Putting Sin out of Our Lives

Thank you, Mr. McNeely, and good morning. It's been just a few weeks since the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread ended. Of course, before these days began, we all worked hard to clean our homes. Now, for us, it's much more than spring cleaning. We take seriously the command to put leaven out of all of our quarters. We're also careful to eat unleavened bread during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Dunkin' Donuts just does not get any business of ours during those days. They probably don't like it when we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread, but we're going to anyway. One of our elders in Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City, actually told us that he was trying to avoid eating any breaded chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I guess there's a certain brand that you can eat. I don't know if it's the original or the crispy or what, but it doesn't have breading. And he was being real careful with his coworkers during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Well, as he was eating one of those fluffy biscuits, so it's interesting how sin can sneak up on you.

And as the younger Mr. McNeely said, we have to be aware and be diligent where sin will creep back in. Our elder had the best of intentions, but he found himself eating leaven during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Now, we realize that putting leaven out of our homes and eating unleavened bread symbolizes the putting out of sin, and also bringing Christ into our lives and allowing Christ to live in us as the unleavened bread from heaven. Now, hopefully this season has been a very rewarding one and inspiring one for all of you. It has been for me personally, and it's been actually one of the finest spring-holy day seasons ever.

And I attribute much of that to a discovery that I made as I was personally studying the kings of Israel. And I noticed that some of you have been studying the kings as well of Israel and Judah. So personally, I was studying this, and I was also preparing for the Passover and helping prepare the congregations in Oklahoma for keeping the Passover. And I gave a sermon entitled, How Clean is Your Spiritual Temple? How clean is your spiritual temple? Now, I'm going to give a sermon of the same title. It has changed quite a bit since then. The title is, How Clean is Your Spiritual Temple? Or, personalize it, How Clean is My Spiritual Temple?

As I said, I made a discovery during this season, something I had never noticed before out of the Scriptures, and I'm going to share that with you today. I hope it will be as interesting and profound to you as it has been for me. I'm going to hold off on that a little bit, though. We'll get to that in a little bit. Now, we've all been aware of the importance of examining ourselves from a spiritual point of view before we keep the Passover. We talk a lot about that. I'm sure Mr. McNeely talked about examining yourself, or if he didn't, he probably did some this year, I'm sure. And we discussed that quite a bit. Others may have spoken about that. And it's very important that we do prepare ourselves to keep the Passover. It's important that we consider our spiritual condition, and when we do, we realize that we all have a desperate need to keep the Passover. We realize that we're all sinners. We realize that we need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to wash away our sins and to cleanse our spiritual temple. We need to be continually striving to put sin out of our lives, and again, to put Christ into our hearts and minds. So we humbly observe the Passover, and we gratefully keep the Days of Unleavened Bread every year. Again, ask yourself, how clean is my spiritual temple?

Now, before I reveal my big discovery, I'd like to play a little game with all of you. I hope you like games. We're going to play a little game. It's entitled, Who Am I? Now, some of you have probably played this game before. My wife Barbara and I used to play this quite a bit with our two children, Jamie and Matt, when they were a lot younger. We played a lot in the car as we were driving back and forth to services on the Sabbath.

So I'm going to reveal some clues about an important person in the Bible. And I want you to write down who you think it is, as the clues are given. So I'm going to give you a number of clues, and as soon as you know who it is, then write down the person's name. We're going to play Who Am I? Now, this is an open...or this is a closed book test. You can't use your Bibles, and especially no Bible-searching software. I don't know if anyone in here has a laptop, but it seems wherever you go... I gave this sermon in Cincinnati when I was there for pastoral training classes a few weeks ago, and there's always ABC students with their Bible-searching software right there on their laptops. So you can't use that. Alright, let's go. First clue. I was 25 years old when I began to reign as king, and I reigned for 29 years.

25 years old when I began to reign as king, and I reigned for 29 years. That's the first clue. Second clue. My father was a very evil king during his own 16-year reign. So my father reigned for 16 years before me, and then I reigned after him for 29 years. Third clue. The first main action I took at the very beginning of my reign was to cleanse the temple in Jerusalem. Third clue. The very first main action that I took at the very beginning of my reign was to cleanse the temple in Jerusalem. In fact, this happened in the first month of the first year of my reign. Okay, fourth clue. As king, I then led the way in restoring the keeping of the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem.

