Let Us Examine Ourselves

Well, thank you, Happy Sabbath, again, everyone. It is always good to be with you on a sunny, beautiful Sabbath day like we have today. Well, here we go, one more week before the first day of Unleavened Bread. As we prepare for the Spring Holy Days this year, I want to talk about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, because it's the topic of motivation.

How do we motivate ourselves? How do we motivate others? What is your motivation to be in the Church of God today? Why do you come here? What is your motive to grow and change your life to a whole new level, to develop the mind of Jesus Christ? What is your motivation, looking forward, to be in the Kingdom of God? Well, the reason I ask these questions today is that there are three types of human motivation.

All three work. The difference is that the two only work for a short period of time. But there is a third one that is life-changing. It lasts a long time. Only one of these three types of motivation is lasting and promotes continuous change in our lives. But before we get there, I'd like to tell you a true story and a personal experience regarding motivation. As many of you know, I'm a part-time pastor here.

I'm delighted to be able to serve God's people here in Greater Cleveland. But the majority of my income is from my own business, a business that I have that is as a business coach or a life coach. I also call myself a leadership consultant, which means I go into organizations and I coach people individually or departments or teams. I also do formal training like productivity, communication, things of that nature to help people grow, to help organizations to grow.

One of the things that I have done the past few years is do some coaching through a business called Groupon. That's G-R-O-U-P-O-N. How many of you have ever heard of Groupon? Okay, well, wow! I'm surprised a large number of you have. So I have solicited my skills on Groupon for either business or life coaching.

And the way this works is that people pay in advance for four 30-minute sessions. Now, when they pay for it, it's non-refundable. And if you've ever purchased a Groupon, you know it has an expiration date. Meaning, within three months or six months, you have to redeem that coupon for what you bought or you lose.

That's the way the program works. All right, I'd like to tell you the results. And this is tying in with motivation. I'd like to tell you the results of my experience with coaching people through Groupon. First of all, 25 percent—that's one out of four—pay and never get in contact with me for even their first appointment. Their Groupon expires, they take a loss, and I take the money and run. That's 25 percent. Now, just so you know, early on, until they contact me, I don't have an email address.

All I know is that somebody bought a Groupon, so I cannot even contact them. 25 percent. Pay money and never redeem their Groupon. All right, so that leaves 75 percent of the original people who bought it. Here's what happens to the other 75 percent. Those who do contact me go through the first two sessions demonstrating excitement and wonder about the material. I commonly receive comments and get emails—life-changing information.

Thank you! That was so motivating. I left this session on a high. I feel so good about having connected with you. Those are the kind of things that I hear. But at the end of the second session, I give an assignment. You see, the entire second session, it was devoted towards something called creating a personal life mission statement. I believe if you don't have a personal life mission statement and it's not in writing—it's your own constitution— and you don't have that in writing, then you have no direction in life and you flounder.

Then you are not living, you're just being lived. So the whole second session is how to create this personal life mission statement in detail by detail for the 30 minutes. I give a template. I give examples—all of this kind of stuff. So at the end of the lesson, after all the praise and wow, this is really great and life-changing, I say, okay, here's your assignment for next time. I want you to create your own personal life mission statement.

It's going to take you one to two hours of thought and meditation and reflection and examining your heart and looking into your life to do this. So looking forward to seeing you for the next session. 50% of the time, they miss their next appointments and I never hear from them again. I send them emails. They don't respond. I call them. They don't call back. Why? Well, they're either unmotivated, which sadly many of them are. Some of them, a loved one, perhaps bought the Groupon for them, hoping it would motivate them and change them.

I'm sure that's the case in many cases. And after a while, they become shamed that they missed their appointment while I was sitting online waiting for 30 minutes. Usually I wait the whole 30 minutes. Someone's late. Maybe they're having a bad day. And in most cases, they have no intention of ever committing being at their next appointment and they just drop out.

