Spring Feast Preparation

When I was a teenager, my family had begun attending God's Church. And when I was turning 15... No, when I was turning 16, we went to our first feast down in Big Sandy, Texas. And it was either that feast or the next feast. While we still had the Big 10th, Mr. Herbert Armstrong flew in. As many of you remember, he would fly and go to several feast sites. And it was exciting when he and his wife... Well, now, this was after she had died a couple of years earlier. But I've heard plenty of stories about how exciting it was when Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong would come walking in. But as I recall, that particular feast, he spoke two times in Big Sandy, which was unusual, because usually he'd fly and give a sermon and go on to the next feast site. One of those sermons, he began and he related the story of the keeping of the Holy Days in the 20th century for the people of God. And you can go to his autobiography and read the same story. But it was really special to hear it straight from him. He told of... He started at that time when his wife challenged him on the issue of the Seventh-day Sabbath. And he, of course, went to the Word of God and began studying to prove her wrong. And, of course, the process of studying proved her right. But not only the weekly Sabbath, but along with it, he came across annual Sabbaths and came to the realization that they're either going to stand or fall together. And so that was in the earlier years of his ministry back in the 1930s, or his ministry started shortly thereafter. And for, as he told the story, seven years, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, Herbert and Loma Armstrong, kept those days alone, not knowing why they were keeping the days. Then, as his ministry began to bear some fruit, they had a small group there in... I believe they were still in Eugene, Oregon area. And with that small group, for another seven years, just the two of them, and then another seven years, 14 years down the line, it began to dawn on him why God has his people go through these annual Sabbaths from one year to the next. And here we find ourselves right at the beginning of a new sacred year, and two weeks from Thursday night will be gathered for the Passover on the 14th of the first month. So, in just days, we'll be into a new year. Every year we have either new people... we pray for more new people who are brand new to the Holy Days. We have others who grow up, and they reach a certain level when they begin to comprehend as they reach a certain level of maturity.

We have some who are brand new in any Passover. It's their first Passover. There's a man that we baptized just Sunday night, and he is so excited, and he's sending me emails, wanting all the details, wanting to know as much as he can before he actually goes there. I had a reply, and I said, look, just go there and find some man and tag along with him, and it'll be old hat before you know it.

But just follow somebody, and you'll go to the foot washing, and you'll get the routine down, and then the bread will come to you, the wine will come to you, and it's neat to see somebody excited that it's his first one. Well, we've got Holy Days right on the horizon, and we need to be prepared. The Boy Scout motto is, Be Prepared, yes. And we need to be prepared. And I want to talk about spring feast preparation with you today, and that's as good of a title as any, just spring feast preparation.

We'll look at both sides of the coin. There is the spiritual and more important side, but there also is that physical side that we need to look at. So I want to give you a few points on both in regard to both. Now, let's first go to Romans 8. Romans 8, and notice verse 7, because we need to remember that there's something within each of us that resists obeying the Word of God. And we do have an adversary. We have an enemy. In Romans 8, verse 7, we read, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

But it said, the carnal mind. And hopefully we are led of the Spirit of God. I believe we are. But we still have this struggle because there is that carnal, sinful nature that doesn't go away with the waters of baptism. It's something we're going to struggle with to the day we die. And we have that adversary. We have the accuser of the brethren. We have the old serpent of the Lord.

We have Satan the devil. And he hates these days. He hates them with a passion. We used to say, spring Holy Day trials were more severe. And then it seemed like it shifted toward fall Holy Days. But it seems like it's all the above now. He hates these days because it reminds the elect that his days are numbered. And that the kingdom of God will be established. And as we get to the Passover, we begin taking that first step of reminding, of renewing, of recommitting ourselves to our covenant with God. And it goes all the way through to the fall, whenever we keep a day that pictures the fact that he's going to be locked up.

And finally, there'll be a kingdom set up of the increase. So that kingdom, there'll be no end. And he won't be a part of it. So we need to remember that we have that adversary. And he would like to trip us up. And he would love to see us just walk in at the last minute, totally unprepared for what we're going to do, two weeks from Thursday night.

God wants us to be prepared to know and know that we know what we're doing and why we're here. We start with the spiritual. I'll give you a few points. The first one is review past material. Review past material. And there is a mountain of it out there. We have, of course, a booklet. God's Holy Day plan, the promise of hope for all mankind. There is a chapter on each of these festivals. This one's a few years old.

