You Are Here

Well, good afternoon, everybody! It was a wonderful drive over today. We had such beautiful, beautiful weather, and it's supposed to be really, really nice this week as things go on, so that's fantastic as well. We're looking forward to having a chance tomorrow, too, like Mr. Richard talked about, being able to go through and get some things done around the house. It seems like we've had the last several weekends in Salem have been... we've had hailstorms and thunderstorms and rain and all kinds of stuff, so you know, I take that as God indicating to us that, you know, we are not supposed to be working in our yard on that day. That's a sign of some variety, perhaps. Well, I've got a question for you to start out today, and a brief show of hands, if you would like. How many of you have ever been lost? And I mean, like... so let me define that. I don't mean, like, sort of kinda... like I'm not really sure where I am lost, but I mean, like, completely everywhere I look around me looks identical, and I have absolutely no idea where I am at this point in time. Alright, so I've told the teen group this.

So those of you that were at the Northwest Weekend, you've heard this story already. I apologize, but the story just leads into the topic that I'd like to cover today far too well not to tell it again. So for those of you that have heard this already once, I apologize, but for those that haven't, when I was 13 years of age, so I'll give you some general timeline of that. It was early 1990s.

As young teens, we liked to, and I put this in quotes, hang. That's what we did as teens. We went out and we hung or hanged. This would be hung, would be that, would be that, yeah, hang-diddid. So we really, let's be perfectly honest, us going out and hanging was pretty much loitering. That's what we did. We went out and we just randomly loitered in wherever we happened to find ourselves.

We'd loiter down at the store down the road. We'd go hang out in front of this place over here. We'd go hang out at this place over here. One of our favorite places to go and hang out was an old rundown mall called University City. And for those that have ever been to Spokane, it's out in the Spokane Valley, University City, or as the cool kids called it, what we called it, U-City. So we didn't want to say University. That was just too hard. We were really lazy. But it didn't have much in the way of stores. Honestly, this thing, it was like a step up from a strip mall. I mean, it really was not much of a mall in that way. It had a Hickory Farms and a JCPenney. And those were the two stores that I could remember off the top of my head as I was thinking about this. It had some other well-known retailers. But again, nothing really in the way of what we as teens would consider to be cool stores. Stores that teens would want to go and hang out at. Which, of course, didn't really matter because none of us had any money anyway.

I mean, let's be honest. So what we did, this is our process of going and hanging at the mall. We would start at one end of the mall and it had this just single corridor down the center of the mall. And then all the stores came off of that single corridor. And we would walk from one end of the mall to the other end of the mall and then back, running into anybody that we might know. And we just, our endeavor at the time, was to look as cool as humanly possible. Which, I don't think I have to tell you, we failed miserably at. We were not terribly cool yet we, of course, thought that we were. There was another mall in Spokane, though.

There was another mall in Spokane. And it kind of had the status of myth and legend for those of us that lived in a valley. It was on the north end of town, which was about 45 minutes away, which was the reason none of us had ever been there. There was really no reason to go there. And our parents weren't going to drive us 45 minutes for us just to go hang out and then come call them again to drive almost an hour to come and get us. But none of us had vehicles, obviously, at that point in time, so we hadn't sent ourselves. We'd heard of it, though, through stories from kids who were maybe a little more adventurous than us or whose parents were okay with driving them down there. Its name was even legendary in mythical. North Town Mall. North Town Mall. For those that have been to Spokane, you may have also been to North Town Mall before. But this place was a three-story mall. Three stories. It was full of amazing stores. It had a skateboard shop, which we were really into skateboarding in the early 90s. It had a music shop where you could go in and buy CDs. It had gag gift stores. It had exotic food locales referred to as Cinnabon, something like that. And it was even rumored that the entire basement of this mall was an arcade with an 18-hole indoor golf course, which the rumors turned out to be true. It did have an arcade in the basement of it. But of course, to us at this point in time, they were merely legends. They were just legends. We didn't, you know, we'd never been there. And we kind of honestly wondered whether the place really even existed. We finally had the opportunity to go. We talked my mom into driving my friend group down there. And we strutted through the front doors, you know, thinking, here we are, you know, we can be cool here now and come and hang out here. Yet we realized really quickly that we were vastly outnumbered. Vastly outnumbered. The cool kids at Northtown, there were many of them, and they weren't us. And we were lost. We had no idea where we were going. And of course, as teens, when we came in through the front door, we were yakking. We weren't paying attention. So we didn't even know which door we came in once we got far enough inside. All the stores looked the same. Everything looked identical. We got ourselves turned around.

At one point, we passed Zumee's this way, passed Zumee's this way, passed it again.

We didn't have a clue where we were going. And we were completely and totally lost. So we did what any rational human being does at that point in time. We consulted one of those little mall kiosks with the little sticker on it that says, you are here. Right? And you know what is decidedly uncool? Consulting a you are here kiosk in the middle of Northtown Mall, which was unfamiliar territory.

