What is the "IT" Factor?

Mr. Thomas, good afternoon, everyone. Good to see many of your faces out there, a few of your coffee tables, a few of your lamps and walls. I'll try not to take it personally that Mr. Thomas, a couple of minutes before introducing me, said that he could really eat a good cup of coffee. He'll have a chance to go get one, and after his nap is over here in the next few minutes.

Hopefully everyone had a good week. It's a crazy time, isn't it? Things look a whole lot different than they did just a few weeks ago. I know at work it's amazing. I end up spending a lot of my days actually exactly like this. On the computer screen, having video conferences and phone calls with people, and have gotten very used to dogs walking across in the field of the camera, kids running in and screaming, and all kinds of other noises and things that go on. Life is still going on one way or another. It's nice to see people out in the neighborhood, especially on days like this, just getting outside and going for a walk, and taking time to do a few things that sometimes we got a little too distracted from, and days gone by. I'm going to share my screen here with everyone.

Hopefully we can get the technology working here.

If anyone's having problems seeing anything, maybe just activate your microphone and speak up. I can't see the chat function when I have the screen up like this. I thought I'd make it easy on everyone since we're at home.

For those of you taking notes, all you got to do is write down two letters today and remember the word, it. What in the world is it? When we were kids, we'd probably remember playing tag, and that was always the favorite thing to go running up to somebody and tag them and say, you're it. That's not quite what I'm talking about today. Sometimes at work, we'll read articles and see something referred to as the it factor. Has anyone heard of the it factor before? I know one of my bosses in the past put it, he used the term edge. I can remember sometimes being in a meeting where we might be doing employee evaluations and we'd be holding up two different employees and what their evaluations were. This boss would get up and say, you know, she just has edge. What he meant to say was there was this intangible there, something you couldn't quite put your finger on, but that made it different. That's really what the it factor relates to. Think about it maybe in entertainment. We've got a couple people who are fantastic singers. One makes it big, the other one doesn't. When you look at the qualities of their voices, they're basically the same, but one of them just has that additional factor that you can't quite put your fingers on. What I'd like to talk about today is finding the it factor in the spring Holy Days. I'm going to leave that hanging out there for a bit as we go through the first part of this message and ask you to try to identify, if you can, what it is. What is it? It is definitely in the Old Testament Holy Days. We're going to dive through and spend a little time talking through that.

Maybe we'll have a little contest, see who can figure out what we're talking about here today. As a starting point, it is dominant. Now, what do I mean by it is dominant? As you'll see up here on the screen, for those of you who can see it, the 10 plagues that attacked Egypt were a contest of sorts.

I'm not sure if we've always focused on this. We know maybe we've memorized as children the different plagues that hit Egypt and all the things that happened. It's probably pretty timely. In fact, I was in the car yesterday just taking my single short trek out of the house to go get a cup of coffee at Starbucks and was listening to one of the news shows.

The first time I heard somebody use the word plague to describe what it is that we have going on right now. In a lot of ways, I guess there are some parallels to the plagues that hit Egypt. Especially, if we think of living through this, just like the children of Israel, lived through and experienced all of these different plagues. Not necessarily with the same consequences that Egypt had, but they experienced all of them living in that same geographic area, the same society in that sense with Egypt. But if we look at these plagues, something we don't always focus on is each one of these plagues was striking directly at one of the gods of the Egyptians.

I'm not going to read all of the different names here, but you can see in every single one of these plagues, it was a demonstration that God was greater than the gods that the Egyptians worshiped. The Nile turning into blood, for example, there was Apis and Isis, the god and goddess of the Nile. There was Chnoom, the guardian of the Nile. And as the Nile turned to blood, what it showed the Egyptians was that the gods that they worshiped were not as great as the god of Israel. In fact, they were powerless against what the god of Israel was able to do. And as they went through each and every one of these plagues, frogs, they had a frog-headed goddess named Hecet that they worshiped.

And what did God do? God brought frogs up out of the waters that there were so many of them that they were overrun. And then they died, and the stench of them was everywhere. The gnats then set the god of the desert. And so essentially, what God was doing as he brought these plagues on Egypt was he was showing that he was dominant over all of these different gods in the whole pantheon that the Egyptians worshiped.