Why? You see, it all has to do with our motivation. I'll give you another example. This happened about 15 years ago. I worked for a company in Solon, Ohio. A very good company, good, well-paying factory jobs. They were starting to pay for these factory jobs were close to $20 an hour. That's almost $40,000 a year.

Had an open fair day. They brought in 28 people to tour the facility and to give them an idea of what it was like to work there. All the perks, all everything. 28 people, that's how they started out. They said, okay, we're now going to have lunch.

So you can go to Solon and you can check out all the great places, eat and so on. And we'll start again at 1 o'clock. At 1 o'clock, 6 people came back for a job that paid close to $40,000 a year starting wages.

Why? Well, it's a lack of motivation, isn't it? Here's what I have learned in my life. I've learned that people are happy. They hear about new things. People are excited. They hear about the latest productivity tips or better ways to communicate or greater knowledge of the Bible and all of these things. People are delighted to learn new things. They usually just don't want to do anything about it. And as we approach the Passover this year in the days of Unleavened Bread, I have to ask the question, how are we doing with our personal growth and development?

Are we simply a hearer or are we doing something with the information that we are learning? The biggest reason that many of the clients that I have who have bought these Groupons don't finish what they start, the biggest reason they accept a loss is either because they are not motivated or they attempt to motivate themselves with the wrong type of motivation. Remember, there are three types of motivation. Now, with this background, I would like to talk about a biblical principle that modern psychology claims it has discovered.

Well, of course it discovered it. It's from the Bible. It was originated by the Creator from the very beginning. True science always lines up with knowledge and understanding from the Scripture. So I'd like to talk about these three types of human motivation as we think about preparing for the Passover this year. Here's number one. If you'll begin turning to Numbers 11 and verse 1, Numbers 11 and verse 1, the very first type of motivation, human motivation, is called motivation through fear.

The oldest method of motivation is fear. The problem is, my friends, is it only works short term. If you look at history, Mr. Mango was showing us some ancient history. In primitive societies, the strongest person usually became the ruler. Physical strength was the source of power. Usually the biggest guy, the broadest shoulders, tall, the best guy with the sword, ended up being the ruler in most primitive societies. Weaker members of the group followed orders from the top because they feared the physical punishment that was sure to result from the refusal to conform to the rules, whatever those rules were.

So, God understands these three forms of human motivation. Here he explains one form. Let's see if it works. Numbers 11 and verse 1, Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it, and his anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord, remember, of course, that there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, Oh, we don't want this! This is fearful! We don't want this to happen!

When Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place, Tabirah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. That's fear motivation. Did that do any good? Did the earth opening up and people, oh, ahh, being swallowed up by the earth, did that do any good? Did plagues, people dying of plagues, did that do any good? No. Did it do any good at all? Because fear motivation is only short term.

And God understands that it's only temporary, and that's the problem with fear motivation. It's only a temporary type of motivation. It is something that's external. That means that there has to be an outside force putting fear inside of you in order to keep you motivated. The problem with that is that the fear ceases when that outside force isn't there anymore. The motivation ends when fear of punishment is gone. Another problem with fear motivation is people grow an immunity to fear. When they experience punishment, they get used to it.

They accept it. And the fear loses its impact. I've seen shows in television of some of our penitentiaries, and there are individuals that are penitentiaries. I don't care. We'll execute you. I don't care. Kill me. Well, we'll put you in solitary confinement for the next 50 years. Big deal. So put me in solitary. What do I care? You see, the fear no longer motivates them. It no longer has any effect in them.

Another thing is it loses its impact. If the people know that the punishment is unlikely to happen, it loses its impact. I love watching young parents. Typical scenario. Well, Schmedley, if you do that again, mommy's going to... you know what? Of course, Schmedley does it again. Why does Schmedley keep doing it? Because Schmedley has not experienced the consequences. There's no consistency there. So fear, the fear of Schmedley getting the consequence, is no longer motivating to keep Schmedley acting as he should.

Let me ask you some questions. How well did fear, motivation, work on the consequences? Well, the fear of getting the consequences is no longer motivating to keep Schmedley acting as he should. How well did fear, motivation, work upon Adam and Eve? The day that you eat of this apple, you shall surely die.

