Fellowship of the Heart

It's good to be in Phoenix. Again, we were here three years ago, my wife Debbie and I, and we had an ABC sampler right in this very location, as I recall, so I'm not a complete stranger here. And I think that on that occasion, when we were asked to come out and do that sampler, we were invited to come and be a part of the Ladies' Weekend here this weekend.

Both times have been at the hottest point of the year. Somehow we've got to get that right. I need to be invited to Phoenix like January, when we're knee-deep in snow back in Ohio and you're having your best weather. So see what you can do to kind of arrange that next time there's a need to invite a guest speaker to come out here. Debbie and I joke, we're going to Phoenix. It's hot. Yeah, we always say, but it's dry heat. You've heard that, I guess. Anyway, it is good to be with you and see several of you again. We had a very nice morning over with the ladies. They seem to be doing well.

Debbie left. They're staying with the others, and they'll be having their retreat here the rest of the day and tomorrow as well. I thought I would take just a minute before I get into the sermon, just to update you on a few things regarding the primary area that I work in at the Home Office in Cincinnati, which is in the media area. I work with the content of the publications Beyond Today, and we have kind of two big things that we've just been working on.

One of them just got completed. The three presenters, Gary Petty and Steve Myers and I, and three crew members, Peter Eddington and two other technical personnel, we just made a trip to Germany and Belgium. We just got back a week ago. We were over there to gather footage for Beyond Today programs.

We did enough for that. We taped programs, actually nine different programs. We taped footage for nine programs in the actually nine days that we were on the ground there. We taped six English programs and three German language programs. Paul Kiefer, who is the pastor for the German-speaking areas in Europe, joined us. He and his office manager, Yasmina Alawa, and they had arranged a lot of the trip for us.

About two years ago, the German area had begun to take our English scripts, translate them into German, and put them on a YouTube channel. They had good results with that. So they joined us on this one and took three of the scripts that we did in English here. Paul Kiefer recorded three of those. We had nine programs, six English, three German language programs. We flew straight to Berlin.

As soon as we got into Berlin, we checked into our hotel, took a shower, and then hit the streets taping. We had plans. Everything was laid out. Peter Eddington had laid out everything for the entire 11-day trip, hour by hour, virtually, stop by stop. It was like the Third Army going through Europe in terms of just a strategic move that we were making through there. We rented a van and had our equipment and everything. And we got it all done. Our two cameramen didn't think we'd get it all done when we laid it all out, but we'd been working several months on this. We had every mark, every stop, every location, and only had really one glitch, one area we thought we had permission to film, which was in the Holocaust Memorial right at the center of Berlin.

We thought it was a public location and found out after we started taping that it was not, when we were descended upon by people with walkie-talkies. What are you doing here? They asked us. So we had to move off to the public street and finish our taping there, but everything else worked out. We taped to the Pergamon Museum, where the Ishtar Gate is from the ancient city of Babylon, and had a productive session there very early in the morning. We taped in several locations around Berlin pertaining to the Holocaust. Steve Myers had written a program about suffering, and we taped at a location that is a museum called the Topography of Terror.

It's a museum built right on Gestapo headquarters, where Gestapo headquarters was during that period. We also taped at a place called Platform 17, which was a suburban train station, still is, in Berlin. But in the early 1940s, it was the one spot where Jews from Berlin were shipped to various concentration camps. They chose this suburban location because people would not be there and know what was going on. About 50,000 Berlin Jews were transported from that particular platform, and it's a memorial.

They have the actual rail still there, and along the stretch of rail, they have bronze plates laid down that record the date of every train that departed with Jews, the number of Jews that were on that train, and the death camp to which they were going, whether it was Buchenwald or Auschwitz or the others.

Everyone's laid out there for 50,000 Jews. So on the 8th of August 1942, this train left with maybe 800 Jews bound for Auschwitz. That's one of the memorials among many that they have. But that was rather poignant. Steve taped a program there, and we taped Remnants of the Berlin Wall in Berlin. We went also down to Württemberg, which is where Martin Luther did his thing where he nailed the 95 thesis to the church door that began the Protestant Reformation.

It was actually the 500th anniversary that Protestant Reformation is this October. And that was the impetus for us to even have the idea to go and tape when it came up a few months ago that we were going to do an article for Beyond Today on that 500th anniversary.

I made a suggestion, well, why don't we just go over there and tape a Beyond Today program? I do these things. I kind of mention these things to Peter Eddington from time to time, and he doesn't always listen to me. But this time he listened, and he said, well, maybe we can work it out.