I found it interesting that one of the gods related to the locusts and also to hail was Nut, the sky goddess. So I guess if you worship Nut and somebody said you were Nutty, it could be considered a compliment. A little different from today. Sorry, jokes don't go over so well when you don't have an audience that you can see laughing or groaning. So anyways, we see here in the ten plagues then that God was showing dominance over everything that the Egyptians worshiped.

And it started even before these plagues. If we remember one of the first times when Moses and Aaron came to see Pharaoh, Moses took a staff and they put the staff down and it turned into a snake. And Pharaoh on occasion then had his priests come and they were able to turn their rods into snakes as well, except at the end of the day Aaron's rod, the snake that it turned into, ate up the snakes of the Egyptians.

And that's actually one of my favorite scenes in the Ten Commandments from back when I was a kid seeing that happen. But the point here, looking at the it factor in the spring holy days, it is dominant. And in all of these plagues that came down on Egypt, one of the things God was showing was entire dominance over everything that Egypt worshiped.

Let's move on and look at another example of it. It is personal. So Jim was talking in the sermonette about slavery. Of course, we know the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt.

In this section, Exodus 12, verses 31 through 36, talks about the last moments right in this time of the spring holy days, the last moments before Israel actually left Egypt. And Pharaoh called for Moses in verse 31, and Aaron by night, and this was after the death of the firstborn, he said, rise and get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. Go serve the Lord as you have said, and take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.

And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we shall all be dead. And let's just pause here and make sure we think about this a little bit from a personal angle. You know, when we think about slavery, what was happening at that point in Egypt, the children of Israel were serving in all kinds of different ways within Egyptian society.

Just like any other society in the past that has had slaves, we look at ancient Rome, for example, even unfortunately in this country. And it was a very personal thing, because as a slave, you worked for somebody. Somebody was the slave owner. Somebody had that dominance over you. And what I find so interesting was that when God took the children of Israel out of Egypt, it was more than just this mass exodus. There was a very personal element to it. As the Egyptians, you can just imagine a well-to-do Egyptian that might have had a handful of Hebrew slaves in the household. Personally and individually urging the people, get out of here.

We can't have any more of these plagues that have come upon us, and we need you to leave. And if we look further in this passage, they sent them out of land and haste, saying, we shall be dead. And so the Israelites took their dough before it was leavened, which is why we have the days of unleavened bread, having their kneading bowls bound in their clothes on their shoulders, and they did according to the word of Moses.

And they asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing, and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. They granted them what they requested, and they plundered the Egyptians. So it was very personal. If you can think of working as a slave, and hundreds of years that your family might have served another family, worked for them for nothing, made it back every day to do the menial tasks that had to be done in the household. And in this circumstance, as they were going into the Exodus, God had them ask from those Egyptians their greatest valuables, and they were given those things.

Articles of silver, articles of gold, fine clothing. All of these riches that they had in their homes, they were personally given to them by the Egyptians. And we don't see it recorded specifically anywhere, but I would imagine that this happened on a household-by-household basis, probably, as the children of Israel went to the people that they worked for, the people that they knew in Egyptian society, and asked them for these things. And so they walked out, really, as a conquering army, even though they had only been slaves a month before. And so, you know, we talk right now about how much things have changed in our own environment in just a few weeks.

As God went to work here, through the plagues that he brought on to Egypt during that time period, in only a small time span, whether it was weeks or months, God made a dramatic change, and the children of Israel came out victorious, and personally carrying away goods that were given to them, valuables given to them, by the Egyptians. So it is personal. Let's look at another dimension in the Old Testament. It is complete. It is complete. Exodus 14, we'll read parts of verses 22 through 28. This is a fairly familiar passage, I think, to all of us, and we recount these events from time to time.

We read the stories. We just heard that there are Bible lessons that go through these things for the children as well. Exodus 14, verse 22, the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground. So I think we know right away what this is referring to.

A short few days after they had left Egypt, Pharaoh and the armies came after them. Pharaoh had a change of heart. They probably realized how difficult it was to function as a society without all of the Israelite slaves taking care of everything they did. And the thought of all the cataclysm that had happened to them maybe faded a bit, and they started to think more of vengeance, and they went after the Israelites to get them back. And so, of course, we know the story as well that God led Israel through the cloud and the fire actually down into a box canyon where they were basically trapped between two walls of rock and with only the sea in front of them.