Pretty clear instruction. Death isn't pleasant. So what did they do? Well, as soon as God's presence was gone in the garden, they ignored his instruction, didn't they? Because that external force was no longer there. How well did the plagues upon Egypt work? Egypt had the first plague. Oh, Moses, cry to your God and tell your God, take the plague away. Plague's taken away. Okay, get back to work. How many times did that happen? That Egypt succumbed to a plague, and they asked Moses to intervene for God's mercy, and as soon as the punishment was off, they forgot all about it, and it was status quo.

They were quickly forgotten. Even today, the attempt persists to use fear to motivate people to behave in desired ways. Families and schools try to control children with the threat of punishment, either actual physical punishment or withholding privileges. The threat of punishment is the basis of our criminal justice system, isn't it? Have you ever heard the phrase, a hardened criminal? What does that mean? That means someone who's probably spent half of their adult life in jails. Has that fear motivated them to make any changes in their lives?

No, that's why we call them hardened. It has no effect on them anymore. Fear is even used in the business world. Rules and policies threaten various sanctions for undesirable behavior in your organization, all the way from a memo of reprimand to denial of increased paid outright termination. All of this is a failed attempt to produce lasting change. Now, is there a place for fear motivation? Absolutely, as long as you understand that it's only short-term and that it doesn't motivate for very long.

For example, when our children are very small, they have not developed a mental awareness of the world and the dangers in the world, so we certainly need to use fear motivation so they don't run out in the street where there's traffic, so they don't touch that hot stove and burn themselves. There's a proper place for fear motivation. But wise parents know that early on in a child's life, as soon as you can, you move from fear motivation into another type of motivation.

And ultimately, before they're in their teens, if you want to be a great parent, you have moved from the second type of motivation that we're going to talk about to the highest type that God wants to use with you and I. So let's talk about the second type of motivation, human motivation. It's called motivation through incentive. Motivation through incentive, although fear is often a powerful motivator, not very long, but it's powerful, it works, many soon learn that it doesn't work long term or produce lasting change.

Through fear motivation, people don't change, they just conform. But change doesn't happen deep inside. Many leaders come to realize that every behavior is the result of one of two things. We do virtually everything we do either to gain a benefit or to avoid a loss. That's why we do most of the things we do. We want to gain a benefit or we want to avoid a loss. And that's what incentive motivation is all about. Since it isn't motivating enough to enforce a threatened loss, like through fear, incentive motivation offers an incentive, the promise of some gain or benefit for those who comply to the rules.

It's the old carrot or stick principles. Stick being fear motivation, the carrot being incentive motivation. You do something good and you get the carrot, you get the sweetener. But does it really work long term?

Let's take another example from Scripture. Let's go back to Exodus 3 and we'll see that early on that God used incentive motivation on Moses and the elders of Israel without any fear involved, without threats, but incentive motivation. And of course, we know that the history of ancient Israel is not a very productive one as far as following God's laws and ways. Exodus 3 and verse 16. God's instruction, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, this is to the elders, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, appeared to me saying, I've surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt.

And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt. Wow, that's an incentive. I'm going to break the bonds of slavery and I'm going to give you freedom. Let's continue. In the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey. That's an incentive to your very own land and not just some forsaken desert someplace, a land that is abundant in milk and honey has animals and trees and all kinds of green things growing, a wonderful fertile land.

I'm going to give that to you. Verse 18, then they will heed your voice and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel to the king of Egypt. And you will say to him, the Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us. But now please let us go three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice of the Lord our God. But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go.

No, not even by a mighty hand. Verse 20, so I, God speaking, will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in its midst. And after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall be when you go that you shall not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing.

