Recipe for Making an Unleavened Christian

Thank you very much to the choir. I'm looking for Mr. Star Wars' watch. What'd I do with it?

Well, I certainly appreciated the choir. I've got my pair of love-and-glasses on because somewhere between sun-sitting here I lost my unlove-and-glasses. These are probably crooked and I have not had time, so don't analyze me too much. Keep on reading your Bible and don't look up here and we'll all be all right, okay? Today we want to talk about a new and a living way. That's what we want to focus on during this, the days of Unleavened Bread. We've come up to the Passover of the New Covenant, and in that covenant we confess before God our reality of who we are, who He is, and yet we also acknowledge that He has given us His love and by the power of His Spirit and by the example of His Son the ability to live a new and a new life and a new way. And that's why during the days of Unleavened Bread I'd love to partake of the the practice of partaking of the Unleavened Bread, because when I take that Unleavened Bread I am in essence taking a portion of Christ and I'm saying I am having Christ live in me. And it's my reality, not just seven days out of the year, but every day. But God gives us this very special practice. Today I'd like to talk about a new and a living way, because that's what God has called us for. We have a calling. We have been consecrated.

That's a very fancy word that simply means we've been set apart to be sacred instruments before God Almighty. To recognize that we're being trained to literally be a kingdom of priest unto our God. And that is what the days of Unleavened Bread are to reflect upon as we come to understand how to allow Jesus Christ to live in us. And it's a new and it's a different way. It's a different walk and I'd like to discuss that. Today in society we often talk about thinking outside of the box. And that's a concept that all of us at one degree at one time or another have heard about, that we need to think out of the box. We want you to be our employee, because we need a guy or a gal who is able to think outside of the box. But what we've really come to understand during the days of Unleavened Bread, it's not just a matter of thinking outside of the box. We need a new box. That's the next step. And that's why God has called us and given us an example of Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit to understand that we are not to be the same person. We're to be different. But sometimes we slide back. We're still in this human tent. We're still here trapped in this world of time and space. It happens to us. It happened to other people. It happened to the Corinthian church almost 2,000 years ago. And after having experienced and received God's grace, they went back and set up shop just the same way as if, in a sense, God had never called them. When you look at the book of Corinthians, which is interesting, this whole Corinthian church and their experience, it all centers really around the Passover and around the the days of Unleavened Bread. And you just might say, what a group!

Unbelievable! Let's talk about them for a moment. Divided? They didn't like the preacher? I'm glad we don't have anybody like that in here today. They had open sins. They had problematic marriages.

They had a misuse of abilities that had been given to them as a gift from God. They had doctrinal division. Do I dare go on? They were even suing one another and showing up at church as if no big deal. Here's the encouragement I'd like to share with you today through all of this, because I just kind of gave you a rolodex of horror called the Corinthian church. Here's what I want to share with you, and I want to reach some of you today in this message. And that is simply the good news is that God did not abandon them. God did not abandon them, but He said, wake up. And He asked them to come back to center focus, which is Jesus Christ. Join me if you would in 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5. And let's pick up the thought in verse 4.

Is that the one I want here? Excuse me a second.

1 Corinthians 5. Yeah. 1 Corinthians 5. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my Spirit and with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it goes on talking about an action. But then let's go up to verse 6. Your glorying is not good. Know that a little leaven leavens the entire lump. Verse 7. Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

And with that understanding that Christ was sacrificed and He was that ultimate Passover, it leads into verse 6. Therefore, that means now that this has been done, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now, what is interesting is that the book of 1 Corinthians is what you might call a divine scolding through the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church.

They were at that moment being bad children of God. They were not doing it right. But the good news is that they did respond. And that's a beautiful story I'd like to share with you for a moment. Join me in 2 Corinthians 7. And again, let's pick up the reading in verse 8, which is now Paul's later letter to them. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I perceived with the same epistle, made you sorry, though only for a while. But now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. That means to real change. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of this world produces death. And so Paul rejoiced. He understood that they, if I dare use a phrase, got it.

