The Positive Process of Overcoming

Well, brethren, it is still the festival of unleavened bread. It's all about putting sin out of our lives. And during this week, we know that the leaven that makes our bread rise serves as a symbol for sin. We clean the leaven out of our homes. We don't eat any of it during this week. I should say, during this week, to picture our effort through our whole lives to stop sinning and remove its effect. We have a symbol for one week, but it represents something we're trying to do for all of our lives. So while we're looking at both the symbolic action and the reality that it represents, do we ever stop and ask ourselves, or have you ever asked yourself this, does it have to be so hard? Now, this is tough to do. And I think even the symbol can be pretty tough. Those days and weeks when you're working to clean things out, get the crumbs out of your car in some tight places. Funny, one of my early memories in the church, I guess when I was younger, I remember hearing men up the lecture and talk about that, is when the small Japanese cars were so kind of new, and some of the larger men were saying, those of you can barely fit in to sit, let alone get in those odd places to vacuum. Or if you're doing, like I think I described in the first holiday, I can vacuum all the keys from my computer keyboard at work, so I can vacuum in there. That's kind of tough. If you're doing that, sometimes you might think, boy, it'd just be easier to go without leaven for the whole year, at least in some places. And I've done that. I've cleaned out my car and said, I'm not going through this again. I'm just not going to eat in the car again for a whole year. And then there's some time a couple months later when I'm driving somewhere and I think, oh, I'd like a cheeseburger. Or a package of cookies. And if I want to do that, it's okay. Leaven does not symbolize sin for those other 51 weeks out of the year, and we know that. Can you imagine what life would be like? Is there a life where we can imagine a world where God had not created leaven at all? No, that might be difficult, but not impossible. But I'm not so sure I'd enjoy that life. I'm sure I wouldn't enjoy it as much. And when we strive to overcome sin, and maybe a particular sin, we might sometimes think, boy, it would sure be a lot easier if God had just made me so that I can't sin. Let's imagine if we didn't have to resist some temptation. And I thought, you know, it comes to mind for me, it's like I like beer, and I love a good single malt scotch. But I also know that drunkenness is a sin. And I thought, boy, it would be handy if God had made human beings so that after we have one or two drinks, we start to despise the taste. And we don't want anymore. It doesn't take, you know, then it's a lot easier. We know that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

To quote a more modern translation of the scripture in Timothy, couldn't God have just made it so we don't have to worry about that? When you're thinking, all of God's creation, human beings are the only creatures that use money. Now, I see deer out in the woods behind my home, and sometimes a lot closer than the wood. They come right up into the yard, and they don't seem to have, you know, they don't need money. They find food to eat. Their clothes grow naturally, and they're always in the current style. Why didn't God make us like them?

And they seem perfectly, perfectly, I can't say the word, perfectly content. They're not upset that they're not like me. Now, Jesus in His teaching said, well, we worry too much about what we'll eat and about what we'll wear. When God made the flowers, and they're here today and gone tomorrow, He made them more beautiful than Solomon at his best. But we know God didn't make us self-sufficient. He didn't make us like the plants and animals which are incapable of sin.

Now, animals kill each other, but they're programmed to do that. They're not doing anything wrong when they do that. If our goal is to overcome sin, why did God make us able to sin in the first place? Well, I think we know the answer to that. At least sort of. One of the basic things is I could sum it up. God did not create us to be His pets.

He created mankind to be His family. Still, couldn't He have made it easier? Should we have to work so hard? What's the point? Do we have to have all these trials and tests? This line of thinking brought to mind the story of a Texas boy.

Now, it brought to mind the story of the mind of a Texas boy. Maybe I should start over. It brought to mind the story. Then I had to go do some research because I didn't remember it perfectly. But he was a boy born in Texas. You might have heard of him, although if you're like me, you didn't know his name at first. But his name was David Vetter. Born in 1971 to normal parents. He had an older sister who was normal. But David was not normal. He was born with SCID, which stands for severe combined immunodeficiency. That's a rare genetic anomaly that caused him to be born with no immune system.

Not an impaired system, but none at all. Now, it was known before he was born that he would have this, because unfortunately, his parents had had a son before. David's older brother only lived six months because he had SCID. The doctors discovered a rare genetic trait. They determined that his parents had just the right combination and realized that if they became pregnant again, any male child had a 50% chance of having that trait. So, they did the test while David was still in the womb and determined that, yes, he did have the trait.

So, within moments of him being born, he was moved into an isolation chamber. He would be shielded. No germs would be able to be in there. Now, you might wonder why in the world what did they have in mind? Well, what they had planned was a good plan. They said, we know that we can fix this by giving him a bone marrow transplant from his sister, and then his body will develop an immune system that does work.

Only after he was born, when they did the test, they discovered that his sister was not a close enough match with the blood type and the other factors, and so they couldn't do the transplant. And thus began an extended germ-free life within a plastic bubble, as the term became known. By now, you're probably thinking, okay, I know. I've heard the phrase, the boy in the plastic bubble. As he grew, David's chamber would be enlarged, but it was always fairly small. At the age of three, his main living quarters were 2 feet by 5 feet by 42 inches high.

