Passover

Well, happy Sabbath, everybody! I was telling Mr. Spears that the fellows in Ghana, Ben and Franklin, are majoring in electrical engineering, so I think one of the classes is kite flying, you know, but I may be wrong about that. You know, it's tremendous, isn't it, to see the youth camp and I'm sure youth get excited about the summer.

They are so important to us, so very, very important to us in so very many ways. One thing about young people is when they're having a good time, their attitudes are just fantastic. It's amazing how, in fact, their attitude is so infectious as well. One gets excited, another gets excited. Pretty soon, you've got the whole camp, and what happens is, like the one fellow said, you know, you don't want to go home after it's all over.

You've just got this support group that's developed in just a short one-week period of time. You know, having a right attitude, though, brethren, is very important for everybody for success in life. If you don't notice that about life, having the right attitude makes all the difference in the world.

You know, a lot of times psychologists like to talk about coping mechanisms. You know, many are not able to cope in this life very well because they lack the attitude necessary to accomplish whatever goals that they may have in life. They don't have a can-do attitude. For example, brethren, many go through life having an entitlement mentality, and that someone owes them a living. That's their attitude. That somebody else owes them a living.

And much of the politics to that—I don't think I have to tell you about that—much of the politics is fueled by those who think that way. That the world owes them a living. Somebody owes them a living by the mere fact that they are born. I don't know if you follow this young lady up in, I believe she was in the the northeast, but she sued her parents because they didn't agree with, I guess, what she was doing. And she sued them because she felt they owed them her college education.

And I can't remember how that turned out, but because I didn't follow it that closely, but I was appalled by the attitude. But this is what is happening to people more and more, to sort of this entitlement attitude.

And to show how important attitude is, brethren, for example, many people go through life again thinking somehow the government owes them a living. And, you know, unfortunately what happens is politics, you know, politicians have sort of picked up on that. And as a result of it, what do they do?

They make promises to people, and frankly they know that they cannot keep those promises. An example of the promises that have been made, I think, is the mere fact that you and I, you know, if you paid into social security, it if you're young, you know, you're probably not going to receive it when you get old enough to be married for 50 years, you know, like the Spears. You probably will not, you know, have social security, you know, those maybe that are among the baby boomers, probably they'll get those social security, but those later will probably not.

And the damage has been done. That mentality has done the damage to our economy. Now we're 17 trillion dollars in debt in this country. Can you mind fathom 17 trillion dollars? It's a lot of money. And people's habits, many people's habits, not just a few, many people's habits, make it impossible for them because of the attitudes that they have to be employed for a for-profit company. It makes it impossible for them to be hired and to be employed, at least for very long, because oftentimes when somebody finds out that another person has a, you know, that kind of attitude, they usually don't last very long on the job, and consequently people end up not keeping the job.

Because an employee must contribute to the profit of the company. And if they're not contributing in some way, obviously that company can't make enough to warrant its existence. And so the attitude of the individual is important. And when the attitude is not right in a person, and that includes us, brethren, you know, success is not going to be ensured no matter what it is that we're doing in life. And we, of course, see this damage being done in our society all the time.

People's attitudes are just not conducive to success in life. You hate to think what it's going to be like in another 20 or 30 years. There was a philosopher by the name of William James that talked a lot about attitude and about how that attitude can be changed. If we can change our attitude, we can change our life. We really can. A lot of motivational speakers quote William James about the attitude. You know, Napoleon Hill, in fact, a very noted motivational writer and speaker oftentimes cited James for, you know, his ideas about attitude and how important attitude is. Attitude is everything, brethren, when it comes to human beings.

And when we go before our boss in heaven, believe me, attitude is very important.

Our attitude makes a difference when we go before God in heaven, the eternal God in heaven. And, you know, it's good to remind ourselves, brethren, of that fact if we want his favor in our lives. We want to be his employee, as it were. You know, we've got to consider what the boss wants upstairs in heaven. You know, if I can use it sort of in a colloquial way. So attitude, like I said, is everything. It really is everything in life, having the right and proper attitude. Now, the story I want to cite and talk to you about here to initiate from the Bible, this discussion, brethren, isn't about getting a job, but I think it will illustrate a point about attitude. You know the story of Hannah. Very shortly, if you're not reading it already, you'll be reading in the Bible reading program. The story of Hannah. Hannah was a baron, and she wanted children badly, very badly, to the point of tears. I've known, in fact, of situations where women have been this way and very emotional about it, and she was very emotional. And it didn't help her situation, the fact that there was another woman in the relationship with her husband who had children and was having children. But Hannah wanted to have a child badly, and again, she was bitter about it from within, that she had not had a child. And she went before God, and she began to beseech God. And she whipped bitterly, the Bible says, for God's intervention. And her story is quite remarkable. Let's go over to 1 Samuel chapter 1. 1 Samuel chapter 1 was sort of set the stage that, you know, she was married in a circumstance.