It was a little like giving up. It was a little like admitting that we just didn't belong. But we swallowed our pride and we did it anyway. And I mean, to be honest, in the interest of transparency, how else were we gonna find out where we were getting picked up? We had to do something. But we consulted that little you are here kiosk. And that helped us to determine a couple of very important things.

It helped us to determine, one, our current location, where we were in that particular geographical spot. But number two, equally as important, where we were trying to get to relative to our current location. So we knew where we were and we were able to look at where we were going. So where we were and where we were going. And as an adult, I'll admit, I love these things. I love these mall kiosks.

Because now when I go shop somewhere, I want to get in and I want to get out and I want to dodge as many aimless teenagers as possible in the process. Which the irony of that is not lost on me. But I love the global positioning that a you are here sticker provides. Again, it tells us where we are and it tells us where we're going. And so, brother, we're gonna take a look today at the spiritual kiosk.

We're gonna take a look at the spiritual kiosk. We're gonna look at where are we and where are we going. And so the title of the message today is, You Are Here. That little sticker, You Are Here. And we've just come out of the days of Unleavened Bread. And we've heard quite a bit over the last week between the first holy day and the second holy day as to the symbolism of these days, the the symbol of leaven, the importance of putting it out at this time of year and taking in Unleavened Bread. So if we were to take a look at kind of a hypothetical map that we might find ourselves on, we just commemorated the last day of Unleavened Bread.

We just commemorated the last day of Unleavened Bread. Leading up to these days, leading up to these days, we've kept the Passover. We've reflected on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as our Passover, as our Passover, the remission of sins through His shed blood, the healing that's promised by His broken body, and the suffering and the death that He endured for you and for me.

We've put the leaven out of our homes. Of course, now we can bring that back into our homes. That physical symbolism is now passed. But we've put the leaven out, representing that sin in our lives. We've taken in Unleavened Bread, replacing those holes left over from the removal of that sin with the attitudes and the teachings of Jesus Christ. And we've learned a great many lessons throughout this process. I mean, we discussed many of them in the announcements of the types of lessons that we learn in this process, but the days that we just come out of parallel a very, very important time in Israel's history.

It commemorates their deliverance from Egypt. And traditionally, according to the Jewish historical records, the miracle of the Red Sea crossing occurred on the last day of Unleavened Bread yesterday. The last day of Unleavened Bread. Now, symbolically, that makes sense. If you think about it, it's the ultimate deliverance from Egypt. Once those walls of water slammed shut, they were officially out of Egypt. I mean, that deliverance was done. That was the moment that they obtained freedom from their bondage. And so to start with today, what I'd like you to do is to put yourself in the shoes of the Israelites who experienced that incredible miracle. I don't know if you've ever thought about this before, in fact, and I say that because I hadn't until this year.

I hadn't until this year. The number of the multitudes that left Egypt we see recorded in Exodus 12. We see it was 600,000 men. And then it says, besides children, talks about there were more, there were others. So about 600,000 men.

That doesn't take into account women. It doesn't take into account children. It doesn't take into account livestock, or possessions, you know, the trains of things that people were hauling with them, etc. But I've seen estimates that place the entirety of the Israelite host, including the mixed multitudes that went with them, because there were some in Egypt that said, you know what? This God of yours has got something going on way more than our gods. We're coming with you. There was a mixed multitude that left. It was not just Israelites that exited Egypt at that point in time. But I've seen estimates that have put the overall size of that host at between about 1.5 and 2 to 2.5 million. That's women, children, livestock, and men. 600,000 of them. And I've actually seen some estimates based on taking a look at the growth of a population in the situation that they were in over the number of years that they were there that actually put the estimates at closer to 3 to 3.5 million Israelites and the mixed multitudes that left Egypt at that time. Now to give you some perspective, 2.5 million, if we take that kind of estimate, 2.5 million is roughly the population of the Portland metro area. So that's Portland metro.

That is Portland proper. That is Hillsborough, West Lynn, you know, the outlying areas as well. We're talking a population the size of the city of Portland. That's incredible. That is incredible at the size of those that were there. And so if you think about it, you put yourself in the shoes of an Israelite, the sheer logistics of crossing the Red Sea is incredible. Just the logistics of it, let alone the miracle of the process, the logistics of getting that many people across that body of water is incredible. And I'll tell you why it's incredible. I've done a little math and I had an engineer check it, so I'm absolutely certain that both of us could be wrong. No, I'm absolutely certain that we're close here. So let's say that we operate off of a conservative estimate of 2 million Israelites. Let's say that's our conservative estimate, that's kind of in between 1.5 and 2.5.