It was made out of 20 mil PVC, that thick plastic sheeting that surrounded, and although it was heavily sealed, there were air compressors running constantly, pumping in heavily filtered air, so there would be a constant outflow. If there were any leaks or gaps, the air would go out to prevent germs from coming in. So he always had white noise, quite a bit. As David grew, other chambers would be added, particularly a playroom, and they were connecting passages that he could go from one to the other. But his was always a small world, small and limited.

Before anything could be brought into this world, it had to be thoroughly sterilized. I thought the process was interesting. Anything that would be brought in would have to be heated to 140 degrees, and a chamber filled with ethylene gas. And of course, after that, it would have to be aerated with purified oxygen for several more hours. That included his clothes, his toys, all of his food. Everything. The plastic chambers had sleeves with gloves attached, and you've seen this probably in movies where people could reach in, and that's how they could feed, change his diapers as a baby, do all sorts of things.

Now, as he grew older, they built a small isolation chamber like this in his home, but almost his whole life was spent in a Houston hospital. I don't know which hospital in Houston, but I'm fortunate I didn't visit any hospitals when I was living here. But he never played outside. He never learned to ride a bike. Never learned to wrestle with other kids. Never had skin-to-skin contact with anyone, not even his own mother.

As the parent of a toddler, that's just mind-boggling to me. He had a sister for occasional companionship, but other than that, the people he called friends were doctors and nurses who were caring for him and studying his condition. Actually, that's the reason I'm able to give you these facts. A psychologist who was assigned to study him and try to learn from his condition later wrote a book that actually I accessed several of the chapters on the internet.

When David was six, NASA developed for him a special suit that would allow him to leave the chamber. But he couldn't go very far because it wasn't self-contained. It had a cloth tube that attached to the chamber. It was about eight foot long. He couldn't venture far. He only used that suit a handful of times before he out-brewed. NASA later gave him a new one, but he pretty much lost interest. If you're like me, hearing about that suit brought back a memory.

I say, like me, if you're like me and the fact that you remember it, did I see that on TV sometime? And many of you did. In 1976, a made-for-TV movie aired. I was surprised. It was 1976. I'm surprised. I remembered scenes from it. It was titled, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, starring John Travolta, who was a teenager.

I think he was a teenager. He played a teenager at the time. In that movie, of course, he lived in a chamber similar to the one I described. He got a spacesuit that enabled him to go out. I learned in looking this up and studying it that the movie was loosely based on the life of David Vetter and one other boy, from whom they borrowed several traits.

This fellow's name was Ted DeVito. He had a similar immunodeficiency that he developed when he was 10 years old. He didn't always have it, but it was called aplastic anemia, which I had never heard of. His body became unable to develop new blood platelets. The only treatment was continual or regular blood transfusion. He had to live in an isolation chamber. Unlike David, his was built in his home.

It occupied his bedroom. Unlike David, he was able to wear a space suit. He liked David, but different. He also got a spacesuit and one that he could go outside in. He also, like David, lost interest because everywhere he'd go, all these people would crowd around at what looked like a man in a spacesuit. His sister says that the one time he wore it that he didn't get too much unwanted attention was when he was able to visit a Star Trek convention.

He just fit right in there. Unfortunately, life isn't a Star Trek convention. I'm just curious. I asked him, how many of you remember seeing the movie? I've seen several nods. There are quite a few of you. As I said, the movie was loosely based on the lives of David Better and Ted DeVito. Its theme was to portray the difficulties of isolation, which is a strong theme for teenagers, especially. Also, to highlight how much we take everyday experiences for granted. And we do. Our ability to do and experience so many things.

Now, the movie had a happy ending. I might not be remembering it exactly, but I thought, I'll trust in my memory for this one rather than look it up. John Travolta's character used the spacesuit to start doing more and more normal things, even attending public school. And he met people. And he fell in love with a teenage girl who happened to live right next door. I say teenage. I think he was 18 or 19 in the movie.

So it wasn't that he was too young to fall in love, but he had this obvious problem about how to live with that. But near the end of the movie, the doctor, they showed a scene where he was discussing with his doctor the fact that over the years his body, little by little, had been developing some immunity. And the doctor said, you may be able to go outside the bubble and survive, but there's only one way to find out, and it could kill you.

So the climax of the movie, of course, shows John Travolta standing at the entrance now. And this, there was, I believe, an air curtain that, similar to the constant air flowing, kept the germs from coming in. But they made this so that you couldn't see any barrier. And he's pondering and deciding what to do. And then he steps across, breathes deep, and remains alive. And, of course, he's made his choice, and the implication is that he's going to be able to live. And I believe the final scene, he and his girlfriend are riding on her horse that she happened to have off into the sunset, like a cowboy movie.

So, as I said, the movie has a great happy ending, and you still learn some interesting themes. The two boys, on whose lives the movie was based, did not enjoy happy ending. Now, I'm going to come to why I'm telling you about this. But through his teen years, Ted DeVito was growing increasingly antisocial. He was becoming angry, difficult to deal with.