So he began to look at the budget and figure things around. And both Warren and I had made some inquiries and thought we could do it. And we were up and running and planning and worked on it for several months and made it happen. The first time we made a trip like this of that nature. And with the equipment, the miniaturization of equipment sound and videography, we were able to get it done. And we taped Martin Luther areas, Weimar and Württemberg Castle.

And then we went to Aachen in Germany, where Charlemagne had his palace and his church, where Europe really began in around 800 A.D. in Aachen. Taped some programs and footage there. And then we went to Brussels, taped in front of the EU headquarters and parliament in Brussels, and got that accomplished over a day as well. But it was basically a dawn to dusk work. It was very well planned and quite grueling, but we got it all done.

Everybody did what had to be done. And we learned a lot in just production work on remote like that. And we were glad. So within six to eight weeks, that footage of those films will be, those programs will be put together.

We also, in the media area, we are moving along with our plans to build the new media center that is going to be built just off from the one end of our home office there in Cincinnati. The money has been very generously donated. Architects are drawing up all the plans, and we're about ready to let the bids out, I think. And we hope to be able to break ground on this new facility before the feast.

And if that happens, we should, by this time next year, be into a new media center facility for production of Beyond Today and other video work that we do for the Church. So those are kind of the two big projects that we've been working on in the video or media area for the Church at this time. We appreciate your prayers and support for Beyond Today. I've been looking at the cars in the parking lot this morning. Some of them here I see Beyond Today stickers. Mr. Tuck tells me that he sends people out during church and puts them on your car bumpers so that you are spreading the word. We appreciate all of you doing that and helping to promote the work of the gospel that we are engaged in in the Church.

You'll be getting the same sermon that I gave to the ladies here this morning.

I traveled with only one sermon. I have other sermons, but this is the only one that I gave. I had to leave my New King James Bible with Debbie this morning so she can use it. If I have a little bit of delay, I'm going to the scriptures on my iPad here as we go through the message here today.

Like so many of you, I have read a scripture in Jeremiah 17, verse 9. I had it read to me since my earliest memories and days in the Church of God. I think many of you could probably quote what Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says. In fact, I won't even turn to that one. It says that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I see some of you nodding and mouthing along with me so you know the scripture.

That was one of the earlier scriptures that I ever learned. And it's a true scripture as it speaks to a condition of the human heart and a very true, desperately wicked, and who can know it. I hope, however, it is not a description of your heart. It should not be. There's also a scripture in Matthew, or in Mark, chapter 7, and you can turn there, if you will, Mark, chapter 7. Let's read what Jesus said as He made a comment about the human heart and what proceeds from the heart, beginning in verse 21 of Mark, chapter 7.

As Jesus said here regarding what defiles a man, and He's speaking to the spiritual thoughts that defile us spiritually, and He said that they come, in verse 21, Mark 7, from within. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adultries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.

So Jeremiah says that the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and Christ said that it is out of the heart of men, proceed these evil things. If you look at Christ's list, He's got it pretty well covered right there, I think. We don't need to add anything more to that in terms of the gamut of human nature and some of the problems that, actually, as He says, begin with the heart.

Now, these two scriptures speak to a very real truth about human nature and about the human condition apart from God. But you're not apart from God, are you? You have a relationship with God. Does this describe your heart? I hope not, and certainly think not. With the addition of God's Spirit comes a change to the heart in the sight of God, and all things become new. Turn with me over to Romans 8, and let's read what Paul writes regarding the heart that is transformed as a result of repentance and baptism, and some very important concepts such as justification and sanctification as we receive the Holy Spirit, as we are forgiven of sins, made just before God, receive His Spirit.

And Paul describes here in Romans 8 and verse 12 a changed relationship. Beginning in verse 12, he says, Brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. That would be like Jeremiah 17, 9 describes. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you live, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Very simply, Paul is in a sense picking up from what Christ said in Mark 7, where we don't live according to those thoughts that can proceed out of the heart. They no longer dominate us. If we live by the Spirit, then there is a changed condition and therefore a changed relationship. He says, you will live. Verse 14, By whom we cry out, Abba, Father. And so the process then puts us into a different relationship with God. We have a relationship where He is our Father, we are His children. Because he goes on in verse 16, And so with the Holy Spirit, which comes as a result of the process of repentance and forgiveness and God's grace, as He gives us that gift of His Spirit, we become His children.

We have a different relationship with God. And therefore we are to live indeed a different life. Now these three verses from Jeremiah 17, 9, to Mark 7, to Romans 8, in a very succinct summation, describe a heart that is wicked, but then a transformed heart as a result of a change that comes over through God's calling and our desire to have a different relationship with God.