So I cleansed the temple, and then I led the way in restoring the keeping of the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. Now, that really narrows it down if you know very much about the kings of Israel and Judah. Fifth clue. In the first year of my reign, I actually presided over observing the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread a month late in the second month. I had to wait until enough priests were consecrated. The Eternal was very pleased with the restoration of his Holy Days. Sixth clue. Under my leadership, the House of Judah and those who came from Israel actually observed the days of Unleavened Bread for another seven days.

We were so excited to be keeping God's Holy Days. So maybe some of you have it now. Seventh clue. I was instrumental in restoring tithing, and the Eternal richly blessed all that I attempted to do in restoring true worship to God's people. Eighth clue. God gave us victory over a very powerful Assyrian king named Sennacherib. The prophet Isaiah was also instrumental in teaming up with me to beseech God for deliverance. So I had a very wonderful prophet, Isaiah, working with me on this as we faced the powerful Assyrian king, Sennacherib.

Ninth clue. God healed me of a fatal illness. He healed me of a fatal illness and gave me 15 more years to live. And then the last clue. My son Manasseh was king after me, but he was very evil for much of his 55-year reign. In fact, the Eternal brought about his capture and his captivity in Babylon. But upon his repentance, God restored him and brought him back to Jerusalem and his kingdom. So I've given you 10 clues, and I'm sure some of you know who this king is. Does anyone want to tell me who am I?

Yes. That's correct. King Hezekiah. I really found it fascinating studying the kings of Israel and Judah. You know, there wasn't a single good king in Israel. The house of Israel really was not a single good king in Israel. There were several from the house of Judah, but not from the house of Israel. Let's play another quick game. Who am I? Second King. The Bible says this about me. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of his father David.

He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. The Bible doesn't say this about any other king. No brag, just fact. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Second clue. While I was very young, aged 16, I began to seek the God of my father David. At age 20, I purged Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, and the carved images, and the molded images.

I wanted no more idolatry in Israel. Here's the third clue. At age 26, as king, I had the temple cleansed and repaired. When the high priest, Hilkiah, found the book of the law of the Lord, given by Moses, described Shaphan, read it to me, and I immediately repented and took actions to follow the book of the law. That's the third clue. Fourth clue. The Bible says this about me. He moved Jerusalem and all Israel to diligently serve the Lord their God all his days as king.

He moved Jerusalem and all Israel to diligently serve the Lord their God all his days as king. Now, that's not said about many kings. In fact, it's really only said about one king, this particular king. Fifth clue. After cleansing the temple, I restored the keeping of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem. So we see a parallel with King Hezekiah. I restored the keeping of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem after cleansing the temple.

Remember, the title is, How Clean is Your Spiritual Temple? Sixth clue. The Bible says there had been no Passover kept in Israel like this one since the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover with the priests and Levites, all Judah and Israel, who were present and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. No Passover kept in Israel like this one since the time of Samuel the prophet.

Seventh clue. As king of Judah, I began to reign when I was only eight years old. Alright, now, if you haven't gotten it yet, there's probably a good chance you know who it is now. I was only eight years old. I was the great grandson of King Hezekiah. My father was the evil king Ammon, and my son the evil king Jehoahaz. Who am I?

Yes. That's correct. King Josiah. King Hezekiah and King Josiah. Two kings, two powerful kings, who cleansed and restored temple worship in Jerusalem. Now, we're not going to take the time to read all about them, but I would suggest, if you haven't done that lately, that you go back and read about the kings of Israel and Judah, especially about Hezekiah and Josiah, especially this time of year, because they have a great deal to do with this time of year. Remember, they cleansed and restored the temple at this time of the year, and then they kept the Passover and the Dezim 11 bread. Now, we're still in the spring Holy Day season. Pentecost is two weeks away now.

So, it's important that we learn the lessons that God wants us to learn during these days. There was tremendous spiritual renewal in Israel during the time of Hezekiah and Josiah. Spiritual renewal like no other time in the history of the kings of Israel and Judah. They really stand out, these two kings. Now, there are a few other kings of the house of Judah that were good kings and did many good things, but these two men really stand out as tremendous leaders in actually the house of Judah.