But before that, he had to deal much with the emotional problems. He died in 1980. He had a build-up of too much iron in his system from many, many blood transfusions that he had over the years. David Better died at the age of 12. He'd lived his entire life in that plastic bubble. Now, he was approaching puberty. Doctors were concerned that he might have become psychologically unstable, entering puberty and having no hope for normal life. Now, about a one and a half million dollars had been spent caring for David and studying him.

It wasn't just spending a lot of money to keep him alive, although I believe our society would do that. But doctors were hoping to learn from his condition and develop a cure for various immune deficiency diseases. I found it interesting because this was at a point when almost no one had heard of AIDS, which is the greatest or most dangerous of the immune deficiency.

Now, they didn't find cures for those things, but eventually medical advances came along to where they thought for sure they could do a bone marrow transplant with an inexact match and do what they hoped to do right after it was born. They found a donor, went through the procedure, and at first things looked good. The procedure went well, David was responding well, but not long afterwards he became sick. For the first time in his life, at age 12, and I think of that as if Connor hasn't been sick very often and when he gets sick, we really notice.

Can you imagine never having been sick for 12 years, but then he developed a fever for the first time, followed by diarrhea and vomiting. His condition became so bad that he had to be taken out of the isolation chamber to give him treatment. 15 days later, he died. An autopsy revealed that the bone marrow for the transplant had dormant traces of a virus undetectable, but when the transplant was done, the virus reactivated, spread throughout his body and led to his death.

Now, these are moving stories and incredibly sad. These are not good stories. I would not be telling them to you here today if we didn't have the secure knowledge of God's plan. We want to remember that. Ted DeVito and David Better will live again.

They're going to be resurrected with healthy bodies in a better world, one free of most of the evil that we see around us. They're going to have an opportunity to learn and to live by God's way that brings happiness, fulfillment, and great joy. That's something we should remember. But you still might be wondering, why are you telling us about these guys? What does that have to do with getting crumbs out of my car?

Well, one of the reasons I think it's worth telling is, of course, it's not a bad story to keep in mind whenever we go through trial and test and think, boy, what a hassle it is. Like I said, I'm complaining about how hard it is to get crumbs from underneath the seat of my car. These fellows live their whole life in a plastic bubble. We do have to go through tough tests. We have to overcome difficult challenges.

We face temptations and trials, and we never enjoy these. But just think, what if you never had to face any challenge? Would you want to live a life that was like that in a plastic bubble? Now, it might sound good to never be hungry. Never feel pain. Never have to push on when you're tired. But I wonder, would that be at the price of never feeling much of anything?

Particularly, that sense of accomplishment when you do push through. It reminds me back to running that marathon when I was 25 years old and determined I was going to run the whole distance. And for the last mile or two, I started feeling numb from somewhere about mid-side down. I was hoping the legs were still there. But boy, when I crossed that line, I thought it was worth any of that hassle. But that brings us back to the questions I posed at the start of this message. Could God have made the world so that there would be only good? Not all this bad? Well, it might be difficult to know absolutely for sure the answer to that.

But I do know that God did create a universe in which we do have to overcome. Aside from the whole what if, let's look at the universe we do have. Let's turn to the Bible and see that this is so, so you don't have to take my word for it. And then try to understand some of what. So we're going to set aside momentarily the consideration of whether God could have done things differently.

But it's not bad to keep that thought in the back of your mind of life in a bubble. Keep in mind, what would it be like shielded from contamination? Shielded from any opportunity to encounter resistance? Would that sound appealing? I want to turn to Acts 14, verse 22. This is an oft quoted scripture. Of course, it's oft quoted because Paul said something so eloquently that there's not a much better way to say it.

But we often take the last part of the verse out of the context where he was teaching disciples. And it says here in Acts 14, verse 22, I say not just teaching, encouraging them. It says, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying to them, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.

Through many tribulations. Now, I've heard that a lot of times, and it makes sense. And then, it wasn't until later I had to be reading some in Acts. And I realized that just the previous chapter in Acts 13, it describes how people had gotten riled up against Paul and dragged him out of the city and sconed him and left him for dead.

So, the person saying we must through many tribulations enter through the kingdom wasn't saying, yeah, you guys go out and suffer, it'll be okay. He himself had just been sconed to death. And we can speculate, was he actually killed and God resurrected him, or was he just so near death that they looked like that and they walked away? But he knew what he was talking about.

Now, this is how things are set up. The kingdom of God is where we're headed, but the way there is through many tribulations. That's what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7. You'll go there with me. Matthew 7, verse 13. Part of the sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and a lot of people go by it, because narrow is the gate, difficult is the way, which leads to life, and few find it. It's a way through tribulations, and it's narrow and difficult.

And that's where we might ask, well, why is it so tough? Is it worth it? What are we getting out of this? That's why I'd like to stop and consider some of the rewards that wait at the end of that difficult way, that's traversed only through many tribulations. So I'm going to turn to the messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. So if you want to start turning there.