And as we know, and as even the sermonette brought out quite eloquently, this is a lifelong process that we are involved in this work that God is doing in our minds. And as we can see here, it is a work of the heart. It is a work that transforms and changes the heart.

And so the theme that I've brought here this weekend to speak to you about here in Phoenix, and the ladies over there, and you here this afternoon, is what I like to call what God is doing is creating a fellowship of the heart, a fellowship of the heart. And we have to let Him work. We have to let God do His work through His Son, Jesus Christ, in us to transform our heart from what it was before conversion to what it should be as reflecting a son of His in relationship with God. Can we do that?

Can you do that? This is where we are. And this is the lifelong process that we are involved with. And it is the very heart and essence of the relationship that we have with God under what we can call the New Covenant, which is one way to determine or to label what this process is. There was a covenant at Sinai, often called the Old Covenant. We are under a different relationship with God. It is a covenant of the Spirit. It is a spiritual relationship. And we can call it a New Covenant, but it is different.

And it is a covenant or a relationship that is ongoing described here back in Jeremiah 31. And we can turn to that verse, Jeremiah 31, and look at what is said here in Jeremiah 31 and verse 33. This is that verse that is then quoted again by Paul in the 8th chapter of Hebrews to describe that relationship we have as a result of Christ's sacrifice and His resurrection and His relationship as our High Priest, among many other aspects of that.

Jeremiah 31 and verse 33 says, As we do here, we relate directly to this. This is the relationship that we have with God. His law is in our minds and it is being written on our hearts. He is our God and we are His people. This is the scripture describes the cornerstone of our relationship with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the one scripture that tells us what God is doing as His great purpose and His great plan. There are certain scriptures that I like to look to, and this is one of them, where I pull them out in my own personal lexicon or memory verses.

I read them and say, This is what God is doing, Darris. Is He doing it with you? Are you in this verse, is what I say to myself? I realize either it is happening to me and I am involved with God in this work or I am not. It is the one in negative positive. It is off or on. There are only two choices, two ways. Either we are or we aren't. In this case, God is writing His law in our minds and in our hearts or He is not.

That is how I work through certain things or other scriptures that are like that, that I look at and say, God is doing this. Whether I am there or not, whether I live or die, God is doing it because it is part of His great plan.

Am I in that verse? Are you in this verse? That is really the question we all have to ask ourselves. Is God's law being written on your heart?

That is what is my theme. God is doing that with those that are in this relationship and it is a fellowship of the heart. It is that understanding and it is that relationship that helps us to understand how God is working and that God can do miracles with a heart that is turned to Him and yielded to God.

This work that God is doing is at the level of the heart and it is all about the very critical matter of change that we talk about or conversion or overcoming. The ladies chose Colossians 3 as their chapter to focus on and creating a new you.

Like so many of us here, we have lived so long, we have made so many stops and starts probably with creating the new you.

I am glad for the Passover every year that God can take part in that free mercy of God and get renewed and take another crack at our lives and be reminded of certain things. I am working on the new me every day, I guess.

But that is really what God is doing. It is a matter of change.

Change is a lifelong process. I have been at this 54 years in my life.

It is not easy. There are successes and there are times when I wonder if I have made any progress.

Then there are times that God, by His mercy, shows me, well, you have made a little bit of progress, dearest.

Today I would like to look at this aspect of change from the matter of this most intimate part of it and the heart.

We will talk about having a heart toward God and having a heart toward one another.

There are two aspects of this. If we can frame it within that, a heart toward God and a heart toward one another.

Let's first look at what motivates a person, what motivates people to change.

Think and talk about this for a moment because it is very important to us, at the heart of Christianity, what makes people change.

You can change as a result of fear. Sometimes people do.

Sometimes people change when they are confronted with information and facts.

Not all of us, not as much maybe as by other means, but facts and information can lead people to make a change.

Oh, you mean Christ wasn't born on December 25th? Well, let me prove to you that He was.

And sometimes people find out, oh, He wasn't.

And it leads them to other questions and other matters. Maybe some of you were like that in your path to the truth, to a calling.

I find sometimes today, I think as we look at today's world, it's irrelevant to so many people.

They know that as a fact, but it doesn't make any difference with them.

They know that Christ was not born on December 25th, but it doesn't make any difference. Society has turned over the last four or five decades, and things like that don't necessarily motivate as many people as it might have done a few years ago.

People will also change as a result of a crisis that will hit, a health crisis, or some other trauma that they may go through, a near miss.