She was married to Alkana, who was an Ephraimite, like I said, who had two wives, one of which was Hannah, and the other had children, but Hannah did not, and the other wife was not so nice to Hannah.

Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons? Of course, this wasn't good enough to assuage her feelings, but you know, you seem to have a right attitude, if I can put it that way, as a husband. So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Eternal, and she was in bitterness of soul. She was very much crying out from within. It was very heartfelt. And she prayed to the Eternal and wept in anguish. And then she made a vow and said, O Lord, of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant, and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child that I will give him to the Eternal all the days of his life. And no razor shall come upon his head. And it happened as she continued praying before the Eternal that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. And so here, you know, he thought she'd been, you know, tipping the bottle that day. And of course, she was not. She was just in sorrowful spirit, perhaps the tears screaming down her cheeks. And perhaps again, the look on her face, Eli made the mistake of thinking that she was in a drunken condition. But notice in verse 16, you know, of course, she said she was not drunk, but that she was sorrowful in spirit. But in verse 16, it says, do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman. So she was a righteous woman. For out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I've spoken until now. Then Eli answered and said, go in peace. And the God of Israel grant your petition, which you have asked of him. And she said, let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate and her face was no longer sad. Now, with the attitude, brethren, that Hannah had, what do you think the answer was that God gave her? What do you think the answer was? God gave her. Of course, we have the clue is it's called the first book of Samuel. God gave her Samuel. And her attitude was one, God, if you give me a child, I'll give him back to you. I'll give him back to you. And she kept her word after she weaned him. He was given in service to God all of his life. And from a small boy, he was there in the tabernacle assisting and helping Eli all of that time. Now, ladies, husbands, what if you were in a situation like that? Would you make that kind of promise to God? Again, but you see a tremendous attitude here, a golden attitude. And God gave her petition. He heard her, and he answered her prayer.

You know, it all had to do, again, with her attitude.

You know, over in 1 John 3 22, you don't have to turn there, but I want to just cite this scripture to us, brethren. And whatever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. God looked down from his throne, and what Hannah was doing was pleasing to him. In Hebrews 11 verse 6, also it says, it says, but without faith it's impossible to please God, impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You see, to believe that God is there, and to really believe he's a rewarder of those that seek him. And if we do those things that are pleasing in God's sight, we have the right attitude. God will grant us a petition. You know, certainly indeed, if it's good for us, you know, forget if you think he's going to give you a Lamborghini, or you're going to win the $400 million lottery, you know, because that wouldn't be good for us. Oh, I know you'd be different, but trust me, it wouldn't be good for you. But someone with the right attitude, brethren, when they're going before God, really believes God is there. They really believe that Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that they hear. And someone who really believes in God, they do not think, brethren, that somehow God owes them something, just by the mere fact that he created them. I mean, isn't your life good enough? What God has given you? The ability to live, to breathe, to think? You know, if we were to trust the evolutionist, brethren, we all be slugs. You know, having evolved from the... of course, we wouldn't even be slugs. That would be too advanced, you know. But, brethren, to the degree that we understand this, about the importance of attitude, brethren, to that degree, brethren, we are spiritually mature as God's people. And if we don't come to that, then we need to keep drinking the milk, you know, as God's people. Now, let's go over here to 1 Corinthians 11. There's a reason for my going over attitude, brethren.

I remember there was a fellow in Alabama many years ago, and one of the things I spoke about in church, and I know elders do that as God's people, we talk about attitude all the time. And he came to me one time, he says, you're always talking about attitude. Of course, he didn't have the right attitude.