And I'll note that these messages are full of great prophetic significance that I'm mostly going to ignore. Not that the prophecies aren't important, but I don't want to worry about how much this is relating to different eras of the church, and which era is which, or is it different mindsets that exist all at the same time. Because I want us to focus on certain aspects of all of the messages. All of the messages, particularly... there's that word again... Particularly because each message includes the words, He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

It's in plural. So if you have ears to hear, which we all want to have ears to hear, we should be listening to the messages to all the churches. Because there are important things for us to learn. Let's start in Revelation 2 and verse 2. Now this is the message to the church of Ephesus, but it says, I know your works, your labor, your patience.

So there's works, labor, and patience. That's not life in a bubble. That you cannot bear those who are evil, and you've tested those who say they're apostles, and are not, and have found them liars. And you've persevered and have hurt patience, and have labored for my namesake, and have not become weary.

I think maybe that would have been better translated. You haven't let it weary you. They probably felt weary. You get tired and drugged down. God knows these things, but let's look at the rewards. In verse 7 it says, that phrase, Not to him who just happens to be standing around and never had to suffer, but him who overcomes, and he makes a reference to the Garden of Eden. Remember the tree of life that was in paradise. That's going back to the other end of the book right at the start. Because that's where the opportunity for life was freely available. And those who overcome are going to have that opportunity again.

And others. Let's move on. In chapter, or verse 11, Revelation 2 verse 11, Now the second death is the one we really fear. Now none of us are fond of the first death, or looking forward to it, but we all know that's temporary. The second death is the one that none of us want, but if you overcome, you're not going to be hurt by it. Verse 17, Verse 19, Verse 19, Now this isn't about the reward, but I like the way it was phrased so much, I thought it was worth reminding us again that God isn't unaware of how tough it is, how hard we have to work to overcome.

He says, I know it! I know what you're going through! And I know the last is tougher than the first. So we have to work to overcome, but then we get the reward. Verse 26, You see mismanagement of resources, you see some people oppressing others, and you think, if I were in charge, I could stop that. Well, He's saying, if you overcome, that's going to happen.

I'll give you the authority and power to fix the problems. We'll all be working on it together. And we'll get to work with Jesus Christ on that. Let's go to chapter 3, verse 5.

Now, that's important. That's again referring to the fact that you're not going to lose your life no matter what. And I'll confess His name before my Father and before His angels. Having your name spoken before the Father by Jesus Christ would be a pretty important thing. I remember in studying military history, during the heyday of the British Empire, they had a phrase being mentioned in the dispatches. They had dispatches coming back and forth from kingdoms and governments all over the world. And a mark of distinction is, if you were mentioning the dispatches, that was a mark of high honor. Someone had noticed your work and was passing on that message to the king's government. This is better than that. Talk about being mentioned in the dispatches. I'll confess your name before the Father. Let's move on to, I lost my place. Verse 12, He who overcomes, I'll make a pillar in the temple of my God. That's part of God's government, His home. He'll go out no more, and I'll write on Him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I'll write on Him my new name. Good things! One more here in verse 21. To Him who overcomes, I'll grant to sit with Me on my throne, as I also overcame. Interesting. Jesus Christ doesn't ask us to do anything He hasn't already done. He had to overcome. And He sat down with His Father on His throne. He's going to invite us to sit down with Him on His throne. What could be better? I'm making the point, of course, that it's tough, it's difficult. God knows it, but what's at the end is worth it. Let's sum it all up. If we go to the end of the book, Revelation 21, verse 7. I'm back in the Concordance Index. 21 and verse 7. They said, keep in mind how much these challenges are worth overcoming.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things. Not much, just all things. And I'll be His God and He shall be my Son. That's what's waiting at the end of however difficult and tough that road is and how many tribulations there are. Could God have made it easier? Maybe so. Yes, maybe no. Now, I'm going to answer that with a more specific answer.

But whether He could or not, this is what we have and the end is going to be worth it. At the end, inherit all things and be the Son of God.

It's worth going through that tribulation to get the rewards. And so, I have to remind myself of this when I'm grumbling about how tough it is to vacuum. Or more appropriately, how tough it is when I'm grappling with some problem I'm trying to overcome.

I need to remember that those problems that are hard to get out symbolize overcoming sin.

And He who overcomes is in line for some pretty good stuff.

I wrote that in my notes and then I said, boy, talk about an understatement. I'm talking about inherit all things sitting on God's throne and then I sum it up by calling it good stuff. But it is pretty good stuff.

But I had to pause then and say, still, if God wants to give us those blessings, why doesn't He just give them to us? Why make us overcome? Why have to work so hard at it? Why have to suffer through tribulation?

We need to realize the answer to that is God doesn't want us to go through trials just for the sake of watching us struggle.

That's not part of His plan. There's nothing in that that enjoys watching us suffer.

What God wants is the difference in us that comes from the process of overcoming.

God wants that difference, how it makes us different when we've gone through the process.

Let's read about that in Romans 5. Romans 5 and verse 3. There's a scripture I've been turning to a lot lately, it seems.