And it can cause people to change. There are different factors that will lead a person to change.

My father, who died in 1991, was a lifelong smoker until one day he woke up with a cough that didn't go away.

And it scared him. And he took the package of Lucky Strikes that was always with him, and he threw them away, and he never picked them up again.

Cold turkey, just like that. Didn't need knicker-ret. Didn't need counseling. Didn't need to wean himself off from his two-pack-a-day habit.

He never picked them up again. Now, he eventually died of cancer, and it could very well have been related to the many years of smoking, but he was motivated to change.

Now, for my father doing that one morning, nine other people didn't. Those are the statistics.

For every one person who makes a change like that as a result of fear, nine people don't. That's just statistically the way it works out.

Behaviorists who study this know that effective lasting change doesn't always come by fear, or by facts, or by a crisis.

In fact, they find through some of their studies that more often than not, a bigger percentage of people will change when there is an appeal made to their emotion.

The heart. And something reaches them at that inner level of the heart. Beyond facts, beyond a momentary shock or fear, more people will change when that happens.

And that's something to think about as we look at ourselves, as we look at even the way we try to do our work, and we do this.

As we sit around in our media discussions to seek to find a more effective way to reach people with the gospel, and the truth, and explain things to people today in 2017, recognizing the conditions of society, that we have to understand how these motivators of change really do work.

And as we teach about the Sabbath, for instance, where we will do an article or program about the Sabbath, we have to not only teach what the Bible says in terms of the aspects of the law and what it is, but show a benefit to that.

And to show why and how it can improve one's life and keeping that part of the law of God.

And that works really through so many other factors as we think about not only preaching the gospel, but even with you in your area, where you share the gospel or share the truth about who you are, why you do what you do, why you keep the Sabbath, why you go off to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, why you don't keep Christmas, why you live a holy life, work to live a holy life that is different, and people notice that.

And as you are called upon from time to time to explain that to people, think about that and look for the deeper aspects of why you do what you do to explain that, to work that in, to see if that can make a difference.

As we look at the conditions of people today, and there are people today, there are so many aspects of human nature and issues of life that are gripping people that the need for the gospel is as great as it has ever been. And how we approach them is critically important to be able to reach people. One of the things that I learned in some of the readings along this subject is that telling people who are lonely and depressed, for instance, that they're going to live longer, if they quit smoking or change their diet or don't drink a six-pack of beer every night, is not always that motivational for some people.

And if they quit smoking or change their diet, they're going to be able to get their own diet.

And if they quit smoking or change their diet, they're going to be able to get their own diet. And if they quit smoking or changing their diet, they're going to be able to get their own diet.

Now, we have to be careful with that.

I think the reason that I'm here today is because I'm here today to tell you about the people who are living in Mexico gas station. Truckers, insurance salesmen, people from all walks of life came through my dad's gas station every day. And they were living all kinds of lives. They were living in the 1960s as they are today, especially among adults, but that's changed. But there were reasons those people went to the bar right next door to my dad's gas station every day at 5.30. Why I saw them park their car in my dad's a lot and walk by our door to the bar next door and stay there two or three hours. There were reasons for that.

And that was what they needed to be able to get back to work at 6 o'clock the next morning. And they weren't going to change that unless they could be convinced by certain factors that changing those habits would make them a happier person. And the only way that could have been done, and in some cases it did, were through reaching their lives, their hearts.

And there are ways that happens both in our church and in the world at large, and we have to understand that as we look at the world today. You know, the big debate in our world right now is health care. Repeal Obamacare. Repeal and replace. Can't get it done.

And your senator from here in Arizona went and cast the vote that he did a few days ago. And it's a mess. And it's a mess in terms of just what it is, and yet at the same time we have the best health care in the world available to people that are in all different walks of life in many ways.

When you look at the health care, and I've read quite a bit about it in recent weeks just to kind of figure out what's really been going on with Obamacare and what happened with that when that was passed seven or eight years ago, and the issues that are there, when you look at the actual on-the-ground matters of people's health and where the money goes and where it is spent, 80% of most health care budgets, however you cut and dice it and slice it, is consumed by five different behaviors that people have in their lives today.

Smoking, drinking, eating, eating too much, eating their own kinds of foods, stress, and not enough exercise. Those are essentially the five behaviors that take up 80% of the needs in health care today, no matter how you look at it. Now, I trust you're not smoking. Okay? You got that one. Check that one off the list. I trust that you're not over-drinking, over-consuming. I certainly hope not. Eating? Well, maybe we fudge on that one a bit. When I come west, I like an In-N-Out Burger. I have to admit, I like an In-N-Out Burger. Okay? Stress? Ever-present. Ever-present.