Eventually, he got the right attitude, and he was baptized, and he changed his attitude. It's like the old song, I got a new attitude. I guess it's not so old, but, you know, I guess for some of our young people, it's old, but he got a new attitude, and we need to get a new attitude brethren. It is about attitude on our part. But let's notice up here in 1 Corinthians 11, you know the story, this account has to do with the Corinthians and the keeping of the Passover, and as they were ready to enter into the Days of Unleavened Bread period. But in verse 19, Paul says, for there must also be factions among you that those who are proved may be recognized among you. Also, you find out who's not approved. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. We talked about that last week.

But it says, for in eating, each one takes his own Supper ahead of others, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. Now, they got they had some problems here, didn't they? Now, we've not had that kind of a Passover. I've never known of Passover like that at the church. You know, you had to catch people, I guess they were swinging from the chandeliers, you know. That would be quite a different Passover, wouldn't it? But apparently, you know, this was not necessarily they were swinging from chandeliers, but they were doing the wrong thing. But what was lacking here, rather, was attitude. The attitude of those that were there, apparently more than the majority that were there, were of the wrong attitude as to why they were there. They had the wrong attitude toward, you know, the many things as a matter of fact. You could read the book of Corinthians, and it's a story of the fact that there were schisms, there were divisions, there were obviously, here we read, there were people gluttons, there were drunkards among those who were at the Corinthian church. And Paul even says that when they got together it was through their detriment, it wasn't for their good. No talking about iron, sharpening iron, they were just all as dull as an old axe. All of them were, spiritually speaking. They really had some problems. They despised the poor and the needy, and they took care of themselves. They had the wrong attitude, the wrong attitude toward it. Like you said, attitude is everything. But notice on down through here, notice it says, therefore whoever eats his bread or drinks this cup of the Lord, he's talking about the Passover, in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. If someone eats of it and drinks of it in an unworthy manner, an unworthy manner. Now what does unworthy mean? What does unworthy mean? And what does worthy manner mean? You know, you talked about here, you know, what they were doing in an unworthy manner. And we've already talked about the fact that they were luttons there, they were drunkards. They were not worthy of taking of the Passover, certainly.

They despised the poor and the needy that were in their midst. They cared not at all about other people. They weren't there to help and to serve others, they were there to serve themselves. And when they got together, it was a detriment to them. It wasn't helping them at all to get together for the Passover, was it? You know, they were doing things that were very detrimental. But again, Paul was talking about here, look, if you don't do it in a worthy manner and you do it in an unworthy manner, you're going to be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. When you take that bread and you drink that wine, you know, that cup, the night of the Passover. So again, what does unworthy mean and what is a worthy attitude or a worthy manner? Because it had to do with an attitude on their part. A worthy attitude on the part of those that were there. And for us as well, brethren, these are questions we should answer, not try to answer, brethren, but we should answer before we take the Passover. What is unworthy and what is worthy? To make sure that we are taking it in the right way. I want to say something as well to our young people.

This is not just something for your parents. This is something for you. And I'm not talking, by the way, to young adults only who may not be baptized or teens. I'm talking to clear down to whenever you can understand what I'm saying right now.

For some, I know it's different than others. Typically, a child among the Jews was considered to be mature enough at 12 years of age. I think it's a lot earlier than that that young people can begin to understand. By that, I don't mean that they could partake of the New Testament Passover. They did certainly participate in the Old Testament, but the New Testament Passover is a different story. One has to be baptized and be converted. But certainly, if the mind can comprehend it, you ought to be thinking about this as well, about your worthiness or lack of worthiness. About your need to change. I know I started praying when I was 11 years old, and I was sincere about it. You know what caused me to start praying? I don't know if I ever told you this story. I was out in the yard with my brother, Keith. He was the baby boy of the family. Keith was about four years of age, or five, around there. And anyway, I threw a ball across the yard, and I told Keith to go get it, you know? But he could not find the ball, because he began to lose his eyesight. And to make a long story short, what we found out later is he began to lose his eyesight because he had a tumor on the brain.

And for a while, in fact, his entire life was in question, whether he would live or not. And of course, one day we were out in the yard, and my father was talking about prayer. And he said, I heard that in the Bible that God comes with the clouds.

And really, at that time is when I started praying.

And I never stopped praying. Every night I prayed.

And so I'm saying this to young people because I have the experience.

And I believe that God heard and answered that prayer. I really do.

And God will answer your prayers as well. But what I'm saying is you don't have to be, you know, an older teen to comprehend these things. You can comprehend right now.

And I encourage you to begin preparing for at least having a right attitude toward the evening that we celebrate that honors the death of the Son of God who gave salvation to the entire world.

