What Happens After the Days of Unleavened Bread ?

Good afternoon. Happy last day of Unleavened Bread. Thank you for the special music that was fantastic. Just beautiful. Thank you for the piano playing as well for offeratory. Since you haven't had an opportunity to know a lot about me, I'm going to share a quick story. Don't let this one get back to my brother, though. Seeing the duet on the piano took me back to being a young boy. My brother Troy and I took piano lessons.

We took this Suzuki method, where you memorize all your music and you get up for recitals and you just play it by memory. And for one of the recitals, Troy and I were supposed to play a duet. And being the older brother, I was pretty hard on him during our practices at home because he would goof off, he would forget his parts. And I'm like, you're going to mess this up for all of us. Well, guess who messed it up when it came time to play? So we sit down and no music. It's in my head, it's in his head. We start right in and about two measures in, my mind goes blank.

And he's just playing along, just like Troy, if you know him, just like he always does. And there's a point in the music where you can come in halfway because it kind of gets into a repeat. And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to have to hit that repeat. I hit it for about two measures and then blank again. He ended up playing that whole duet pretty much by himself. And I think I learned, I was very embarrassed. I don't know what I learned, but I learned that I can be very embarrassed.

I sit down and my older brother, just as older brothers do, leans over, pats me on the back and says, great job. I ran out bawling at that point. I was so embarrassed. Anyway, a little bit about me is there'll be plenty of other stories. But thank you for the special music.

Thank you for the offer, Tori. It is great to be here back in Michigan. With this time, we couldn't come alone. I was threatened by my life, by my daughter. If we came back up here again without her, we were going to pay. So our daughter's here in the back of the room. Her name's Kelsey. She's 12. So this is her first trip back up to this area. We also have our in-laws, my mother-in-law and father-in-law, my sister-in-law here with us today.

So it's a great time to be here. It's a great time for family. And it's just a beautiful day. One of the difficulties I've faced over many years of keeping on loving bread is what happens when this feast comes to an end?

What happens when this week comes to an end? These days are a special reminder of coming out of sin and putting more of Christ into our life. When the Israelites left Egypt and were being led to the Promised Land, they failed to understand the depth and the meaning of what God was doing in their lives.

It's so easy for us to fall back into old habits, old ways of life, when these days come to an end. What we do as we go forward from these days is so important, so vital to our spiritual health for the coming year and for many years to come. And that is to continue to focus on Christ and continue to put Him more into our lives. I'm a visual person. I like to imagine putting myself in other people's shoes when I hear a story or when I try to understand something deeper. I like to have an illustration of my mind oftentimes as I picture something that somebody's saying.

So I'm going to come up with an illustration today, and I hope you'll walk along with me as I walk through it. Because as we walk through this illustration, I hope that you see God's Spirit in it and you see His words start to pop out as we continue in it further and further. Imagine that the days of Unleavened Bread have come to an end. You're at home tonight, sat in sunsets over, and you're starting to switch gears into the rest of your week. Many of us have work tomorrow, others have school. And so you're sitting at home and you're looking over the plans for the week, and you know you've got some meals, you've got some lunches to pack, and we don't have any bread, do we?

So you're thinking through the list, and you've got a couple other items on there, and you say, you know what, I'm going to rent out to the store tonight, so I'm ready for tomorrow morning when it comes. And so you make a short list, you put bread on there, because it's wholesome for the family, and you get your wallet and your purse, your keys, you head out the door, and you start driving towards the grocery. And while you're driving, you're just thinking about normal things, like we often do when we jump in the car, or maybe just light things, like about the week that's ahead of you.

About some things that your kids have to do coming up in school, and you're just driving along, minding your own business, and you top a hill, and as you're going down the road, there's this gas station on your right. You've seen it being built, but it looks like it's open.

Tonight's the first day that it's open, and you see this big flashy neon sign, or some colorful sign that they got out front to draw your attention. And there's cars parked out in front, and you're seeing it looks like people are having a good time. It's a hip-nip happening place to be on this evening for all these people in town. You find yourself not being able to let this thought of seeing what this gas station looks like out of your mind.