It starts in 2010. But there's the calendar for years to come of the dates when they will fall. Amazingly, the Feast of Tabernacles this year is completely and totally in the month of September. And that doesn't happen very often. I think it's about as early as it can fall, or the last day. The eighth day is September 30th. But we have this booklet. We have... Well, we've got... New Good News magazine just came out. And every time ours just came yesterday, Pony Express in Limestone County is probably slower than some of yours.

But it has an article on... a couple of them on Easter, and the Good Friday, Easter Sunday, how it doesn't fit. But there's one on the symbolism in God's Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But you know, you can go back to March, April of 2014. And 2013, all the way back, and you've got three or four outstanding articles. You may have, like me, magazines back to 1970, and some of you probably have them a lot further.

And if you have internet, you've got them all right there with a few clicks, and you can find them. There is the old 58 lesson Bible correspondence course, that if you don't have hard copies, you can find that online. And you may remember, somewhere around the 30s, you had one whole lesson on the Passover, another one on Unleavened Bread, all the way through the Holy Day year. Great material. Same Scriptures, nothing has changed. Same in Jesus Christ, same yesterday, today, and forever. We have had, in many cases, years of sermonettes, split sermons, Bible study sermons that we have heard.

We have had messages on, examine yourself. Messages on, discerning the Lord's body. Messages on, why the foot washing? What is the Unleavened Bread that the Passover symbolized? What is the wine, the blood of the Lord? What does it provide for us? We have had sermons on living the Unleavened Life, walking out of sin, fleeing sin as an ongoing procession. It began at a certain point, and it continues. And we continue to take steps toward the Kingdom of God, and away from the way that we grew up in.

We have had messages on the night to be much observed, on being living sacrifices. So the topics can go on and on. Parallels between leaven and sin, or the story of Lot and family, leaving, and how Sodom had its tentacles around them, holding them back until the angels just grabbed them and pulled them out.

So there's so much we can go to. Some of these we'll cover with the next point. But at any rate, we would all benefit by going back and reviewing, pull out notes, pull out old articles, read the new articles, reread the booklet, and just get it refreshed in our minds. And then God can... and we should pray that God would add more than has been there before, to our understanding, that is. Number two is study pertinent chapters in the Bible. And we're not going to turn to any of these, but I'm going to list quite a few.

Study pertinent Bible chapters that focus on the spring, the spring feast time. From one point of view, you could even begin in a place like the story of Noah and the Flood, Genesis 6 to 9, because Noah found grace in God's eyes, and the whole world around him was corrupt, so much so that they were about to be destroyed. And God went to his servant, and he said, I want you to build this boat.

He gave him the blueprint, and Noah went to work with those that would have helped him. And it doesn't say the sons, the wife, the daughters-in-law, that any of them found favor in God's eyes, but Noah did. So with the story, they were saved from the waters that killed all of the other human life.

Now Peter referred back to that as a type of baptism, that it washed away, that they came, and it was a new world, and they had a fresh start. We could certainly start with Genesis 19, the story of Lot and family being pulled out of Sodom. We have a very clear description of what was going on in Sodom. Sounds kind of like reading the news here today, doesn't it? Too many parallels. Too much out in the open. And brethren, I'm sorry, but it's going to get worse. It's going to get worse. This country is headed down the tube. And, but Lot and family, you know, Lot had to choose the well-watered plains when Abraham gave him the option.

But at the end of that chapter, I think it was chapter 13 of Genesis, at the end of it, it mentioned, the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked, and he chose that. I suspect he knew that. And the next thing you know, we find that he's not just down in the well-watered plains. He's at Sodom, and he's there at the city gates, and he has a house there. He has married, and he has a family there.

And the world is just about to pull him under. And it's probably good that he had Uncle Abraham, who was doing a lot of prayer, intercessory prayer for him. But you can follow that story. They were pulled out, and he was dragging his heels. And his wife's heart was back in Sodom, and she aborted on their flight.

They're on their flight out of their departure out of Sodom. We could look at Exodus, and actually the first 15 chapters of Exodus would be a great place to review, reread, ponder, read a chapter, read a few verses, and just stop and ponder it for a while. But the book opens up. Israel is in Egypt, and they were having some pretty good years. They had a lot of good years. They still were not dwelling in that land that was theirs yet.