And start as early as you understand what I'm talking to you about, because you cannot go wrong. You cannot go wrong if you begin to obey God early in your life. So, brethren, what does worthy and unworthy mean? Well, let's examine this. Let's look at this through the course of the sermon today. Let's answer these questions. And we've already talked about what they were doing in terms of unworthy manner or unworthy attitude. One thing that is very, very clear here in verse 27 is we don't want to be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. And one of the problems that they were having is they were not properly discerning the body of Jesus Christ, the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.

And consequently, when they were taking of the Passover, they didn't realize what they were doing. They were not properly understanding what it was that they were participating in for the Passover.

They were not discerning the sacrifice of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, brethren, how do we not discern the body of Christ? Well, brethren, if we do not make a difference between what Jesus Christ gave for us and the sacrifice that somebody else has made through history, we don't make a difference in that. If we don't make a difference in who Christ is, and we treat His sacrifice like He was just another human being that died, we're not discerning the magnitude of the body of Jesus Christ. And what it was that happened for us nearly 2,000 years ago. If we're not considering that deeply in our hearts and our minds, we've got to make a difference in the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made, the sacrifice He gave, brethren, that He suffered for us, as I talked about last week, about how suffering was a part of what Christ did. He not only died, but He suffered for us. And we need to, again, grasp that fully, who He was. Let's go over to John chapter 1. We know, but we need to remind ourselves of this very fact, brethren, about our Lord and our Savior gave Himself for us in chapter 1 and verse 1. It says, In the beginning was the Word, as we know that word from the Greek is logos, Spokesman. And the logos, the Spokesman, was with God, with the Theos, with God, and the Word was God. So, in other words, the Word was God as well. And so you have God and the logos. And over here, down in verse 14, And the logos became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so the logos dwelt among us. So God Himself, in fact, the word Emmanuel means God with us. God Himself dwelt among us. And so it was God who died on that stake nearly 2,000 years ago. He was the one who is the Father's eternal companion. He had always been there. When there was no physical universe, when there were no angels, He was there with the Father as the Word, as the spokesman. And it was through Jesus Christ that everything was created, everything that was made. I won't go to Ephesians chapter 3 in verses 8 through 9, but over there talks about that, brethren, that through Christ, all things were created, everything. Now, let's take a little moment, brethren, to think about that. Through Him, everything that we see or do not see was created. The electrons, you know, going around the nucleus, He created that. He made that. He made the protons and the neutrons and all the things that they hadn't been able to discover by the supercollider. And if they keep digging, perhaps God will be in there somewhere, and God will say, it's me. Would it be funny? God says, well, you've been looking for me. He's out me, but I'm here. I did it. I made it all. And not only did He create the physical universe, and that which we see and we do not see, but He saw He also created the angels. Every last angel, it was Jesus Christ, the Logos who did it all. You know, God did it through Him, as we know the Bible talks about. It was through Him that all these things were done. And it's through Him that everything is accomplished, that everything is done. And when He was done here upon the earth, He said, Father, I want to be with you, as I was before.

And we know that that prayer is there in John 17, that He wanted to be back with the Father in heaven. So Christ created all things, brethren, in heaven and earth. And, you know, He created the vastness of the universe and every living creature, and He created Adam, and He created Eve. He created all mankind. And so to discern the body of Jesus Christ, remember who it is that died on that stake, that cross, nearly 2,000 years ago. In the circumstance, He was crucified between two thieves. He was shamed. He was spat upon. The creator of all beautiful things, brethren, was treated like dung, basically, among those He created and made. To discern the body of Christ means, brethren, we think about that. Before we eat that bread, or we drink that cup, we think about that. Now, let's go on down here. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We use this as sort of a framework, brethren, to talk about this topic of worthy or unworthy. But going on down here in verse 28, notice it says, but let a man examine himself. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. So, to partake of something, the whole Passover in an unworthy manner, is to not discern the body and the blood of Christ. But also, to do it in an unworthy manner, is to not properly examine and judge ourselves. You know, not to look at ourselves. In other words, to make it sort of a capricious thing, well, let's go ahead and go to the Passover. And let's take, you know, of that and we'll be cleaned up for the year. Not the way it works, brethren. That's a wrong attitude, a wrong approach. And the problem with, again, with the Corinthians, they were too capricious about it. You know, la-di-da type thing. And they were not properly examining themselves and judging themselves. So, it's appropriate, even, brethren, for us to fast before the Passover and to make sure we're properly viewing ourselves, not from our own perspective, but from God's perspective. We want to see ourselves from God's perspective. We always look pretty good, don't we, from our own perspective? We compare ourselves downward. We tend to compare ourselves downward. You know, we choose people that are not doing as well, maybe, as we think we're doing, and we compare ourselves downward. Well, brethren, let's lift up our eyes to the one we ought to be comparing ourselves to, and that is our example, Jesus Christ. So, brethren, examining ourselves. Examine ourselves is an ongoing proposition we do all year long, of course, but particularly as we approach the Passover.