Not enough exercise? We're in the mix there someplace as well, plus other factors that sometimes are out of control. DNA is history, they say. DNA is destiny. But you look at that and you recognize that it's choices that people make for various reasons that will have the effect.

Heart surgery patients, they realize, most two years later, 90% are still living a lifestyle that led to the heart disease to begin with. 90% after two years. Behavior's hard to change, and the statistics are there. Why is change so difficult at whatever level we seek it? It's because there's matters of the emotions and the heart that are there that are impacting the decisions and the choices we make to keep us at times even from making the best decisions, the decisions that are in our best interest.

But again, behavior scientists know that change most often happens by speaking to people's feelings, and that when we reach their hearts, we can create change. Think about this. Joy is a far more powerful motivator than fear. And you all know that joy is one of the fruits of God's spirit. But joy is a more powerful motivator than fear. And frankly, joy needs to be laced across all of our messages. Your sermonettes, your sermons, your Bible studies, your conversations, our articles, our Beyond Today programming.

Joy needs to be a part that we embed into our messages, expressing the fruit, that part of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. It is one of the matters that is so sorely needed in the world today, and as such, will draw people to you, to us, through that fruit of joy. When people see that, it is the one fruit of the spirit desperately needed right now in this world.

I would say joy anchored with hope. Paul said it was faith, hope, and love that are the greatest of the attributes. But joy anchored in hope, the hope of a relationship with God, the hope of His coming Kingdom, the hope of a solution.

That's what the world needs. And the elect of God should be taking a message of joy to the people. But as when we can orient our thinking, our messaging, our conversations, our talk, to more joy, less fear, less intimidation, less control, less legalism, that we are going to be more effective in helping people understand the joy of making the choice to obey God and reaping the fruits of God's Spirit. I talk about behavior changes. I try to keep myself in the best shape I can by watching what I eat, getting exercise when I can, not because I'm going to live forever, take my vitamins, and all.

Not because I'm going to live forever, but because I do want to be productive while I am living and I want to be as productive as long as I can. I've got one other thing that I've used as a motivator in recent years as well. I'll share it with you. I told my seven-year-old granddaughter a couple years ago that, grandpa, I said to Cameron, Cameron, grandpa wants to dance with you at your wedding. She laughed when she went home that night. She laughed and she said to her dad, dad, grandpa said he wants to dance with me at my wedding.

And her dad said, yeah, that's what he wants to do. I actually have two granddaughters that I would like to dance at both of their weddings. Now they're seven and the other is ten. So I've got to hang around for a few more years. So whatever I have to do to accomplish that to me is a motivator.

To only have one In-N-Out burger and share the fries. And when I do, okay, extra mile.

All right. So I think that way as a means of making a point to myself to be motivated to manage my behavior and to keep from just completely abandoning certain things because, in a sense, appeal to the emotion within me. I learned that also by an experience I had a few years ago. I've told the story before, so if you've heard it, bear with me. But it makes my point right here. When I lived in Indianapolis, we moved from there five years ago. But while we were there, just two minutes from my front door was Health Club, part of the LA fitness chain.

I think you have them around here. But I had a membership there, and I would go there two or three, four times a week and swim and lift weights. Whenever I'd go in very often through the week, I would frequently see a guy pumping iron on one of the machines and just going at it. And he didn't do it passively. He did it with, you know, stereophonic sound and all the, you know, sounds that go with pumping iron. But the guy was tattooed all over his body. And he had studs coming out of his nose and out of his mouth. And he was a fearsome-looking guy. And I kept looking at him, and I would keep on going because I worked and I would do other things. But I'd see him. I started looking, calling him, I called him tattoo guy. And one day I was done with my workout, and I had showered, and I was at the locker changing into my clothes. And out of the shower comes tattoo guy. So here I am in the locker room next to tattoo guy. No clothes on. As you are in the locker room until you get your clothes on. And I think, oh boy, and he's fearsome-looking. And he's got the tats all over, and he's got the spikes, and he just looked, and I'm trying to get dressed real quick. Because I don't, you know, what do I do? What do I say? And he starts talking to me. And he says, oh, I love the workout. He said, it just keeps me charged, keeps me going. I'm in here every day, I'm working out, pumping that iron. He says, it keeps me from going back to the drugs. And so I looked at him and I said, oh yeah? He said, yeah. He said, I had a, and I found this with several individuals who have been addicted to drugs that I've talked with. I find they're an open book. They share their story. They just talk about it. And tattoo guy started talking to me about his drug habits. He said, yeah. He said, I had it for years.