You know, as God had told Abraham, your seed's going to go on a land that's not theirs for 400 years. But they had some good years, but then about verse 8 or so it says, until another Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph. And when they didn't remember Joseph and how the nation had been saved through the actions of Joseph, they quickly forgot. And they began looking at the Israelites, the Hebrews as it calls them, who were multiplying and prospering, and began to fear that here's this minority within our country, and they're going to take over.

I mean, it always happens. It's happened in history. It happened in Rome. But anyhow, it follows through calling Moses, that prophet, Jesus was a prophet, like Moses, and the special training he had, and then one plague after another after another, that brought that great world power down. And then the miracle, one after another, as they walked out of there, and seas opened.

The Passover was kept there. The blood of the Lamb saved them. A lot of parallels to the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, that you and I look to the Kingdom of God because of that. So, Exodus, you have, of course, I think I skipped over Genesis 22. That would be a good one. Abraham and the near sacrifice of Isaac. Okay, Leviticus 23. That's always good to review because it starts, and it says, these are the feasts of the Lord. And the first thing it mentions is the weekly Sabbath. This day today is one of God's feasts, but it's a weekly feast. Then it goes the Passover.

Everywhere in the Bible, everywhere in the Old Testament where it mentions the Passover, it makes it clear it is on the 14th of the first month. There are those who somehow, to this day, conclude that you keep it at the end of the 14th, but you're actually doing it into the 15th. But the Bible is consistent. The 14th is the Passover, over and over. You have unleavened bread. We'll look at some of that just a little bit later here, though. Now, in the Psalms, we have some wonderful Psalms to look at. Psalm number 22 would be great.

This is a Messianic Psalm. This Psalm David foresees some of the very words and thoughts of Christ at His crucifixion. That's where he said, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? The very words Jesus cried from the cross. A little later, it says I can count or tell all my bones because of the way His flesh had been laid to ribbons. And many, many phrases there, the bowls of Bation surround me. Many phrases. Psalm 51, David's psalm of repentance after the sin with Bathsheba and plotting the murder of Uriah and actually giving the order, pulled back in the heat of battle. So David took ownership of his sins. He did not play the blame game at all. He didn't blame it on his upbringing. He didn't blame it on his parents. He didn't blame it on Bathsheba. Adam did that. This woman you gave me, she made me do it. David didn't do that. And that's the beautiful thing about David's attitude. And I think that's why God had said through Samuel, and it's repeated in Acts, but I'll find a man after my own heart who will do my will. And David made a lot of mistakes, but you know, when it came down to it, he took ownership of those mistakes. And he said, my sin, my sin transgressions are ever before me. He knew it was his, and he wasn't blaming it. Well, in the prophets, Isaiah 52 and 53, Isaiah 52 and 53, that's where, well, at the end of 52, it talks about how he would be numbered among transgressors. And that's why he asked if anyone had a weapon, had a sword. The appearance was that there were a bunch of troublemaking rabble-rousers, and so he could be arrested.

You've got all kinds of things in chapter 53 that is mentioned. Then New Testament, of course, each gospel, you've got four gospels. There are, well, it's like one we all learned, elementary arithmetic.

Remember, first learning. Put those numbers in a column, plus sign in front of the last one, draw a line, and you add all the above to find the sum total. And that's what we need to do with four gospels. There are some stories one man tells, and nobody else tells it, such as in Matthew's account. Matthew 27, about 51, with the death of Christ, the earthquake, the graves of some of the saints were opened, and then after the resurrection, they came walking back into town.

The other authors don't tell that story. So you've got Matthew 26, 7, 8. You've got similar, parallel, I didn't write down, marks, but those last about three. Same in Luke, John.

John, the last half of it, because in chapter 12, it starts out, now it's six days until the Jews pass over. But in chapter 13, you've got so much there, he's the only one that tells about the foot washing, and gives a lot of detail, and then identifies who will be the betrayer. Satan enters Judas, which I think is good for us to know, that Satan was there to the very end, trying his dead level best to destroy the Son of God. And Jesus said to him, what you do, do so quickly, and Judas left. So you've got chapter 13, foot washing, and then his message of love. You've got 14, promise of the comforter, vine and the branches, chapter 15. So all the way through, and then chapter 17, the true Lord's Prayer. So a lot of material there. Now, I'll plug a book. I don't often do this, but I'm about to finish. John MacArthur has a book called The Upper Room. Now, like anything, you have to filter through it, because he can only see Good Friday to Easter Sunday. But he basically takes John 13 through 16, and he takes little pieces of it, and tells a lot of detail. It's fascinating behind the scenes of why it was done a certain way. So I would recommend John MacArthur's The Upper Room. He has another one, The Murder of Jesus, that he keeps referring to, and I think I'll find that. Maybe not this year, but another year. Anyhow, he'll be there.