But what should happen, brethren, when we examine ourselves?

You know, I think that for me, when I examine myself, you know, I always come up short.

I don't think I've ever examined myself. I didn't come up short.

Has anybody, you know, come up out ahead of the game here? When you examine yourself, I mean, you say, I'm doing pretty good. You know, you broke your arm, patting yourself on the back.

Couldn't get it quite all the way around there. Somebody had to do it, you know, because you did so well. But, no, most of us come up short, brethren. In fact, all mankind does. And that's where we came from, this world out there. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3. And verse 10. You know, here Paul is talking, once again here, to the Romans. And he says in verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

There's none who understands. That includes you and me, brethren. Before we were called, we did not understand. And let me clue you in on something, brethren, if you already don't know it.

Or you don't already know it, is we still lack understanding. All of us do.

And I probably lack more understanding than all of you put together.

Seem like the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know.

And I can only imagine, you know, that when I get to be, you know, 90, how little I'll know by that time. It's amazing, isn't it? When you start out young, you know everything.

Like when you're 16, you know everything there is to know. You've read everything, you know everything. How do you know that? Well, my teacher told me. Well, he must know, or she must know. No, we learn how much we don't know. And it says, there is no one or there's none who seeks after God. Verse 12, they have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. By the way, if you go and see Noah, I don't know if any of you have gone to see the movie Noah, you'll find that it has a bit of dribble in it. I'm not talking about the rain. But the concept and the idea that human beings are not fit to exist. And, you know, the whole scenario of it, I'm glad I did go see it. My wife and I and Jonathan went to see it. But the concept is, basically, let's wipe all human beings off the earth so the animals can live.

Because the animals are innocent. You know, so, and I've had a couple of dogs who weren't so innocent. But anyway, but you know, that is this modern-day gobbly gook of this world that human beings are not really fit to exist. And that, in fact, God's will through Noah is to wipe everybody off the earth. And that Noah, when he was on the ark, was supposed to... you didn't know this, there were babies born on the ark. I mean, human babies. You know, they were born on the ark, and that's part of the story, too, you don't read about. And anyway, Noah was going to kill the babies.

I don't want to jowl spoil for you, you go see it. But anyway, but Noah knew better than God. He saw these innocent babies, you know, just couldn't do it. You know, take these innocent babies. So anyway, there's a lot to it that that is obviously fits into the modern-day scientific jargon that you hear, you know. And basically, you know, the planet and the animals are more important than the humans that are on it. Preserve the planet.

You know, presumably we're going to have people volunteering to die, to save the planet.

But I can guarantee you that our Al Gore will not volunteer. You know, I shouldn't mention, you know, our distinguished vice president has been extinguished.

But anyway, going on. But there's none who does good, no, not one. Their throes are open to them. For their tongue they have practiced deceit, in not the story of human beings. But the poison of ash is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursings and bitterness. Their feet are squift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, in the way of peace they have not known. And it says there is no fear of God before their eyes. And brethren, that's us. That's all of us.

And God, but God, in spite of the fact that this is the way human beings are, God is not going to wipe all human beings off the face of the earth. He has a great plan, a great purpose. And the problem is the world has never seen that plan. And that purpose, as we know, there's this story that emanates from the very beginning in the book of Genesis with Adam and Eve. But man has never heard the story, the true story of it. And so, brethren, it is important for us, as God's people, to make sure that we realize where we came from.

And we have to have a changed attitude, a changed heart. This is where we came from.

And you know, the old man rears his hoary head in our lives far too often. I remember I baptized a man. This was back in Pennsylvania back in 1975, somewhere in there. And anyway, let's go over here to Ephesians 4. But I baptized the man, and he told me later, he said, you know, the devil beat me home. Got baptized. I told him he was pure and clean and perfect, purer than the day he was born after he was baptized. And he came to me on the sad. He said, the devil beat me home. That human nature, again, just comes out, doesn't it?