Just like sometimes when we were raising our children and we were trying to teach them and we were trying to teach them, but they were not responding. And then all of a sudden the lights come on. And all of a sudden you see that it's all come together. And remember that sense of joy that you had as a parent in seeing what the child was doing. That's how Paul felt.

And they changed. And that's really important because sometimes we want to leave the Corinthians church where we where we first found them. And that's kind of scary. Sometimes you say the Corinthians and you know we all do this together almost in a group motion. Oh yeah, you know, the Corinthians. But that's where God found them. But that's not where Scripture leaves them. And maybe a thought in how we're dealing with people in this new and living way. How often do we simply freeze frame people where we first met them and haven't allowed them room to grow.

And to understand how God has been working with them and how they've been receiving the word of God. And they've really begun to change. They're no longer just thinking outside of the box. They really have brought in a new box, a new and a living way. Perhaps that's one of the most challenging things that we have as as Christians to do is to allow people to grow. Allow people to be different. Allow people to repent. And we still see them where we first met them, rather than seeing Jesus Christ living in them in a new and a living way. How were they transformed into this new lump? How were they able to put the new into their life? It's really not a mystery at all.

In 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10 down to verse 11, it's very interesting what it says, For godly sorrow produces repentance leading salvation not to be regretted of, but the sorrow of this world produces death. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. And then it goes on to prescribe the recipe for an unleavened Christian.

It's all right here how they went from A to Z and merited praise from God's servant on behalf of God of a truly changed life that they were not just simply again just folks walking down the alley towards the harbor of Corinth but now they were walking as consecrated sacred children of God to his service. And that's what I'd like to talk about for the remainder of this message.

I just simply want to go through these keys that are mentioned in verse 11 and verse 12.

And we might just simply call it seven keys to sustaining a new and a living way.

Do we want to respond to the incredible calling of God? Do we want some of these doors that seemingly have been closed to us that maybe we've been struggling with to open for us? Or do we simply want to have recycled, repackaged, updated, leaven in our lives year in and year out? How much do we want to respond to the beautiful, the wonderful call of God to be all that he has called us to be for him? And thus, as we are, that that flows out and serves our wife and our children, our neighbors, our fellow brethren, that we might be that light that God called us to.

Let's understand what it says here. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. And what diligence it produced in you. The first key I'd like to center on for a moment is the first key is to be diligent in our Christian walk. And please understand, friends, that this is not something that I pulled from here or pulled from there or pulled off a billboard. This is a recipe for an unleavened human being in God's service. It says what diligence it produced in you.

This attribute conveys a heightened state of alert. And that's what I'd like you to center on for a moment.

When you are diligent, you're awake, and you're in a heightened state of alert. It's interesting, the King James Version puts it this way, what carefulness, what carefulness it wrought in you.

Being diligent in this sense conveys that we are imbued with a high moral purpose, which makes no attempt to treat any matter as simply a small account as it comes into play with our calling.

And I really am striving throughout our circuit in sharing the truths of God with people to take us back to those precious words that we are called. Called. Not called by Robin Weber, not called by an organization, but we have been called by God Almighty. God the Father given us a calling, given us something special that we never dreamed of. And when we fully understand that, we're not going to have anything tarnish that. We're going to be careful. Just like when you go to the post office and you have the postman stamp it with that red stamp, fragile, fragile, fragile, fragile.

We're going to handle the wonderful things of God with tremendous care. We're not going to just brush things aside. We're going to recognize that you and I have been called for a purpose.

The Corinthians in the past hadn't been careful. They had been diligent about their actions, and that's why Paul had to chide them. See, they thought that they had just been called to be better Greeks. Just a little bit better. You know, this man came from Judea, came from Jerusalem, taught us his truths, and now we can be a little bit better Greeks. The Gospel, when it reaches any human being, is not just simply to make us better or even a little bit better. We have now come into the sacred state of being holy as God is holy, and that is the call to his people all down through the ages. I am holy, therefore you be holy. And the Passover that we just again rehearsed about the death of our saviors that Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to die to make good men better, but to allow dead men, dead women, to be able to live in God.

