Get off the Beach

June 6, 1944. Omaha Beach. The Normandy landings. The massed Allied forces hit the beach at about dawn that morning. The largest armed invasion to date, and even to this very day, of troops poised and under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower, hit the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Gord, Sword, Juneau, the main beaches.

Omaha was the biggest, and that was where the biggest concentration of troops were. And it happened to be where my father also landed that morning among the first troops to walk ashore. Swimming ashore, however, he got off of his boat and up onto that long beach of about a mile in length and about 200 yards in breadth up to what they called the shingle and a little rock outcropping and bushes and grass and then the towering cliffs.

But it was also the most fortified beach. The Nazis had rigged it with mines. It was low tide. And they had their gun emplacements up on the bluff, timed in such a way that crossfire would pin down anybody that was on the beach under that withering fire. And that's what happened. The opening hours on Omaha Beach were a disaster. Upwards of 2,500 men died that morning. In fact, it was so bad as they were pinned down on the beach. Those of you that have seen the opening minutes, the opening 20 or 25 minutes of the movie Saving Private Ryan, you can at least get a visual.

And that's about it because you can't hear necessarily and you can't smell what else was going on on that beach that morning. But at least it is the best depiction of the scene on Omaha Beach that Steven Spielberg put together here. And you can picture that scene. There came a moment a few hours after the landing, later in the morning, when it all could have come unravel and the invasion called off. And that would have been a great disaster. General Omar Bradley was on a ship offshore and he was tasked with the responsibility to make the call.

If the landing was a failure, Eisenhower had given him the authority to call everything back. And with the troops pinned down on Omaha Beach and more troops coming in waiting to unload, it looked like, therefore, a moment that Bradley might have to call it off. I'd like to read to you a few paragraphs from the book The Longest Day, which was the first book written about the Normandy invasion back in the early 60s by a man named Cornelius Ryan.

And he puts it pretty well here with that scene on Omaha Beach. He wrote, From the sea, the beach presented an incredible picture of waste and destruction. The situation was so critical that it knew General Omar Bradley aboard the USS Augusta began to contemplate the possible evacuation of his troops and the diversion of follow-up forces to Utah and the British beaches.

But even as Bradley wrestled with the problem, the men in the chaos were moving. Along the section of beach, on Omaha Beach, a crusty 51-year-old general named Norman Cota strode up and down in the hail of fire waving a .45 pistol and yelling at men to get off the beach. Along the shingle behind the seawall and in the coarse beach grass at the base of the cliffs, men crouched shoulder to shoulder, peering at the general, unwilling to believe that a man could stand upright and live. Lead the way, Rangers, Cota shouted. Men began to rise to their feet. At another point, Colonel Charles Canem moved through the dead and the dying and the shocked, waving groups of men forward.

They're murdering us here. Let's move inland and get murdered. Men got up and headed toward the bluffs. At another point, Commanding Officer Colonel George Taylor yelled, Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die. Now, let's get the blank out of here.

Everywhere, intrepid leaders, privates and generals were showing the way, getting men off the beach. Once started, the troops did not stop again. I'll repeat that last line. Once started, the troops did not stop again. Since my dad was on that beach, I wonder what he might have heard, what motivated him to get up and go and survive that day as well. General Bradley didn't have to call off the invasion. The war went on, and we know the rest of the story, Nazi Germany was defeated. That moment, though, late in the morning, for a very brief period of time, was a defining moment on Omaha Beach, and really, for the entire war effort, I think an argument can be made.

Once those men decided to get off the beach and not stop, Hitler was defeated. There were other battles, there were other troop movements. There was the great Battle of the Bulge in December of that year, when the Nazis made one final push in an effort to defeat the Allies. But, essentially, from that moment, once they decided and got the courage and they moved on, the war was over, and Hitler was defeated. It was just a matter of months and other battles, but he was defeated.

And it all, in one sense, and I think a very strong argument can be made, came down to those moments on Omaha Beach, a defining moment. There are moments in life when you and I come to a decision. And what we decide in that moment, on that event, sets the course of our life. We have a defining moment. It can be long-term, perhaps a decade or more, in a decision.

