well, maybe you're fasting. Okay, that's a different story. But we need the daily bread. Now, obviously, it is talking in duality. God always talks in duality. Or not always, but often talks in duality. Often. Probably more times than you and I think.

And so, look at verse 5. Then He said to them, which of you shall have a friend, and go to him midnight, and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. I think He's talking about bread, isn't He?

I think He is. And for a friend of mine has come to me on this journey, and I have nothing to set before Him. Now, brethren, if you have a friend coming, and you don't have enough food to feed them, I doubt that you go to your neighbor at midnight. I think you'd probably find a more convenient time to go to your neighbor and ask for some bread. Don't you think so?

So don't you think He's talking spiritually yet?

Let's go on reading. And He will answer from within, Do not trouble me, the door is now shut, and my children are in bed, I cannot rise and give it to you. Don't bother me. Come in the morning. Come on. But I say to you, though you will not rise and give to Him because He is His friend, yet because of His persistence, He will rise and give Him as many as He needs. YHWH is teaching us that we gotta persist when we pray to God and ask for the daily bread. Then let's go on. Verse 9. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock, and will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and seeks, finds, and to him, knocks, it will be open. If a son asks for bread, what do you think he's talking about? I think he's talking about bread. Don't you think so?

Bread. So isn't the theme still bread? Then he goes on. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

If your children come to you and say, Mommy or Daddy, I'm hungry, are you going to give them a stone?

Of course not. If he asks you for a fish, will you give him a serpent instead of a fish?

Of course not. Or if he asks you for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Of course not.

If you then being evil, know how to give good things or good gifts to your children.

Now is the clincher. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? The bread, the daily bread that we ought to ask, is the Holy Spirit spiritually speaking. So when we pray our Father in heaven and we say, Please today help me on my job and things like that, we should extend that as well to the spiritual meaning, please give me of your Spirit daily.

And that Spirit is the mind of God, as we saw early on in Corinthians. And that mind of God is the same mind as the mind of Christ, and it's Christ in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we need that every day. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 5, it says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in a fight. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus is in you? How is Jesus in us? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the daily bread, the bread from heaven. And that is the implication of eating unleavened bread every day during the days of unleavened bread. When I travel, I go into difficult areas like Brazil, like into tribal villages. I make sure I take with me enough stock of unleavened bread to make sure I eat it every day. And if I don't have enough, I'll break it into smaller pieces, but I'll have a small piece every day. If I can do it in the rural areas of Brazil, why can't you do it?

If you understand the spiritual meaning thereof, and I don't think that we should have an excuse to say or I forgot.

It says, test yourselves. Do not know yourselves that Jesus is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified. When Christ is in us and our mind is renewed, we're going to have the mind of Christ. Do you and I understand what the mind of Christ is?

What is the mind of Christ? Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 to 8. Philippians 2 verse 5 through 8. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Haha! I mean, there it is. There's the mind of Christ. So that's the mind that you and I have to be renewed daily. Put off the old leaven and eat the new, the bread, the unleavened bread, which is the mind of Christ. And let this mind be in you. Let us be renewed with this mind.

Verse 6. Who? Being in the form of God. Who? Being in the, let's call it, in the God-kind. Jesus Christ was of the God-kind, in the form of God, of the God-kind.

Did not consider the robbery to be equal with God. Did not consider it to say, hey, I'm saying I'm equal to God, that that's an insult. No, he's not stealing anything from God, because he was with God. You can read in John 1, he was with God, he was God, and the verb was with God, and was there eternally, as we heard in the sermon.

Verse 7. But made himself, he made himself, he was not forced, nobody took it from him, he chose by his own mind, the mind of Christ, he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, taking the kind of man, becoming mankind, of himself, of his own choice, nobody forced him. He volunteered. He took the step forward and said, I'll do it.

That is the mind of Christ. The form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man, coming as humanity, as mankind, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself even further and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Brethren, this is the mind of Christ that you and I have to be renewed with.

Would you be prepared to leave whatever position you have of authority, of leadership, of being quote-unquote important and giving that up to be a servant for God's work and to suffer and to suffer for others? Isn't that what it tells us? You know, like, Christ is the head of the church, the husband is the head of the family of the wife, and he is to love the wife through service and through suffering. Isn't that what it is?