The Greeks had not yet come to this point of understanding. They had become casual Christians.

They had become tolerant. They had become indifferent to sin. Oh, what's the big deal anyway? I'm mature. I've been around. I've been in this way of life for 10 or 15, 20, 25, 30 years.

I'm kind of cool now with everything. I can handle the Bible, and I can handle being a member of the church of God, and I can just kind of walk through Egypt, and it doesn't affect me.

I'm okay. They're okay. But you see, when you think that way, what you're doing is you're allowing the yeast of Egypt to be integrated with the sacredness of the gospel and the word of God.

I have a question that you can only answer, and that's a part of, in a sense, this interactivity of any message, because all I can do is ask the questions. God, through you, has got to provide the answers. How casual have you become over the years with the gifts that God has given you?

The gift of the Spirit, the gift of His love, the gift of the diligence that is in His Spirit to uphold the sacredness that He has blessed us with and called us to. How casual have we become?

Second Corinthians 6, just one thought in this regard, Second Corinthians 6, we do not, and I'm here to tell you today, dear friends, we do not worship a casual God.

God is not casual about His way. He knows what He is doing. He knows what He has blessed us with.

In Second Corinthians 6 and in verse 14, it's interesting what it says here, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has light with darkness and what accord has Christ with Baliel or what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God. That very naos, the Greek word naos, meaning that holy of holies with that Shekinah presence, the Holy Spirit indwelling in us that allows us to be the temple of God. And I will dwell on them and I will walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them. Sounds like the call to Israel 3,500 years ago. Be separate, says the Eternal. Don't touch what is unclean and I will receive you and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty.

I just want to spend one more moment on this because diligence is the most important of the seven keys. Join me if you would in 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. And let's understand what the apostle wrote in his epistle regarding this. 2 Peter 1 and pick up the thought in verse 2.

The life was manifested and we've seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard. No, I'm in John. I want Peter. Pardon me. Here we go. 2 Peter 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord as his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and by virtue.

By having been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust.