And, brethren, we came from the world, and our human nature and the old man can just come out of us if we do not keep him in check. But Ephesians 4 and verse 24 says, And that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. And we put on the new man. That's something we've got to do, brethren. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and sin. Do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Now, that's a very important principle there. That we don't let the sun go down on our anger. We shouldn't let the sun go down on our anger with one another.

Shouldn't harbor that anger, because it turns into bitterness, and becomes a root of bitterness. And it says, nor give place to the devil. Anger is where we can allow Satan to get in there, brethren, if we're not careful. Let him who stole still no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands. What is good, and that he may have something to give him who is in need. He should be giving, in other words. And let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification that may impart grace to the hearers? And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which you were sealed for the day of redemption.

No, don't hinder that Spirit that is within you. Let it work within you. That you can be transformed. That you can change if your attitude is lacking. To change that attitude.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another. Tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Do you pray, brethren, every night, forgive me as I forgive others? Father, do you pray that? How do you pray, brethren?

How do we get around that? Do we say, God, forgive me? We don't mention that. As I forgive others? Because that's a caveat, isn't it, about forgiveness? You have to be willing to forgive other people. But don't look at that as a door. You know, God, I'm willing, but the other person isn't willing to change. Well, we should be willing to forgive, even if they may not have the attitude of changing themselves. You know, you can't go through life harboring, you know, that all your life. You know, pretty soon it sort of builds up, doesn't it? Pretty soon you think everybody in the whole world, you know, everybody's a clod. I remember I had a teacher, Mr. McDowell. Now, Mr. Dunlap will remember Bill McDowell. Bill McDowell was a fantastic individual. I loved to hear him speak. I can remember talking about he was from Goodnight, Texas.

In those days, everybody was in ministry was from somewhere that was a, you know, sort of a backwater town. Just like the guy you used to know from Jackass Flats, Kentucky. No, I didn't know him, by the way. We always joked about that. But there was a one lady in the church, though, was from Lixgillit, Alabama. Up in, I know, there was a frozen dog road. I wonder what happened on that road. But anyway, back in those days, you know, Bill McDowell would keep talking about how he's from Goodnight, Texas, and he would talk about the buffalo, or not the buffalo, but the cross between the rabbit and the buffalo. Jackalow, I think. Yeah, some of you must know Mr. McDowell. But, you know, Mr. McDowell's favorite saying is that God is creating, he's creating gods out of clods. So, you see, there was a reason I went through that whole story. But, you know, we can go through life, though, unforgiving of other people. We think everybody else is a quad, but we're on the trail to being a god. And that's not right. That's not right. That's not a right attitude. If you wait for other people to change, brethren, you will never forgive anybody else. If you want them to change your liking, at least. So, brethren, we, as God's people, you know, are to, again, they, the examination of ourselves, and we are to change in all these areas here Paul is talking about. That all bitterness, all clanger, you know, every disruptive thing, in other words, in our lives, we need to put it behind us as God's people, examine ourselves. And if we haven't done that, brethren, then go about the process of doing it.

Don't drag it from one passover to the next. Resolve it! Solve it! You know, isn't that what happens in the Middle East over there? Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11 again. That they never resolve anything. I was seeing on the news yesterday how there's a play about Camp David, Jimmy Carter, and Anwar Sadat, and Monac and Begin making the police peace accords there. Remember when that happened back in President Carter's administration? But they were talking about how this was occurring, and talking about the actors and so forth. In this play, I think it's in Washington, D.C., where this is going on. But I had to think, here's a story about Camp David and the peace accords for the Middle East, and what are we working on today? The same thing. No, Mr. Carter worked on something that had been worked on probably since there was a state of Israel in 1948. Peace in the Middle East. And it will not come, in fact, in your lifetime, at least in this flash. You know, hopefully you and I will be spirit when the real peace comes to the Middle East. You know, that is when Christ returns at the time of the first resurrection. I guess you could be flesh if you're not old enough. It'll be baptized and so forth. But anyway, verse 29 here, let's go back to verse 29. It says, For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And so here we, brethren, are told to really properly examine ourselves in verse 28 there, and that we need to judge ourselves. We need to examine ourselves and judge ourselves. You know, whether we've again done those things that God wants us to do, as God's people. Now, the question is, what was happening to the Corinthian brethren because they were not properly examining and judging themselves? What was happening? Well, verse 30 tells us what was happening.