Then in 1 Corinthians 5, and 1 Corinthians 11, just mention those two. 1 Corinthians 5, that's where Paul is writing the church at Corinth. Now, there may have been some Jews there. He's the one who said to the Jew first, then the Gentile. But Corinth was this big mixing bowl, this big salad bowl of all this mishmash of various peoples. And the church there was largely, for the most part, not Israelite. It was a Gentile church, and he told them, let us keep the feast. Now, why would he say that if it got nailed to the cross 20 some years earlier? He told them that you are unleavened. Why would he say that unless they were putting the physical leaven out? You know, some wanted to debate that back and forth. He said, let's keep the feast not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but the new of sincerity and truth. Then, chapter 11, verses 23 through 32, is so important. That's where he talks about what I am giving you. I was given this by Jesus Christ Himself. And that's good to know, because 25 or so years down the line, He says, in the night our Lord was betrayed. And that had to be at the beginning of the 14th. He took bread, He took wine.

The story goes through. Paul says, discern the Lord's body. You need to know what happened because of you and your sins that night, that day. He says to examine yourselves.

So, very important material to go back and refresh in our minds. All right, number three is fast.

Fast. Find a time too fast. Now, everyone has to deal with that differently. We always have those who have health issues. We certainly don't want anyone to put themselves into a diabetic coma.

But everyone has to call for the most of us. We can abstain from food and water for however long you want to go. And usually we don't want to go very long, do we? But that's why it's called to afflict our souls. Because in the process we're telling God, I want your will even when it hurts.

I want your will in my life even when it hurts. Well, Isaiah 58, in the earlier verses, there were those who were fasting for the wrong reasons. It was kind of a penance or trying to enforce their will upon God. But then he shifts partway into the chapter, about halfway into the true reason for fasting. Isaiah 58 verse 6, Is this not the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke. And you can follow on through it. It talks about the blessings that will flow when we do it properly. There, of course, when Christ walked the earth, there was the example of casting out the one demonic situation. And the disciples were puzzled why they couldn't, and he could. And he said, this type goes out only by prayer and fasting. But it stresses to us the importance of fasting to draw closer to God. There are things that we only see when we afflict our souls, that hopefully then we remember, and we can grow. Number four. Number four is to examine yourself. Examine yourself. And you could just make note of specifically of 1 Corinthians 11 verse 28.

1 Corinthians 11 verse 28. And that's where he said to examine yourselves and sow, eat, or take of that bread and drink of the wine. So the wording is such that you do the examination. You assess the life, your own life first. The word translated, examine, it's one commentary author I read. He likened it to the process of assaying of an ore to see if there's enough precious metal in it to make it worthwhile to mine.

On the days of the Old West, you had the assay office, and the old prospector might come in, and he'd take some of his ore to have tests run to find out is it worth his while. Well, God wants us to scrutinize, to examine, to test ourselves. His parallel, well, a similar statement was made in his second letter, 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. So his question there is to consider, am I among the elect? Am I among the saints?

Is the Spirit of God leading my life? Am I overcoming? Have I grown any this year?

Is there evidence of the fruits of the Spirit of God from my life more so than before?

Do I yield to God's lead through His Spirit? So these are some of the areas we can assess as we examine ourselves. And then number five, prepare to appear before God.

Now let's turn back to Deuteronomy 14. I think it's good to remember that God worded it in such a way that at that time in ancient Israel there was a singular place where they were going to go to appear before God. Now God had worked in a number of ways. From the time of the flood when the ark settled and the earth dried to the point where the door was open and they went forth, first order of the day was build an altar and then Noah as a family patriarch sacrificed some of the clean animals to God. You have, well, Genesis 22 that I mentioned, you have Abraham as the patriarch being told take that son of promise and go sacrifice him. In the Bible studies on Job we saw in the opening chapter how that when his children would get together for a feast he would sacrifice in case one of them had sinned without knowing. So that was the patriarchal age, but when you get to the time when national Israel is brought out of Egypt, God's working a little different way. In Egypt you still had your households together keeping the Passover, put up the lamb, kill the lamb, or maybe if it was a smaller family with some others, but when it was Israel entering a covenant with God it was different. You had a place a location to go to appear before God. Deuteronomy is what is given before Israel. Well, Moses is going to die and Israel will follow Joshua on into the promised land. But just notice verse 22.