First Peter chapter 2 verse 20. First Peter chapter 2 verse 20.

First Peter chapter 2 verse 20.

For what credit is it when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? I mean, if you've done something wrong and you get smacked for it, hey, let's just pay! That's justice! Hey, take it! Take it like a man! But when you do good and suffer, oh, that is hard, you're doing the right thing and you still get smacked. That is hard. That is hard. And you know what? Satan will try it when it's most painful to you. It could be a doing within your own family. It could be your own spouse. It could be your own children. You'll go there and will cause pain when it's the most painful to you and when you and I have to suffer, like Christ suffered. Continue reading. But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, it is commendable before God. For to verse, you were called. What? Read it again. You were called into the church to suffer.

Yeah, that's what it says. It says it in your own Bible.

You were called to suffer.

Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.

What?

Correct. We are to follow Christ's steps to suffer like he suffered.

Read with me, please, 1st Peter chapter 4. So we have one page or two ahead. 1st Peter chapter 4, verse 1.

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.

For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

And read a bit further in verse 12 and 13. Beloved, do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is trying you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

Do you know that Paul suffered? Oh yeah, we've read in the scriptures he suffered. Do you know what he says about his suffering? Have you ever noticed what he said about his suffering? Read with me in Colossians chapter 1 verse 24.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 24. Now, or I now rejoice in my sufferings for you.

I Paul rejoice in my sufferings for you, the brethren in God's church, and fold up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

Do we get that?

And if it applies to Paul, applies to all of us, it's basically saying our job, our responsibility, is to suffer because that's what we called for, as we saw earlier on, to suffer and to fill up in our flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

I don't say it. It's written in your Bible.

I'm not fabricating it. It's right here.

No, Christ suffered, but you know what?

He never suffered like we heard earlier on. A mess. He never suffered cancer.

But some in God's church, which is the body of Christ, the church of God is the body of Christ.

Some in the body of Christ, when it was erected as the bride, as the whole body of Christ, would have had sufferings which fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Let's go on reading. For the sake of his body, which is the church.

That's why it says, Paul, when he's saying, when you're preparing for the Passover, in 1 Corinthians 11, says, examine yourselves. Are you discerning the body? Are you taking the Passover in a worthy manner? Are you discerning the body? Now, obviously, it's dual. It's the physical body, but it's also the spiritual body, is the church of God. And if we don't discern our fellow Christians in the church of God, the body is the church. The body is the church. Then it says, you turn taking the Passover in a worthy manner. And therefore, it says, because of that reason, many of you are sick and some have even died.

How many people have had tremendous difficulties and physical stress in their lives because of problems in the church?

Brethren, we have to suffer for one another and not take revenge.

Like Christ suffers for one another, for us, so that we may be saved by his death and we may be healed by his suffering, so that the church, the body, may be healed as we suffer for one another. That's the mind that you and I need to renew daily, the mind of Christ. That is an implication of eating the 11 bread every day. But there is a third implication, and I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

Verse 8, where we were reading a moment ago. Therefore, let us keep the feast not of the old leaven, that's the old man, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

We have to eat or keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Now, the word sincere, as you probably heard, many people talked to you about. It's without wax, and if you haven't heard that, talk to somebody else. That's the pots, and they would put wax on it so that they would look new and look nice. So basically, it was not harnessed. You know, so sincerity is being honest.

In other words, being without hypocrisy. No evil intent. But you know what? That's something of us. That's sincerity. What about truth? Is it the same thing?

Again, it's duality. Of course, you know, when you're sincere, you're truthful. But read more, because God's word is full of depth and meaning. Truth is not just you being truthful, but you're not being truthful. What is truth?

What is truth? We read a little earlier on Ephesians chapter 4, and we read over this verse, but I want you to read it again. Ephesians chapter 4, and we read from verse 17 onwards. You'll remember when you turn to your page in your Bible, and you say, oh yes, we did read here. And then in verse 21, we read, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

The truth is in Jesus. It's not in us. We are sincere. We ought to eat unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We have to be sincere, and we have to be in the truth of Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the truth. So when we are to eat the unleavened bread in sincerity and truth, that's what it means. We have to be genuine. That's sincere, honest, being genuine. Are we genuine? And we have to keep God's early days and to live our life in truth, and the truth is Christ.