But that's where God showed his hand in delivering them. And the children then, after Moses parted the sea, went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, as we see here. And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all of Pharaoh's forces, all of his chariots, and all of his horsemen. So we see the totality of the Egyptian war machine going after these slaves who had left Egypt with all of their riches, which was so much out of their households.

And when we pause to think about this, at this point in history, Egypt was the dominant world empire. It was only going to be for a few more moments if we're looking at this passage in the Bible. But we had the dominant world empire, the strongest military, chasing the children of Israel, their former slaves, into the sea. And of course, we know what happened next. God took off their chariot wheels once they were there in between the walls of water.

So they drove them with difficulty. That's one of those little understatements that we sometimes see in the Bible. I think if the chariot wheels are off, you probably have more than a little bit of difficulty driving the chariot. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it.

So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea, and then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. What I want to focus on here with it is, it's complete. We look at the victory that God gave here to the children of Israel as they were fleeing, in this case, from the Egyptian army. He didn't give them a small bit of victory. He destroyed everything that was in the way. He took all obstacles out of their path.

He didn't just divide. It would have been easy to simply close up the sea, leave the pillar of fire on the other side, so that Egypt could not enter the sea, divide them by the sea, and let Israel take off into the desert. But he didn't do that. He gave a total and complete victory to the children of Israel. So it is complete. One more piece before we leave this part of the message in looking at things in the Old Testament around these spring Holy Days, and that is that it is lasting. One example we'll look at Deuteronomy 29, verse 5. Here in Deuteronomy, God and Joshua are talking to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land, and they're recounting the different things that happened in their history, and how God had took them through the wilderness, and how He had led them to that point where they were. Right when they were about to inherit everything. And here God says, I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you. Your sandals have not worn out on your feet. So we see that it was lasting. When God took them out of Israel, He didn't just perform one event for them. He was there consistently for them, day after day after day, for forty years, as they were wandering in the wilderness.

And not only did He feed them, as we see in other places in the Bible, with manna, with water coming out of the rock, but He saw all the way through to the smaller elements of what they were dealing with. Not even having their clothes wear out, or even the sandals on their feet wearing out for forty years. Now some of us would probably not be real excited about wearing the same shoes forty years later. I guess by that point you've got a couple turns in the fashion cycle, so maybe the forty-year-old sandals were retro at that point. But they were probably more focused at that point on the practicality of just having something to walk in and thankful for those shoes. So what is it? As we look at the Old Testament. I'm not going to turn your microphones on and ask you to share, but what did you come up with? What is it? It's dominant. It's personal. It's complete, and it's lasting.

Well, the it factor that I'm thinking of is God's victory. Because that's something that is woven entirely through the account of these Spring Holy Days. If we look at the Old Testament, God's victory is in every element of what's being talked about. God's victory is dominant. Through the plagues he was showing, that there was no God like the God of Israel. It didn't matter which of the Egyptian gods you prayed to. Not even the Sun God himself, who was personified to the Egyptians in the Pharaoh, could withstand the God of Israel. As we might remember, the ninth plague was one where God brought darkness to the entire nation. Imagine you're there in your Pharaoh. You are the personification, the embodiment of the Sun God. And this God of Israel comes and blots out the Sun for days, making it clear that you have no power relative to that God. And when you think of the killing of a firstborn as well that happened as the final plague, again, the Pharaoh was thought to be a deity. And his firstborn son, as his heir, would have thought to be a deity as well. All of these things had to do with God showing not only Israel, but also Egypt, that he was dominant. And there was nobody that had the power that he had. And the victory that he brings is a victory over everything that can stand in his way. His victory is personal. We talked about the fact that the children of Israel would have personally plundered. They would have gone to the households, the Egyptians, that they knew. And they would have taken things and been given things as they found favor in their sight. That whole phrase of finding favor is a personal thing, person to person. God's victory is complete as we saw the children of Israel going into the sea, and it's lasting. It's not given to us as something that's momentary. And that's important as we look at the children of Israel and the experience they had. It's a dominant theme of the spring Holy Days in the Old Testament. Now, why is this so important? We know, of course, that we have the parallels that run between the Old Testament account of Israel coming out of Egypt and the comparisons of slavery to sin, as we heard in the sermon at. Something else that underlies this that I think is incredibly important is we know and we understand that there's one God that's behind all of these events. And one of the things that we can use as a way to bolster and to strengthen our faith is to understand God's victory and these elements of his victory that we talked about just a moment ago. That same God that went to these ends and brought this victory in order to keep his promise to the physical nation of Abraham has made us promises as well. Promises that come through the New Testament Passover.