You're curious, what are all these people doing there? Looks like a new place, looks clean. They've got some signs out, they're advertising some things, and you feel like you can't just drive by without turning in for a moment. And so you do. You pull in, you park your car, you step inside the gas station. And in doing so, it's not even on the forefront of your mind what you were previously going out to do.

It's kind of just disappeared for a moment. Your initial goal was to go get food, to go pick up some bread for the week ahead, but you've forgotten about that for a moment. How easy it was, minding our own business as we drove down that road, was it to be distracted for a moment, to see something bright, to see something out there that drew our attention away.

And then instead of continuing on the straight path, we diverted. We pulled into the driveway to check out the gas station. How easy it was for us to do that. Something that we never even had a plan to do when we left the house. But here we find ourselves. It might seem like a strange illustration that I'm helping for us to envision.

I mean, it's just a gas station, right? There's nothing wrong with a gas station. But if you allow me some creative license, the gas station in this scenario represents sin. And if we'd stayed on the straight path going to the grocery, that would represent choices of righteousness.

You see, so many times in life, we go through life with the right intentions in mind, with nothing wrong with what we're trying to do. We have a focus that is pure, that is well-meaning. But then out of nowhere, something catches our eye, doesn't it? It distracts us. And we end up someplace we didn't plan on being. I think this has happened to the Israelites. And I think it can happen to us if we aren't careful as we exit these days of Unleavened Bread.

So today, let's contrast two separate and distinct paths we can travel. The path to temptation, turning, and hurting. Or the straight path of righteousness, which leads to victory and eternal life in the kingdom of God. Two separate paths that we're going to look at today. Back to our scenario for a moment. We were just driving along, minding our own business with a plan and a purpose of someplace to go. But then we become distracted. Out of nowhere, temptation entered in. Something interfered with our drive and drew our attention away from the original intent of going to the grocery.

It's not a sin to be tempted. Let's look at James 1 as we consider this for a moment. Let's turn to James 1, verse 13. Because it's not a sin to be tempted. It's what we do after that initial temptation that either leads to righteousness or it leads to sin. James 1, we'll start reading verse 13 through 15. Let no one say, when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. It's not a sin to see the flashy gas station sign as we pass by.

We can't help but to see things often in this road of life. Things that appeal to us. Things that draw our attention. Things we see. But it's what we do next, though, that counts. When we turn towards the sin and allow the thoughts associated with it to enter our mind, our actions can easily follow shortly behind the thoughts. Let's look at the Hebrew and Greek word for sin.

There's two of them that sin is translated in the Bible. The meaning is behind one. The first one is transgression. And the second one means missing the mark. So you've got transgression and you've got missing the mark. To transgress, it's to step across or go beyond a set boundary or a limit. So you can imagine for yourself a soccer field with those bright white painted lines. If you stay within those boundaries, you can play all day. You can play by the rules and stay within that. But if you step across that white line into unmarked territory, you're out of bounds.

You've transgressed the limits of the game. The other way it can be translated, missing the mark, is straying off course or turning wrong or turning aside and not continuing in the intended direction with the result that we don't make it to our goal. So missing the mark. Once again, the idea of a soccer field. This is the player who kicks the ball towards the goal, but it sails left or it sails right or above the goal.

They miss the goal. No point was scored. God's word and his teachings and commandments defines the boundaries of our athletic field and the standards of the goal that we are aiming for. So that's sin. Temptation occurs daily in our life, even on a good day. Our own selfishness and our own pride sits right below the surface, doesn't it? It's waiting to wiggle its way into our thoughts, waiting to wiggle its way into our minds, into some aspect of our day.

And again, it's not a sin for us to be tempted. It's what happens next that will lead to sin if we allow it to. Let's go back to the grocery trip analogy again. Here we were, on our way, doing what we were supposed to do. And we come over the hill on the road, and boom, we see that gas station, don't we? That bright sign that's sitting out front. And before we knew it, we found ourselves turning into the gas station to check it out. We have veered off our original path, off the road that was leading to our intended destination.