What are those promises? What has God given us? It started with that rehearsal again at the Passover of the new covenant, the promise of Messiah, the reality that our sins can be forgiven that we can be approved towards God that we can be accepted of God that we can be members of that divine family but also for this very reason verse three giving all diligence add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge self-control to self-control perseverance perseverance godliness notice please what is the foundation of this escalator of growth that is being revealed in Peter it begins with diligence being alerted being alerted and in remembrance of the call of God that's where it begins it's interesting in verse 10 therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call on the election sure for if you do these things you will never stumble what i want to share with you is simply this the bookends the bookends of this growth process of being unleavened begins and ends with diligence staying alert have you ever been how many have you been to the san diego zoo am i in the right town have you ever gone taking your kids or grandkids to see the is it what do they call them the meerkats the meerkats and have you ever noticed how there's always one meerkat that stands on the hill or am i the only one there's always one up there you will never find an un-diligent meerkat and sees you you know they are at a height i'm sorry about that that's a part of the blessing though that was you know it's part of the prayer blessed the service you got the meerkat but we have been called in that sense to be as diligent as that sentinel that meerkat with what god has given you and me and we can laugh about it and we can smile about it but i'm going to tell you something i'm dead serious about it and the body of christ today as we move through these days of 11 brad need to be diligent and handling with care the sacredness that god has called us to allow me to take you to point number two the second key is again found back here in second corinthians let's go back to second corinthians now these will now begin to go quicker second corinthians because diligence is the foundation but back in second corinthians seven and notice the next one what clearing of yourselves what clearing of yourselves the revised standard version says it this way the eagerness to clear oneself it speaks of desire when you put all the verses together what is being suggested is an act of seeking to now be something totally different than what we were when god first began dealing with us to understand that we stand in christ that we've been cleared of our sins our past it's been thrown behind god's back he no longer sees it he no longer connects the judgment with the sin we're now somebody very very different and that we hold on to that we hold on to what i want to share with you you might want to jot this down and take it home and think about it our reputation is no my reputation is no longer just about robin weber or paul smith or omar anguiano my reputation is now in christ i bear his name i am his follower my life is his i've given my life to him i no longer tightly gripped to that which i thought was pleasurable in the past but i've now given my life to him and i stand and i abide in his name and in his reputation and he has put forth the fence to allow me to continue there you see the corinthian church had a very bad reputation but the corinthians renewed the awareness of what repentance actually was and that allowed them to be a brand new people allowed them to have brand new starts allowed them to have a brand new future when i think when god first grabbed a hold of me as a teenager and then worked a miracle of healing in my life when i was 16 years old that i was basically given up for dad and yet he grabbed a hold of me it doesn't mean i wasn't still all teenage boy i didn't become a monk at age 16 i'm still not a monk i was a teenage boy growing up in california all boy but i knew that god had given me a future and the doctor and everybody else had given me up for dad and i was healed i believe in healing i believe in what we said the other night that that bread reminds us that jesus christ and those stripes they do heal us my reputation that no longer is about robin weber is about what god the father and jesus christ are doing in me and they give me a brand new start how beautiful that is flippings three verse seven let's just look at one thing about how paul felt about this philippians three in verse seven whatever paul was before didn't matter to him he recognized now that his reputation was no longer his he cast that aside and he said i want to have the reputation of jesus christ in me here paul lista at the beginning of philippians three all the things that he had done all the pedigree he was a thoroughbred of thoroughbred of the hebrews and of the jews and of the pharisees verse seven but what things were gained to me these i have counted lost for christ he's saying i didn't just simply think outside of the box i threw the box out because god gave me a new world to live in yet indeed i count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of jesus christ my lord for whom i've suffered the loss of all things count them as rubbish that i might gain christ and being founded him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in christ the righteousness which is from god by that i may know him and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of the suffering being conformed to his death of which we discussed the other evening if by any means i might attain to the resurrection from the dead not that i have attained or am already perfected but i press on that i may lay hold of that for which jesus christ also laid hold of me this is one of the incredible this is an incredible verse talking about one of the incredible transactions between christ and one of his disciples paul got it he said jesus christ came into my life on that road to damascus and he laid hold on me got a grip got a grip on me isn't that what we said at passover that god has a grip on me to the life and the death of his son