Honoring God From the Heart

Thank you, everyone. Delightful to see each and every one of you. I guess we could say, Happy Holy Day to everyone here, and I know we're rearranging some chairs right now, so we need to be able to get everyone seated. And I know we're going to have a few logistic problems here, moving chairs around today, and we've got, of course, a meal to eat here between services. So I hope all of you will bear with us in that. But I do want to thank Miriam for the very, very wonderful music, and clearly the message of that of God being faithful to us, is what we clearly want to remember and return. That's our job, and I know that that's what's in the heart and minds of all of you. I appreciate everything that we've been able to cover here so far in services, and I'm thankful that Mr. Denny Luker and Ms. Leanne Luker are able to be here and glad that you're able to visit with us this morning. It's always wonderful to have guests come in, and we really... good to see you all in the back. That's wonderful. Glad to have you here today. And I do want to just thank so many of you. I know many of you have had to be here setting up and working with all these cords and stuff. I hate that we even have to mess with all this, but I know Larry does a great deal with that, and so does Eric and their families. I know that you all help out a great deal to be able to have services here, and so I very much appreciate that, and I know that we're all helping each other. We're all serving each other, and that's clearly what we're called to do. Well, what I want to cover in the sermon time today is kind of along the theme of what I started the other day at the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Good to see you, Ken! Glad you're able to be here. I hope your horse is better.

I mentioned the other day... oh, and I wanted to thank Kathleen for sticking me with this flower. She didn't stick me. She put this on completely without any pain to me, and so if it falls off, it's not my fault, but it is Kathleen's. Anyway, as you know, I was talking about the leaven of the Pharisees here during our first part of the Holy Day, and of course, the fact was that Jesus warned. He warned the people that he spoke to about the Pharisees because even though they were considered to be the leaders, religious leaders, they were in essence the religious people, the real religious, the real righteous people among the crowds around Jerusalem and in the area where Jesus was. And yet, as we saw in going through several different sections the other day, the Pharisees, even though they thought they looked good, they thought that they were quite impressive, they did a lot of the right things. Certainly they had the law, and they actually even knew they were supposed to keep the law, but that wasn't a central theme to them because they also had a lot of purity laws that we covered a little bit about the other day, and they also had many traditions of the elders that were as or more important than the law of God. And so what we find Jesus saying about them is that, you know, you honor me with your lips, but of course, what was the problem? The problem was their heart. And as we've been asking God, at least that's what I encourage you to do, I certainly have been doing it over the last few days, asking God to give me a clean heart, asking God to give me a different heart, a better heart. And of course, that's possible because God is faithful. He will help us. He will encourage us in that regard. But I wanted to point out something here in Matthew 5 because Jesus also says something that He's really anticipating out of us. He's anticipating us being able to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Now, the righteousness of the Pharisees, as we saw the other day, was it was a sham. It was a facade. It was not from the heart. And of course, we know and we realize that God is dealing with our hearts. He's dealing with the transformation of our hearts, the cleansing of our hearts. And yet, here in Matthew 5, we very clearly read in verse 17, Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Now, of course, that should be rather clear that Jesus didn't come to do away with, destroy, abolish, and null, or in any way diminish the Ten Commandments that we observe, the law of God as we respect that, as we honor God. He goes ahead and talks about, you know, nothing passing away from the law. But He does say in verse 20, I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, then you'll never be in the kingdom of God.

And so our question today, the question I want to pose is, how is it we're going to exceed?

How is it we're going to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees?

Well, it does have to do with a changed heart. I'm going to tell you that, and I think you already realize that. It actually is not from more excessive or being more excessive in our obedience to God, because we're striving to obey God. You're here! You're right here, where God has set His name, where we are observing a holy day. That is, I'm sure not generally observed as a church day in much of the world. We're here respecting God. We respect His words. We respect His ways. And yet, what we do find is that we want to be transformed, and our lives can be transformed through the faith that we have in Jesus Christ.

Mr. Hudson mentioned this in the sermon just two days ago, where he talked about being crucified with Christ, and that our lives ultimately are to be led by faith in Jesus Christ. And I certainly want to echo that sentiment. And yet, I do want to cover here in Matthew 23 a couple of things that Jesus said to the Pharisees as well, because you actually have several different occasions where Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. We read some the other day. This one was really right before He was going to be taken and put to death. And so, He was able to tell the Pharisees even more about where they were wrong. And of course, in a sense, I think He was probably inciting their anger.