You shall put them on your sons and daughters, so you shall plunder the Egyptians. Classic example of incentive motivation. I'm going to, for you from slavery. That's cool. I am going to send you to your own land fertile flowing with milk and honey. You're going to end up with silver, you're going to end up with gold, and you're going to end up wearing the latest fashions. Pretty good incentive, isn't it? So, incentive motivation is generally regarded as a more effective strategy than fear. And we know today in our own culture that families in schools use the reward of promises, rewards for promises to coax children to perform.

Organizations offer people awards, prizes, and privileges for certain types of achievements. And you know what? Incentive motivation works for a while. How long and how well did it work on ancient Israel? This is how they got started. It worked very long. When they found out that they needed to make bricks without straw, how well and happily did they react to that news?

How about the rest of their history from the time they left Egypt all through the desert? Here's the problem with incentive motivation. If a reward is perceived as unattainable, the motivation is quickly gone. I'm an old salesman. I worked with companies in which I sold for a living and received commissions and bonuses.

And let me tell you, if someone said, we have a new bonus plan, all you have to do is sell 10,000 times more than you did last year, you'll get a $20 bonus. So is that really motivating? It's an incentive, but I'm afraid it was unattainable. The motivation is gone. Another problem with incentive motivation is because of human nature, a reward or bonus soon becomes expected. I would have a quarter and I might get a $5,000 bonus. Wow! I don't deserve that. I worked hard. I met some goals. The next quarter, I got a $2,000 bonus. Well, where's the other $3,000? I worked just as hard this quarter as the last quarter.

You see, what was really still a bonus from the side of human nature now morphed into an expectation. In time, the incentive is perceived as a right or an entitlement. It has to progressively become more impressive to remain motivating. After Israel entered the Promised Land, getting there was no longer motivation, was it? That motivation was gone. Both fear and incentive motivation fall short because both require an external force providing the fear or the incentive.

Something outside of you has to provide the fear or the incentive. It has to be controlled by an outside force and the reality is it's only temporary. They don't last beyond the threat or beyond the reward. These external forms of motivation produce compliant behavior. Sure, they do. But people comply with minimum effort, the minimum effort necessary to either avoid the punishment or gain the reward. It's not bringing out the best in them. It's meaning out minimum effort to avoid getting the club or just to attain that goal to make a few extra bucks or something.

A nice sweet carrot and nothing more. With all the fear of punishment the Israelites received in their desert wanderings, and we're familiar with that, how long did any of those punishments they received when they were wandering in the desert last? It never lasted. Over and over again they complained. Over and over again they whined. Over and over again they felt they were entitled.

So it didn't do any good at all. With the incentive given to live in the land of flowing with milk and honey, how long did good behavior last even when they got there? With all the tools that God used, either through fear motivation or through motivation by incentive, and all His teaching and all His patience and giving them His laws who helped regulate their happiness and helped them to have a relationship with Him through His covenant.

With all that God did, what was the end result of that when you look at the Torah, when you read those stories? Well, it's kind of summed up in Judges 17 and verse 6. I'll just read it. You don't need to turn there. It says, in those days, this is the time of the Judges, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. You see, there wasn't a king to provide fear.

There wasn't a king to give you the incentive. So, when the cats away, the mice will play, Israel immediately degenerated back, frankly, into living like animals. Worse than they had lived in Egypt, in the slaves. They went backward.

Such a short period of time in spite of fear motivation and in spite of motivation by incentive. Now, I'd like to introduce you to the biblical third type of motivation, and it, too, is mentioned in the Old Testament. But it was not fully understood. Frankly, it was not capable of being understood and appreciated until Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant. And we are, after all, going to be keeping the New Covenant Passover this coming Thursday evening.

I use the word New Covenant. You know what a better word is? It's really the new relationship. It's far more than a covenant. God allows us to have an intimate, personal, one-on-one relationship with Him. That's a new relationship with a far greater impact than just comparing one covenant with another.

Deuteronomy 30 and verse 9, if you'll turn there with me, we'll see this peak in the Scripture and God's understanding of what it would take for people really to be motivated. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 9, it says, So, the third form of motivation discovered by psychology is motivation through attitude.