now during the days of unleavened bread we're saying we're now going to have a grip on jesus christ we're going to lay hold on an entirely different way of life than we transacted before paul understood that which leads us to the third key as we go back to second carinthian seven second carinthian seven let's again pick up with the third key of a new and a living way is all about we've covered diligence the clearing of ourselves a new reputation and then it says what indignation the third key i'd like to share with you of a new and a living way so that we can have an unleavened existence is to be absolutely indignant towards sin absolutely indignant the reason the carinthians were able to maintain a state of diligence and hold on to that new reputation in christ what the bible calls abiding in him is cemented in this point number three i'll just put it this way in my own language they got fired up mad you've never heard that in the hebrew have you they got fired up mad over the results of sin in their lives they were angry enough at sin that they didn't want it anymore in their life fired up mad i'd like that term i need to be more fired up mad when i have episodes of human nature and that alarm comes on in me of anger towards sin see anger is like an alarm clock it's an emotion that god has placed in us and it can be useful just like your alarm clock probably tomorrow morning when you go back to work or go to school or have an important place to go to do you want to have an alarm clock or do you not want to have an alarm clock i want to have an alarm clock but after about three rings the alarm clock has done its thing it's enough so the alarm clock is good anger in portion can be good it gets us fired up mad and we need to be angry at sin we need to understand what sin unabated does to our lives to this world that is around us may i make a comment is this world in confusion right now they've been reading the head is everybody looking really forward to reading the newspapers these days i don't think so because we're seeing the cumulative effect of sin by people by families by governments by dictators by people that even claim the name of god but do not live godly we need to be fired up mad join me just for one verse here i have many but i'm just going to take you to the book of amis join me in the book of amis if you've forgotten where amis is it's before the book of revelation okay amis five and say it's last time i want to come to mr weber for a hint amis five and verse 15 let's notice what it says hate evil hate it get fired up mad love good establish justice in the gate a question for you dear friends how can we overcome anything wrong in our lives unless we believe everything that is against god's laws is evil and despicable and we're ashamed of it it does exist in our life and hate it when are we going to learn the lesson that sin does not have friends it does not have allies it's siren song of come nearer to the shore and even though it hurts everybody else it will not hurt you is a lie in itself just as much as the lie of when the the scorpion came to the beaver on the river shore and said mr beaver how are you doing today beaver says what's the scorpion up to scorpion says i can't swim will you please please take me over to the other shore the beaver said oh mr scorpion you know i can't do that because i know you and i'll know what you do oh scorpion says i would never do that to you because i need to get to the other side the beaver okay hop on the beaver goes this way out and just right in the middle of the the small river that old scorpion takes that old stinger and goes wham that's the beaver and with his dying breath he says mr scorpion well why did you do that you know now that both of us are going to drown and the scorpion just looked at him he says it's just second nature to me and they both sank sin has no other nature and no other end result than death it will pretend to be your friend you will think that you can live with the results of it riding on your back of your life but there is only one outcome remember the beaver remember the scorpion and oh yes you might be able to paddle across the stream of life a little while but sin does have that sting the fourth key let's go to second corinthian seven what vehement desire it says here what diligence it produced in you a clearing of yourself what indignation here's what i want and what fear the fourth key is that we need to be motivated by the fear of god the fear of god early on the corinthian church had not developed a rightful fear of god they just hadn't they didn't have the awe and they didn't have the respect for god and the the fear that i'm talking about is not one of dread i'm speaking of a of a positive fear that we live and we breathe before the great god who holds us like dust in his hands and sometimes though we get trapped in this world of time and space and we don't recognize that god is dealing with us and we we want to again brush it off because we were not diligent we become casual join me for a moment in exodus eight god was knocking on the door of pharaoh that led up to those days of the original passover and notice this in exodus 18 excuse me exodus eight and verse 19 then the magicians those wise men said to pharaoh this is the finger of god pharaoh do you know who you're messing with this is the finger of god but pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them just as the lord had said just a chapter over verse 27 of chapter nine and pharaoh sent and called for moses and errand and said to them i have sinned this time the lord is righteous and my people and i are wicked entreat the lord that there may be no more mighty thunderings and hail for it is enough and i will let you go and you shall stay no longer so moses said to him as soon as i have gone out of this city i will spread out my hands to the lord the thunder will cease and there will be no more hail that you may the earth is the lords but as for you and your servants now notice friends i know that you will not yet fear the lord god dear friends here in san diego loved ones we don't want to be like pharaoh and we