We'll take that, okay? If we had 2 million Israelites, including their possessions and other things, let's say that you cross them across the Red Sea in a double-file line. So you put one here, you put one here, you stack all the rest of them behind them, double-file. And if we were to give them enough room so they're not tripping over each other, in other words, what, 3 feet between bodies so you're not stomping on the guy in front of you? 3 feet between bodies, if we split 2 million in half, that means you have a million ranks of people double file. 3 feet in between each one puts 3 million feet total in that line from the whole way, okay? So about 3 million feet. Divide that by 5,280 feet in a mile. You have a double-file line of Israelites that is 568 miles long. 568.

Now I didn't run it from Bend, but I did a Google Maps from Salem. Salem to a little past, about 30 miles past Sacramento, is 568 miles. That is a double-file line of people from the Midwilamit Valley clear down to Sacramento, California. So we can conclude one thing, they didn't go double-file. Okay, we can absolutely... I mean, unless... obviously God could have done whatever God needed to do here, and so this is kind of speculatory at best. But if you double that, if you take and go for a breast, if you take for a breast, that line becomes 284 miles long. A to breast becomes 142 miles long. To get to a manageable number that could get across the Red Sea in a short period of time, like is mentioned in the account, you're looking at a line of people roughly 180 or 128, I'm sorry, across. So 128 people across, and that's 128, 128, 128 on down to 2 million.

Okay, however many go out. So I was thinking, all right, how much space is that?

How much space is that? Let's say you do the same thing, three feet in between each person. You could have tightened them up, you know, side to side. But let's say you're three feet in between each person. That actually gives you roughly a group of people just a little bit bigger than the width of a football field long, width-wise. And you can fit 128 people in that as you go across. Now, that makes a line that is about nine miles long. Still about nine miles long. US Army Quartermaster said you can march roughly 12 miles. You can kind of force march roughly 12 miles. Women and children, etc. in about a half a day.

They were saying time-wise. So, you know, we're getting in the vicinity. But the width of the path through that Red Sea that God would have had to have opened for them to get across in a timely fashion is immense. It's immense.

It could have been at least one football field long wide. Okay, it could have been one full length of the football field wide. Or, more likely, it could have even been two. So, think about the amount of water that has just been displaced. The amount of water in the Red Sea that has just been pushed back. The length of two football fields wide and piled up so that God can cross these people across and deliver them. So now put yourself in the shoes of the final person that just stepped onto dry ground on the other side. And God brings those two massive walls of water back together and just squoosh right in the middle. You might, maybe you're in the splash zone. Maybe you get a little wet. Maybe the mist gets you. But as Pharaoh is in hot pursuit, God takes these walls of water, brings them down, slams together on top of that Egyptian host, and it's over. And now as you're standing there on the other side of this deliverance, it really happened.

They're standing on the precipice to a whole new world. 430 years of slavery.

God said, I will deliver you. And now he had. Now he had this incredibly powerful miracle he had followed through on. Here they are. Here they are. They'd just been delivered from Egypt, and Pharaoh and his armies were destroyed. That's the culmination of the Days of Unleavened Bread. That's where we find ourselves today. We are on the other side now of that deliverance. We are on the other side of that miracle of the Red Sea. So you are here. You are here. This is the place. So the question that we're going to look at today is, now what? Now what?

Where do we go from here? How do we navigate to where we're going? Honestly, where exactly are we going? Right? Think about, again, putting yourself in the shoes of the Israelites. For them, from this moment, they're going forward. There is no going back. That wall of water has been closed. They're not going back that way. That's for sure. But as they kind of embark on this journey into the wilderness at the beginning of their, or at the final moment of that deliverance out of Egypt, there were some expectations that were placed on them by God from that point when that sea-slam shut. And what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at those as our primary points today. So we're going to look at what was God's expectations of the Israelites as they went forward from that moment, from the slamming together of those walls of water and the deliverance from Egypt. And I did everything I possibly could to make these three points. I'll start with the same letter, because I like it when that can happen, because it's easier to remember. There was one of them that did not want to play nice, and I'll let you decide which one it is. Our first point is we need to transform. That's our first point. We need to transform. Transform. I couldn't make it. I looked at every synonym. I looked at every thesaurus I could find. There is not a word for transform that begins with an F. So we need to transform or transform in this case. We also need to ensure that we follow. We need to ensure that we follow. And the final point that we'll look at today is forward, that we go forward. So we need to transform or transform. We need to follow. And we need to go forward. We need to go forward. So as you can kind of imagine, as these Israelites gathered themselves, to an extent, composing themselves after this incredible miracle. I mean, you've just seen something that defies all logic. Not to say that's the first time they've seen things that defied all logic, because the plagues did quite a bit of that as well.