Motivation through attitude, the Master's preferred method of motivation that is available to us today because of the gift of His Holy Spirit, is motivation and attitude. When people are willing to perform, they do it because they believe that a particular course of action is right, is good, is beneficial, will make them more fulfilled, will make them happier, will provide a greater degree of satisfaction. In other words, they become, using the modern term, self-motivated. It's then unnecessary to be motivated or manipulated by an outside source because your motivation is something that comes from within. It's something on the inside. Let's take a look at how Jesus put it.

John 14. John 14, the eve of His death, a promise that He made to His disciples. Some very beautiful promises that He made to them. Always good to read in preparation for the Passover. John 14 and verse 13. Before He's arrested, He says, in whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper. Of course, this word from the Greek is the Greek word percletos, and it means someone who intercedes on your behalf. It means someone who consoles you.

It means an advocate, a comforter. That's what the word means in Greek. He will give you another helper. And of course, we know the Holy Spirit is not a person. I will read this translation as it is, and it puts a gender of He on the Holy Spirit. And of course, we know the Holy Spirit is not God. It is not a personage. It does not have a gender like a he or a she.

But I'll just read the Scripture as it is here from the New King James Version. That He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

So Jesus said, because of His presence, the Holy Spirit was with them. But soon, and we know that meant the day of Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit would literally be inside of them. He says in verse 18, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. This is the introduction of the greatest form of motivation that is possible in the universe, and it comes from the inside.

It's not a force of conformity. It's a power to develop character in us, because we want to, because we desire to. Let's continue here in verse 23. We saw here that Jesus Christ promises His disciples a gift from Himself and the Father.

That's life-changing. It provides an internal source of motivation. Verse 23, Jesus answered and said to Him, and this is from a question that was asked, If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word, and My Father will love Him, and we will come to Him and make our home with Him. So this Holy Spirit comes from both the Father and the Son. It's their presence. It's their power. It's their essence. And He said, I'm going to give it to you as a gift. The Spirit is going to make its home in you.

Verse 24, He says, Love Me, does not keep My works, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father is who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, He will bring into your remembrance all things that I have said to you, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give it to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, let it not be afraid. Jesus isn't trying to motivate by fear. Don't be afraid. He's trying to encourage them by saying there's something wonderful and powerful that's available to you on the inside. That can change your life. That can transform you from being selfish and carnal and like everyone else in this world into being a new creature in Jesus Christ. A new being with a new purpose and a new attitude. That's what Jesus is saying. Jesus promises that this gift will make its home inside us. Of course, the Holy Spirit is not a person, but it's a spiritual power that coaches and mentors us if we're listening and if we're responding to that internal force.

We don't pray to the Holy Spirit, but we understand that it is a presence, a force from God. By far, the most effective type of motivation is attitude motivation because it grows out of your dreams. It grows out of your desires. It's the positive end result of our need to belong, to achieve, to use our God-given talents in a positive way to make a difference.

A converted person's attitude is the best basis for self-motivation. Consequently, attitudes are the key to understanding this internal and lasting form of motivation. Let's go to James 4 and verse 4. So, have we been tapping into the power of God's Holy Spirit, or have we been trying to do everything on our own? Have we been thinking, well, if I just try hard enough, if I just pull on those bootstraps a little tighter, if I just put in more effort, if I just pray more, if I just study more, I can lick this problem that has plagued me for years.

Is that what we're saying to ourselves? But we haven't really made the right connection. We haven't connected the dots to see that there is a great power that lies within us, that is there to encourage us, to motivate us, yes, sometimes to correct us, yes, sometimes to prick our conscience, yes, sometimes to say, you should have done this when we didn't do that, or you shouldn't have done that when we should not have done that. Are we listening? Are we connected? Or have we been ignoring that great gift that we have?

James 4 and verse 4, adulterers and adulterous, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. What's first in our life? You can only have one thing that's first in your life. Is it God, or is it conforming to the ways of this world? Continuing, or do you think the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?