The children of Israel followed both of these leaders, and God blessed Israel greatly during their reigns. Roughly 400 years elapsed between the end of Solomon's reign when the temple was built. Solomon's temple was built. 400 years elapsed between the time it was built and the captivity of the house of Judah to Babylon. Do you know how many times in that 400 years the keeping of the Passover season is mentioned in the Bible?

Anyone want to venture a guess?

Just twice. Two times. The two times that we talked about. During the time of King Hezekiah and King Josiah. Now, it's possible they may have kept them at other times. I'm not saying that they didn't. But the Bible, as far as I understand, as I read it, and I think I'm correct on this, those are the only two times it's mentioned in the Bible that the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread were actually observed. So I find that very fascinating.

And in both cases, it was immediately after the cleansing of the physical temple that they kept the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. So there's a parallel that I want you to keep in mind as we go through this sermon. And as you ask yourself, how clean is my spiritual temple? There was a physical temple that needed to be cleansed. Hezekiah and Josiah saw that. They did something about it. They cleansed the temple. In fact, let's go back to... Oh, let's see. I think it's... Let me find out where I want to go. Second Chronicles. Let's go to Second Chronicles. We'll read just a few verses. Second Chronicles. Let's go to... I think it's chapter 29. Second Chronicles 29. In verse 1, it talks about King Hezekiah when he became king. And then in verse 2, it says, He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. And then in verse 3 of Second Chronicles chapter 29, In the first year of his reign, in the very first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and he repaired them. He fixed them. They were broken down. His father, King Ahaz, was an evil king. And he turned against God, and he didn't have faith in God, and he turned to pagan gods and followed them. And we'll see the consequences of his sins as we read here. So Hezekiah cleansed the temple. He repaired the doors. Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and he gathered them in the east square. And he said to them, Hear me, Levites. Now sanctify yourselves. And then he said, And carry out the rubbish from the holy place. So there was rubbish. There was debris. It had been so neglected and dishonored that it was incredible what had happened here. And the Levites, the leaders of the time, the ones God had appointed, were to blame. So Hezekiah gets them together, and he tells them to sanctify the house of the Lord. For our fathers, have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God. They have forsaken Him. They have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, that is of the temple. They put out the lamps, and they have not burned incense or burned offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. They were not doing what they were instructed to do.

Therefore, the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem. Because they were not keeping the temple clean, because they were dishonoring it, because they were not doing their job, because they were not obedient. Therefore, the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem. And He has given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes.

For indeed, because of this, our fathers have fallen by the sword, our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity. It had gone so far that even their own families had been taken captive. Of course, the house of Israel had already been taken into captivity. This is talking about the house of Judah. They were not all yet taken into captivity, but some of them had been.

Verse 10, Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel. And you'll find that when the temple is restored and renewed, and when the Passover and the Days of Unleavened bread are observed, there's also a covenant that is renewed with God. So if you think about baptism, we renew our covenant with God every year during the spring Holy Season.

We are to cleanse our temples. We are to examine ourselves spiritually. We are to cleanse ourselves. We are to keep the Passover. We are to keep the Days of Unleavened bread. We are to get the filth out. We are to get the rubbish out of our lives. And it's very symbolic to what we read about physically in the Bible. And then we make a covenant. We renew that covenant with God to stay clean and to put the unleavened bread into our minds and into our hearts and to allow Christ to motivate us, to guide us, to change us, as Mr. McNeely mentioned in the sermon at. So it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that His fierce wrath may turn away from us. My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him. Now, I believe that God is saying that to you and me today. He's telling us that we should not be negligent when it comes to cleansing our spiritual temples. We need to be careful that we're not negligent. They became very negligent. Do not be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you. Don't we say that God has chosen us out of this world, that He's called us out, that He's opened our minds to His way of life, to His truth, that we are called and chosen, that we are the first fruits. For God has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him. Hasn't God called us to stand before Him? Hasn't He called us to serve Him? And that you should minister to Him and burn incense. Now, this was a particular job that they had to do, to burn incense in the temple and to keep the temple practices as God instructed and intended. Now, we don't have the same temple practices in a physical sense, but spiritually, what are our responsibilities? So, only twice during King Hezekiah and King Josiah's time, we find the temple cleansed. And in both cases, it was immediately after the cleansing of the physical temple, Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The evil kings of Israel and Judah were continually defiling the temple, and the priests and the Levites were also to blame. It's also very interesting, and I believe significant, to consider the building of a second temple after Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