But here's something that defies all logic. Now they're spending some time composing themselves. And realistically, now the questions have got to start kind of coming up. Like, okay, where are we going? What's the plan here? We're out. Now what? Now where do we go? I mean, for all intents and purposes, they were in brand-new territory. This was completely out into the unknown. You know, the comfort that they had experienced in Egypt, this is new territory.

And really, at this point, they kind of found themselves... they were kind of homeless, honestly. At this point, they were kind of homeless. They spent the last seven days following God as He led them through the wilderness in the cloud and in the pillar of fire, camping when He stopped, packing up and following when He left. But just because the deliverance from the hand of Egypt had occurred didn't mean that them following God was going to stop. He was going to lead them through the wilderness in that way for quite some time. And as we look at, again, where we are right now spiritually also, we just spent the last, you know, seven, eight days coming through the days of Unleavened Bread as well in this physically 11 free environment. And spiritually, we recognize that this is symbolic of the removal of sin from our life and our deliverance through that Passover sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Again, He is our Passover and He took on the death penalty in our place. We need to let that one sink in. He took on the death penalty in our place for the remission of our sins, not His sins, our sins. So we're expected. We're expected. Just as Israel was expected to transform from a mentality of slavery to a mentality of freedom, we're also expected to transform our lives from slavery to freedom, to leave those sins behind and go forward. Let's start today by turning over to the book of 1 Corinthians. Start by going over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. We're going to pick it up in 1 Corinthians 5.

1 Corinthians 5. Again, this particular time of year, we've taken a look at this in a number of different ways, but 1 Corinthians 5. We're going to start here to begin our and kind of establish our focus this afternoon. What we're going to look at in this is the words of the Apostle Paul as he instructed and kind of admonished the brethren and Corinth over a specific issue that they were facing. We're going to pick it up in verse 1 to gain just a little bit of context because we need to understand what was the impetus for what he gives them in verse 7 and verse 8. What was the lead-in? What was the purpose? And why do we often go to verse 7 and 8 during this time of year? And this is one of those places in Scripture that we don't see the Apostle Paul pull punches. Like, we just do not see punches pulled in this section. This is an absolutely sound rebuke of a congregation that had allowed their pride to get the better of them. And this particular letter is designed and written in such a way to bring to mind the lessons that they learned keeping the days that we just completed. And whether or not this was written, you know, when Paul had written it during the Days of Unleavened Bread or whether it was received during the Days of Unleavened Bread or I don't even know, maybe the Roman postal system was so effective it was written at the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread and it made it by the end. I don't know. It's a long ways from Turkey to Greece, but who knows? Maybe they had ways of getting things places quickly. It's hard to tell for sure. But 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 1. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1, we can see Paul again, does not pull punches here, it says, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife. So he describes the situation and then he makes a very specific point to the people of Corinth that this is such an abased thing that the surrounding Gentile communities which are pretty abased don't even have a name for what you're doing. I don't have a name for it. It's that awful.

Verse 2, when you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. Paul's telling him your response to this particular sin was inadequate. It was inadequate. Rather than mourn, rather than put the individual openly living in their sin out from among them, they were puffed up. Verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 5, we'll zoom down just a little bit, he specifically states your glorying is not good. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? He mentions they were glorying, openly kind of flaunting in a way. And there's some interesting things that go on in the church in Corinth. Some interesting things. They had incredible wealth and riches, and yet they also had people that were just poorer than poor. There were these dichotomies between the people in the church of Corinth. Incredible riches, incredible wealth, and then the poorer than poor. They had very wise teachers, and they would kind of pit one of those teachers against another, and they would esteem one over the other, as it mentions.

We'll go back and look at that in a second in 1 Corinthians 4. But they're openly flaunting the superiority of their wealth and of their riches and of the wisdom of their teachers, and yet they're rotting away, morally, from within.

Everything looks great on the outside. Everything looks good on the outside, but the inside was in need of some serious work. He actually goes on later in the letter to admonish them to prove themselves, to prove themselves, to not be counterfeit. In that particular statement, he uses the word dokimoso in Greek, and dokimoso is used when you are... or dokimos, rather, is used when you are proving coins. So, have you ever seen the the old cartoons where the miner will get a gold coin, and what does he immediately do? He sticks it in his mouth, bites into it to see if it's malleable enough because gold is pretty malleable. It's that same idea.

It's proving the coin to be genuine. And so he tells them, look, examine yourselves.

Dokimoso! Examine yourselves. Prove yourself not to be counterfeit. Prove yourself to be genuine, as to their faith. The people of Corinth had fallen prey to the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. They'd fallen prey to the leaven of hypocrisy. Earlier in the letter... let's go back just to... well, it's not even a page in my own Bible. It's on the opposite side here. But earlier in the letter, 1 Corinthians 4, it adds a little more to the context to what we're dealing with here. 1 Corinthians 4, and if you turn to verse 6, 1 Corinthians 4 verse 6, and we'll read it through verse 8.