It can be for an entire lifetime. It can be for an eternity. A defining moment, as I put it, is this. It is a moment where you come to know that what you decide on that action, at that moment, will set the course for a long time, if not the rest of your life. It's a hard decision, but once the decision is made, at that moment, at that time, it will lead naturally to other decisions because of that moment and what you decide.

It's a decision from which there is no turning back. Christ spoke of such a moment in Luke 9, if you would. Turn there, please. Luke 9.

Verse 57, let's begin. Luke 9, 57. Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Then he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me go first and bury my dead. Or bury my father. Then in verse 60, Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Jesus said to him, no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. He's speaking again to the idea of a defining moment. When we decide to set our hand to the plow, certainly he's speaking in terms of commitment to being a disciple, a follower of him, which is obviously quite a large decision, and certainly a defining one. I'm of the opinion that a defining moment doesn't always have to be, let's say, baptism. It can be. But, as we'll see, there are other matters and decisions that we make that perhaps are not as large, but yet have an impact for the rest of our life. I think we all come to moments when we must decide whether we will push forward and live, and remain where we are. Either we'll push forward and live, or remain where we are, and begin the long, slow process of withering and dying. I've known people who begin to die at age 40 because of shattered dreams, unfulfilled hopes, disappointment, life's twists and turns, or they live on until 60, 70, 80 years of age, but they began dying 20, 30 years earlier. I've seen people like that because they lose hope, they lose desire, they lose drive.

And that, too, is a defining moment. It can be a defining moment in a person's life that takes them off into a different direction. The point for me to make with you here this afternoon is that we don't want to miss the moment of opportunity. These are life's defining moments. There's a memorable line from one of my top favorite movies of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. The two main characters, one played by Morgan Freeman, who's in prison and knows he needs to be and should be in prison, is there. And the other character, played by Tim Robbins, has been framed and is in prison for a crime he did not commit. And the whole movie is a movie about redemption, as the title gives it. But there's one scene where the two men are sitting in the prison courtyard. And they're talking about prison life, and they're talking about life and what Tim Robbins would do if he got out and whatever. And the Morgan Freeman character is just dispirited in thinking that it's useless and hopeless and it can't be. And he's resigned himself to prison life. The Robbins character hasn't. And he makes this statement. He says, well, not me. You either get busy living or you get busy dying.

Get busy living or get busy dying. That was a defining moment, that phrase in a sense, at least as it was portrayed there in that movie. And it's always stuck with me because it's always been something to rally around at moments when you can feel like what's the use or, you know, you get filled with despair at a particular time. And I realize, you know what? You can get busy living or you can get busy dying. And the decision is always ours. I don't think we recognize these defining moments. Always in the moment, necessarily, is what they are. I really just began to think about this in preparation for the sermon. Sometimes it may take a few years. We can look back and we can understand what we decided at a certain point, indeed, was defining for us. But understanding that life will present such moments, I think, as a key to success, a key to spiritual success. This pass over annually. In the Days of Unleavened Bread tell us of moments of definition. The sacrifice of Christ, His death, which we commemorated two nights ago. Certainly His resurrection, which is the real meaning and purpose behind the Days of Unleavened Bread. Because for seven days now, beginning today, we are going to celebrate the resurrected Jesus Christ and His life in us. His perfect, unleavened life in us. Christ's power in us is a defining moment when that occurs and it is a defining part of our life. That's what Unleavened Bread is all about. Not crumbs, not baking soda, and not matzos. And Ryan, not butter.

Not even chocolate matzos, which we'll have to wait, I guess, another year to get.

But the Scripture is Exodus 13, verses 6 and 7. Do tell us, for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And for the next seven days, when we eat bread, we should try to eat some every day. I think it is a very important lesson to do that on a daily basis. The bread we eat to be unleavened as a symbol of the perfection of the life that we look to and the power that is within us. As you put that unleavened bread in your mouth, it's always good to think about the power of Christ's life in you. And don't worry about if you find a crumb halfway through or some half-eaten piece of bread somewhere that you didn't get it.