Guess what takes place after Zerubbabel's temple is finished during Ezra's time? What takes place after Zerubbabel's temple is finished during Ezra's time? Again, remember, there's a pattern here. Let's go to Ezra 6, and we'll see this pattern repeated. Ezra 6.

Let's start reading in verse 14. Ezra 6, verse 14. Ezra 6, verse 14. So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Hagia the prophet and Zechariah the son of Ido. And they built, and they finished it. They finished Zerubbabel's temple.

According to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the command of Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia, God actually even moved these kings who were not converted, but God was working with some of them. And he inspired them and led them to help Israel in building the temple. Verse 15. Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

Now Solomon's temple had been destroyed, but Zerubbabel's temple was now built. Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. And they offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God. One hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, they assigned the priests to their divisions and the Levites to their divisions over the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. So the temple is built, it's clean, it's built and it's clean, and then they keep the Passover. And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves. All of them were ritually clean, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs for all the descendants of the captivity, for the brethren, the priests, and for themselves. Then the children of Israel, who had returned from the captivity, ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land. The debris or the filth, the garbage of the nations of the land. That's what God wants us to get out of our spiritual temples. He does not want us to be affected by this world. He says, come out of the world. Be separate, be different. So they separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel. We cannot effectively seek God if we're too encumbered by this world. If we're too close to the world, it will drain our strength spiritually, and we will not draw close to God.

And they kept the feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them. Assyria was a rod against them, but God had actually allowed the king of Assyria to help them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. The Scriptures are full of miracles that God performed in helping His people when they would turn to Him, when they would seek Him, when they would cleanse themselves. God was there to strengthen them. I find that extremely encouraging and also sobering. In Nehemiah chapter 10, verse 39, we'll just go to one verse here. Nehemiah chapter 10, I think it's just one verse. Nehemiah chapter 10, verse 39, proper Sabbath observance was instituted, tithing had been instituted again. And let's look in verse 39. Again, this is about spiritual renewal. It's about coming back to God. It's about pleasing God. It's about getting the filth out of our lives and doing that, which is right and good in God's sight. So verse 39 of chapter 10 of Nehemiah, For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain of the new wine and the oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are, and we will not neglect the house of our God. Now, of course, they made a covenant not to neglect the house of God. But we know that they did neglect God's house. In fact, that house was destroyed in 70 AD because they did neglect it. They were not faithfully obeying God. In fact, Christ called the spiritual leaders hypocrites. Christ had a lot to say about the religious leaders of the day who were in this temple. They did not keep it faithfully. They neglected it. Brother, we must not neglect our spiritual house.

So we see three times in the Old Testament that the temple is cleansed or another temple newly built, and the people of God then keep the Passover and the days of 11 bread. We've seen it during Hezekiah's time. We've seen it during Josiah's time. And even though we didn't have the time to go there, if you'll go back and read about King Josiah, you'll read about this very thing. And we've seen it now in Ezra's time, Ezra and Nehemiah's time. But does the pattern stop there, or does the New Testament have the same pattern? Now, this was the big discovery for me, putting it all together. You know, the New Testament has the same pattern. I never thought of it this way. I never looked at it before. But can you think of any time in the New Testament where it talks about the physical temple being cleansed? Who cleansed the physical temple? Right. Jesus did. Do you know how many times Jesus cleansed the temple? Twice. That's right. He did it twice, and we're going to go to both times. Christ cleansed the temple. He did it twice. And do you know when those times occurred? Exactly. John 2. Let's go there. John 2. John 2. John 2, verse 13. Now, the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, notice that this is at the very beginning of Christ's ministry, because the miracle in chapter 2 talks about turning the water to wine. It's at the very beginning of his ministry. So he went up to Jerusalem at the Passover season, and he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When he made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the changers' money, and he overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. So he was incensed at how they were defiling the temple. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, The deal for your house has eaten me up. You know, much of the reason why Christ was crucified is because he challenged the religious leaders of the day, the temple leaders. Those who were defiling the temple, they were called hypocrites, because they weren't keeping God's law. They didn't have clean spiritual houses. They didn't even have a clean physical house. They were defiling the temple. So the Jews answered and said to him, What sign do you show us, since you do these things? And Jesus answered and said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Of course, he was talking about the temple of his body. Jesus Christ's spiritual temple, you might say. Of course, they could not destroy his spiritual temple. They could only crucify his physical temple.