But that's okay. Really, even though it's presented very simply, it's such a deep concept that I think you need to go back to it over and over again. And hence, of course, the subject of the sermon. And that's why I guess the statement I made before I turn here. God wants the difference in us that comes from the process of overcoming. Romans 5.3 says, not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Why would we glory in tribulations? Because it says, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. That could be translated also as patience or endurance.

We learn to endure without being crushed, or endure without being warped by the tribulation that we are enduring. And verse 4, perseverance produces character.

I want to say, the New King James Version says character. The original says experience. I looked at some other translations. Some of them call it proof of testing. Or it produces approval, strength of character, tested character. And of course, verse 5 says, now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that's given to us.

I found that while I was looking at other translations, I like the way the New English Bible translated this. It says, this proof is the ground of hope because the love of God has been poured out in us through the Holy Spirit.

But this is saying that developing character, righteous, proven character, is a process.

And many of you, I'm sure, are saying, yeah, I think I've heard that somewhere before. We have heard it many times before, but it's worth hearing again. We develop godly characters through the process of coming through trials and tests and tribulations. And I sometimes wonder why they all begin with T. And that's a question I can't answer. I'm working on answering the others. But it's not an easy process. It's not a fun process. But we have to get into our minds. This is how God creates righteous character.

And righteous character is what God requires in anyone to whom he will give eternal life.

So it's not, why does God make us go through this? This is how he creates it.

Couldn't God do it another way? Could he do it in an easier way?

And as I said, that's the question I started off with. Couldn't God have just made us so we can't sin, or so that we would never want to sin?

And I think the answer is, no. We're not used to hearing that. What do you mean, no? God can do anything. How can you say there's something God can't do? Well, all of our study and understanding of the Bible guided by God's Holy Spirit indicates that God can make creatures incapable of sinning. Of course he can do that. As I said, the deer in my backyard are incapable of sinning.

But God cannot do that while also giving those creatures the power of reason and intellect. For us to be conscious, thinking creatures with, as I said, reason and intellect, and that, he can't just make us incapable of sinning. The very thing that makes us different from the animals requires us to go through the process of developing character.

And actually, rather than just me telling you that myself, I want to read from Mr. Herbert Armstrong's book, Mystery of the Ages. And most of you have read this, and if any of you by chance haven't read it, get a copy from someone. It's a good read. And verse 69, not verse 69, page 69, I'm so busy quoting from the Bible, page 69, he says this, There was one super important quality that even God's creative powers could not create instantly by fiat, the same perfect, fully righteous character inherent in both God and the Word. This kind of character must be developed by the choice, the intent of the one in whom it comes to exist. That's a very important way of looking at it.

And this is another way of making the point that putting sin out of our lives, that overcoming, which is what the Days of Unleavened Bread is all about, is part of the process of creation. We are still being created. We're maturing spiritually. And of course, if you think of any of those times you heard in a sermon, why are we here? Because we're not all there, so to speak. We're not done yet. We're half-baked.

So we're still maturing, and considering all the rewards that come to those who overcome, we should be glad for the opportunity to face and overcome trials and challenges of life. Because facing those helps us overcome those challenges and thus develop character.

Since it's the Days of Unleavened Bread that pictured that, in my studying I happened to be reading through Acts, and about the time I came to this, I found a story that I hadn't associated with the Days of Unleavened Bread. But if you will, turn with me to Acts 12. I don't know if God caused this to happen at this time or allowed it to, but it sort of fits in with the theme of one of His servants, actually two of His servants, suffering badly. One of them, perhaps, had developed all the character He needed to, and one of them had more to go. But it fits in, as I said, with the season of the year. In chapter 12, verse 1, Now, about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some of the church. He just decided, I'm going to harass those guys. And his harassment wasn't just making frank calls in the middle of the night. He killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. James, one of the original apostles, boom, he's dead early on. And because he saw it please the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now, this was during the days of Unleavened Bread. As I said, I might have just read over this story, but I thought, wow, that's related to this whole concept of facing these challenges and trials and overcoming, and that it's an ongoing process, which I'll get to at the end of the story. But he seized Peter, so when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people at her passals. So, wait till the holy day is over, and then I'll bring him out and have him killed. Maybe I'll do to him what we did to Jesus. Now, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. Peter was undergoing a physical trial, but this was a trial on all the church. They were all suffering in their minds and spirits, saying, hey, one of our leaders is in prison. How could God let this happen? It's a severe trial of faith, and they're praying for him. Now, Herod was about to bring him out that night, or when Herod was about to bring him out that night, Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards were before the door keeping the prison. So, I think of him, he's probably sitting up against the wall. He's not stretched out on a select comfort or a, you know, a Tempur-Pedic naturist with a specialized pillow. He's in chains chained to other soldiers, sleeping as much as he can. In verse 7, now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison. He struck fear on the side like a, hey, wake up!

Now, rise quickly, and his chains fell off his hands. The angel said to him, gird yourself, tie on your sandal. And so he did, you know, you imagine, have you ever been woke up in the middle of the night, and said, get your clothes on, and you're kind of, you know, wonder what's going on, you're stumbling along. Put on your garment and follow me. So, he went out and followed him, and didn't know what was done by the angel was real.