But why did we turn? Why did we turn? There isn't anything that we need in the gas station. In fact, if we really think about it, we don't even really want to be at the gas station. But as sometimes we find ourselves in life, we find ourselves turning anyway. Maybe it was that big sign, that flashy sign, that we just couldn't take our eyes off. Maybe we looked down and said, well, the tank could be topped off a little bit.

Or I can always use that candy bar, right? Or maybe it was that sign that said, cold drinks in the window. I'm a little thirsty right now. But if you were to turn to Romans 7, verse 21, in the New Revised Standard Version, it says, Evil lies close at hand. Evil lies close at hand. This is what happens when we allow temptation to grow within our minds to a point where desire takes hold. Desire then blossoms into sin, transgression of God's law, which then leads to death, if it's not repented of. We missed the mark. We broke the standards that God has set before us.

This, of course, is serious business. At this point, we must repent from our heart before God and make a course correction back onto the right path. But we're going to continue with this thought a little bit. Because, sadly, this is a process that we're all very familiar with. Because at one time or another, each of us have fallen short and we've all sinned before God.

So let's think about this personally, how this personally applies to us for a moment. What are the things in life that gets your attention? What are your personal gas stations? I'll throw out a few examples just to get our wheels turning a little bit. Is it Facebook? It can be. What about entertainment? What about TV, movies, music? Can those things lead us off the path that we're intending to go down?

We know the scripture talking about the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Boy, doesn't that encompass so much if we just focus on those three aspects? What is it that draws our attention away from God?

Is it spending time with friends who chase after worldly things? What about sports or dances at school or other school events for some of our teens? That conflict with God's way. Only you and only I know what our personal gas stations are. Anything, and they are anything that results in breaking one or more of God's commandments, his laws.

Reality is, we will encounter our own personal gas stations every single day. It really is part of living in this world, even though we strive to not be part of it. We try not to let these gas stations bother us. We try not to let temptation enter in, but we are living in the world. Sometimes our gas station and our grocery store, sin and righteousness, are directly across the street from each other, aren't they?

Just one skinny street separating the two, it seems like. Righteousness and sin can be very close to each other, side by side, across the street. You put in your notes Genesis 4 verse 7. Because Genesis 4 verse 7 says, If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. Not in your neighbor's yard, not across the street, not two towns over. Sin lies at the door. You open that front door. It's boom, right there. Sin can be that close. And as Genesis 4 verse 7 continues, And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

That's the end of Genesis 4 verse 7. We have to all be careful at all times, because before we know it, we can find ourselves tempted and turning into sin. Want to see how quickly you and I can go off the rails? Let's look at an account in Exodus chapter 32. Because we have a powerful example of the Israelites quickly turning towards sin.

Not over a long period of time, not over something else down the road that came in, but how quickly. Notice this. How quickly they had turned back to sin. This is the account when Moses is on the mountain talking with God and being given instructions.

And they wonder where he's at and when he's coming back. Exodus 32 verse 1. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that we shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings which are in your ears, and your wives and your sons of your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molten calf. Then they said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

They have turned aside quickly, not over a long period of time.

Notice that they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Can you imagine putting yourself in their shoes for a moment?

Could you imagine yourself being in their shoes and quickly turning to a golden calf when you had already seen the miracles, all the plagues that God had brought to deliver you from the hand of Egypt?

Think about it for a minute. It's easy for us to sit here and say, Well, that was them.

That's not me.

Really?

We have to think through that. We have to ask ourselves, Do we find ourselves turning quickly at times?

Turning aside with not much thought, not much involvement in that.

I have to ask myself that.

The gas station is right along the road to our destination.

Right along.

Right beside the road.

You didn't have to go a different direction to find it.

You didn't have to veer out of your way with some kind of pre-thought process going on that, I'm going to try to go see that new gas station.

No, you were just going through life.

And that gas station, as you top the hill, boom, it's right there.

It's in your mind.

This is just the way of life in a world that is ruled by Satan today.

So many times, the opportunity to sin is right along our path of doing something right and good before God.