I know that's not a very good translation, so I'm going to read that from the translation God's word for today. Here it is. Do you think this passage means nothing? It says the Spirit that lives in us wants us to be His own.

Do you know that God's Spirit wants to connect with us? It's a gift? Are we listening? Deep down inside, when things come into our thoughts that I shouldn't have said that. I should apologize to that person. Are you apologizing? I shouldn't have said that to my wife. Are you apologizing to your wife? I shouldn't think those kinds of thoughts. Are you pushing those thoughts immediately?

I shouldn't be looking at that kind of stuff on television. I shouldn't be renting those kinds of movies. I shouldn't be drinking so much. I shouldn't be smoking a puff of a cigarette or some other wacky tobacco on the side somewhere. I shouldn't be doing those things. Are we listening? Or are we just ignoring? That's my question today. God doesn't want us to ignore or abandon the spiritual coach He's given us to help us to change and develop the mind of Christ. One of the biggest weaknesses that I've noticed in the Church over 40 years and through many passovers is that people try to change on their own. They're not making that connection with the most powerful force in the universe.

You know what resides within you if you were baptized and hands laid on you? The same spirit that in Genesis 1, at God's command, was hovering upon the waters and re-fashioned all matter, everything on this earth. And that same spirit resides in you. Think about how powerful that is. Think about the potential that is there, if only we will understand it and grasp it. People delude themselves into believing that if they just work hard enough, if they just pray hard enough, if they just study their Bible hard enough, that they'll permanently overcome that problem and it may work for a while, but then usually they slide backward. The truth is that we are all recovering sinners.

We all need help, each and every one of us. But God has given us that help. He's given us the power of the Holy Spirit inside us. The truth is that we all need the right kind of motivation to achieve and maintain long-term permanent growth in our lives.

Being fearful of God is good, but it's only a short-term motivator. It will teach you compliance. And a lot of people that I know, a lot of religious people who like to always go to the Old Testament, God says, God commands, you know, they're real good in that fear, but put the fear of God within you. But the problem is, somebody constantly has to be there to provide that fear. The escalating levels of self-righteousness must be higher and higher and higher to keep people fearful.

But it's only a short-term motivator. Having an incentive to be in God's family is good. But being physical, limited beings, our understanding of what eternity means is really kind of shady, kind of cloudy in our heads. Isn't it? We can't understand eternity. I know that in 1953, somehow I came to an awareness of life. And I know that without God's intervention, that awareness of life sometime will cease. I don't understand eternity. I haven't lived forever. I can read about it intellectually.

I can appreciate God's promises. But the problem with using that as an incentive is that during real trials and temptations in life, the incentive of eternal life loses its impact. It's not a long-term motivator. It's good, and it can be motivating, but it's not a long-term motivator.

Real, genuine, lasting change is generated from deep desire. It comes from the heart. Not because I have to, not because I'm commanded to, not because I'm shamed to do it, not because I'm afraid not to do it, but because I want to. It'll make me better. It'll make me happier. It'll make me more fulfilled. I'll be blessed in many ways. It'll give my life meaning and purpose. That's why I want to make these changes in my life.

The Holy Spirit will never manipulate or force us to do anything. It may lie dormant for decades, but it's never going to force us. It's never going to manipulate us to do something that we can do ourselves. It's our responsibility to open and use this gift. I want you to imagine somebody gives you a beautiful gift.

Here's a gift for you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. You go to your closet, and you put that unopened gift on the shelf of the closet. You know, in my lifetime, I've seen some people do that with God's Holy Spirit.

Brethren, an unopened gift put on the closet shelf is useless. That gift is only a value to you if you open it up. If you use it. So how are we doing with this tremendous power that God has given to us? Are we tapping into this tool by having a close relationship with God, by yielding to the teaching of God's Spirit, to the correction, to the encouragement, and, yes, sometimes, to the prodding of this internal helper that God has put inside of us that God has given us? Hebrews 10 and 12. If you'll turn there with me. Hebrews 10 and 12.