Don't worry about it. If you find it, don't get guilt-ridden. Just realize, you know what? That's a good lesson. Because we'll never get all of our sins out of our life, no matter how hard we try. No matter how clean and perfect we might think we will be, there's always going to be something that we don't see. David prayed one time to God in his Psalms. He said, Cleanse me from the secret sins. Sometimes those are the prayers that we need to pray more often, to be cleansed of the secret sins.

And if you find yourself eating a Whopper or a jelly-filled donut, like I did one time, and about halfway through you realize, uh-oh, it's a days of unleavened bread. Don't call me. It's not my fault. And don't worry and don't feel guilty. Here's what you should think. Here's what you should say to God. You know, you can sin and not know it. You can be sinning and you don't know that you're sinning. It's always an object lesson, always something to learn. I wouldn't necessarily eat the rest of it if you get halfway through, but that's between you and God. But that's the days of unleavened bread are about spiritual matters.

Christ's life within us. Colossians 2, 16 tells us, The substance is Christ. The substance is Christ. The holy days are a shadow of things to come. But the substance is Christ. That's what it's all about. That's what Pentecost is about. That's what Trumpets is about. That's what Atonement is about. That's what Tabernacles and the Last Great Day is about. That's what the Sabbath is about. Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. The substance is Christ. We need to learn that.

We need to focus on that. So these matters define our spiritual lives for all eternity. I'd like to walk us through a few examples from the Scripture of defining moments, if you will, from the Bible. In doing so, we can see what we might find as a key to knowing the moment that we might face at a particular point in time in our life. For now, I'd like to walk you through three examples of individuals that I think can help us understand that. Let's first turn over to the book of Ruth, the first chapter. Let's look at this well-known character and story.

Ruth the Moabite, who married into the family that had to leave Bethlehem and Judah because of the famine, the man and his wife. And in the course of time, as we know the story, all the men in the family died.

The husband, the father, and the two sons, leaving the mother and two daughters-in-laws as widows. And, of course, Naomi is the one we focus on, along with Orpah, who is very briefly mentioned, and then Ruth. We all know the story of Ruth, but there are two verses here that really define what we want to understand here. Because if you look in verse 14, it says, They lifted up their voices and they wept, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, Naomi. But Ruth clung to her. And she said, Look, Naomi said to her, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.

Return after your sister-in-law. She'd already told them, Look, I'm too old. I'm not going to have any more sons. Don't wait around for me. Stay here in your home. I'm going back where my family was. Realize that there was no big social safety net in the world at that time, in the ancient world. Women who were alone were indeed alone. And they had no family. And so Naomi knew that she was in an alien land. And the best thing for her was to get back to where she had some family, back to Bethlehem.

And there was no need to take these two Moabite women back there, because they would perhaps not be welcome. They were strangers, and there was no guarantees that she could make to them. And so that's why she doesn't encourage this. But we know that Ruth has a different opinion beginning in verse 16.

And also, if anything but death parts you and me, Ruth would not go back, would not stay in Moab. She would go with Naomi, and she would not be persuaded to turn back. And you know the story as it goes on. She eventually tempts Boaz into noticing her. And they marry. And Ruth, as we know, then is inserted into the genealogy in the line of Jesus Christ.

This is a remarkable story. It's a beautiful story. Actually, this part of it here originates probably about this time of year, because it's a story set at Pentecost. So you could assume that what we're reading about here was in the early spring when this took place. And they went on back to Bethlehem, and the events transpired from that particular point. But verses 16 and 17 define a life. They define an attitude, but they really define the life from that point on of Ruth.

She made a decision, and it defined the rest of her life. Ruth already had character. I think we will see that she is a person of character. She had that. Perhaps she had beauty as well. We certainly don't know that, but we could certainly read that into the story. But you know, none of that would have found its way into the service of God. Had she not made the decision at that moment on that morning to stay with Naomi and to go back to Judah, we would have never known about Ruth. And she would have just been a nameless entity in the ancient world.

And someone else would have taken her place in the role, perhaps, but she made that decision. And God goes to length here to tell us that. She made an extraordinary decision. You know what the beauty about Ruth is that she was a nobody. She was a woman in a man's world. She had no social standing. She was not a king. She wasn't even the concubine of a king, like someone like Esther, which is another beautiful story that we all know about.