They maliciously were talking behind His back about, well, how can we kill Him? How can we get rid of Him? We think He's a teacher. He looks like one, or He talks like one. Although, how could He possibly be one, because He hasn't learned anything from us? That was their outlook. That was their perception. But here in Matthew 23, you see an entire chapter of indictment that Jesus gave against the Pharisees. And I would like to just point out that the Pharisees, they were meticulous in their obedience to the law, and yet what they were doing is that they were depending upon that obedience, depending upon the law, for their righteousness. And see, Jesus says, we've got to exceed that. We've got to go beyond that. We don't want to ignore that. That clearly is the way of life that we live. But there's more to it than that. There is a closer walk with God that God wants me and you to have. And it's accentuated here. Jesus is very good at bringing that out. But here in Matthew 23, Jesus said to the crowds and disciples, the scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. Therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it. So they did have a certain level of authority. They clearly were transferring information from God. They were relaying the accounts of the Old Testament, the Torah, the Pentateuch, the law. They were familiar with it. They were the ones who were to maintain it. They were the ones who were to pass it on.

But of course, He also followed that up by saying, but do not do as they do, for they don't practice what they preach. Now, what's important about that? They don't practice what they preach. That's important, brethren, because all of us, as we're seated here as part of the congregation of the United Church of God, see, we desire to be united. We desire to be in unison. See, in essence, the moniker United Church of God identifies our group. It identifies us as a part of the people of God. We are, have been called by Jesus or by the Father to Jesus Christ, and we've been allowed to be a part. Graciously, God has allowed us to be a part of the Church of God. And so, you know, our name includes Church of God. So, we are a part of the Church of God, and He said He would keep us in His name. And yet, the other part of it, the united part of it, is what, you know, all of us have to work together to achieve.

You know, I was told early on when I started working for the United Church of God, and this seemed unusual to me. It went right over my head. I had no real concept of some of the difficulties that we were laboring with at the time, because I was pretty focused on what I needed to do. I need help. I need you. I need God. I need help. And I clearly want to be a part of the Church of God to thrive with a relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. But I was actually told that, well, you know, one of the problems we have is, you know, we're called the United Church of God. We're really having trouble living up to our name. And I didn't, that went right over my head. I thought, what? This doesn't make any sense.

And, of course, I didn't really worry about that, because I were full well intended to be and wanted to be united with the United Church of God. And as Mr. Luca very easily explained, you know, we have a system that's set in place. It is biblical. I agree with that. I want to be a part of that. But I certainly more than anything want to look beyond that to the real head of the Church, which is Jesus Christ. And, of course, you all have known that I've mentioned that to you several times here in the last few months, because that's very important. We have to keep our eyes on the head of the Church. And, of course, we want to follow what it says in Ephesians 4 in the first few verses there, because it talks about here in Ephesians 4, Paul says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling with humility and with gentleness and with patience for bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

See, again, a very simple statement, something that's undoubtedly very clear that we need to do our part. We need to do our effort to be united with one another, with the organization, with the work that we are doing, with our support of the work. And, yet, clearly, this is what Jesus Christ was pointing out about the Pharisees. They don't practice what they preach. If we're going to be the United Church of God, then we really have to be the United Church of God. We have to be in unison with one another. We have to be in unison with the plans, because there are plans, there are strategic plans, as well as programs and things that are going on within the framework of the Church that we support and that we're grateful for. And that we're grateful to be a part of that type of organization.

Of course, I think one of the keys to doing this, to practice what we preach, actually, it goes back, it goes even beyond, I guess, more so because of our understanding of the type of unison that God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son, have. We rehearse that every year. We go over that at the Passover. We read John 14 and 15 and 16 and 17. And if you can't read chapter 17 and think, I need to be in unison with God the Father and with Jesus Christ, then I don't know if you must be reading the wrong book, because it's written over and over and over again that God the Father and His Son, they are in complete agreement about where they're headed. You know, that was agreed upon long ago, even before the foundation of the world. And then they are in the process of bringing sons into alignment, sons and daughters into the alignment of that or with that in the divine family of God. And so, we need to practice what we preach. In order to do that, you know, many times we have to do something. All of you, how many of you are drivers? Let me see. Okay, most of you. Most of the adults here are drivers. Some of us, you know, may not like to drive as much. Some of us love to drive. I actually love to drive. I'm always glad to be able to drive somewhere. That's always always fun for me. Okay, how many of you know? I mean, there's a lot of traffic signs out there. And I know that you know what all of them look like. But, you know, there's one traffic sign I want you to envision in connection with practice what we preach. And that's the yellow triangle sign. Which one would that? How many know what the yellow triangle sign is? Okay, only half of you. No, more than half.