It says, Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. So there's some factions involved in this process. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You're already full. You're already rich. You've reigned as kings without us. And indeed, I could wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you. There were some divisions in this area, some divisions in this church. We also can see that in the Passover admonishment that Paul gave them. You know, he had some people who were eating and others who had not eaten.

And so he was giving them some admonition there as well. But because of their riches, because of the wisdom of their teachers, kind of a steaming one over the other, you know, I like this guy. Oh, I really like this guy. They'd become prideful. They'd become puffed up.

That church in Corinth had some issues. They were struggling. Go down to verse 17. Verse 17, For this reason I've sent Timothy to you. So Paul went to the point of actually sending Timothy to go over and kind of check in, who is my beloved and faithful son and the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ. In other words, he's going to come on over and he's going to be with you guys for a while. He's going to kind of help to restore you to what this should be. He's going to kind of undo some of these things that you guys have got going on. But then in verse 18, Now some are puffed up as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills, and I will know not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. Paul sent Timothy over to Corinth, but some were puffed up and prideful as though Paul himself wasn't going to come fix the situation. It's like, oh, don't worry about it. He's just sending Timothy. It's fine. It's cool.

Timothy, he's a pushover. Paul, it doesn't matter. You know, it's fine. Just sending Timothy. It's no big deal. And so Paul basically tells him, no, no, no, no, no. If it's God's will that I come, I'm on the next boat, and I will be there. If I can do it, I'll beat this letter. You know, I'll try to get there before this letter gets to you. But there's a section in Expositor's Bible commentary on this. I'm going to read just this briefly again. Takes some of the background and gets at the importance of where he goes, when he goes, in 1 Corinthians 5 verses 7 and 8, which we're going to get to next. It goes into quotes, the part that mentions that, Some are puffed up as though I would not come to you. He assures them therefore that he himself will come to Corinth and also that the leaders of the church have little reason to be puffed up, seeing that they've allowed in the church and immorality so gross that even the lower standard of pagan ethics regards it as an unnameable abomination. In other words, you guys are all puffed up about how amazing and how awesome you are, and yet this guy in your midst is doing this.

What is that? He then gets going and says, And if once it is named, it is only to say that not all the waters of the ocean can wash away such guilt. Instead of being puffed up, Paul tells them, they should rather be ashamed, and at once take steps to put away from them so great a scandal. If not, he must come, not in meekness and love, but with a rod. The Corinthian church had fallen into a common snare, and this is the part that's applicable to us today. The Corinthian church had fallen into a common snare. Churches have always been tempted to pique themselves on their rich foundations and institutions, on producing champions of the faith, able writers, eloquent preachers, on their cultured ministry, on their rich and aesthetic services, and not on that very thing for which the church exists, the cleansing of the morals of the people, and their elevation to a truly spiritual and godly life. And it is the individuals who give character to any church. A little leaven, leavens, the whole lump, each member of a church, in each day's conduct in business, and at home stakes, not only his own reputation, but the credit of the church to which he belongs.

And we talk about taking God's name in vain. You know, that aspect of that is going about our daily business and saying that we are gods, and then not acting like we are gods. We bring issues to God's name when we do those kinds of things. People hear that and they go, wow, that guy's Christian? You know, we have to be very careful in our outside lives when we go about our lives, ensuring that we are living what we truly believe. It says, involuntarily and unconsciously, men lower their opinion of the church and cease to expect to find in her a fountain of spiritual life because they find her members selfish and greedy in business, ready to avail themselves of doubtful methods, harsh, self-indulgent, and despotic at home, tainted with vices condemned by the least educated conscience. Let us remember that our little leaven, leavens, what is in contact with us, it spreads from one to the other to the other to the other, that our worldliness and our unchristian conduct tend to lower the tone of our circle, encouraging others to live down to our level and helps to demoralize the community. That background gives us the necessary context to look at the transformation that was expected of the Corinthians. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. Now that we've built the background a little bit, 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, therefore purge out the old leaven. Purge out the old leaven, those things that transfer from one to another, that bring the whole group down, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened, and again, bread and italics, of sincerity and truth. The reason that bread's in italics there, the original translation doesn't include the word bread. It's added into the English translation to make it make more sense, because this is what he's referring to. He's talking about the unleavened bread here that Christ represents, but it's added in for kind of clarity, but not really present in the original manuscript. But it talks about the unleavened of sincerity and truth, transforming ourselves from slaves to malice and wickedness, pride, to free individuals who are sincere and are truthful.

That is that transformation that is expected of us, transforming from malice and wickedness to sincerity and truth. You might consider sincerity and truth to be genuine, or genuinicity, I guess, if that's even a word, but working with pure motivations with correct knowledge, pure motivations with correct knowledge, doing what we do for the right reasons, based on the truth of God.