Deuteronomy 14 verse 22, you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine, your oil, the firstborn of your flocks, etc. Then verse 23 ends, with that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. So as it became national Israel, you had this first this portable tabernacle tent with the Holy of Holies, and that's where you went to appear before God. Later there was a temple.

For a long time Jerusalem was the singular feast site. And how long did it take Joseph and Mary and 12-year-old Christ to come from Nazareth all the way down and in their walking?

Good amount of time. Good amount of time. Maybe they were gone from home a long time.

But then, as we get to the New Testament age, again things are changed a little bit.

And you had the Holy Place destroyed. And the Scriptures say not one stone standing on top of another. And the church fled. And Jerusalem was not the feast site anymore. And so the church was keeping it wherever they were, which is why Paul was writing Corinth saying, well, when is the Passover? Here's what Christ gave me, and I'm passing on to you. You keep doing this to commemorate him, his death, till he comes. And I checked the news this morning, and you know what?

He hasn't come, because I didn't find much as far as good news. I saw a super, some kind of a super, I didn't see the word typhoon, a storm moving across out in the Pacific, the archipelago of Vanuatu out there in the middle of nowhere, Australia, beyond the Coral Sea, out into the Pacific. I guess not far from the equator, but I guess those people can have typhoons year-round.

So I'm glad I'm flying through Japan this time. Instead of, like last fall, we went through Honolulu to Guam, and we got stuck both places for a while because of a typhoon that moved over Guam. So where was I? Up here before God. Okay, you shall truly tithe. Now, in numbers it talks about tithing, but it was the wording is different. The wording was, you keep this tithe, it is holy unto God.

And in their case, they gave it to the local Levite. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that the New Testament ministry is to take the spiritual Levites to receive the tithes of God's people.

But this is a tithe. You don't give to the local Levite. You don't give it to God in that sense.

It is for a holy purpose. It's to finance your trip to go to that place where you appear before God, and you will eat before God. And that's where it goes on with verse 24. If it's too far, change it into money, make your trip, and buy what you need once you get there. So a lot of principles we apply to our situation today, but I think it tells us we need to be making plans. Last fall, in fact, let's look at Deuteronomy 16. Last fall, on the last day, we gave the last holy day offering of that holy day year. And here we are, five, six months later, and it's amazing how fast time goes. And the fact that we're going to be passing the plates, and we're going to have our green envelopes, I mean, it should not be slipping up on us like a thief in a night. We knew this was going to happen, so we should be planning. Now, everyone's budget and income and finances are different. There are those on fixed incomes, and they have very little. And God understands. And there are those who are in their prime salary-making years, and they have more. And there are those who barely get by or barely aren't quite getting by, however that works. But in Deuteronomy 16, verse 16, three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able. You cannot give what you do not have.

According to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you, there are years we are blessed more than at other times. And you know the not so clouded secret here is God doesn't eat our money anyhow. He wants our character. He wants our heart.

And the one example held up in the Bible was of two mites.

All right. So prepare to appear before God. We do that on the weekly Sabbath.

And when you listen to the opening prayer, generally the fellow leading us is going to ask God's presence here with us to bless this time we have. Bless what is said and covered in fellowship and snacks and in the whole nine yards. But we on annual holy days, we appear before God.

And we should pray for those. I mean, think of all the work there. There are those who set up, clean up. There's actual service. You have song leaders. You have those who do special music.

You have the taking of the offering that we were talking about. I like to pray that God will perform the miracle of the fishes and the loaves and bless it to go further than that $20 bill or $70 bill, if they make those, that you drop in that plate. That God will bless it for its intended purpose to send forth the Word of God. That Isaiah said, my word won't come back to me void.

So we have sermonettes. We have sermons, special music, the whole day.