Most of us recall that the yellow triangle sign, even if it didn't say it directly on it, but it does, we know what that means. Even if it didn't say what it says, we know what it means. And, of course, that yellow triangle sign is a yield sign. It's a yield sign. And, of course, you know that, well, that means I don't have to stop, but I do have to yield. I have to yield to the other car, usually the car that's to our left. We're watching that. We want to be very careful about that. But, of course, in order to create the unity of the Spirit, in order to preach or practice what we preach and be the united church of God that teaches unison and harmony, we've got to be willing to yield. Yield to one another and clearly yield to the head of the church, Jesus Christ. So this is something that Christ pointed out about the Pharisees. You know, they're phoning. They're bogus. They do not practice what they preach. They tell everybody what they should do, but they didn't do it. And, see, brethren, that's what we want to identify with as we go forward, as we do the work that God has given us to do. We want to be thankful, you know, that we can do that with our heart. Of course, Christ pointed out that the Pharisees problem was bad heart. Bad, bad heart that needed to be transformed. And, of course, I point this out just simply because it is something, if we're going to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, then we're going to clearly understand what it is to yield to God. And, of course, Christ even said, and we often go over this again during the Passover, you know, we go over what He said about, I'm not trying to get my own way. I'm not trying to do what I might want to do, although I'm very certain He knew what He was going to do. He was fully in agreement with the Father, and yet He said, it's not my will, it's yours. I want to be yielded to the will of God.

We might brought down to verse 5 here, if we're back in Matthew 23. Jesus also told the Pharisees, or He told others about the Pharisees, they do all their deeds to be seen by others. And He describes numerous things that they do.

See, brethren, you know, we've got to rise above that. You know, that's a human tendency. That clearly was an infection that the Pharisees had. You know, they did things in order to be seen by others, whether it was their long prayers, whether it was their garb, you know, the black trees, whether it was their robes, whether it was being disheveled. You know, I'm good at doing that. I can walk right outside, and the wind blows my hair, and I look pretty flaky. They were good! They were pretty good at appearing disheveled! When?

Well, when they were fasting. So, I bet everybody would know that I'm fasting. You know, all of us know we don't do that. I don't know that most of us have much of a problem with people identifying us as fasters. We probably don't do it near as much as we really need to or ought to. And yet, that was a part of the problem the Pharisees had. You know, they loved the places of honor. They yearned for respect. They wanted to be looked up to. Verse 7, it says, they wanted to be greeted with respect in the marketplace and to have people call them a rabbi. That's a very impressive term. And yet, see, what it pointed out was that, you know, they viewed themselves, the Pharisees viewed themselves in the wrong way.

They felt righteous. They felt above others. They felt better than others. They were not really relating to people. They really didn't relate very well. You know, they were mostly just telling everybody what they ought to do and do as I say, not as I do. I don't know if they ever said that, but that certainly would be applicable, I think. But it certainly shows, you know, that they felt that they were far more important and far more impressive than they actually were. And of course, none of us want to fall into that trap because that can easily be a trap. You know, we like to be respected. We like to be looked up to. We like to be honored. And, you know, certainly, you know, we all would have to fight that tendency to a degree. And yet, it says the Pharisees, you know, they wanted to be viewed as important people that they were due the respect of others. That's what they wanted to. That's what they wanted.

And yet, you know, we all need to realize that, well, simply, you know, we are to become as Jesus is going to say. He's going to go ahead and tell them what they need to do. He's going to tell them what's wrong with that. He's going to tell them, you know, what we actually accentuate and we highlight in the Church of God, in the United Church of God. We are highlighting this now more than perhaps we have in the past. And again, I don't understand that either. I don't understand why that would not have been a focus all along. And yet, there's another focus that we are reclaiming or reviving that Jesus is going to talk about here. Jesus has an exchange with them, and actually this is really pointing out something that is very important to us.