He said, I was in and out of rehab. Didn't work. I was in and out of jail. Nothing stopped me from taking the drugs. I said, well, it finally stopped you and got you in here to the weights. He said, the last time I was in jail, my little girl visited me and said to me behind the glass, dad, I'm tired of visiting you here in jail.

And he said, that was all I needed to hear. I didn't want to have to put her through that anymore. That, he said, was what got me to change. And so he was in the weight room every day, lifting weights to keep himself motivated and off of drugs because of what his little girl said. That was his motivator to change when nothing else, none of the experts, none of the finely tuned rehab programs, not even the fear of the law and jail, curbed his appetite and his addictions, but his little girl did. It's the appeal to the emotion. And then he began to experience the joy of a better life without that and seeing her then enjoying her dad with her instead of her having to go to visit him in prison. It was the motivator for him to change. The point is that change can occur. But it often occurs when we see the positive benefits of change rather than always being coerced. And more often it will happen that way. Change comes as a result of an inner emotion, deep. And for us, brethren, where the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart.

In Psalm 51, we know very well what King David said there, that it was in the depths of his trial. In Psalm 51, verse 10, that David said, "'Create in me a clean heart.' And he also said in that passage, "'Restore to me the joy of your salvation.' There is joy in salvation and the whole process by which God brings many sons to glory. When we really understand it, when we are within it and living it and experiencing it, there is joy." David wanted that put back into his life to keep him from falling again into the trap of sin that, in his case, took him into some pretty bad, dark alleyways.

What are your dark alleyways that may yet be there that are needing for us to change? In our every year, we begin our march through the Holy Days in the spring, Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, and we conclude with the eighth day. In the fall, we rehearse the plan of God. We look deeply at all the aspects that each of those days teach us about God's purpose and plan of salvation, especially with the beginning Days of Unleavened Bread.

We put the leaven out, the picture, putting sin out of our life. We put the leaven out really as a reminder that it is through the resurrected Christ in us that we can overcome the sin that so easily besets us. The leavened bread symbolizes sin. The unleavened bread symbolizes the sinless body of Christ and His life. And as we put that in, as we eat that unleavened bread for that period of time, it pictures to us Christ's life, His life within us, a sinless life.

That's the essence of it, of the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread. As we do that, we are right at the very heart of this matter of the heart and the essence of the changes that the only way to change. And at that deeper spiritual level, it is that relationship that we have with Jesus Christ, as the mediator, as our helper, in that relationship with the Father, to then be able to have the one power within us to affect change.

How many of you have ever overcome one sin by eating unleavened bread? You don't. We do that because God commands us and teaches us to do it, but it teaches us a deeper spiritual lesson. And it's not until we get to that understanding of the life of Christ within us, that sinless life through His life within us, that we are at the point then of where effective, lasting change can be had in our lives along the lines of what we read in Romans 8, where we are led by the Spirit of God.

And we then walk by the Spirit. Until we get to that point, we will struggle. We will not be at the depth of the fellowship of the heart, if you will, where God is writing His law upon our hearts through the power of His Spirit. Jesus spoke to this when He said to His disciples, Be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.

If you turn to John 14, we can look at a couple of verses here, John 14. Beginning in verse 26, Christ said here, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give you, but not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You've heard Me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I am going to the Father, for My Father is greater than I. Christ here was revealing a very deep truth about the help that we have from the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit. The word here is a word you may have written in your margins called parochletos or paracletos. One who goes alongside is the way I learned it through the years. It's a very interesting word, it's a very interesting teaching.

It is what happens, it is that help, it is that power. When you put all the Scriptures about it together, you come down to one profound realization that what Jesus is saying is that, as He said later in John 16, 5, I will come to you, I will not leave you orphans. Christ was saying that He, through the power of the Holy Spirit, would come and live His life within us. And that's what Paul referred to in Galatians 2.20, where he said, the life that I live, I live now by the faith of the Son of God in me.

And that's what we put into our lives, symbolically, when we eat unleavened bread for seven days during that period, to show what should be happening in our lives at that level throughout the year, because it is, by that means, we have the power, the help, to overcome, to deal with fear, to deal with a crisis, to deal with what comes into our lives.

And that, brethren, is what is the great need for all of us in the Church of God today to understand about our relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father. It is that power that is there as a paracletus, a paracletus, that is the means by which we can face any crisis that we deal with, anything that comes to us and we can stand and we can endure, any period of suffering, any time of trial, any health issue, any other matter that will test our faith. It is only through that relationship with Jesus Christ, as He lives His life within us, that we will be able to stand, endure, and be standing when the dust settles.