And we need to be praying and asking God's blessing on that. That we can be of a heart and mind to receive the meat that God inspires for us at that time. I still remember, and I love how Mr. Martin, Ken Martin, so long ago here in Birmingham, many of you here remember that. But on Holy Days, he would talk about how it is like God. Well, one thing he'd say, God throws up this stop sign, stop what you're doing, come appear before me with your brethren to hear what God has for you. And he would also say the Holy Days are like God pulls back the curtains so that you can see with greater clarity into the marvels of what that particular day means for us. So we need to be prepared to come to appear before God. And obviously, that would include the Passover ceremony and everything we do. Now, let's look on the other side of this coin, on the physical side. And point number one here is clean out the leaven. Now, let's go back to Exodus 12. In Exodus 12, let's look at verses 14, 15, and 19. Exodus 12 verse 14.

So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Everlasting ordinance.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses.

For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

It goes on talking about the first day and seventh day being holy convocations. Now, the way it's worded in verse 15, some have thought, oh, well, I've got to gather my leaven and then actually put it out on the first day of unleavened bread. Well, we're not through reading it. Let's add to that verse 19. Verse 19, it says, for seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses.

Since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel. So you can't have seven days of unleavened bread if you're putting it out on the first day. So I think as we've got enough to piece it all together before we get to... Now, Passover Day, you don't have to have all of it, but you'll want to have been working toward that point where you may have just a little bit left. We tried to plan it where there's as little as much and this year I'm just going to get on a plane and delegate it. No, I will get to that point that it needs to be a family effort. And I've done the chest freezer and the garage and my Toyota and my office.

But I'm not going to be here to move furniture for vacuuming, but we just did that.

We just did that because of a little painting project. And so while we were there... And you know, we don't have three eating machines and their friends taking cake and pie and sandwiches, walking through the house and pizza and eating it. You do, though. Uh-huh. So it is amazingly different than just a few years ago where we had to just assume it's everywhere. And you know what it is? Because hard as we work, back in the old days when we were all newer, we probably thought, well, let's rip the carpet out of the house and hose it out. Let's pull appliances out of the counters and spray it on. No, no. Give it a good hard look. Give it a good honest effort.

The beautiful thing about God's ceremony is it always teaches. And that was the point I was getting to. We can put as much effort... We can spend every hour of every day between now and unleavened bread. And we're not going to get all the crumbs out of the house. And in fact, truth be told, there's spores, yeast spores floating around the air out there that we breathe. So what is important we need to remember is what it teaches. And as it is impossible on our own strength to get every crumb of leaven out of the house, so it is impossible to put all the sin out of our own life on our own power. That's where we go to God and ask God to do for us what we can't do on our own. Everyone's home situation is different. We have those where the whole family attends. And so you would delaven the whole house. We have some families where you've got one or two, but not all from a house. And you know, it's the other person's house. If you have a spouse who doesn't believe the same way, then you have someone in your home that may say, well, I want my bread. I want my biscuits. And we would back up and just say, well, what do I have full control over? And maybe it's, you know, maybe it's your laundry room and maybe it's your, you know, the bulk of your kitchen and maybe it's your living room in your bedroom. You might be able to delaven the whole house, but just have a tub for your husband or wife for them to have their bread.

Or it might be to worry that, no, I want my bread right there in the pantry or I want it right there in, again, what do you back up? What do I have control over? What do I have full control over?

And you have a car probably that you primarily drive, so you can clean that. You can deliver that.

We have the question that comes in the church quite often, and that's what is leaven. It comes in so many times the church has a form letter on it so that somebody sends in an email, just attach this and send it back to them. But let me read just a little here. Leaven is a food additive which causes bread or bread products to rise, such as pancakes. You'll put your cup of flour, your cup of milk, and your egg, and you'll put a tablespoon of baking powder. I think I'm close on this, but it's been years since I've made pancakes. But I've made them all over the country.

They're nationally known by, well, our children.

So I was going somewhere with... Oh, okay. So you then whip it all up, and there's this chemical process that takes place, and these carbon dioxide bubbles begin rising. So the leavening agent causes that. So you have yeast. You might have, oh, the packets, Fleishman's dry yeast packets.

You might have the little cubes, the compressed yeast. Then it says there are chemical leavening agents, such as baking powder, baking soda. You have to look for sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate. Those are the same thing by different terms, or they do the same thing.

These are the ingredients to look for on labels.

Items such as bread, cake, crackers, cookies, prepared cereals, and pies. I would add pizza crust. Watch out for your pizza.