Even though the Pharisees, the students of the law, were aware of what was going to happen, that Jesus was supposed to come, the Messiah was supposed to come. Perhaps they didn't recognize exactly how He would be identified, because clearly they didn't see Him. But they were aware that He would come into the earth or that the Messiah would come. They just didn't acknowledge who He was whenever He was here. They were really the chief antagonists against Jesus Christ. And others were able to become believers in Jesus Christ, and yet many of the Pharisees, or many of the religious people of the Jews, many of the crowds of Jews, had great difficulty. Even when they see Him healed the sick, even when they see Him perform miracle after miracle, their concern was, well, how come He doesn't keep the Sabbath right? How come He doesn't keep the law like we want Him to keep the law? And of course, He explained, you know, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. I am doing what's right. I am respecting this. I respect the Sabbath. And here He goes ahead in verse 8, you are not to be called, Rabbi. He told the crowd, you are not to be called Rabbi because you have one teacher. And I think your King James, New King James says that teacher is Jesus Christ. You have one teacher.

And all of you are students. See, and He said that to the crowd. He can say that to us. All of us are students of Jesus Christ. We all want to become like Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, and call no one your Father on earth, for you have one Father, one Father in heaven.

And nor should you be called teacher or instructor, for you have one instructor. And that instructor is the Messiah. That instructor is Jesus Christ. And so clearly, now the Pharisees were not accepting Jesus Christ, and they were keeping everybody else from accepting Him. They wanted to diminish what He had to say. And yet I can absolutely tell you, brethren, every single person alive needed Jesus Christ.

All of them, all of us, all six or seven billion people that we have on earth, every single one of them needs to come to understand their need for Jesus Christ to be the guide, to be the leader, to be the ruler in their lives. But see here, you know, the Rabbi, you know, being called a Rabbi, being exalted in that way, you know, that was what the Pharisees were seeking. Instead of acknowledging that the real Rabbi was here, the real teacher was right here in front of us.

And of course, all of us want to embrace that. We want to grow in that. We want to understand that more fully. We actually want to create or we want to grow in a righteousness that can come from God and from our relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. But he points out in verse 12 or verse 11, he says, The greatest among you will be your servant, and all who insult themselves will be humbled, and yet all who humble themselves will be exalted.

See, that was what I was pointing out about the fact that in the United Church of God, we're accentuating, as we talked about several weeks ago, Christlike service. To become the type of servants that John 13 describes where Jesus was willing to wash the feet of his disciples. See, the Pharisees didn't pursue that. You know, they pursued being exalted. They pursued being acknowledged, being felt or fought by others to be important.

And yet Jesus said, that's not what to seek. He said, what you should seek is to be a servant of others. And brethren, I know so many of you take that to heart. I know that you understand that, and I'm only repeating this because, you know, it's a reminder to us that Christlike service is... that's a reason for living. That's a reason for existence. That's a transformed heart that we can have as we look to God, as we look to Christ, as we acknowledge our weaknesses, because we all have weaknesses.

Even during the days of Unleavened Bread, we find maybe God shows us more of the intent of our heart, or of our thinking, our mind. We're able to see, or maybe we're identifying certain things that are wrong that we have done or do. And we can't, you know, we can't get rid of all of that. But here, you know, accentuating Christlike service, humble Christlike service. See, that's what I see Mr. Luecker projecting from the office of president. Now, I know that he knows that that's an office. That's a high office in the church. That's to be viewed as an office of service.

It's not to be viewed as, well, I know better than all of you, which I'm going to say he probably does, certainly better than me. And yet, and I don't think he looks at it that way from his shaking head. And yet, I know that if the church and if the leaders, and I think I mentioned to you, you know, some of the things that were said about Melvin Rhodes, you know, things he has said, other things that others have said, you know, where they realize, you know, we're here trying to do the work of God.

You know, if we just get out of the way and we can let God do His work, a wonderful work, fabulous work, a work, I dare say we don't really know where we're going. But it's a work of faith. A work of faith in the head of the church, Jesus Christ, and in what He's able to do. What He wants us to do. We are learning. Maybe we should continue to think about ourselves as students, as He says here, because that's exactly what we all are. I want to jump on over here to verse 23.

There's way too much stuff to try to cover if I were to go through Matthew 23. And we did cover some of these the other day, and so I hope that many of you remember those. But here in verse 23 He says, you hypocrites, you tithe of Smith and Dill and common, and yet you have neglected the weightier matters of the law.

See here, Jesus was pointing out a transformed heart actually starts understanding the weightier matters of the law. And of course He says not to neglect the other, obviously. We maintain and continue to understand the need to tithe and to obey the rest of the commands. But He says the weightier matters of the law are what? Justice, judgment, mercy, and faith. Now, Mr. Crosby did a great job a few weeks ago explaining this, and I'm only going to mention it because Christ was stating this, and He was pointing this out directly at the Pharisees because, see, in essence, the Pharisees did not.