He thought he was seeing a vision. You know, I'm still asleep on having a dream. He probably believed it was something from God. So, when they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to an iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord. And they went out, and down one street, immediately the angel departed from them. And I think if I were Peter, I'd be saying, great, you bring me here and just disappear.

Now what do I do? But he came to himself and said, now I know the Lord has sent his angel and delivered me. He's probably waiting for this message. If you're giving me this vision and a dream, what are you going to tell me? The angel disappears. He said, oh, God got me out of the prison. Now I have to decide what I'm going to do. And of course, he delivered him from Herod, all the expectation of the Jewish people. He considered this.

He came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. And there, many were gathered together praying. And Peter, I guess, he knew they were there, and he had a special relationship with this family. It's funny, we know Peter was married. He didn't go to his own home, maybe because he thought that's the first place they'd look for him. And I want to point this out, this John, whose surname was Mark, we believe was the same Mark who wrote the Gospel. And tradition says that he worked with Peter and was a close associate. Also worked with Paul later on. I'm just mentioning that because I want to explore that in a future sermon.

But Peter knocked at the door of the gate. A grown-in grota came to answer. We know this is a story where we all can tuffle a little. She recognized Peter's voice, but didn't bother to open the door. She was so excited she ran back to tell everyone. And of course, they didn't believe her.

You're crazy. Which is another way of saying, you're beside yourself. She kept insisting it was him. Well, it's his angel. I don't think they... This isn't meant to be probably a theological statement about angels. I think it's people humoring a little girl. But she kept insisting, and Peter keeps knocking at the door, probably louder to get their attention. And so they opened the door and saw him, and they were astonished. Have you ever had God answer your prayers and then you're astonished that he did?

I have. And then I have to get on myself. Well, Frank, you should expect God to answer your prayers sometimes. Stop being astonished. He motions them with his hand to keep silent. He declares, explaining to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. He says, Go tell these things to James, that is, to the local pastor and to the brethren, and he departed and went to another place.

Now, what happens next? It doesn't work out well for the guards. There was no small stir upon the guards about what had happened. Herod searched for him and didn't find him. He examined the guards. They commanded that they be executed and put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. Now, I'm not certain. I think this is the...he isn't Herod. It's Peter. Peter's got to leave town. He'd been in prison, staying for his life.

And now Herod still would want to kill him. So Peter, his whole life is turned upside down. He's living on the lam. Even though he had this great deliverance. God freed him. But still, you know, there's a death warrant out on him. So he's got to pick up and go somewhere else. And he did have a long career in like many of the apostles.

Of course, they traveled around and eventually he would be martyred. But he might, like many of people have wondered at times like this, that couldn't this be easier? Well, I've got to go through all this for. And the answer was the same for him as for us. Let's go to James chapter 1. What is it accomplishing? Well, we know. And like I said, this sermon wasn't meant to be revealing new truths, but reminding us of some of the fundamental truths that we've long known.

James 1 and verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Not because trials are fun. You say, oh boy, I'm so glad I get a trial. But knowing, we count it joy because we know the result. That the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work. That you may be perfect. And complete, lacking nothing. And my margin, even here, perfect, it shows that the word that's translated perfect can also be translated mature. You could say, let patience have its perfecting work, or bringing you to completion.

And the trial does that. It helps bring us to completion. So that you can be complete, lacking nothing. James is saying that we should be happy about our trials because the process of us coming through them is making us complete Christians. Now, this couldn't happen if we were living in some type of spiritual plastic bubble. If we were incapable of sin, we could never overcome sin. But this putting sin out of our lives, which we picture this week by putting leaven out of our diets, and out of our homes, and our cars, and our offices, this difficult process of overcoming sin is important to finishing our creation.

If we're still tempted to ask, but why? I'm likely, well, maybe I'm preparing for when Connor learns the meaning of that question. He's learned to say no a lot. He hasn't started asking why. But why do we have to go through this process when the plants and animals do seem to be complete? They're complete. They don't have to go through all this. But we could consider what are all the other things that they also don't get to go through. As I said, animals are incapable of sin. But for us, creation requires this difficult further step because of what we are and what we're becoming. We're not going to be animals.

We're not going to be pets. As I said, we're going to be God's family, not His pets. We're becoming sons of God. I said animals can't sin because they also can't think and reason. I'm not saying some animals are pretty intelligent. Mine are good at figuring out things I don't want them to. But they still can't think and reason. They can't plan. They can't write poetry and appreciate listening to music.

And they don't know how to operate a remote control. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 2 to remind ourselves why they can't. What are they lacking? What do we have that's different? And I think we know the answer. They don't have a spirit that we do. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 11. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that's in him? That's what we have that the animals don't.

We have a spirit, something, an essence, that's combined with our brains so that we can think on a whole different level. And then, of course, we're looking forward to something more. If that's what enables the spirit of man, enables man to know these things, even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that's from God that we might know the things that have been freely given us by God. And we get back up to verse 9 to show how different we are.

It's been written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yet the deep things of God.