But we still have a choice.

Turn aside towards the temptation, or to stay on the straight path towards righteousness. Let's turn to Proverbs 4.

It's a powerful proverb that we're going to look at here, part of it.

Because here Solomon is giving instructions, and will read to his children.

Proverbs 4, and we'll start in verse 11.

I'll show you how to start in verse 1, just to get the context. Here are my children. This is Proverbs 4, verse 1. Here are my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to no understanding.

Verse 11. I have taught you in the way of wisdom.

I have led you in the right path.

When you walk, your steps will not be hindered. And when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let go.

Keep her, for she is your life.

Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil.

Avoid it.

Do not travel on it.

Turn away from it, and pass on.

That gas station, right?

Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass on.

And this is talking of the pools of the world in verse 16. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil, and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.

For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. But verse 18.

But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

The way the wicked is is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble.

In verse 25.

Let your eyes look straight ahead.

Straight ahead. And your eyes would look right before you.

Ponder the path of your feet, and let your ways be established.

Do not turn to the right, or to the left.

Remove your foot from evil.

What a powerful proverb!

But doesn't this just spell out our daily life?

As we walk through life, and we have to make choices at school, at work, and home.

We're given an opportunity to stay on the straight and narrow path.

But sometimes we find ourselves turning aside. Here Solomon is saying, Do not turn to the right, or to the left.

Remove your foot from evil.

Because when we turn, this leads us to the end result of the path, going down the path of temptation, and turning aside.

And what ends up at the end of the path is hurt. We end up in a place of hurt.

Sin hurts.

Sometimes sin feels good in the moment, but it doesn't happen without damage being done. There's never a time that sin occurs without damage. There's never a time.

Sin always creates damage.

Sin causes damage to ourselves, and it causes damage to others.

Back to our analogy for a moment. What was our original intent to go to the grocery tonight?

This was by bread. Something wholesome for the family. Something that our family needed. Something we needed. That was our original intention.

But what's happening now?

We never made it to the store.

Wasted time. Wasted energy. Maybe even wasted money.

Maybe we didn't even make it to the grocery.

Ponder that for a minute. What if, by the time you finished up there at the gas station, grocery's closed? What are you going to do tomorrow? Who's being hurt? By the sin. By the choices that we've made.

We've been harmed, because that was going to be part of our lunch, wasn't it? But we can go without a meal.

I can go without a meal.

But what about our kids? What about our growing kids that need a sandwich for tomorrow?

What about those at home that need something else that we were supposed to pick up the store? We never made it.

We never made it.

We never made it.

And as sin often does, it's not just us who've been hurt.

And as I mentioned, most would. A lot of the times, it's those closest to us.

Those we'd lay our lives down for.

Those that we would do anything to help and to protect.

Peter understood the damage of sin. Let's turn to 1 Peter, Chapter 4.

1 Peter wrote a passage that contrasts in life the living away with Christ versus the way that most live their lives in the world today. This is 1 Peter 4.

We'll read verses 1 through 6.

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God.

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime. Listen to this section. We have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

In regard to these, they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. Isn't it funny that our friends think that we should be right along doing things like they are?

We should be keeping worldly holidays just like they are. We should be hanging out with them on Friday nights at the football games, just like they are. We should be at parties with them in college just like they are.

And yet, we're the weird ones.

We're the odd ones out.

Let's continue in verse 5.

They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

Live according to God in the Spirit.

We've spent enough times hurting ourselves.

We have spent more than enough time hurting those closest to us.

And we spent more and more and more time wasted when we could be doing great and wonderful things.

This progression of being tempted and turning and hurting has damaged generation after generation of mankind.

The rut that many in the world continually find themselves in.

But it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be something that we allow ourselves to fall into after these days come to a close.

I recognize the first half of this message is a heavy message to hear. It's a heavy one for me to speak to myself.

But what is positive about it is that there's a hope.

There's a way out.

We just went through the days of Unleavened Bread.

We just memorialized the death of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who gave Himself for you, for me, for the entire world.

That is hope.