Now, let's go to the second place. Matthew 21.

Matthew 21, verse 12. Now, this is at the very end of Christ's ministry. The first time that the temple was cleansed was at the very beginning of his ministry. This is at the end of his ministry.

Chapter 21. We see the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And then in verse 12, Jesus went into the temple of God, and he drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.

Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. Now, to me, this is also very telling. Christ healed the blind and the lame who came to him in the temple. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant.

They were angry against Christ.

And he said to them, Do you hear what these are saying? They said to Christ, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise.

Then he left them. You know, it's interesting that they had a problem with him healing in the temple, and yet they were defiling the temple.

Christ said, It's wonderful to do good on the Sabbath, to heal people, to restore their lives. That's what the Sabbath is all about. This is a weekly time of renewal. The Sabbath, we renew ourselves every Sabbath. We come here to cleanse our temples, every Sabbath. Well, we should strive always to keep them clean during the week, but every Sabbath, it should help us get back on the right track if we strayed it all.

We really need to keep these spiritual temples clean. Christ wants us to. Frankly, I think the God of the Old Testament, the one who became Christ, the one who was there during Passover, you know, who led them out of Egypt, He led the children of Israel out of Egypt, the one who became Christ. He was their deliverer. He was their Savior in the Old Testament. We know He's also our Savior in the New Testament.

I think that Jesus Christ is sick and tired of filthy temples.

Christ was there during the time of Hezekiah and Josiah. He's sick and tired of filthy temples.

He really is. He wants to see clean temples.

I think Christ is sick and tired of lame excuses for disobedience.

I really don't think Christ is interested in your lame excuses.

As to why you don't obey God.

I think He wants to see you clean your house.

I know He wants to see me clean my house.

You know, even at times this world becomes tired of lame excuses. Even this world that we live in, this compromising world, sometimes becomes tired of lame excuses.

I'd like to read from an article entitled, Maryland Man from the State of Maryland. Maryland Man Gets Jail Time for Junky Yard.

Gets Jail Time for Junky Yard.

It's an Associated Press article of August 22nd last year of 07.

Refusing to clean up his own backyard has landed George Hartsoft in jail for 60 days.

He can't say he wasn't warned.

City officials have been asking him to do a little cleaning since the year 2000.

Court action to ensure compliance was taken in the year 2002.

On July 5th of 2007, five years later, authorities gave Hartsoft 30 days to clean out the boats, the crab pots, the vending machines, and other assorted debris and rubbish that littered his Maryland home.

When he failed to do so entirely, he was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

Hartsoft and his lawyer insist they're doing their very best to tidy things up.

They've already hauled away four 30-yard dumpsters, four big canisters of junk and garbage and filth were hauled out of his home.

They were filled to capacity. Still, city officials and authorities are fed up.

This cycle will keep going until the property is cleaned up, says county spokesperson Tracy Reynolds.

The site would get cleaned a little bit and it got messy again.

It was never brought into compliance. It was always messy. It was never completely cleaned up.

I believe that God wants us to clean up our spiritual temples.

He wants us to repent fully of our sins.

And he wants us to begin obeying him more faithfully.

Not getting into a cycle of cleansing yourself a little bit, but then going back into the same old sins over and over again.

Never really changing. Never really growing very much.

But staying the same.

I believe God wants to see better progress from his people.

Back in the old days, in the times of Hezekiah and Josiah, most of the people then didn't have God's Spirit.

Most of the brethren, the people, they didn't have God's Holy Spirit.

But, brethren, we don't have that excuse.

We have God's Spirit. With God's help, we can change. Christ can live in us, and he can do the works in us.