For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

And so, brethren, we need to again take stock of ourselves.

Maybe we would see more healings in the church, brethren, from the individual's standpoint. I mean, I do believe we see a lot of healings in the church, even still. But maybe we see more healings if we were all a bit closer to God. Maybe if we examined ourselves and made some changes in our attitudes and our approaches.

Not relying upon the next guy to change, but we change. Each of us individually change.

No, I could be the prayingist person in the whole church. You could be.

You could spend all your time praying, brethren. But unless we're all praying, unless we're all trying to draw closer to God, you know, we're not going to see as many dramatic things happen. But you see, it has to do with all of us and what we do individually, as well as God's people. But I believe before the end of the age, we're going to see some dramatic, you know, earth-shaking healings that are going to be astounding.

I can't wait, by the way, to walk through hospital and start seeing people rebound out of the the beds and the doctors coming home and saying, you should stay in bed. Why? I feel great! I feel wonderful! Like God has intervened. You know, maybe they'll begin to, some will see, some will not, of course. They'll think it was just a fluke. But on the other hand, those that maybe are apt to believe will see and they will believe. They will see the miracles that are going to take place. But there's verse 33 on down here.

It says, therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. Wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, for your detriment, that God has to judge us. And we don't want to be found wanting, do we? And the rest, he said, I'll set an order when I come.

Now, what did this demonstrate, brother, about the Corinthians here?

When Paul is having to tell them, and he's setting this in order, wait on one another. Now, that's a word that used to be used a bit more in our society, and that is, I'm waiting on another person. In other words, I'm helping another person.

And so God wants us, brethren, to be willing to wait on each other. You have to be patient with one another. But also, that word means to be to serve one another, to be willing to serve one another. And what was lacking in the Corinthian churches, they weren't willing to serve each other. They weren't willing to wait on one another. You go into a restaurant, and what do you have? You have a waiter, right? That's somebody there to serve you, to watch over you, to make sure that you're fed. That's the reason why you're there. You are there to serve as a waiter, a waitress. Well, brethren, we are here, all of us here, are here to serve one way or another, and not to be served. Although, in the process, if we're all serving, obviously, somebody's going to get served. I assume you'll get some ice cream afterwards.

But I've always been amazed of how, through the years, we've always had plenty of volunteers at the feast. People are willing to serve, and I do believe that many have that attitude. Not everybody, of course, but many have that attitude. But, again, we have to have a willingness to serve as God's people. And, you know, we are to be patient with each other in serving. Again, we're all human beings. We all, again, have our foibles. You know, you're going to see things that you don't like about me. If you don't see it yet, you will before it's all said and done.

You know, you cannot, in fact, deal with human beings unless you begin to see their foibles. And that doesn't matter who it is. You know, Mr. Armstrong had his foibles. Others in the Church have had their faults and their problems.

We're all human, and we're all trying to overcome.

We're all brothers and sisters in this family. I'm not your daddy. You know, I'm your brother. And we're in the same family. And right now, I'm the one that has the responsibility of pastoring the Church. But it's only because God gave that job to me. And you know, He can just as easily take it away. And I realize that. I know I have a duty. I have a duty, brethren, to pray for you, all of you. And I do pray for you every day, every one of you, in a general sense, some of you specifically. Believe it or not, even some of you because of your foibles. But it's because I love you. I'd like to see you change. I hope you're praying for me that I'll change mine. Like I say, I know I have them. I know I have them. I'm not going to go to 1 Samuel 12 in verses 22 through 24. But over in 1 Samuel 12 and verse 22, you know, after Israel said that they wanted a king to rule over them, you know, of course, Samuel was very displeased. And God said, well, go ahead and act, yes. Give them what they want, but warn them. And so Samuel was warning them about what was going to happen if they didn't walk in the ways of God. And he said, look, if you don't walk in the ways of God, he said, you're going to lose this land that you're in, plus you're going to lose your king, too. Everything will be swept away. But Samuel said this, but he said, well, to me that I don't pray for you. You know, I've got to pray for you.