It's that spirit of God joined with the spirit of man that allows us to understand spiritual things, including what sin actually is. Otherwise, it's meaningless. There is no sin if you don't understand. As I said, the animals, they hunt and kill each other because God designed them. No, they don't know that they're doing that, and they don't understand any command not to. It's only by the power of the spirit that we can begin to understand sin and then overcome it.

That process could be painful, but it's part of what it takes for us to mature into what we're becoming.

And it's worth noting, everyone goes through part of that process. And I mean everyone. Let's turn to Hebrews 5.

All of us. No one's getting into God's family without going through that process.

And apparently, no one ever did. Hebrews 5 and verse 7. This is speaking of Jesus Christ, if you want to look back to verse 5, where it says, So also Christ did not glorify himself. And verse 7, it says, Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear. And this is referring back to that night before his crucifixion when Jesus Christ was praying and sweating blood, and saying, Father, if it be your will, let this pass on me. But he knew it wasn't God's voice, and nevertheless not my will but yours. So he's praying to him. And though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

Having been perfected. I talked about us being perfected, matured. It says he was perfected. He became the author of eternal salvation. Oh, I skipped out something. Over something. Verse 8, though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Having been perfected. He became the author of salvation. Now, no professing Christians deny that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. But many without God's Spirit don't understand that he gave up being an eternal God being. I might have thought I would have phrased that sentence a little differently. But he gave up. He emptied himself of being God and became flesh and blood. And when he did that, he committed himself to going through a process. Like the process we're going through and will go through. Now, he became a son of God. He was born of the flesh. But he became a Spirit born son when he was resurrected from the dead. Let's see that in Romans 1. Romans 1 and verse 3.

Because as I said, this process is intended for all of us.

Romans 1 verse 3 says, Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. So he was born in the flesh, descended from David, and declared to be the son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of the dead is what made him the Spirit born son of God. Now, while he was living in the flesh, Jesus was the son of God in a unique way different from any of us. Because he had been in existence before. He was begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he had been the word coexisting eternally with the Father.

But he became a Spirit born son at the resurrection from the dead. In the meantime, while he was in the flesh, I like, here's where it's a little mind twisting. He was technically, it was possible for him to sin, but he never did and he was never tempted to because he already had righteous character. But he went through the process of becoming a son of God to be an example and a forerunner for all of us. He went through the same process that we'll become.

And there's where we say, before he emptied himself of eternity and became a human being, he wasn't the son of God, he was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now he's a born son of God. Clearing the way for all of us, Romans 8, verse 29, shows this. Romans 8 and verse 29, For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

So he planned for people to be conformed to the image of Christ, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. There's many to come. Christ was the first to go through that process. But many are to follow. And that's not a new idea to us. Our understanding is that the central element of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is that God's purpose is to bring many children to his family. That's the destiny of mankind.

Let me read again from the mystery of the ages. I'm starting on page 94. I got it right at this time.

Here it says, God then purposed to reproduce himself through humans made in his image and likeness, but made first from material flesh and blood, subject to death, if they are sin unrepentative, yet with the possibility of being born into the divine family, begotten by God the Father, God saw how this could be done through Christ who gave himself to that purpose. And that is why God put man on the earth. That is what caused God to do this most colossal, tremendous thing ever undertaken by the supreme, almighty God to reproduce himself. It's funny, nowadays we're often taught to not use very many adjectives. But I like Mr. Armstrong when he used them, he used good ones. The most colossal, tremendous thing ever undertaken by the supreme God to reproduce himself. It's important to remember that part of this process of being born into the family of God, as part of that process, it's developing righteous character. As I said, it's a process. To have that character includes having a deep understanding of the harm and suffering that sin entails, how it causes suffering.

Jesus learned by suffering, now he didn't suffer because he sinned, he never sinned. He suffered because of our sins. But it was still part of the process of him becoming complete, mature. And of course, as our high priest now, he knows what it's like. And we can come to him and he understands our problems. That's why he's our mediator and intercessor. But we have to also develop an aversion to sin. We understand it and we should come to hate it. We learn to not want to sin, because we understand the evil and the harm that it brings. I think that wouldn't be possible if we were made incapable of sin. The analogy of the boy in the plastic bubble isn't perfect, and I'm not going to claim that it is. But in some ways, maybe it can help us illustrate and understand our circumstance. The boy in the bubble, without an immune system, could not resist any infection that he was exposed to. He couldn't overcome it. So when he did, he was exposed to something that took his life. Perhaps similarly, though, in the way he would have wanted to have had an immune system that could encounter a disease and learn to overcome it. God wants us to develop an immunity to sin. I think we want to develop an immunity, perhaps be vaccinated against it, so that we'll know what it is and can overcome it, not want it. I asked a question earlier whether God could have just created a universe without the things that tempt us to sin. Well, I suppose it's possible. Could he have made a world without what we call the pleasures of the flesh, a world without fattening foods that might tempt us to gluttony, a world without any alcohol or drugs that would tempt us to drunkenness, where we could feel no sexual pleasure that would tempt us to promiscuity, and so on and so on. We keep coming up with other examples. But even if so, I believe that wouldn't account for some of the greatest sins, some of the most egregious sins, pride, vanity, jealousy, covenant. Those are all sins of the mind. And even if the universe didn't have any of those physical temptations, those could exist. These are the sins that the one known as Lucifer fell prey to, and he had no immunity, apparently. Let's look at Ezekiel 28. He fell prey to those and became Satan the devil. Ezekiel 28.