That's a future that we have.

And so this heavy part of the message that maybe we find ourselves in at times, I want us to remember that and then do what?

Stay on the straight path. Because we can.

We can do that.

Because now in the time we have remaining, let's talk about that good path.

That straight path that we can choose to travel.

The path of righteousness, living and walking daily with Christ in us, which results in winning.

Which results in winning victory and eternal life in the kingdom of God.

That is our future. That is what we get to see.

The progression of being tempted and turning aside and then hurting can stop right at the beginning.

Can stop right at the beginning when temptation first enters in. When we put on Christ and He lives actively inside of us.

When we do that, we win.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 13.

This is the encouragement that we get when it comes to temptation. This is the truth behind it.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

Temptation does not have to lead to sin.

It can stop right there. God has given us a power to let it work actively and strongly in our lives to stop right there, to stay on that narrow path, to pass by the temptation, pass by the sin.

Because remember our initial goal at the beginning of a trip?

To buy bread for ourselves and for our family.

What is it that we even needed bread in the first place? Why bread?

Why is it that we desire to have bread?

It could be any food.

Because we desire life.

We live a physical life.

Nobody disagrees with that.

We need bread in our lives for food, for nourishment, for strength, to enable us to continue living this life.

Yeah, bread provides for our physical life, but it also gives us eternal life if we take in the right kind, the right kind. Let's look at John 6, verse 33.

John 6, verse 33. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Isn't this the type of life that we really, in our deepest inner part, desire?

Physical life feels good, and it is a joy to be alive.

But don't we all desire this eternal life? This life with God?

This life in the kingdom? For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

This life isn't forced on us. This eternal life is a choice that we get to make. It's an option that was presented before you and before me.

The end result of choosing eternal life will affect us forever. Not just that one meal that that loaf of bread will provide, or maybe for a few meals.

But this eternal bread of Jesus Christ will live with us forever.

We are told in Deuteronomy 30, verse 19, to choose life.

Choose life!

Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. I call heaven and earth, as witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.

Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live.

In this physical sense, we do choose life.

We choose to eat food. We choose to take care of our bodies. We choose to protect our children because we want to live.

It's not rocket science. It's nothing earth-shattering that I'm sharing.

But it's very natural for us to desire this normal way of physical life. It's easy for us to desire to find food to sustain us. It's going to be easy for you to find a place to eat tonight. It's going to be easy for you to go to the grocery tonight or tomorrow and start buying some of the things that's been missing from your house for a week or 10 days or two weeks. It'll be easy for us to do that.

But how are we doing spiritually?

Is it easy for us to desire to feed our minds and our bodies with spiritual food that leads to a much, so much greater, way of life, better than anything this physical world has to offer?

In Colossians, hold your finger here in John 6, if you will. We'll be coming back here in a moment. But let's flip back towards the back of the book to Colossians 1.

We'll read verses 9 through 14.

For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.

These days that we are completing today represent putting in the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ, and we don't just do it for one week of the year.

We shouldn't be doing it for just one week of the year.

We should be partaking in the bread of life daily, weekly, monthly.

We have to be taking the sin.

Let's turn back to John 6, if you still have your finger there.

Had a slight note in there to keep my place.

John 6, and we're going to continue reading now in verse 48, because the thought continues.

I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and are dead. They ate the physical bread that they were given, and they're no longer here.

But I am the bread of life. Verse 50, This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. And we just don't take in Christ just with the physical aspects of eating unleavened bread for a week.

We do take Christ into our lives when we study His word and we pray and we bring God into our lives.

But we also must do something else.

We must abide in Christ.

We must live in Christ.

Let's look at this word, abide, for a moment. The Greek word, abide, is mino.

Mino, it's not the little fishy thing that swims. M-E-N-O, mino, to stay.

It means to stay in a given place, state, or relation.

To continue to dwell.

Listen for a moment, abide.

To endure, to be present.

Abide, to remain, to stand.

That's what we are to do in Christ. Let's turn forward a little bit to John 15.

Some of these verses we read, most likely at Passover.

We read in Cincinnati a few of these.