And how can we be in the truth? Well, you say, well, we in the church, we've already decided that we committed the hour, and nobody's going to deceive us because we now know the Sabbath, and we know the Holy Days, and we okay, Jack. You're in for a surprise if you say that. Because Satan is the master deceiver, and he will deceive you. Revelation 12, 9. He deceives the whole world, and he'll deceive you. If it were possible, he'll deceive the very elect. And if you and I are not studying this word carefully, you will be deceived, even though you are in God's church.

Yeah, maybe he's not going to deceive you about the Sabbath. He's going to deceive you about something else. Maybe you need to read another place in the scriptures, where he talks about worshiping God in sincerity and truth. And I'm not going to cover that. I was intending to cover it, but for the sake of time, I'm not going to cover that. But I'm going to give you the scripture numbers, and you study it in your own time. If the Spirit inspires you, and if you want to learn God's truth, take the time to study Joshua 23 and 24. There you will see that Joshua, after the Israelites, had left Egypt, after they had been 40 years in the wilderness, under the leadership of Moses. They went into the promised land, under the leadership of Joshua, of course, under the leadership of God, but under God, under the leadership of Joshua and Moses. But they went into the promised land, under the leadership of Joshua. And before he dies, Joshua, his lost message to the people before he dies, he gives him some advice, and he can read that in Joshua chapter 23. And he says, listen, be careful to listen to God! Don't get entangled with these false gods! Oh, yeah, now we'll follow God. Don't worry, we'll be fine. And Joshua says, listen, if you don't do it, you'll not be blessed! In other words, the church will not grow, and things like that. And then in verse 24, he makes a covenant with them. He makes a covenant with them. And then he says, oh, by God, and he said, oh, by him, in sincerity and truth, uses the same words. And then by reading the context, you can see that he's telling them not to mix themselves with false gods. In other words, the knowledge that they knew was to be kept pure, clean, with only one God, not to mix it with other gods. In other words, what's called syncretism, or mixing the truth with a lie. Obviously, the swole is full of it. The swole is full of it. You and I know our Christianity today is basically a true example of syncretism, saying, oh, yeah, we worship the Lord, we worship Jesus, but they don't do what he tells them to do, and they include pagan holidays and meanings with it. We know that's the world. But what about us in the church?

As in the church is that we cannot mix God's truth with lies, albeit small they may be. All you need is one little deviation by one degree.

And if you are working for NASA or whatever it is, and you want to send a spaceship to the moon, and if you're out by one degree, you'll miss the target.

But the point is, once you're out by one, then you're out next thing, there'll be something else, there'll be two, and then something else will be three things, and before you know, you're out of the ballpark.

So you cannot mix truth with lies, and that's why Christ said to the Pharisees, turn with me to Matthew 16. Matthew 16, verse 6. Matthew 16, verse 6.

Then Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And the reason amongst themselves is that because we've taken no bread, you know, they missed the point, went right over their head, gone.

But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, oh, your little faith, why do you reason amongst yourselves because you brought no bread? Do you not understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up, nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up? How it is that you do not understand that I not speak to you concerning bread. He's talking about spiritual matters, but beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Brethren, the Pharisees and Sadducees were very zealous people, very zealous. However, Christ called them hypocrites in Matthew 23. They were time and time again trying to test Christ and trip him. Does this exist today?

This is a different mind. It's not a mind of God. It's a different mind.

Brethren, they are very conscientious and zealous people about the law, but forgetting true faith.

Brethren, we ought to seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness. It's not two things. It's one thing. Seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness. The kingdom of God is the what? The goal? His righteousness is the how to to get there.

It's not my righteousness. It's not my self-righteousness of keeping the law. It's God's righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, making us right with God, the symbolism of the season.