But at least Esther was in the royal household. She was the concubine of a king when she certainly displayed the courage that she did. But Ruth was a nobody. A peasant woman with no promise. Something like somebody out of a Jane Austen novel, almost. And yet she had character. And she made a decision. And we know about it. And we know who she was. She had a defining moment.

Let's look at a second story. Turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 34. 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Let's look at the story of King Josiah. Another familiar story to us. Also set at this time of year. The Passover period. At least has a Passover connection to it. Josiah was eight years old when he became king in verse 1 of 2 Chronicles 34.

And he reigned for a total of 31 years in Jerusalem. And he goes on to say that he did what was right in the eyes of God. He began a reformation. He started knocking down altars, the pagan deities. Started cleaning up the high places. Went through the land. Made some significant reforms. But this wasn't enough. And it wasn't complete. I mean, what he did was good. But it was kind of like a person who's making reforms. And maybe they keep nine out of the ten commandments as a good moral upright person.

And they stop lying. They start acting ethically and start trying to obey God. And speak well of other people. But they don't go all the way because they haven't fully understood all the aspects of the law. Well, in Josiah's case, he made significant steps. But there were still problems because, as you read along, he says in verse 8 that in the 18th year of his reign, 18 years after he became king, 10 years after he began reforms as an adult, he then began to purge the land of the temples and to repair the house of the Lord as God. So for this period of time, there were still problems within the temple right in the center of the city of Jerusalem, the capital.

The priesthood was in obvious disarray. And there needed to be repairs to the temple, which tells us that the system had broken down. And Josiah hadn't gone that far for whatever reason. Perhaps there were political problems, certain other dynastic issues that had to be sorted out. But he then instituted a reform that went right into the heart of the temple. And they brought out to him a scroll that had a portion of the law written upon it.

And the part that began to be read to him was from the book of Deuteronomy, the blessings and the cursings part. Blessings for obeying God and cursings for disobeying God. And so he began to hear this. And down in verse 19, it happened when he heard the words of the law that he tore his clothes. A phrase that means he had a significant emotional connection to what he was hearing.

And it was almost stunning as he understood that he had not been fully obedient to God. He hadn't gone far enough. It's like a person, again, perhaps a good, upright, moral person. But then they began to realize they didn't know about the Sabbath.

They didn't know about the Holy Days. And that part of the commandment and the law. And that, as we know, is what takes the Spirit of God to open a heart and a mind to understand. You can't just...you know, we see examples of that all around us. Good moral people, but they don't have a full understanding of...and that does take a calling from God. There is such a thing as God calling his elect and making a decision on an individual. That's kind of like what we see taking place here with Josiah when he heard this part of the law. And he began then to institute further reforms that led to them keeping the Passover, Chapter 35.

And it was a unique Passover, one that had not been kept in such a way for generations within Jerusalem, where the story goes on to tell about it. But I want to note down in verse 27 what is said to him from God concerning his reaction. Because, "...your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants. And you humbled yourself before me, and you tore your clothes and wept before me.

I also have heard you." This is the reaction that it took for God to hear him and to respond in such a way that, in a sense, secure his time and tenure on the throne and reap a large blessing for the people. This was a defining moment for Josiah. This is what we know his story to be about.

Keep in mind, he had already reigned 18 years, more than 10 as an adult, fully aware of his decisions and responsible for them, not having to rule as an 8-year-old with some adult making his decisions. And he had done good things, but we would never have known about the story had he not done this. Had he not gone further, and had the law read to him, and then having the reaction that he did to where he then did something. It defined Josiah, and this is what we remember him for. This moment defined his reign. This is what we remember Josiah for. It was his defining moment. Let's look at one more. Turn over to Acts 9.

Acts 9. Let's look at the Apostle Paul. You're probably already with me, and you know what his defining moment was. We all know Paul, who was named Saul prior to this moment. Saul was not a nice guy. Verse 1 tells us, he was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. And he went to the high priests, and he secured warrants for the arrest, interrogation, and inquisitorial prosecution of the disciples. We already know that he had been holding the cloak of those who threw stones at Stephen to kill him. Paul was a renowned Pharisee, having gone through the elite school of Pharisaical studies in Jerusalem. There of Gamaliel. He tells us later on that he was zealous for the law. And you put those elements together, and you get a picture of a man who was filled with zeal, very, very righteous. Righteous to the point that he didn't like the disciples of the Lord. Those who were commemorating the death and the resurrection of the one who had been killed a few years earlier on Golgotha. He didn't like those people. He didn't like what you and I did the other night by commemorating that death. And he felt that his mission in life was to lie and destroy them.