But we have to yield ourselves and surrender ourselves to him, and allow him the unleavened bread to cleanse us, to purify us, to become clean.

So, brethren, are you stuck in a cycle of uncleanness?

Don't you think it's time to be cleaned up?

Zerubbabel's temple was not kept clean, so it was destroyed in 70 AD.

Now there is a spiritual temple to whom Christ will return.

There's a spiritual temple. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6.

Christ is coming back, and he's going to come back to his temple.

He's going to come back to a clean temple. 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

For you are bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Here it says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You are the temple to whom Christ is returning.

He's coming back to his church.

Individually, you need to clean up yourself. I need to clean up myself.

Our leadership in God's church needs to become clean.

And we all need to follow the right type of leadership.

Just like Hezekiah and Josiah, they provided the right kind of leadership, and the brethren, or the people, the Israelites got behind them.

They were faithful. I believe it must come from the leadership.

We have to set the example. The ministry has to set the example.

The Council of Elders has to set the example.

It has to come from our leadership.

Our president, all of us, all of us have to set the right example, and then we all need to get behind that leadership.

And cleanse ourselves individually and then collectively.

Because what does it say in Ephesians 5?

Ephesians 5. Let's go there. Verse 25.

Where is Christ coming when He returns?

He's coming for the firstfruits, isn't He?

Pentecost pictures the firstfruits. It pictures those who have His Spirit. It pictures those who are learning to walk in the Spirit.

Ephesians 5. Verse 25.

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.

That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.

That He might present her to Himself a glorious church.

Not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without bling.

That's what God wants. He says, Become you holy even as I am holy. Become a holy temple to whom I can return.

We need to cleanse ourselves individually and collectively as a church.

Then Christ will come back to this earth.

He's waiting, I believe, on us. Yes, the Gospel has to be preached as well.

The Gospel will be preached to all the world as a witness, and then the end shall come, and Christ will return.

But we're preparing a people as well, aren't we?

That's part of our commission.

We are to be prepared ourselves.

We won't go to Galatians 2.20, but there it says, I have been crucified with Christ, and Christ lives in me.

I'm no longer my own. I've been bought with a price. I've been bought with the price of Christ's shed blood.

Passover. He's our Passover Lamb.

We cleanse ourselves. We keep the Passover. We keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. We observe Pentecost. The Holy Days picture God's wonderful plan of salvation.

So to me, this has been a very inspiring spring Holy Day season. It has been one of the most inspiring that I've ever kept. And frankly, I'm getting charged up. I hope that we can go on from here as a church.

And I hope that perhaps we'll have some new direction in the church, and we will get behind some of the hurts and the problems of the past year.

And I hope and pray that we can go on and we can seek God's will collectively together, and we can walk in unison together.

That's really what we need to do. We need to live up to our name, the United Church of God.

So I think we've got some good days ahead of us. I believe there are some very good days ahead of us, but it's going to depend on us, largely as a people. It's going to depend on our leadership, and it's going to depend on us as God's people working together. We are to become without spot or wrinkle, without blemish. We are to cleanse our temples.

These Holy Days keep us spiritually focused.

They really do. What if we didn't have God's Holy Days? How far would we drift from God without His Holy Days? This is a time of spiritual renewal. Every spring we keep the Passover and the days of 11 bread and Pentecost. It's a time of spiritual renewal. It's a time to dedicate ourselves more fully. It's a time to renew our covenant with God and be more faithful than ever before.

No, these spring Holy Days aren't over yet. The countdown to Pentecost has begun, and it's almost here, just two weeks away.

God's Spirit was poured out on Pentecost in 31 A.D. The Church of God has the Spirit of God. We need to stir up the Spirit of God through faithfulness. We must not neglect the Spirit of God.

We must stir it up through faithfulness. And how do we do that, brethren? Well, by praying. Don't neglect your prayers. Make sure you pray every day. Don't neglect your Bible study. Make sure you study the Bible every day. At least a few chapters a day. Come on! That's not so much, is it? Is that too hard to open your Bible for 20 minutes a day? Shame on all of us if we neglect to do that. How about fasting?