don't want even be like that spiritual pharaoh that now rules over the egypt of this world the adversary that does not fear god we want to have a healthy respect for god philippians 2 and verse 12 join me there for a second philippians 2 and verse 12 notice what it says here therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure here it speaks to work out our own salvation with fear and with trembling that working out means to bring to completion to bring to completion what i want to share with you when you look at this verse it's not speaking about fear of punishment fear of punishment but it's speaking of a proper perspective of of recognizing our own powerlessness against sin and that's why we partake of that covenant at the Passover and say god i confess before you who i am apart from you and i know that while i've been redeemed i still have in that sense this human nature i understand that but i continue in this covenant with you and i i need your spirit i i need your love i need your understanding i'll i'll need your guidance this coming year and so when we do that we we recognize our own powerlessness when we have the positive rightful fear towards god also when you think about it the last thing that any christian ever wants to think about the greatest fear of all is simply that we might crucify our lord all over again for lack of diligence for lack of proper fear for moving outside of his reputation and going back and writing our own signature on life who amongst us at just partook of the bread and the wine would want to casually stand by the cross that bore our savior continue in our lifestyle when we've been called to sacredness and look down on him that would be my greatest fear as a as a person that i might take that sacrifice in vain when it says that we tremble the tremble that is being spoken about here is the trembling that when you really love somebody you never want to disappoint them i see all of you out here and i i know you have your walk in life in la mesa or alcahone or down in chula vista or up here in eskindido and i know we're going to stumble but i know that each and every one of you love god you keep up in that love and you abide in him and you tremble before him with positive respect and god will love you and god will take care of you the fifth key again and here in second kenthean seven just a few last thoughts second kentheans seven and let's notice another one of the aspects of the recipe what is vehement desire the fifth key is that we have vehement desire that means that we're eager we're ready we are anxious we're ready to go isn't that what these days of 11 how did they get the name the days of 11 brad because israel was so set to go and leave egypt that even the bread didn't have time to rise they were ready to flee egypt and haste towards the promises of god if we're going to be a part of that 11 existence we also need to have that vehemence and that eager desire to part this world that is behind us you know the kenthean church had been kind of the problem child of all the churches in grace but when they got it they got it they'd been a mess i understand that they had been an absolute mess and i understand that apart from god's grace my life would have been a mess i know myself full enough i know what is in me apart from god i know that perchance i'd been a slave to this world in its ways and just as much as god called moses to the banks of the nile god has called each and every one of us to come out of egypt today to have that eagerness to do so it says that god called the week of the world have you ever noticed by mean week we're going to stumble but have you ever noticed that have you noticed those two books that are missing in the bible you say what two books first and second athenians there is no first or second athenians in the bible god says he didn't call the wise the world and in general the great of the world he said he called the corinthians he called the people down on the port he called the people that weren't going any place we said but mr weber don't don't you know what i make don't you know where i live don't you know who i am i'll tell you something if you are in the body of christ there's some part of corinthian in you and god called you out of the port of your life wherever you were and you are here today before god not because of who you are but because of who he is it's not because of our knowledge it's not because of our understanding of scripture and i and i'll just share a thought with you off my notes and i'll just be very honest with you because i'm just robin talking to all of you as i feel so very much that i'll just speak in the united church of god because that's what i'm responsible for as a pastor and as a member and as a council person the most important thing that we need to be learning at this time in our collective church life and in our individual lives is humility who we have not always been a humble people i know that might rattle some cages i rattle cages of my fellow pastors i might rattle the cages of my fellow officials in the church but i will share with you we have not always in the church of god community been humble at times we have prided ourselves on our knowledge of the bible our knowledge of doctrine our knowledge of truth but we have not really understood the things of the heart because we give our god our brain we've given him our brain he does not want our brain for some of you that have good looks that means all of you don't don't be worried about that he doesn't want our good looks he wants a heart that is humble some of these situations that we've gone through this past year in our own organization and why we are able to meet today in unity and peace and love is not because of what any man did i will tell you that it's not because of what any man did not one member not one pastor not one council person it was because of god's grace that he is yet giving us opportunity to be those sacred vessels now when i say that dear friends that does not mean that we didn't all step forward into our part for the last several years but the challenges that were before us i strove to do