And so, as we move on and think for a moment of the New Testament, let's ask the question, where is it now? And let's look at God's victory as it's woven through the New Testament Passover. As you think of the accounts in the New Testament, how do you equate victory with what's happening in the New Testament Passover? And to us, beyond, as we take that Passover and as we're joined together into the body of Jesus Christ through that ceremony. Let's turn first to 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7. I think we're fairly familiar with this. We might even have read this scripture, Last Sabbath in the sermon. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7. Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. So here's the first link that we see. Jesus Christ very specifically talked about as being our Passover, one of his identifying features. And further, we see in Revelation 13 verse 8, where Jesus Christ is talked about as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now this reference to the Lamb, I think we know, is a reference to the Old Testament Passover. Because one of the injunctions in the Old Testament that night before the children of Israel left was that they were each to take a lamb, one for each household. And that lamb was going to be sacrificed. The blood of that lamb was put up on the doorpost, which is why the death angel passed over the house of the Israelites and did not strike dead the firstborn of Israel, but only of Egypt. And that same lamb, that sacrificial lamb that physically gave salvation to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is likened to that lamb and the greater salvation that he gives us spiritually, not only for the descendants of Abraham, but for everybody who calls on Jesus Christ and repents. So moving further, as we see these accounts then in the New Testament, the ties to the New Testament Passover, we see that we have victory through Jesus Christ. We talked about the fact that it is God's victory. And so we see Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, we see Jesus Christ as our Passover, and then here in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57, we see Paul write, Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So again, we talked about the fact that victory and God's victory is woven completely through the Old Testament narrative of the things that happened in the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread and the time that followed. And likewise in the New Testament, victory, the victory that comes from God through Jesus Christ, is the dominant theme. Let's turn to another scripture that talks more about this, and this is also from Paul and Romans. Romans 8, we'll read verses 37 through 39.

So again, we see this theme of victory. God has given us victory, and we're conquerors over the sins that beset us, over the human nature, the physical nature that we're born into, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And lastly, the victories that were shown as we look at the Passover in a New Testament context, we look at Jesus Christ as our Passover, we're given deliverance from death. Romans 8 verses, actually I got this scripture wrong as I was copying scriptures in, I apologize for that. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I believe that's in Romans 7, but I'll have to look for that later if anyone wants the exact scripture for that. So through Jesus Christ, we are given deliverance from the body of death.

So when we look at the It factor, we saw how It, God's victory, is woven entirely through the Old Testament narrative of the Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread. As we look at the New Testament Passover, this time that we're about to celebrate, we know that Jesus Christ is our Passover, clearly stated for us. And through Him we have victory, and we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. The victory that we have is over death, and the death, the physical death that comes through sin. Because as we know, through Jesus Christ and through His resurrection, we have the opportunity for resurrection to eternal life.

So what does this all mean as we bring it around to ourselves, and what we need to be doing, and thinking about here in these last days as we come into the Passover? As we do that, I'd like to go into this last third section of this message, and thinking about It. We It, and examination.

Now we've talked, and for those who've been associated with the Church for a long period of time, you've probably heard this for a number of years, for those who are somewhat newer, perhaps not something that we focused on quite as much, but a scripture that we often read at this time of year is 1 Corinthians 11, verses 27 and 28. And here we read Paul writing, Therefore, whoever eats this bread, or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. And so one of the central things that we're supposed to do is spend some time in examination here as we lead into the Passover. And it's certainly not too late at all to do that, these last handful of days that last between, that we have between now and when the Passover comes. And let's spend a few minutes just talking about what this means, and especially in the context of victory. So the word here that's used for examination is the Greek word, dokimazetto, and it means to put something to the test or to prove it, to show that something is real.

And in one of the word studies that I was reading, it talks about a cognate or related word to dokimazetto, which is dokimazu, which specifically, it says there, does not focus on disproving or showing something is bad. You're actually trying to prove you're showing the authenticity of something. The goal is to show the authenticity. And so when we think back then about examining ourselves and what we're supposed to go through at this point in time, I'd like to focus this examination and this thought process a bit around this dominant theme of this Holy Day that we've seen, which is victory.