They understood tithing to an extreme even. They did not understand judgment, mercy, or faith. And see, brethren, we can understand that.

Now, they were making some judgments, I'm sure. They were probably telling people what they should do, the Pharisees. But see, what I think this is really referring to is what kind of judgment do we need to be focused on? What kind of justice do we need to recognize personally? 1 Corinthians 11.

1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31. This is actually something we read at the Passover time, and it's a part of the examining of ourselves as we look forward to taking the bread and wine that Christ directed that we use so that we feel united with one another but with Him more than anything. That's why we take that bread and wine. But here in verse 31, it says, if we judge ourselves, then we would not be judged. See, this is what the Pharisees didn't do. They didn't judge themselves. And see, I can't do that for you, but you can do it for you. I can do it for me. I can judge myself. I can see how much I need help, how much I need the strength from God, how much I need to be strengthened by Jesus Christ, because it says that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. But see, I can judge myself. This is part of what the Pharisees missed altogether. They weren't judging themselves. They were judging everybody else, and that's clearly an easy tendency for people, and I think it has been in the church, that we're willing and able to judge others. But what this says is, if I'm judging myself, then maybe I've got the right idea. Now, I'm not wanting to promote just being so down on ourselves that we are dysfunctional, because that is not right. And I think, perhaps, some of us labor with that, too, which I don't want to promote. But if I acknowledge that I need help, if I acknowledge I need God, that I need Jesus Christ living in me, I need and I'm asking for something that is, you know, very applicable. And so I'm asking for help, and so I'm making a correct judgment in that regard. I'm guilty. I need what? I need mercy. I need, this is what he said, justice and mercy and faith. If we really judge ourselves and we see where we need the help of God, we need to be empowered by God, we need to be led by His Spirit, well, then we clearly also see that we need His mercy. We need His forgiveness. In a sense, that's the only way we're going to be able to be in a alive state, knowing that He forgives us, knowing that He accepts us. Sometimes we don't believe that, either. We don't. We still think we're guilty, even though He says, I forgive you. Now, I'm not going to have time to read through Psalm 32, but you should, because Psalm 32 points out, when we acknowledge and confess our sins to God, when we realize, if we don't do that, then we struggle in labor and burden down with lots of things, mostly in our heart, in our head.

But when we acknowledge that, then God forgives us, and He then sets us in a state where we can easily be led. We don't have to be like a horse that's got to be pulled about by a bit. We can be grateful for His mercy, grateful for His forgiveness. See, the Pharisees knew nothing of it. They didn't understand mercy at all. And yet, brethren, we want to understand mercy. We want to thrive in that state of forgiveness and that state of mercy, and then we want to live. We want to live in faith. See, these are the weightier matters of the law, judging ourselves, accepting His mercy, and then growing in faith. And I want to point out, as far as how we can exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, I want to go over to Philippians chapter 3, because here you find the Apostle Paul encapsulate this very correctly, very directly for all of us. This is how we can exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. We have a transformed heart. We have a focus on God. We have an appreciation for Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord. And here in Philippians 3, you see actually a very explicit description by a chief Pharisee.

Paul knew what he was talking about. He had come out of the Jewish schools of learning.

He was fully understanding all of that, and he actually says, I was very good at it. I was impressive! But he said, this is nothing. This was nothing. He says in verse 3, It is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God, and boast in Jesus Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. Even though I have reason for confidence in the flesh. He said, if you want me to throw out a few credentials, I will here. This actually goes back a little ways, but this is what I have done.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more. I'm circumcised on the eighth day. I was a member of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of the Hebrews. As to the law or concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. I was not unlearned. I was very much entangled in everything that the Pharisees wanted to do.

Of course, I think he was also saying, my heart was as hard as theirs was.

He says, as to the law or Pharisee, as to zeal, I persecuted the church. I'm out here killing Stephen. I'm out here breathing out wrath upon the people of God.

He says, as to righteousness under the law, as to his ability to obey, and obey, and obey, he says, I'm blameless. Now, I don't think any of us could probably say that, but he did. And I think he was really pointing out, you know, if I want to boast in the flesh, then I've got something I can tell you. But the important part is yet to come here.