Sincerity and truth go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. A person can be sincere and completely wrong. They can be sincere and completely wrong. In fact, if you think about it, think about individuals that we know in the world around us. We'll start there, and then we'll work our way in.

We all know people who keep Christmas. We all know people who keep Easter. Many of them really truly believe that Jesus Christ is the quote-unquote reason for the season, right?

He's had conversations with people like that before. He mentioned, well, what about all these peggings? Well, yeah, but you know, it's all about Jesus Christ. It's just been commercialized, blah, blah, blah. They're 100% convicted of the reason for the season. They're 100% convicted. They're 100% sincere. They're 100% wrong. They're 100% sincere, but they are 100% wrong. They don't have sincerity and truth. They only have sincerity. They don't have sincerity. There's another example.

Saul killed the Gibeonites. Out of zeal for the Lord, Saul went through and killed the Gibeonites.

He was sincerely doing what he thought should be done, and he did it out of zeal for Israel. But what he did was wrong, because there was a treaty made with the Gibeonites during the days of Joshua.

They tricked Joshua, but God upheld it. It was a treaty made. Saul killed a bunch of them and ended up losing seven of his sons as a result. They hung them, because he was wrong. He was 100% sincere, but 100% wrong. He did it for what his mind were the right reasons, but it wasn't right.

Peter drew a sword when the night that Christ was arrested and lopped off the the high priests, the servant of the high priest, Iir, Malchus. He did everything that he did that night out of devotion to his Lord and to his Messiah. They are not taking you.

Right there with the sword. Was he sincere in his actions? Absolutely. Was he dead wrong?

Yes, sir. Yes, he was. Christ healed his ear and said, Peter, still your sword. What are you doing?

100% sincere, 100% wrong. So what about us? What are our motivations? What are our reasons for why we do what we do? Are we operating from both sincerity and God's truth? Are we operating from both sincerity and truth? It's important. It's extremely important that the two of these things go hand in hand. The actions of our life, what we do and what we put out there as we go through our life, they have to be based in sincerity and in truth. And that's really the foundation of this unleavened of sincerity and truth as mentioned here. That the attitudes and the thoughts which ultimately become our actions are grounded in these two things. We are expected to transform from lives of slavery, malice and to wickedness and to sin and to pride, to individuals that are grounded in sincerity and truth. And so, symbolically, through the days of unleavened bread, which we've just come out of, we eat unleavened bread. It's representative of taking in Jesus Christ, taking in those unleavened values, those unleavened attitudes and thoughts, and putting those on in our life, being kind of faithful in the application of the symbolism of those days. And it doesn't... you know, last night when the sun went down, you know, we jokingly talked about running out and grabbing bread, you know, from a physical standpoint, that symbolism goes away. But that doesn't stop... you know, we don't do the whole, oh being a nice human being, I'm sure glad that's over. These last seven days have been rough. I'm gonna go right back to that malice and right back to that wickedness and right back to that pride. No! From the moment that we're done, we go forward and work to live an unleavened life. It's not just seven days and then, oh, I can't do that for another minute. We go forward and focus on living an unleavened life. So how do we get there? How do we get there? I was absolutely struck this year. I did my first Passover service this year. So I did an unbelievable amount of prep work this year in particular to make sure that I understood exactly what was going on and how it was going. And I was absolutely struck by the number of times in Christ's final night on earth. You look at John 14, 15, 16, 17. We see John's the only one that records that section of what went on after everyone else says, and they sang a hymn, and out they went to the Mount, you know, to Gethsemane. And so John records something different. He records a number of essentially Christ's last lessons to his disciples. And if you look through the Bible, there are a number of places where last words are recorded. They're always important. Always important. It is the most important thing you could possibly tell somebody, right, before you kick the bucket. So in this case, when we take a look at what Christ gave them, I was struck by the amount of times referencing abiding with him and with the Father were referenced. Multitude of times. In fact, we're going to look at them. John 14. Let's go to John 14 real fast. John 14. We're going to pick it up in verse 15. John 14 and verse 15.

John 14 and verse 15. And it's going to be a miracle if I get this done on time, so I'm going to start picking up the speed a little bit. I apologize. John 14 and verse 15 says, now one of those who sat at the table... am I in John 14? I'm in Luke 14. One second. I'm not going to get done fast if I keep ending up in the wrong book. There we go. John 14 says, let not... sorry, verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you a little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live. You will live also. At the day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Spirit is given. That Spirit links Christ, it links the Father, and it links us.

We're all able to abide with one another and in one another. John 15. John 15, verses 1 through 4.

John 15 verses 1 through 4 says, 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, which that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 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. You know what's interesting when you do yard work? How quickly you can cut a branch off of a tree, and how quickly that branch starts to wither and just dry up and get crispy. When it gets away from the vine, when it gets away from that connection to those sugars and those waters coming up through that trunk, it's amazing how quickly it dries out. But for a branch to live and bear good fruit, it has to remain in the vine. It has to remain in the vine. It has to abide with the vine. Verse 10 of John 15 actually defines a little bit of what that means. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. John 17. It's another example. John 17.