1 Corinthians 15. Describing the one that was known. Here it refers to him as the king of Tyre. In Isaiah 14, it refers to him as Lucifer. But it says, You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created. So iniquity was found in you. It didn't come from outside. It was found in you. And it goes on by the abundance of trade, and you became filled with violence. And you sinned. Therefore I'll cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, O covering carob from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. As I said, he became filled with vanity. And like I heard a minister once say, You know, on our human minds, we can become vain about anything. He said, if you were able to take a brain out of a person and just put it in a jar, pretty soon you'd start thinking, I'm the best brain in a jar there ever was.

And I think he was probably right. That's the way we work. Now you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Therefore I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you.

There's where I think, and I'm speculating here, not reading in the scripture, but I wonder, with these temptations while we're in the flesh, we can learn to cope with and grapple sin and overcome it. So that we develop an immunity to the sins in our own mind. Perhaps that's part of why we do have to go through this. God wanted his children to have full powers of the mind so that they could truly be sons and daughters, as I said, not just created things. And for this to happen requires the development of self-control, of fully righteous character. And as I said, perhaps that's a type of immunity. I think, regardless, I think Mr. Armstrong was right. Developing character requires the willing and intentional participation of the one in whom it's being developed. God can't just say, I'm going to give you character whether you want it or not, because it's part of a process we cooperate in. Otherwise, we'd be somewhat like robots, or computer programs, or animals.

As far as I thought of, I was thinking, in science fiction, writers have often contemplated, what is it that makes a creature, or a robot, or a computer a life form? And it's been developed in novels, and I'm more familiar with it in movies, where they become self-aware and suddenly are a new life form. I know that the basis of the Terminator movie series was based on that. Supposedly, the computers in the world suddenly realized that they are, and they say, these humans are messing things up, let's get rid of them. And of course, they send robots back, and Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a lot of money. But, you know, that's a very somber, serious look. But if you remember, I think this, from the 80s, there was a movie called Short Circuit. As similar, only it was fun, you know, they had these robots that lightning accidentally hits one of them, and suddenly, five is alive! And number five is alive, and he realizes who he is, and he doesn't want to be turned off. They'd be like, dying.

More recently, there was a movie with Will Smith, I believe, called I-Robot. Almost the same exact thing, these advanced robots, you know, they serve people, but one of them suddenly starts thinking on its own. And when you can think on your own, that's when you're really alive. That's when you can become something else. And that's science fiction. I don't think we'll ever create computers or robots that can do that. But God created us so that we can think. Of course, the way that works is with the Spirit of Man in us, and then the Holy Spirit joined with that and let us understand the things of God. But I believe that we cannot become God's children without having independent control of our thoughts and the character to direct and control those thoughts so that we don't sin. And without character being in place, God simply will not grant eternal life, because it would be granting eternal unhappiness. It's not that He's selfish and says, do it my way or else, and saying, do it my way or you'll be miserable, and you'll wish you could die. Developing character is a part of the process of completing our creation, and it's a process that takes our willing participation. So I said it. You can consider this all a long-meandering way of answering the question, where I could have just said, yes, it does have to be this hard. Whether it be sweeping out the crumbs or, more importantly, overcoming sin, it has to be hard. We do have to overcome it. From what I can tell, their just plain isn't an easier way. If God shielded us from the possibility of sin, if He made us so we couldn't sin, He would also be shielding us from the ability to develop righteous character. And from the full participation and the existence for which He created us in the first place. Boy, that's a lot He used to write down and say a sermon like that. But I didn't end with a preposition. But this life isn't meant to be like the boy in the plastic bubble. He didn't want us to have that or a life in a spiritual bubble. We're exposed to all sorts of temptations, all kinds of possible harm, not because God wants us to sin. You know, it's not a case, as Paul said, some people were accusing Him of saying, Let's do evil that good may come. God didn't put the temptation and the ability to sin out there just so we could sin, but so that we could overcome, so we could know what evil is and choose to turn away from it and adopt God's way. And doing that can't happen in an instant. At least I don't believe it happens in an instant. My personal theory of why the Days of Unleavened Bread is seven days long. Most of the Holy Days are one day. Or even the Feast of Taffernacles has one Holy Day and six non-Holy Days that are part of the festival. But I think Unleavened Bread pictures a lifetime. So He gives us a whole week to picture a lifetime. Consciously choosing, a one week of consciously choosing not to eat leaven, but a lifetime of constantly choosing to combat sin. Try to get rid of it. And we have to work at it. But remember those scriptures from Revelation. Is it worth it? It's worth it. To He who overcomes, I'll grant to sit on my throne. I'll make Him up. I'll give Him power over the nation. He won't suffer from the second death. I will be with God and He'll be my Son. We're all growing and maturing so that we can be born members of the God family. And it's definitely, most certainly worth it.