And to murder them. You would have to think that some of the things that he would have had to have said, to get to the point of even being willing to sign a warrant to bring them to death and to stand by and watch a good man like Stephen be killed, he would have twisted a few things. I think Paul was filled with pride. But his story goes on as he journeyed a light shone around him from heaven in verse 3. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It's hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And the Lord said to him, Get up, go into the city, and you'll be told what you must do. And he did. He was speechless. He rose, and when his eyes were open, he saw no one, but they let him by the hand, brought him to Damascus, and he was there three days without sight, neither ate nor drank. Blind, struck blind for three days before he had his sight restored to him. Now, sometimes we read this story and we think, because we know the rest of the story, that it was a foregone conclusion that this would bring him to repentance. But I think we would be mistaken to assume that, because Paul could have decided to ignore this very dramatic intervention in his life.

As I said, I think Paul was a man that was filled with a great deal of pride because of his so-called righteousness. He was a legalist. Legalists don't like to be told they're wrong. They don't like to even be shown they're wrong by someone else in their righteousness. In their example, legalists are a problem. They always have been. Where legalism rears its head, there's always problems. Paul was a legalist as a Pharisee. And he could have got his sight back and said, I'm going on. After all, he didn't Pharaoh, witnessed many miracles similar to this, including the death of the firstborn, and that for everyone he hardened his heart and never repented. And we read in Revelation 9 that in the midst of the seals and tribulation and a time of great turmoil, men will not repent. They will curse God. Even as the whole world literally seems to be falling in upon them, they will curse God and not turn from their idols and their sorceries. And all that is described there at the end of Revelation 9. Pride can keep a person from seeing God and seeing the hand of God in life. But Paul saw it, and he made a decision. And he made a defining decision that defined the rest of his life. But we would be mistaken to think that that was a foregone conclusion. But we know the rest of the story with Paul, and we know that he no doubt lived not only with some of the consequences of his sins for the rest of his life, he had to defend himself, and there were people who were suspicious of him, but he did repent, and he did change. And he went on to become the Apostle Paul that we know about. These are three individual stories defining moments. How about you? Can you begin to now see what a defining moment might be? Have you been thinking perhaps of any moments in your past life that you made certain decisions that set the course of your life? That you could look at and say it was a defining moment? As I was preparing the sermon, I had to ask myself that question. And I could define a couple of decisions that I made in my early life that indeed were defining. Perhaps the most significant one that I took and I made was when I finally decided to put my whole life and to commit myself completely to this way of life. And this was before I was baptized, it was before I was ever at Ambassador College, before I was married. But I came to a point one time where I had to make a decision. Some of you will know that I've shared parts of my life in my young childhood. I don't mind telling you that I was a person who lived two lives as a young person in the church. Starting when I was 12, attending church with my mother, I almost from the earliest days listened to the sermons, took a lot of notes, started to learn where Habakkuk was, Daniel and all these obscure names back there in the Bible and find my way through the scriptures. But I began to listen and learn, and I believed it. The Sabbath, the Holy Days really opened up a whole world of understanding. 14, 15, 16, 17 years of age, going through high school. I believed it!

But I didn't live it. I had two lives. I had my church life, and I had my school life. And I didn't want the two to mix. Fortunately, I attended a school where I didn't have any other church members there, so I could do what I wanted. Until one day, one girl did move into town, and she was in the church, and she started attending my high school. I didn't like that.