It's easy sometimes to think that as we go and examine ourselves, it's all about trying to figure out all of the ways that we don't measure up. All the things we did bad last year, all the ways that we're not good enough people, all the ways that we have problems and we still need things solved in our lives, all the ways that we fall short. But that's not really the tone of what's being done here.

And as I think about it, and we think about victory, think about good things that have happened in your life or things that you've been given that you've really wanted. Probably the stereotypical one is the kid wanting a puppy, right? Many of us, I'm sure, have gone to our parents and said, I want a puppy, I want a cat, I want some sort of pet, and if I get that pet, I will do everything to take care of it.

I can't count how many parents I've talked to have been in that situation. I remember saying the same thing to my parents. If you just get me that pet, I'll feed it, I'll walk it every day, I'll take care of it, and of course we know how long that lasts, don't we?

In most cases it lasts for a few weeks, maybe a few months. In a rare circumstance, perhaps, the child steps up and does take care of that animal for the rest of their life and the rest of the time they're at home. But what is it that happens? It's what happens to us normally in life, isn't it?

And that is that when we have something, after we've had it for a while, we tend to take it for granted a bit, don't we? We don't value it as much as we used to. Maybe some of our memory fades in terms of why we wanted it so badly anyways, or why it's so valuable as it is. And I think it's that thought process that we need to attach to this idea of victory as we examine ourselves coming into the Passover.

What I'd like to put forward to everyone is this thought process. Again, there's a reason this theme of victory is woven all the way through the Holy Days, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. And I think that's something that we need to think back on.

We need to think on the victory that's been given us in Jesus Christ. We need to think of where we were before our sins were forgiven. We need to think about what a great gift it is to have reconciliation to God, to be forgiven of the sins that we committed, to be putting that old man away and living a new life. And those are the things we need to reflect on. Let's look at this scripturally and talk about it a little bit in terms of examining God's victory in our lives.

Romans 8, again, this time in the beginning of the chapter, verses 1 and 2 and down into verse 5, So as we examine God's victory in our lives, it's a good thing to sit back and reflect on the fact that there is no condemnation on us. We've had Jesus Christ die for our sins. We've accepted his sacrifice. We've repented of those sins. While Passover is a renewal of our commitment to God, it's not a new conversion.

We've been converted. We have repented. And God would not condemn us. We need to be thankful for that and know that we have that victory. And through that, he's made us free from the law of sin and death. Through Jesus Christ, we can have life everlasting. Now, we need to think on that. We need to value it. We need to consider its importance. And we need to think about the victory that he's given us in our lives.

I think the important concept as we're thinking about this is that victory is a beginning and not an ending. Now, I know many of you know I like reading history. And it's unusual in history what's happened in the United States when we think back of the founding of our country. I read a book a few years ago called Founding Brothers, and it's sort of a play on the word, our founding fathers. And what it was doing was talking about some of the dominant people who were the founding fathers of the United States.

And the interesting point that book made to me was that, unlike most revolutions that happened in the world, the people who founded the United States stuck together cohesively after the nation was founded, and they found a way to make things work, and they supported one another. Of course, there were some exceptions to that. Hamilton has been a pretty famous musical over the last few years.

We know there was a duel involved there where someone was killed. And so it's not that there was freedom from any type of conflict. But when you compare the American Revolution to things that happened in other countries, you look at the Bolshevik Revolution that happened in Russia, and how not too long after that revolution there were purges. Many of the original revolutionaries were killed and sidelined, and everything went in a different direction.

We look at revolutions that have happened in different places in South America, where people have overthrown totalitarian regimes only to shift into another totalitarian system. And the point there is that victory is a beginning. So often, revolutionaries think about victory as being an end in itself. And when the victory is won, when the war is won, or the battle is won, they don't think about the fact that they have to govern. They have to set up something entirely new. And it's very much that way in our own lives as well.

We're given victory. We've seen that in multiple scriptures. We're given forgiveness from our sins. We're given a new life. But that's not an ending. We don't sit back and say, Okay, I've been forgiven. It's all done. Case closed. Rather, it's the start of a new life. Galatians 2, 20, Paul lays this out for us, where he says, I've been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. You know, I think of the children of Israel, and the fact that the victory that God gave them, He took care of them all the way through the wandering of the desert.