And I've got to tell you, even if you don't listen, I've got to tell you. And so it's the duty, brethren, of the pastor. It's the duty of every minister sitting here to teach. Doesn't mean you always listen, but, you know, that's a foible that we have, isn't it? Sometimes we don't listen, especially when something we think we know. We stop listening. But there's always something we don't know, and what we don't know can kill us sometimes.

Another thing, brethren, that is important, if we have the attitude of serving another person, and we have, of course, the foot washing ceremony that precedes the giving of the emblems at Passover, is humility, the need for humility, brethren. And again, it's obvious here the Corinthians did not have the humility. They were putting one person above another person. And they were not serving others with a basic humility about themselves.

No, leviting has the quality of puffing up. And as we know, it's a type of sin. That's why we put leviting out of our houses. But we are to go and put that living out of our lives, the sin out of our lives. Sin, when it is in us, causes us to be proud. You know, it causes us to not want to listen. It wants us... we resist what's being said. And, you know, we as God's people, again, need to recognize that fact about sin. So if you stiffen up when somebody tries to tell you something that you know in your heart of hearts you got a problem with, you know what it is? It's a sin that's in there that's causing us to be puffed up and not humble. You know, a wise man listens, even when he knows. When he knows, he listens. He's not above listening. So, brethren, as God's people, we need that humility as God's people. I'm not going to go, you know, over to Romans 12 and verses 3 through 4, but, you know, the Bible there tells us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. And, brethren, as God's people, you know, we need to keep that in our minds at all times. I don't care what you've accomplished in this life. You may have a PhD, as we used to say, piled higher and deeper than another person. You might be the most educated person on the face of the earth. A lot of people are very educated. I hope you're not this way, but there's a lot of dumb, educated people. And that's the truth. I liked, I just finished the book on Harry Truman. Harry Truman, by the way, didn't have a college education. And yet, the crowd he walked among, everybody had a college education. He talked about the men who wore striped pants. You know, if you read anything about, you know, Harry Truman, quite an interesting fellow. He was a Democrat, by the way, in case some of you consider yourself a Republican. I'm not a Republican or a Democrat. Of course, God is not either, as we know. God is independent.

And you know, I don't have, I'm not even independent. My politics is God is right. That's my politics. But that's not politics, of course. But anyway, it's important for us, brethren, to again remember that we've got to have that humility about ourselves. And brethren recognize that every person is different in the church. Every person has a different function, and we need to respect everybody within the church. We should never want ourselves and think we're better than other people are. You know, if you have a problem with that, I encourage you to fast. Because fasting causes us to get ourselves in perspective.

You know, you're all right the first meal, but you know, the end of the day, when you're spitting cotton, you know, and the sun lingers in the sky, it's hard to be condemning of other people, isn't it? It's hard to look down your nose at somebody else that, you know, you're like this proverbial, you know, guy on the desert, Sahara Desert, you know, he's crawling along, and he's looking to that glass of water, and he's going to think, he's not thinking about anybody else, he's just thinking that glass of water.

Well, when we fast, brethren, we forget about the foibles of other people, we see our own problems. And so it's hard to condemn other people, isn't it? You know, when we find out how limited we are in this flesh. When we fast, at the end of the day, often our energy is gone, is it's hard for us to lash out in our minds toward other people. Without food or water for a day, our focus of thought tends to dwell on how weak we are and how feeble we are.

And realize, brethren, in that weakness that you and I are in when we fast, that God is going to save that cloud and make him into a god.

He's going to save you and me, brethren, and do that for us. But again, what is our attitude? What is our attitude? It's hard enough, brethren, with God's Spirit, let me tell you, brethren, to police our own attitudes. Personally, I don't have a lot of time to police your attitude.

To worry about your specific attitudes, I may think about it from a overall basis, but, you know, with God's Spirit, it's hard enough to deal with our own attitudes, our own sense, our own problems. And, brethren, the attitude ought to be, let's focus on me in the sense of, what am I doing? How am I overcoming? How humble am I?

How much am I serving another person? How much am I examining myself? And what am I seeing? And am I, when I take of that bread and drink of that cup, properly discerning the body and the blood of Jesus Christ? Well, brethren, if we deeply reflect on all these things and realize how much we need, all of us need, brethren, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then we will partake of the Passover in a worthy manner, in a very worthy manner, because we will have a right attitude. So, brethren, when we take of it in such a manner, then God is going to be well pleased with us. So, let's make sure, again, we give these points some thought before we appear before God next Sunday evening to observe the Passover here in 2014.