We've laughed about that since. But I had my two lives. I knew the church was true, but I was one who wanted my friends and my social life as well. And it was always a juggling act. It was always a juggling act. I had... I'm not talking about what I was involved with, school sports and other activities. I would date occasionally girls who were not a part of the church. It took much to my mother's consternation, but my dad wasn't in the church, and he didn't care. And I was old enough and independent enough and stubborn enough to make my own decisions. And I knew what I was doing, and I knew what the course could be. After I graduated from high school, before I started my freshman year at the college and local university, it came down to one event, one week, and one decision that I made. I had asked a girl out from school, who was a year or two younger than me, and we were going to go out on Saturday night. And by then I was beginning to realize, you know what? I've got to make a decision here. But I wanted a social life, and I wanted to take this girl and go out to whatever I forgot what we were even going to do. But I'd asked her out, and she said yes. And it was in the early summer, and she was a very nice girl. It came from a nice family. Her dad owned an insurance agency where my dad bought all of his insurance. It would have been an innocent enough date, but it came at a time of pretty serious introspection. And I came to a point where I knew that I was at a crossroads. And if I continued to straddle the fence, I just knew in my own mind, knowing myself, knowing what I was facing, that I would eventually be overwhelmed. And the church side of my life would have been relegated to a secondary status. I probably would have just gone up to the second or third floor and just started observing everything. And pretty soon, you start doing that, you get up to the attic, and you really don't know what's going on.

And I knew what would happen because I knew myself.

And so I realized that in time, I would probably not even be a part of the church. So I called up Susan—her name was Susan—after thinking about this a couple of nights, and I broke the date. I said, Susan, I don't think I'll be able to take you out. I can't do it. I didn't tell her exactly why.

I'd like to think I broke her heart, but I don't think I did.

I don't know what ever happened to her. I'm sure she went on to marry a lawyer and have fat kids. And I hope she's having a good life wherever she is. But that was it. I hung up the phone. That was it. I had made a decision to put my whole being, both feet, into a way of life. And I started to move forward with that from that point on. I started to move off the beach, inland, to what God had in mind for me. I didn't know all that He had in mind for me. But like the last phrase of that famous Robert Frost poem, Two Roads Diverged in a Wood, once I had made that decision, that made all the difference. And from that decision came my baptism, eventually, a few months later. From that decision came my calling to the ministry. From that decision came my marriage to Debbie. And as I look back over four decades now, I see that it was a defining moment. There were no visions. There was no dramatic presentation to me of a book of the law. I was just a normal middle-class kid living in small-town America, going through a little bit of a personal struggle in the midst of an otherwise normal life, which is often the way God works with us. With those of us who are living common everyday lives, maybe it was more like a Ruth experience, not knowing what I was doing at the time when she made that decision on that dusty road in what is now modern Jordan, and decided to walk down the hills and across the Jordan River back into the area of Bethlehem and Judah, and to start and take a chance on a new life. In Ruth's case, no one but God knew the decision she had made would be so far-reaching. I certainly did not know how far-reaching would be the impact of my decision that week. As I look back today, I see clearly that it was a defining moment. Had I not decided to end what to me was a divided, double-minded life, I would not be standing here today. I don't know what I would have done. I don't know where I would be. I know that I would not be standing here this day. Somebody else would be, but I wouldn't be.

And furthermore, Debbie would not be sitting where she is today.

She would be, but she wouldn't be here.

Nor would Ryan, Liam, or Cameron be.

They wouldn't even be. Stephanie would be, but she wouldn't be here. So you see how a decision can be a defining decision that impacts your life and that of others? And you can reach, and you can discern those moments. One author put it this way. He said, you know, a moment can be the sum of 10,000 years. One moment can be the sum of 10,000 years. And that is very true. Do you understand how far-reaching some decisions can be and how life can be summed up in a defining moment? We come in life to defining moments when God leads us to see the future, sometimes our future. In a moment of crystal clarity, we can see we're at a crossroads. And God gives us the ability to see around the corner and over the hill beyond the horizon to see that right now, in this moment, the future is being decided. I think the Days of Unloved and Bread give us the basic tools for seizing that opportunity. Whatever it might be. Maybe some of us have already had those defining moments, but have forgotten them in our calling, in our marriage. We who are older, certainly, have had defining moments. You who are younger may yet have yours. And then perhaps all of us may yet come to another point in our life, another crossroads, where we make a defining decision that will define the rest of our life and maybe the rest of eternity. Maybe all of us will have another point of definition to deal with.