And yes, there were some awful situations in between. Some stunning lack of faith, as they even refused to go into the Promised Land, and therefore had to wander for 40 years. But even though God consigned them to wandering 40 years, He still kept their promise, kept His promise. He still took them, at the end of the day, into the Promised Land.

And that's the lesson for us to think about and consider in this time as well. You know, we go through our lives, we hit barriers, we hit obstacles. We don't always get over those obstacles the way that we could or should. But it doesn't mean the story is over. We continue to walk with God, we pick ourselves up, we turn ourselves again to Him in faith, and we continue forward. And we need to realize the fact that this life is a new life that we have to keep living day by day by day.

God's victory is an ongoing part of our lives. Romans 6 goes on with this theme, telling us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, that we should obey it in its lusts. And don't present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, but under grace.

And here again, it's talking about the victory that's been won. Sin has been put aside where it doesn't have control over us. Yes, as human beings, we will sin, but we're given the ability to come back to God and forgiveness, and to say, I know that was wrong, I'm going to turn myself away from it, and through faith and through strength given by God's Holy Spirit, we go on. We don't make that a way of life. We don't allow ourselves to fall back into those old habits of sinfulness that we had in the past.

As it says here, we don't let sin reign in our bodies. Instead, we present ourselves every morning, every day, again to God as being alive, as being that new person with God's Spirit living within us, so that we can be instruments of righteousness for Him. So think about it, as we're wrapping up this message and these themes of victory, God's victory, that we see woven all the way through the Holy Days. And if you're looking for a couple of things to spend a little bit of time reflecting on here between now and the Passover, and as we get into the days of Unleavened Bread coming up, here are a couple of them that I'd encourage you to think about, maybe even to talk with other people about.

First of all, what is your story of it? We all have a story of what God took us from. Each story is as different as each of us is different as people. But just like God took the children of Israel, led them out of Egypt, took them through the Red Sea and saved them, likewise, He's done the same thing for us. In fact, not scriptures that I used in this sermon, but some of us are probably familiar with scriptures that talk about God essentially baptizing Israel in the Red Sea.

So when that sea opened up, Israel passed through, and the sea was closed up. Paul uses that as an analogy for the baptism that we go through. But they came out of the Red Sea, a new nation, a different nation, because as God took them through that and delivered it, they became His people, where before they had been the slaves of the Egyptians.

It's the same thing with us. God takes us through our Red Sea moments when He's first calling us. We have to give up the things on the other side of the shore that were part of that old life, were washed through the water of baptism, and we take on a new life. So as we think about victory, that's that point in time victory.

That first victory that God gives us as He calls us and makes us part of His family. And so I encourage everyone as we're thinking about victory as a theme of these Holy Days, that we sit back and we give some thought to that point in time. What is it that God took each and every one of us out of? How did He work His miracles in each of our individual lives? And then secondly, after we've thought about that point in time, how will it, God's victory, continue to work in our lives? Because as we talked about, victory is not just an end, but it's beginning. God calls us for a purpose. He calls us and gives us the Holy Spirit so that He will work with us as we present our members as righteousness, as bodies of righteousness, that we do things using His Spirit to make the world around us better, to have a godly influence on those around us.

It's not limited to a point in time, and it's really an ongoing dynamic force. We look at the Holy Spirit that's given. It's not a static force. And like we talk about often, it's not an accident these Holy Days are in the springtime, because it's in the springtime that we experience just how dynamic and unstoppable nature is.

If I look outside my window here, I see trees budding. I see plants growing. I see shrubs that have been pruned back completely coming out and growing new branches. Those are the things we're supposed to see at this time of year. We're supposed to reflect on our own lives and the victory that God's provided in the new growth that should come out every year and reflect on those things as we examine what's going on. This examination is not a time of negativity. It's a time to reflect on the theme of this time, which is victory and how we continue to live that victorious life in Jesus Christ, winning those ongoing battles and continuing to move forward with that dynamic force of His Holy Spirit. So we start by talking about it. And we know that it, in this context, is God's victory. God's victory is central to these Holy Days. We saw it in the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and the victory that He provides us over sin and death. And as we go forward into these next few days, into these Holy Days, let's think about how it functions in our lives. In the coming year, how can we dedicate ourselves to more completely living the new life that God's victory has given us?

We won't have a chance to be together even virtually again until the first Holy Day. So I wish all of you a wonderful and meaningful Passover and look forward to connecting with everybody for a little while after services.