But these are strong passages that we should conclude this piece of Unleavened Bread with, these days of Unleavened Bread.

John 15, and we'll start reading in verse 1.

I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you.

Let's pause here for a second. Abide in me.

That's pretty clear. We get that. But listen.

And I in you.

Christ abiding in us. Let's go back to the definition for a minute as we consider this topic. To stay in a given place, state, or relation.

Christ wants to continue to dwell with us, to endure with us, to be present, to remain, to stand with us.

As it says there in verse 4, Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Let's flip forward to 1 John, chapter 2. 1 John 2, verses 1-6.

Continuing the thought of abiding in Christ, My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he himself is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.

He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word truly, the love of God, is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him.

He who says he abides in him also to walk, just as he walked.

Just as he walked. We must dwell with Christ. We must let him live powerfully in our lives, as the Holy Spirit works and changes us from the inside out.

This can be seen clearly through our actions.

So what are we to do? We are to walk in the Spirit.

How do we walk in righteousness, you may be asking. How do we do this? How do we walk in the Spirit?

Walking with God requires an action plan. It requires an action plan. It's not just enough to say, well, I know the Ten Commandments. I know God's teachings. I know I've got to change my life.

It's not enough to understand the process of being tempted, of turning, and of hurting ourselves or those around us. It's not enough just to know. This is the beginning, and it is a vital place to start, but action has to follow. It has to follow. We need to implement our action plan, because we get to choose life. We get to choose life, which means we get to choose how we are going to respond to temptation when it first enters our thoughts. What is our plan to respond to temptation?

What is my plan to respond to temptations?

Let's look at Ephesians 5, because we have a call to action that we are to heed as we start working on our plan.

This is that motivation to get that plan started, to get it vetted out, to get it ironed out, to get it solid in our mind. Ephesians 5 verse 8 starts us down that path.

Let's note the action words as we read. I'm going to pause a couple times. We're trying to emphasize some of these action words, because this is the start of our plan. This is the motivation for you and for me to make sure that we have a plan of action to avoid temptation, to avoid those gas stations in life. Ephesians 5 verse 8, For you were once darkness, and I'm going to pause for a second, because this is literal darkness.

You and I, at one point, were darkness. Not just an idea, not just a concept. But we were darkness. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Action word. Walk as children of light. Verse 10, Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

Action word. Expose them. In verse 13, But all things that are exposed are made manifest. Another action word. To render. And the made manifest means to render apparent, to appear, to declare, to make known, to see.

Made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light.

In verse 14, therefore he says, Awake, action word, you who sleep. Arise, action word, from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

This is our calling to get up, to stand up with power, with love in our hearts, with something that can motivate us stronger than anything in this world can overcome.

Because we have the Holy Spirit. Let that just ponder that for a moment.

That is that power that we have to overcome those temptations.

This is the hope that we have in our hearts. This is the future that we have presented before us.

Is this Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, working strongly and powerfully in our lives.

So that we don't have to get bogged down in the first part of the message today. We don't have to get caught up in the temptation, the turning, and then the hurting. We don't have to, because we have a God who's given us power, more than anything that this world can throw at us.

Awake, you who sweep. Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.

That's a picture for a moment you waking up bright and early for school, or for work. It's still dark out. What's the first thing you do? You flip on the light, right? Because you can't see as you stumble through the house, or at least not without broken toes.

Black and blue toes. Had a few of those.

You enter a room, or you find the light switch in the bathroom, and you flip it on. And assuming you have power and working light bulbs, which I don't always have one or the other. But assuming you do, light enters the room. Light flows in. And where does that darkness go? It's forced out. It disappears. It's gone.

You flipped on that switch, and in doing so, you allowed the power in the house to eradicate the darkness. You allowed the power, this physical electricity that we have in the world today, to eradicate the darkness. We have an even greater power that is able to eradicate the darkness out of our lives, if we allow it to. If we flip that switch. Let's turn to Romans verse 13. Romans 13, and we'll read up verses 11 through 14. Romans 13, and we'll read up verses 11 through 14. And do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to wake out of sleep. Remember, we just woke up. Flip on that light, right? High time to wake out of sleep. For now, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, and not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. All these things that happen at night, all these things that are hidden in darkness, because nobody wants them to be seen. But, verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

Sin and evil cannot masquerade as anything but evil when exposed to the light of God.