Turn over to the Book of Colossians.

Colossians has a lot to say for this time of year.

In Colossians, let's begin in chapter 1 and verse 3. He says, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before, in the word of the truth of the gospel, and has come to you also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit. Down in verse 11, it says, I read this from the Phillips translation. I read this on Passover here the other night.

I rediscovered the Phillips translation of the New Testament this year, preparing for Passover in some aspects where he does bring it out in a little different language. It's very good. In verse 11, he says, As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God's boundless resources so that you will find yourselves able to pass through an experience and endure it with joy. You will even be able to thank God in the midst of pain and distress because you're privileged to share the lot of those who are living in the light.

For we must never forget that He rescued us from the power of darkness and reestablished us in the kingdom of His beloved Son. For it is by His Son alone that we have been redeemed and have our sins forgiven. Down in verse 23, he says, If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, for which I, Paul, became a minister. And then he goes on to talk about the place of Christ and His sacrificial service, which He had become a minister in verse 25.

Verse 27, Christ in us, the hope of glory, which is again what these days of unloved bread are all about. Christ's perfect sinless life in us through baptism, through repentance, and that is the hope of our glory. We have no other hope of eternal life except by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul said that if we don't have that, we don't have any hope. 1 Corinthians 15. That is the central defining fact of our Christian hope of Christianity is that He walked out of that tomb three days and three nights later, and lives today.

That He died. That He was. That He did what He did. And that we believe that, and that we know that. And we can know that all the way to the bottom of our heels of our feet, with conviction, with assurance, that that is true. And it must be known by all of us, because as Paul goes on to show, there are those who would cheat us.

There are ideas that would cheat us of that reality. In Colossians 2 and verse 8, he said, Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Philip puts it this way, and I like this sentence. In his translation, he says, Be careful that nobody spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense. High-sounding nonsense. I've been reading a lot lately, and I always do it before the Passover.

I pull out certain books that I have on the resurrection and upon the crucifixion, and the proofs of Christ's reality as a historical figure, and that the Gospel accounts are true, and why we can know that they are true, and that indeed he was resurrected. Because for 2,000 years, there's been a whole body of intellectual, high-sounding nonsense. It just takes various forms to disprove who Christ was, that he was, and certainly that he died and rose again.

And it's just a continual pattern of high-sounding nonsense, as he puts it here, and intellectualism that he says will cheat you and me from the reality of our Savior, and the reality of God, and the truth of the Scriptures, and that relationship. And yet, that danger is always at the door of the Church of God, and people of faith, to create a crisis of faith, to create concerns and unbelief.

You want to know where the next crisis of the Church will be? I'll tell you right now. The next crisis that the Church will have will be of faith. It will be of faith. We've had personalities. We've had doctrine. We've had scandal over the years. We've had personalities. I can tell you about personalities of 30 years ago. I've had it up to here with personalities.

My next, my opinion, my humble opinion, take it or leave it, the next crisis for the people of God will be one of faith, and attacks on these very things here that Paul was warning the Colossians about. High-sounding nonsense in intellectualism that will destroy faith in the Word of God, God the Father, and Jesus Christ. There's a reason that God has led us to emphasize Christ, just as we should have been doing all along for a long time. You want to know what some of our historic roots are? Some of our historic roots in the Church of God are Jesus Christ as our High Priest, as the Head of the Church. That's what I cut my teeth on in the Church. Fifteen years ago, some said they never heard grace. They never heard Christ preached. My response to them was at that time, I know you didn't. You were reading Louis Lamour in Bible class when it was being taught, the then leaders of the Church.

I know, I saw.

When Christ was being taught.

Herbert Armstrong gave a Bible study when I was in college. He went through the first chapter of Ephesians, and he said it was his most favorite, I guess you can say that, most favorite, chapter in the Bible, because it spoke of Christ and extolled his position as the Head of the Church.

That's part of our historic roots. So what we've been led to do to emphasize Christ is getting back to our roots, and it's getting back to the Bible. And if we do not learn that, and as Paul said here, put him first, but get distracted by high sounding nonsense, we'll have a crisis of faith. You will. I can. Because that spirit has always been at work to attack. That's why, I guess, at the end of the book of Revelation 12, you read where Satan's last-ditch effort against the people of God, and the time to come, is to go after those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.