Have we neglected to fast? Do we only fast on the Day of Atonement or when we're told to? When we're asked to? Or do we fast regularly? Don't neglect that. That will cleanse your temple better than anything. Fasting. Meditation. Fellowship. Spending time here on the Sabbath. Fellowshiping. Why rush off? What have you got waiting on you at home? Stick around. Fellowship with one another.

I mean, some of you may have to get home for good reasons. I know there's sometimes good reasons, but fellowship is an important part of our Christian walk. We are to become a living sacrifice. Romans 12.1. We're to be holy and acceptable. A holy, acceptable sacrifice.

That's part of cleansing our temple. Brethren, we have a high and a holy calling. We must not take our calling lightly. We must not take our calling for granted. We need godly, spiritual vision so that we can see clearly. Sometimes I think we don't really value what we've been given. To illustrate that, this is a true story. It comes from an Associated Press article entitled, Sold One Declaration of Independence Copy.

It was printed on March 23rd of 2007, a little over a year ago. As Stan Caffey prepared for married life, he and his bride-to-be cleaned out their respective garages, and they sold everything to good will. Between the two of them, they sold an assortment of clothes, of bicycles, tools, computer parts, and a tattered copy of the Declaration of Independence that had been hanging in Stan's garage for the last decade.

Unknown to Stan and unknown to good will, that particular version of the Declaration of Independence was a rare copy made in 1823. A man named Michael Sparks spotted it. Now, I went to Snopes, or Scopes Snopes, and I checked this out, so it is a true story. Michael Sparks spotted it, and he purchased the document for $2.48. $2.48 for this copy of the Declaration of Independence that had been hanging in this guy's garage for decades.

Well, he auctioned it sometime later for a whopping $477,650. Almost $1.5 million for a copy of this Declaration of Independence. Now, that's not a bad profit. $2.48 to a half a million. Cathy, the previous owner, Stan Cathy, was later quoted as saying, I'm happy for the Sparks guy, the guy who bought it and sold it for half a million. If I still had it, it would still be hanging there in the garage. And I still wouldn't know it was worth all that money. So I ask you, how important is your calling? How valuable is your calling to you?

Is it worth a half a million? It's worth a lot more than that, isn't it? It's worth a lot more than money. Brethren, as human beings, we sometimes overlook the value of something that is very valuable. Sometimes we don't reap the blessings and benefits that could be ours. These spring holy days are incredibly precious and extremely valuable for our spiritual well-being.

My big discovery was coming to realize just how closely linked these spring holy days are to spiritual renewal and to the importance of having us become unleavened and cleaned up spiritually. We must not neglect the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You must not neglect it. As we move toward Pentecost, may we continue being spiritually renewed and cleansed, learning to walk in the Spirit more faithfully, producing the fruit of the Spirit.

Remember what the fruit of the Spirit is? Love and joy and peace and faithfulness and goodness and gentleness and all of those wonderful attributes. That's what we are to be producing. May we all become a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, but you know it starts individually. How clean is your spiritual temple? It starts with you. It starts with me. The Passover season should have been and hopefully was a time of spiritual cleansing and renewal for all of us. But it isn't just a one-time event. It just isn't one night when we show up and we wash each other's feet and we renew that covenant. It doesn't end there, does it?

That's why we do it every year. It's an annual reminder of something that we should be doing every day of our lives. Every single day of our lives. What's the most important thing to you in life? Surely you can find some time not to neglect the spiritual house. What's the most important aspect of your existence? Why were you born? Not to make a lot of money at whatever job you have. Not to keep your house exactly perfectly clean physically. Not to spend time with a lot of hobbies that rob your time from something more important.

And by the way, I think hobbies are important. We should have hobbies. But everything in perspective, what's the most important aspect? Make sure you have your priorities straight. So this season, I hope, is going to be a very spiritually rewarding one for you. I hope it has been and I hope it will continue to be. And I hope that this year will be a more spiritually oriented year for all of us. And also for the United Church of God, collectively.

Let's pray for the church. The church needs our prayers. The leadership needs our prayers. The council needs our prayers. We can do better. I believe we should do better. And I believe that we will do better with God's help. But again, it starts with you. How clean is your spiritual house? How clean is your spiritual house?