We can try to hide things from God in our lives.

We've all done that at some points, different points. We've tried to minimize. It's not that big of a sin, or it's just a little gossip, just a little bit of a white lie. It's not that big. We've all tried to hide things, or maybe we refuse to let the light work in our lives to illuminate those things. But if you choose to use the light you choose to use the Holy Spirit to illuminate your life.

You will see the sin, and it will be eradicated.

This is what we Christians should be doing in every aspect of our lives.

How do we start or initiate our action plan? How do we do this? The first thing we have to do is to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit to initiate our action plan for avoiding sin.

This is the first step and the most vital step. And without this step, no plan can move forward. You can't skip point number one and jump to point number two and for sin to be eradicated. It must start from the heart, and it must start with the Holy Spirit working powerfully in our lives. The plan has to be initiated even before temptation enters. We have to draw on the power of God's Holy Spirit daily by reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer. This gives us the mindset of God in the front and the foremost of our minds and our thoughts and interactions.

With this, though, the rest of the plan falls into place. The rest of the plan will fall into place.

And the next steps of the plan are... This is the part you guys have been waiting for, right?

It's up to you. It's up to you, and it's between you and God. It's up to me and between me and God.

Because only Him and you really know what your gas stations are in life.

Only me and God know the temptations that I have in my life.

It takes thinking through these areas of life that are temptations for you and to develop your action plan against them. Hopefully you've already formulated a plan as you went through this year. Maybe it was your pre-passover work that you did. Or maybe it was through these days, as you took in the Unleavened Bread, the physical food of Unleavened Bread that you thought through of Christ living in and through you powerfully. Maybe you've already done that. Hopefully we've all got our plans that we've went through and that we've maybe sharpened up a little bit as we work through these days of Unleavened Bread. But if you haven't, it's not too late. It's never too late to begin formulating a plan.

If you are struggling with areas of your life, please take time between you and God to formulate that plan and to start putting the steps in action. Because through study of His Word, you can find scriptures that speak to you personally, to speak to your temptation personally, and that you can begin to start putting these to your memory. You can start to put these into the forefront of your mind so when that gas station rolls by and when you top that hill, you've got that scripture ready. It says, no, I've got a family that needs me. And more than that, I've got a spiritual father that is waiting for me, that wants me to be part of his family. So no, no gas station. Done. Buy it and you just won. And yeah, it might be for one day or it might be for the first step of many to come, but for that moment, you won. You allowed God to work powerfully in your life because you had an action plan and you knew how to implement it.

As we wrap up with today's message in this powerful aspect of the action plan that you and I all have to have, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Because we do have a hope. We have a future. It's been secured through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The down payment has been paid.

All we have to do is to accept it. All we have to do is to fight, to work through, to overcome the limitations that this physical body and our physical minds drag on us. The pools of the world that we see when we leave here today, we're going to see them. We are. We're not invisible to them. They're not invisible to us. But we have hope. And we have an ability and we have the process for overcoming those temptations, those moments when we want to turn and those moments that we end up hurting ourselves and those others around us. Let's remember that as we read through Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. Ephesians 2 verse 1. And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our own flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But listen to this verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We're going to leave here today, and at sunset the days of Unleavened Bread 2017 will come to an end.

We are going to continue living our physical life at work, at school, with friends, family.

We're going to live our life in retirement for some of you, which is great, but each of us will continue to live life. And as we travel through our day-to-day activities, we're going to pass our own individual gas stations that will be there as a temptation. Let us draw on the power of the Holy Spirit and let us let it work powerfully in our lives. Let us continue to fight against whatever it is that tempts us and that keeps us walking forward. Let's fight against those things. Fight against them. Let's walk forward. Let's walk on the path of life, on the good path, on the right path that leads to eternal life.