Paul goes on here in Colossians 2, 16, a well-known verse. He said, let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths. And we know what that means.

Which are a shadow of things to come. And we know what that means.

But sometimes we just stop right there, or we go through all the Greek to emphasize what verse 16 and half of verse 17 say. And we forget to really focus on the last part of verse 17, where it says, the substance is Christ. The substance is Christ.

They all point to Christ in one way or the other. The Sabbaths, the festivals, the whole plan of God, the whole Bible. Because that's what God has set up to do. And as we do that, we certainly know the Father. And His role is never diminished in any way, shape, or form. The substance is Christ. As we keep the days of unleavened bread, the substance is Christ. Don't lose sight of that. As we eat unleavened bread, the substance is Christ.

And know that.

That, to me, is a defining thought and moment, and concept for all of the people of God. In Matthew chapter 26, there's one more example I'd like to take us through of a defining moment. Let's look at one that Christ had. Matthew chapter 26.

This is where He was brought before the Sanhedrin.

And they had trouble getting two witnesses to tell the same lie.

That's what verse 60 is saying. They found none that would bring a false testimony against Christ to put Him to death. They found none. Even though many came forward, many false witnesses, that's another word, that's a fancy word for liars, false witness, liars, they came forward, they found none, but at last two false witnesses came forward. Two liars came forward.

It just tells you how hard it is to get enough people to tell the same lie so that it can be agreed upon in a court of law with the same falsehood. But it wasn't enough because the high priest then rose and said to Him, and he walked up to Jesus in verse 62, and he said, Do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you? But he kept silent. The high priest answered and said to Him, I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. This I put to you, again, arguably, but I put to you that this was a defining moment on that night. Because on this hung the conviction that sent Him to the Romans, that led to His torture and His ultimate death. You saw already how hard it was for them to get two liars to agree. And then, they probably understood that wasn't ironclad, so they had to get the words from His mouth. So Christ had to stand there and to say eventually, I am the Son of God, for them to hear it. And He said to them, it is as you said. Yes, I am the Son of God. Now, what if He wasn't the Son of God? We get back to that issue. What if He wasn't the Son of God? What if He was that enlightened rabbi, that somehow was so charismatic that he got lots of people to follow Him, and he kind of fooled everybody with these miracles, and just wound up all of a sudden in trouble before the authorities in Jerusalem here, and wouldn't shut his mouth? What if He was that, which some people say that He was, nothing more, not the Son of God? Wouldn't this have been the perfect moment for Him to have said, you know what, I didn't bargain for this? And to have backed off, and slunk out of town at night, somehow hid out for a while, hoping to re-emerge as an apprentice, a carpenter, back in Nazareth or some other location, with some other life? Wouldn't this have been the moment for a fool, which is what one writer says He would have been if He wasn't the Son of God, He would have been a stark, raving, mad fool, according to one writer. And He's right. But He wasn't a stark, raving, mad fool. He was the Son of God. And so He answered that, knowing that that would seal His suffering and death, and the rest flowed from there. I say this was His defining moment on that night, from which everything else turned and sealed His fate. And He went forward. And that sacrifice is not just for us, because we know it is a sacrifice for the entire world.

And so we know that. And we understand who He was as our Savior, as our soon-coming King, as Lord of Lords. And as we keep all of these days, and they unfold before us once again this year, we will come to know Him as the coming, reigning, conquering King of Kings, who will bring the Kingdom to this earth, and will restore all things.

And others can come to know this Jesus, this Christ that you and I have the privilege to know, and all of His fullness, all of His totality.

And we have to put it out there, in love for a world that desperately needs the truth, and to know that Jesus, the one that we know. And by that, brethren, we fulfill His Prayer in John 17, when He prayed for those who would believe in Me through their word, His final Prayer.

That's for us to do.

And so it creates for us another defining moment.

Perhaps this is the defining moment we should understand, that it is time for the power of the Holy Spirit to define us, Christ in us, the hope of glory. It's time to move off the beach and keep moving.