my best you strove to do your best but i found humanly that my best really came out very lacking sometimes in boardrooms and sometimes in hallways and all the best plans of mice and men and even converted christians fell flat and it was only god almighty that rescued us and gave the united church of god another opportunity to be a sacred instrument within his hands to learn humility to learn that we are nothing apart from god and that while we are rescued at baptism oftentimes his rescue comes down the line in many many different ways in many many different chapters i know i've gone through the greatest personal training that i've ever experienced just over the last couple of years to really recognize how flat i am as a person and all my thoughts and all of my background in the church and all of my background and this or that is if not just like the apostle paul that i recognize that i am able to be in front of you today with this microphone and still speak of the dear things of the gospel of jesus christ and the kingdom of god because of what god has done and to understand that we need to be eager for god working in our lives that way and when we ask him to work that way in our lives he just doesn't put something down our head like a goose and feed us he's not going to give us humble pills that would be an easy way out he will create situations in our life to see if we'll be humble and recognize that god will indeed rescue us let's go to the sixth key just very quickly i hope you appreciate the sharing that i'm giving you it is from my heart dear friends there is such a wonderful future ahead of for each and every one of you and for us collectively to do the work of god but if we do not start at the ground floor of humility god will simply not be able to use us the sixth key is that we need to have zeal zeal zeal is spiritual sweat that's where the the pedal in that sense or the metal meets the road zeal is defined as eagerness in the pursuit of something it's synonymous with fervent which means hot and glowing and charged and impassioned and fiery for the gospel of jesus christ and the kingdom of god john 2 verses 13 through 17 i'll just mention that says where jesus said my house my father's house shall be a house of prayer and i am consumed with zeal for the house of god every fiber of jesus physical life as the son of man was on fire for the holy things of god is interesting in revelation three join me there for just a moment and here is a message to the church's plural of god down through the ages of course they were given to this church or that church on that mail route in asia minor but notice verse 14 and to the angel of the church of elated seer right these things says the amen the faithful and the true witness the beginning of the creation of god i know your works that you are neither cold nor hot and i could wish you were cold or hot so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot i will vomit you out of my mouth because you say i am rich and i become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know the that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked they're really kind of excited about themselves look at us that's why i just shared the thoughts with you a moment ago about the the true need for christ-like humility if we can be used in this congregation one to another if we can be used one to another between spouses and family and children and and neighbors i counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments notice verse 19 as many as i love i rebuke and i chasten notice therefore be zealous zealous and change and just like god with the carinthian church he never leaves because he says if i've begun a good work in you i will complete it to the end and notice what it says here in verse 20 behold i stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice opens the door i'll come in and dine with him the last one that we look at in second crinthian seven and it's a very simple thought but in second crinthian seven let's go back there one more time to complete this recipe of an unleavened existence second crinthian seven and notice what it says after zeal and what vindication when you are vindicated that means you are cleared you are cleared there's nothing that anybody can charge you you become fully restored because you're now in full alignment with the only matters that are worthy of your life's devotion fully vindicated remember for we that grew up before there were white boards remember the old chalkboards when we used to go to school and remember i was hoping there's a chalkboard back here but remember on the first day of school how clean those chalkboards were they did not look like when you left them in june in september you came and you went wow just completely clean just completely clear no not even a smudge not just writing but not even a smudge nothing on the chalkboard and that is that is what paul is conveying to the crinthians you got it and when you get it and you move through this process you are cleansed you are clear you are vindicated and then you now become a part of a new and a living way you see when you're baptized and pass over as a renewal of our baptism when we're baptized we're like that chalkboard and jesus christ blood erases everything on that chalkboard that you and i put up by our own handwriting all gone and even the smudges were clearly vindicated cleanly vindicated and then god the father gives us a new instrument it's called the holy spirit and it's like the chalk he says i've taken away the past i've given you a new future just like i did with the crinthians but now you are going to write with knowledge you're going to write with my help and you're going to learn to sign your signature the way that my son did he writes his name this way jesus christ it's a new and it's a living way and when it's all said and done you can't earn it you can't buy it but when you accept his life and his death and his resurrection it's already yours because when it's all said and done during these days of unleavened brad we always want to remember that by god's grace this new and living way is a gift