Obviously, no obedience to law will pay a fine for us breaking the law. I mean, I can't drive through a red light, get a fine, and then go to court and say, but I'm not driving through red lights anymore. I'm always driving through green. Therefore, I've paid the fine. No! Obedience to the law will not pay for the fine. As simple as that, I have to pay a fine to be right with the law. And the fine for breaking God's law is death. And I have to pay that fine with my life.

And you know what? Once I've paid it with my life, I'm dead. It's gone.

Fortunately, Christ, quote-unquote, fortunately, not that it was part of the plan, Christ bought our life back, redeemed us. And therefore, we have the life. So we are justified. We are made right by the payment of Christ's life for us. And that is because Christ had the faith of doing what he did. Imagine if he did not have the faith in God the Father that he would die, and then he didn't have faith that God the Father would resurrect him. Do you think he would do that? But because he trusted in God the Father, it was the faith of Jesus Christ. The faith of Jesus Christ allowed him, therefore, to do it. And therefore, we are justified by faith, from faith to faith. The faith of Christ made him do that. We're justified by his faith, but we're also justified by our faith because we believe in him. And the two, again, duality, isn't it? From faith to faith.

But you see, brethren, some of these people are very zealous about the law.

Look at how Paul describes their zeal in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10.

We'll start reading in verse 2. We're just going to read two verses there, two and three.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. And he was talking about the other Jewish people out there, and he knew some of them were Pharisees, some of them were Sadducees, some of them were whatever they were. They're very zealous for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness.

It's not my righteousness. My righteousness is like filthy rags. Our righteousness is like filthy rags, but for the mercy of Christ, there I walk, as we say to people out there in the street, by the mercy of God. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness. In other words, self-righteousness. They're trying to establish salvation through self-righteousness. Have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Have not submitted to the righteousness of God. So, what is the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? It was their doctrine. How does it affect you and I today?

Think about it. They were in the congregation of Israel. In other words, they were in the, you could call it, the Church of the Old Testament. They were members of the congregation of Israel. In other words, they were members, by analogy, of the Church of the Old Testament.

They were zealous for God, but not according to knowledge, because they were ignorant of God's righteousness. And they were seeking to establish their own righteousness. So, the implication for us today, brethren, is that there's going to be many things that Satan is going to use to deceive us. I don't know what it is. I can only mention from certain things that I've experienced, dealing with people that are coming in and some challenges that I've had.

And I'll give some example of what it could be. I'm not saying it will be this, but I'll give you some examples so that it becomes a little more crystal clear in your mind. For instance, there could be brethren coming into the Church, or there are in the Church, that will start injecting Jewish things into God's Church.

Such as, for instance, sacred names. Such as, for instance, calendar issues. Such as, for instance, keeping the Passover on a different date. I don't know what. And you know what? All you need is just one little click off the target. And that's it. Next thing is two, next thing is three, and the next thing will be out of the ballpark. We've got to be careful, brethren, because there is faith. In certain things, we've got to have faith in God. Faith in what is set up. Certain things, sometimes, we cannot prove. We can prove certain things, but other things, we just have, like it says, my sheep know my voice. So, brethren, what are the implications of eating 11 bread for seven days, during the days of 11 bread, spiritually? I've highlighted to you three implications. There are more. I've just highlighted to you three. And the reason is so that you and I may have a deeper understanding of what it means to eat the spiritual 11 bread daily in our lives.

We've looked at the three areas, one being to purge the old man, phase one, as I mentioned, and putting away wrong attitudes of heart and subsequent words, phase two. Secondly, I highlighted to you the need to ask for daily spiritual bread, which is the Holy Spirit, which is the mind of God, and to examine ourselves, whether we are in true humility and service, like Christ is, being prepared to swallow hurts, to suffer for others, to fill up in our flesh what is lacking in afflictions of the body of Christ.

And thirdly, I mentioned to you the importance of eating the 11 bread of sincerity and truth. In other words, without hypocrisy, which is from us, and in the truth of Christ, in other words, not mixing false doctrines or self-righteousness into our Christian practice. So, brethren, let us examine ourselves in these three areas, and may God bless you and I with His Holy Spirit, the Helper, to apply these principles in our lives daily.