That contain leavening should be put out. This is symbolic of putting both visible and hidden sins out of our lives. Then it goes on and mentions there are some agents that are often used with a leavening agent, but of and by themselves, they're not. So like crema tartar is used with egg whites and sugar. Whip it up to make a meringue. Cream of tartar by itself is not. You can't make anything rise with that by itself. It says you've got some like brewer's yeast. So if you have beer in your house, and to my knowledge we don't, but anyhow there might be some somewhere.

Because when our kids come, I'm usually told, go get a few, you know, go get a six-pack of beers because they might want them. And then they disappear. And anyhow, but there would there would have been a brewer's yeast in that process. But there's nothing in there that you can then distill or extract to use to make your biscuits. It's been spent. The same is true in some soups. You will, it mentions here, yeast extract, or sometimes it'll say, auto-lized yeast extract, and you'll see it in soups. Again, in the process, it was spent. There's nothing you can take out. So, I think it's all we need from there. I would add, these are not the days of unleavened alpo or nine lives, if you know what I mean.

Dog foods, cat foods, oftentimes there will have been a leavening agent used in the process. Again, is there really anything you could take out? And the other side of that coin is, is there anything you would want to take out to then have pancakes? So, the church has generally said, you know, you don't have to throw out your dog or cat food or your, you know, your animal food of any type, if you happen to see that. The only thing is, the Scripture that says, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So, if you see it on your bag of nine lives, I'm not even sure, do they make nine lives? I'm out of the cat food business. Yes! I didn't say that.

So, if it's in there, and if it bothers you, throw it out. Don't let it sit there two, three days in, I'm loving bread, thinking, well, you know, I should have thrown that out. Just get rid of it and go get another box afterward. But there are other products, someone asked me years ago about, he had a compound out in the garage that you use to clean battery posts, and it had baking soda in it. Well, there sure is nothing I want to take out of that. So, it's what is the purpose that would it be put to? So, okay, delivening. Then a few other real quick little points.

Sometimes there's a need for kids sitters. Obviously, nursing babies need to be with mama.

I mean, that's just common sense. But as they get to be of a certain age, you know, five, it's hard to say, six, seven, it's hard to...you might have a real quiet child, but then they might all of a sudden be really loud. And the Passover night is the most solemn, somber, serious occasion. It's a funeral memorial service. We remember what Jesus Christ went through. So, that's where the church is through the years strongly recommended. Get a kid sitter.

You've got time now to work it out. Hopefully, again, we understand nursing bathes in arms. That's a different matter. Older teens, young adults are welcome to come observe if they want to. Mr. Holiday's letter mentioned that as well. But now again, each congregation is different. Do we have wash basins for this congregation? Yes, we do. Okay. So, you don't need to bring that. They'll be here, but you'll basically need to just bring your Bible. We've got hymnals here for the final hymn. You'll need a towel for the foot washing part. And the church will provide the unleavened bread for the ceremony, and they'll provide the little cups of wine for the ceremony. So, I would recommend give yourself time. You might come up on an intersection where there's an accident and you're locked down in traffic. You know, if you had built in another half hour, maybe it'll work out. I always like to think, well, what if I had a flat tire? Could I change the tire and still get there? Because Passover is pretty important. I don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss it. Not to be much observed. We mentioned make plans there.

Rides at night. Sometimes we have those who don't or shouldn't drive at night. You have time.

Talk to people. Find a ride to be able to get here and by. We read the scriptures about the offering. Prepare the offering. Again, if you get that green envelope, it really helps those who tabulate later at the home office. Okay, let's close over in Leviticus 26.

Leviticus 26. The first verse reiterates the command, don't make idols. Don't make any carved damage. Don't bow down to any stone.

But in verse 2, you shall keep my Sabbaths. And notice it's plural.

And reverence my sanctuary. I am the Eternal. If you walk in my statutes, and holy days are statutes, and keep my commandments and perform them. And then he starts this list of all these blessings that God's going to pour out on us if we obey him. Verses 12 and 13. I will walk among you and be your God. You shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.

So we come to the spring feast season, and God wants us to be preoccupied with the meaning of what's coming in just over two and a half weeks. So we will keep you in our prayers.

I appreciate your prayers for my month-long trip and then Denise's little over a week trip. I look forward to seeing you. I think it'll work out the last Sabbath of April. We'll be back here. So be safe and enjoy a wonderful spring feast.