This is the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest. John 17 verse 20.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That's us. The ones who will believe in him through their word. Ones who would preserve these things for us.

That they may all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you. That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. The world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me, I have given them that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me. That they may be one, just as he and the Father are one.

That they may be one as we are one, he says. I in them, you in me, that we may be brought to complete unity. And what enables us to become one with one another? What enables that? One of the things that enables that is what we went through when we went through the Passover. We take of the same body, we take of the same blood. That unifies us. In fact, Scripture refers to it as communion. It says it's a communion. And I know that word's been hijacked, and it's become kind of something that we don't really like to mention, but it is. It's referred to as a communion. It's a sharing, it's a fellowship, it's a participation. Together, we take the blood, we take the body, together, taking in unleavened bread during the days of unleavened bread. All of us are putting out the leaven. We're all taking in unleavened bread. That brings us together. The Holy Spirit that we've all been given brings us together. It unifies us as a body of believers. And that Spirit, that transformative power in our life, kind of the essence of God the Father and Jesus Christ living in us, it brings us together. And it allows us to walk forward in an unleavened manner, being faithful to God and Christ. There's an if here, though. There's an if here. And it's a big if. If we allow that Spirit to lead us. If we allow that Spirit that lives within us to lead us.

Second thing we're going to look at today is we have to be able to follow. We have to be able to follow. We have to transform, and we also have to follow. The second thing the Israelites were expected to do when they left that miracle at the Red Sea was to follow the leader. They were to follow the leader, and the leader wasn't Moses. He was a leader, but the leader wasn't Moses. The leader was the presence of God in that pillar of fire by night in the cloud by day. God directed their steps. He told them when to pack up, start moving. He told them when to stop and set up camp.

Time to park it, time to go. And they dutifully followed that cloud, that pillar of fire, which I got to think, guys, had to have been an incredibly amazing thing to see. I can't, honestly, that thing, especially that pillar of fire at night, that had to be incredible.

It had to be just awe-inspiring. But when it moved, they moved. When it stopped, they stopped. And Joe Wineskin, which is my Israelite version of Joe Sixpack, Joe Wineskin doesn't just get to decide one day all of a sudden, oh, God stopped? Oh, I'm feeling great. I got these new Nike sandals on.

They're amazing. I'm going to put in another 10 miles before I set up camp today. I'm just going to go ahead and do that. What happens if he takes off and he goes? What if God deviates course?

What if God turns around and goes back the other way? You know, the desert's a pretty inhospitable place. It's a pretty inhospitable place. God stopped. They stopped. God stopped. They stopped.

God went. They went. They followed. They followed. That was their job. And I've always read these kinds of accounts, like with a certain twinge of jealousy. I'll admit the envy and the jealousy a little bit. I've always read these with a certain twinge of jealousy because we see such a direct relationship. Moses talks directly to God. God speaks directly to David.

Samuel's calling as a young man, you know, sleeping in the night, and, Samuel, huh? What? Huh? Goes and runs to Eli. What do you want? I want me. You know, those kinds of relationships are amazing, you know? And I kept thinking about this if we were going into the Holy Days this year. Bradford, God is living in us. Not talking to us from outside.

Not, you know, in us. That's huge. That is such an intimate connection. As a result, we're able to be one, as we saw earlier, with the Father and with Jesus Christ, through that Holy Spirit that lives in us. And just as Israel was led by God, that's our expectation as well.

God expects that we will surrender our own will, surrender our will, submitting to Him and allowing ourselves to be led. Not cajoled, not like pigeonholed, not railroaded into living this way of life, but that we will kneel our life before Him in humility and say, what will you have me do?

What will you have me do? And more importantly, when He honors that prayer, that we'll follow Him where He leads. That we'll follow Him where He leads. Let's go to Romans 8.

Let's go to Romans 8. Romans 8. We'll pick it up in verse 1.

And as I said, I'll beg your forgiveness now. I'm 45 minutes in and I got a little longer to go, so thank you for your forgiveness. I appreciate it.

Romans 8 and verse 1. Paul has a discourse here, really, with the effect of the Spirit in our life.

What is the effect? How does the Spirit work within our life? What does that look like?

What does it accomplish? He says in verse 1 of Romans 8, Christ's sacrifice for the remission of our sins was absolutely necessary.

The sin that we personally have committed, the transgressions that we have done, have earned us the death penalty. We are dead men walking, quite literally dead men walking.

And Jesus Christ paid that penalty. He poured out His blood as a drink offering for us.

We memorialize that with the Passover just recently. He was the ransom paid for our redemption.