Now, this year has been a pretty tough year for many in the United Church of God, just to focus on the United Church of God, which is us here. And I was in New England getting ready for the Passover up there on a church visit this year. On that Sunday afternoon Passover evening, as we kept it, was on Sunday night this year, if you remember. Two heart-rending emails came across my computer as I was preparing.

One was the sudden death by a heart attack of a deacon from the Columbus, Ohio congregation that I knew quite well. Solid stalwart member. Massive heart attack. I died instantly. Just a few minutes later I got another email. Another girl, a young girl from Ohio, troubled, had an overdose, fair-lifted to a hospital, life hanging in the balance.

I was reeling. I was just thinking, what in the world is going on? After the days of Unleavened Bread, a young man in Florida, son of a church family there, a tragic accident on a vehicle, brain dead, died. It rocked a lot of people. Just a few days after that, another young man that I knew, his wife, two small kids, fell over one Sabbath morning, rushed to the hospital, discovered he had a brain tumor, a serious brain tumor.

One thing right after another has been happening and going on. And other things and other matters. I remember when the cubic wrote a letter just before Pentecost, if you recall. I encourage you to go back and read that letter, where he was talking about people suffering and so many other situations that he referred to there, people from other parts of the world, even. A lot has been going on. And I just told him the ladies this morning, I did not know Debbie and I would be coming out here today for this weekend.

We were scheduled several weeks ago and had the tickets purchased, had been invited. But then a couple of issues, health issues in our family, two of them this week, hit. And I called Jim Tuck on Monday morning and said, I don't know that we're going to be able to make it. I just wanted to let you know, in case you could be prepared, but things kind of abated and we're here. It comes at you fast, as the saying goes.

And there's a lot going on. And I've stood back and now I'm involved in it, even personally. And I'm thinking, what's going on? What's God teaching us? What are we being prepared for? As we always do, we ask why. And we ask why with somebody else, but then when it comes into your family and into your home, you really do ask why, don't you? That's why it's important that we pay attention to those prayer requests, brethren. And make sure you ask. Ask how somebody's doing. Make that phone call. You can do what you want to do on Facebook, but let somebody hear the tone of your voice. Ask the question. Just walk up to them, put your hand on the shoulder.

Ask. Let them know you care. It's that personal touch that makes real difference. I've learned that. And many of you have learned it too. So let's not neglect that among ourselves, because those are parts of how we all band together, work and grow together in love, and bear one another's burdens. God gives us the power of His Spirit, and we are in need of turning our hearts to one another, just as we turn our hearts to God.

You know, it brings me to another aspect of the heart and the work that God is doing, as we look at one another and how we treat one another. You know, that's probably the biggest challenge before us, is how we treat one another. I remember at the beginning of the United Church of God, 22 years ago, the Council of Elders, in its great wisdom. And I used to be on the Council, so I can kind of say this.

You can debate on the Council for hours and hours and days and days about issues and come up with a great statement.

And they said, we have not always treated each other in a godly fashion. Duh, as they say. This was 21, 22 years ago. But we still have some things to learn about that, don't we? That we learn to properly judge one another and do it with mercy and do it with a humble faith.

Let me tell you another tattoo story. I used to direct a camp, one of our youth camps, back in Pennsylvania, Camp Heritage, which it was called in the day. One year, as we started up camp, I went down to the waterfront, and I was looking over at the kids there, and I saw a young lady getting ready to take her swim test so she could participate in swim activities. And I looked, and I saw right up here on her shoulder, right at the base of her neck, there was a tattoo of a bumblebee. And so in my camp director mode, I thought, we don't know how tattoos are. Camp? Violating principles? Whatever. Then I called myself and said, stupid, dearest, the girl had been at our camp the year before, and she had been stung by a bumblebee as she was getting ready to go into the dining hall for dinner one night. She was the type that went into shock from a bee sting. We had to call the ambulance. Our nurse went with her to the local hospital. She was nearly dead. I got down there a few minutes later. I was in the ER with my nurse. The girl was in the bed, and the doctor didn't know what to do. I saw the doctor with a little manual and is looking at how to treat anaphylactic shock. And the nurse was sweating bullets. She thought the girl was going to die. Fortunately, they got her stabilized. They called the air ambulance. Air lifted her to a larger hospital up in Pittsburgh, and she lived, and she survived.