Yet he says in verse 7, whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as lost because of Jesus Christ. More than that, I regard everything as lost because of the surpassing value of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And see, my translation that I normally use says, knowing. Not just a knowledge of who Jesus is, who he was, who he is today. That's necessary, and we want to grow in that knowledge. But we truly want to know Jesus Christ, and very intimate, very personal, very close, walk with the Savior and with the Redeemer of all of mankind, ultimately, but of each of us, personally. That's where we want to be. And he's going to go ahead to say, for his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things. I regard them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, that I may be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. He said, this is what the Pharisees had. This is what I had as a Pharisee. Simply a righteousness that comes from the law, you know, where I'm just counting little seeds so that I'm sure it tithes meticulously, so that I'm able to be sure to do the right washings, the right rituals.

He says that is not important. He says, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. A righteousness from God. Now, that's the righteousness that I want, brethren. That's the righteousness that you want. That's the righteousness that God makes available to us through His Spirit, through His power. We want to, as I said, we want to remember the yellow triangle sign. We've got to yield to that. We've got to ask God to provide His righteousness and then trust that He will. He says, one that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness from God that is based on faith. He says, I want to know Christ and I want to know the power of His resurrection. I want to know the sharing of His suffering by becoming like Him in His death. He doesn't say everything will be easy for us, as we know. He says, actually, things will be difficult if we're going to be suffering like Jesus was. But what He said is, you know, I put aside all of the things of the past and even all of the Pharisaical trappings that I was a part of, the things that Jesus condemned. I want to put those aside and I want to look to Him. I want to walk with Him. I want to talk with Him. I want to pray in an intimate... See, how is it that we achieve that? Well, you know, we certainly want to read the words of God. Sometimes we can forget some of the simplest things. We want to read the words of God and drink in of those words. We certainly want to appreciate what He said about being a servant and seek humility. Seek the humility that comes from Jesus Christ. But I think ultimately, you know, the biggest part of this is going to be communing in prayer with the One who is our Savior, who is our Redeemer, who directs our lives, and who allows us to have a righteousness from God that is by faith in Jesus Christ.

See, that's far more than what I'm just saying. I know I'm saying it. I know you read it. I know that is far more than that, you know, because all of us, you know, want to seek that. We all want to strive to have that. I don't think we have that to begin with, even as, you know, a early member in the Church. I think we grow. We should be. Many of us are decades into our Christianity, that God has graciously made available to us. But see, we ought to grow to a deeper understanding of the type of close relationship that we want to have and that God wants us to have as His children, and that He wants us to have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees.

But that involves our heart. It involves our mind. It involves our actually feeding on the bread of life. See, John 6 is an entire chapter that we've covered before, and yet one that, you know, I only want to read one or two verses in because Jesus says, you know, I'm the bread of life. I'm the living bread. I'm the one that you want. I'm the one that you need. If you're going to have eternal life, it's going to come through me. I am the way. I am the one who is able to provide that. And as He guided Paul, and He been instructing us to observe the festival, to observe the days of 11 bread, and we want to respect Him in doing that.

And we want to appreciate what He says here in John 6, because He says down in verse 51, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats of this bread will live forever. We have the hope of eternal life. We have an assurance. If we remain faithful, if we remain steadfast, it's absolutely secure. Because, as Miriam sang in the song earlier, you know, God's faithful, and we just want to reciprocate. We want to continue to be faithful in our walk with God. And if we drop down to verse 57, He says, let's back up to verse 56, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I abide in them.

So there's a union there. There's a unison. There's a closeness. There's an appreciation for Jesus Christ in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds, to where we wish to share the love that He has for us with Him and with others. That's ultimately going to be the bottom line. And yet, we've seen that this actually empowers us. It enables us to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees because we're seeking a different kind of righteousness.

It's a righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. So in verse 57, just as the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like your ancestors ate and died, but one that eats this bread will live forever. See, that's the hope that He holds out before us. That's the goal that we are working through and toward. And that's what He tells us, that we want to rise above the ways that the Pharisees were.

We want to see the transformed heart that He gives us, and we truly then want to feed on the bread of life. We symbolize that through unleavened bread. We eat that during this time. We ought to eat it all year, but He doesn't tell us to, and we won't. We'll eat donuts. We'll eat something else tomorrow, probably, maybe even tonight. He doesn't tell us to do that all year, but He does tell us to keep in mind what unleavened bread pictures, and ultimately the life of Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of an unleavened life and a life that can be living in us as we share in His love, as we appreciate the love of God for us, and as we together unitedly reach out to others with that glorious message in Gospel of the Kingdom of God, but also of the King of that Kingdom of Jesus Christ.