I'm going to go just a few minutes over time today. Hopefully that doesn't offend you. If it does, feel free to talk to the pastor about it. Let him know. Hebrews 10 and 12. Speaking of Jesus Christ, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice of sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time waiting till his enemies were made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. When Jesus Christ lives in you, you are righteous in God's sight. It's Jesus Christ in us that has made us perfected in the sight of God that has sanctified us and set us apart in the eyes of God. Now, there is an obligation that comes with that. That doesn't mean we're free to sin. That doesn't mean we're free to go backward. But it's very encouraging for us to know that Jesus Christ has made that possible. Verse 15.

And in their minds, I will write them. Then he adds, Now, where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Meaning when Jesus Christ made that one perfect complete sacrifice and shed his blood in that cross or that stake, that there is no longer a need for an offering for physical blood offerings. Verse 19.

And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near. Let us draw near to God. Let us draw near with a true heart. In full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled, that means sprinkled with his blood, that's the forgiveness. And having our hearts sprinkled means our emotions can be healed.

It means the guilt that we carry from the stupid things that we did in the past can all be healed and forgiven. We don't need to carry those burdens. We don't need to live a life of shame. We don't need to carry the past. We can't change the past.

But it's all forgiven. It's forgotten because of what Jesus Christ did for us. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Here's the powerful part. I just alluded to this a minute ago. Let's reread verse 17 again. Then he says, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. You see, he does more than just forgive them.

He chooses not to even remember the dumb things that we've done in the past. What a great. What an awesome. What a wonderful God. Notice that it's the Holy Spirit that bears witness that the new covenant includes God's laws written on our hearts. That means the emotional side of us that to me, healing. Sometimes it's written on our hearts and it's written in our minds. That's our conscious thoughts are logic. The way we perceive the world and why? Why is that possible? Because it is the Holy Spirit inside us that helps us to internalize the mind of Christ.

And unlike fear, motivation, unlike incentive, motivation, character is produced because we want to. Not because we have to. Not because we're forced to. But because from our heart, we want to do what's right. Life is so much easier when we get to that point in our lives. When we desire deep down because of our love for God that we want to do the right things and the good things.

Rather than because we have this latent fear in the back of our minds that God is going to curse us and God is going to get us if I don't do such and such. It's a form of motivation, but it's only short term. What God would prefer us to do, and I hope we'll think about this as we prepare for the Passover this year, what God would prefer us to do is tap into that wonderful gift.

Open it up and use it. And this week, as you take that loaf of bread out of your house, as you take those leavening agents, that baking soda and baking powder and yeast, and as you're taking that out, think about your life. How well am I doing? Is there a hidden part of my life that I've been living in denial? Something I've needed to change for 20 years. Maybe I'm drinking too much. Maybe the foul words that fly out of my mouth, I need to stop doing that. Maybe I should stop looking at that stuff on the internet.

Maybe I should stop listening to that kind of music. Maybe I should stop being so judgmental and self-righteous with my children and my spouse. Maybe I have changes that I should make in my life. That's what we should be thinking on, taking that leaven, throwing it in the trash can. Let's take the hidden leaven in our lives this year and also throw that into the trash can. Where is that old leaven hiding in your life? What changes do you need to make? Well, the answer lies within you.

The answer lies with a motivating ability that you have provided by your Helper. And that Helper is God's Holy Spirit. Let's listen to it. Let's respond to it instead of ignoring it, instead of pushing it off to a side, instead of having higher priorities than God. Let's make our priority. Let's seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And if we do that, the other things we desire, they'll all come to us. We'll be given those things as well. So, as we prepare for the Passover this year and the first day of Unleavened Bread, I encourage all of us to take a good look at our lives.

First of all, how far we've come, and that part will be very encouraging. And then also, what yet we need to change in our life. Those little pieces of leaven, those compromises, the sin that still resides within us. But remember, you don't have to overcome it alone. Jesus Christ gave you a gift. He called it the Comforter, the Helper. And it's there for us to tap into to help us to do what we're incapable of doing alone. Have a great Sabbath day.