So, when I saw her a year later, and she had a bumblebee tattooed on her back shoulder, I thought, well, you know what? Maybe if I had nearly died from a bumblebee sting, I'd get a tattoo as well. Don't get me wrong, folks. I don't want to have a tattoo. Don't have any tattoos. Don't think we should have tattoos.

But in that case, I said, you know, let it slide. You apply a bit of judgment. You don't start looking at all these other physical things that we can get ourselves kind of cranked up about in the church and at camp and working with our young people before we have a relationship with a person, before we've actually come to see their heart and know their heart. The only way you know somebody's heart is if you've had a little bit of time to get acquainted and know where they're coming from. So I let it slide. I said, welcome back to camp, Chris. Glad to have you back this year. Chris has gone on in her life. I don't know where she is today, but I'm sure that God's working with her and will bring her back around. But we need to learn to make proper judgments with a proper amount of mercy and certainly a lot of humble faith. When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to find a replacement for King Saul, and you know the story in 1 Samuel 16, he saw one son, he's Eliab. He said, oh, surely this is God's anointed. And in verse 7, God said to him, nope, that's not the one. He said, you look on the heart, men look on the outward appearance. I look on the heart, he said. And that's a lesson for us to consider and to remember. We do look on the outward appearance far too much. We can look on the outward appearance and judge a person to be bad because of a tattoo. Spike's coming out of their mouth, nose, ears, teeth, tongue. And it's an awful look. Flying out yesterday, I got plopped down in the middle seat. And the girl on the right was exactly like that. Tattoos all over and just wires just coming out there.

And I just, you know, okay. She's got some issues probably working there. I talked to the guy next to me and that's where it is. But I don't know what really was going on in her life. We can also look on the outward appearance and think a person's righteous and good and upright and this and that, like Samuel did with Elieb. And there's some problems there that only God knows about. And we might know in time if we would be patient. Well, it comes down to building a relationship. It comes down to that aspect of a relationship with each other. That flows from us first having a relationship with God, with His Son Jesus Christ whom He sent, and understanding the real source of power that we have and that power within us. I have an opportunity to kind of range across all the topics that are in the Bible and scriptures and I deal with prophecy a lot. Write about it. Teach a class in it at ABC. I teach the doctrines of the church at ABC. I teach the book of Acts and get into a lot of principles of Christianity and Christian living as I tell the story in the book of Acts. I write and do these things and preach and teach as a minister does. I get a wide exposure and I try to stay on top of the world and what's happening in the world and also what's happening in the church because of the calling and the interest that is there. I'll tell you something. I look at our world today as you do. I see the breakdown of leadership in our own country and in world leadership. I see the dangers to America and to its role in the world and what is reshaping the world and the forces that are reshaping it. Because of the understanding that God gives us about the Bible and the promises to Abraham, I frankly see that Satan is very cleverly manipulating the centers of power in the world today to one final master stroke, strip away the blessings, the Abrahamic blessings that have been upon certain nations, America being the leading one right now, and stripping that away.

I also know because of that teaching about the promises to Abraham that the church of God is not immune from that as well because the scriptures also say that Satan will be as a roaring lion seeking to devour us. And in Revelation 12, he goes out to attack the people, the remnant of the woman. I know the scriptures that teach us about Satan desiring to strip from the church faith. And so I look at what's taking place in the world and I look at the church and I keep my eye on both as we all should. And I see that we are in a very, very trying time right now. And so my answer to many of the things happening to us within the church and what is happening in the world tells me that we are in a very difficult period of time in the world right now and in our lives and in the church. And the only way we're going to get through this, brethren, the only way you and I will endure to the end is through the power of God within us through His Spirit and His Son's life within us. Don't be deceived and don't let down on that. Let God work in your life and in your heart to change it, to cause it to mature and to grow in love toward Him and toward one another so that we might deal with all of the stresses and the challenges of life itself within our own fellowship that will come at us and handle them all in a godly way and stand and be standing because we are standing upon the sure power of God's Spirit. And Christ's life within us because He is the Advocate. He is the power and the means that the Father has given for that to be benefited for all of us. And God is writing His law and His covenant relationship upon our hearts. And if that is happening to you and to me, then effective spiritual change is ongoing and will happen. And we will have the ability to stand and to deal with whatever is thrown our way because we have the true source of that power within us.

So think about that. The ladies heard this this morning. Get a chance to share that with you here this afternoon.

Recognize that God has called us all to a fellowship of the heart. And let's make sure that we are involved in that process of God writing His law upon our heart to effect change that endures and lasts and produces the fruit for His Kingdom.

Thank you.