We see that as a result of that, there's a condition. We have to walk in the Spirit.

We have to walk in the Spirit. We have to follow its lead. Verse 4.

That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Flesh can't please God. We know that. We will never 100% beat sin in this life. In this life, it won't happen. Our goal is to improve, to overcome, to move the ball forward, so to speak.

But our carnal flesh is enmity towards God. It's an enemy of God. Acting on our fleshly desires creates a gulf between us and God that requires reconciliation, requires something to bridge that gap. That reconciliation was made possible by Christ's sacrifice. That's what bridged the gap for us. It united those two parties. It brought us together. When we accept that sacrifice on our behalf in the covenant of baptism, God gives us His Holy Spirit. Romans 8, verse 9, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Verse 10, And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit of life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, him there, the Father, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Verse 12, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. If we were to nurture that Spirit in our lives, to stir it up as Paul commanded Timothy, and we strive to follow its lead, we can put to death the deeds of the body, little by little by little. So it's a short game. It's a small game. It's step, little step, little step, little step forward. Verse 14, we get to the the meat of this section, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Being led by God's Spirit is a hallmark sign of someone who is a Christian. We're all sons of God by creation. In fact, scripturally, the angels are referred to as sons of God by creation. They don't have the same option that we've been given. They don't have the same option. We become sons of God through a process of spiritual begettle, that we are begotten by God. John 3, we won't turn there, we'll save the the thing. John it in your notes if you want to go look at it. I'll sum it up. Nicodemus came to Jesus Christ at night to meet with him, and Christ told him that no one could see the kingdom unless they were born again. And so there's been this whole hijacking of the term born again as well, and it's gone off in this whole doctrine.

Obviously, he's telling Nicodemus right then and there, not another physical birth. That makes no sense at all, right? And nor is it a single one-time event necessarily as the world considers born again to be. In other words, I just accept Jesus Christ in my life, I'm born again, and here we go. I could do no wrong from this moment forward. The word that is used in John 3 verse 3 translated to be born is a much deeper word than just born. The Greek word is gennao. The Greek word is gennao, and it doesn't describe conception itself, it doesn't describe the act of birth itself, it describes the entire process of conception to birth. The entire process. It's the whole thing.

And so if you think of it in that way, we're still in the womb, so to speak. We're developing.

The entire creation is waiting eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God, those who he has begotten in the spirit to glory in his divine family. The process of that begettle has begun, but it's an ongoing process, only completed once Christ returns and we're raised incorruptible.

Those that are led by the Holy Spirit are actively undergoing that process of being born.

So how do we determine if we're allowing ourselves to be led by God's Holy Spirit? What's the litmus test? I had an absolutely insane week, and I'm telling you that so you can understand the frame of mind that I was in going into sundown the night before last. It had an insane week. I literally came screeching into the Sabbath of the Holy Day with about 10 minutes to spare. I mean, it was just screeching in sideways as quickly as I could possibly get home. That night we had a track meet that our school hosted. I'm one of the track coaches. No way getting out of it. Whole time I'm going, please God, get this thing over with before sundown because I'm walking at sundown, whether it's done or not. Help me get it. We were done record time, so thank you, Lord, for that. I had an article due this week. My grades were all due yesterday. I had to have grades in. It was the end of grading period. And then, of course, I had the afternoon split yesterday. And so it was just...

that was the state of mind I was in as the story that I tell you tonight occurred.

Or tell you today occurred. As I got ready to turn into the arterial that leads to my house, I happened to look over to my right. And out the window, we have a bar on the corner of the street that brings a lot of relatively interesting individuals into that part of town, for lack of a better term. And laying on the sidewalk in front of that bar was a man. With all of his earthly possessions in a black garbage bag. He was laying on a stack of several towels and blankets piled up, covered with another towel, from head to toe, all curled up. It was a little bit too short.

Feet were sticking out. Top of his head was sticking out. Ten minutes of sundown. Ten minutes of sundown. I had a voice in the back of my head that said, hey, you should stop and check on this guy. So you know what I did? I didn't stop. I didn't stop. I drove right on home. And as I thought about it the next morning, you know, you have clarity in hindsight. You have incredible clarity in hindsight. I have absolutely no question in my mind that that was God's Holy Spirit telling me to check in on that guy. No question in my mind. And I didn't stop. I didn't stop. So as I prayed about it that next morning and repented of that, you know, I can try to rationalize it all I want.

Maybe he didn't need help. Maybe it wasn't safe to stop. You know, I can maybe wasn't safe. What if I couldn't actually give him the help that he needed at that moment in time? Maybe he's just sleeping it off while he waited for the bus. You know, I maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.

Point is, I didn't stop. God's Spirit leads us if we let it. If we let it. And it does that in a lot of different ways. And I'm going to reference these for sake of time. We'll jot down the Scripture. The first thing that it does is God's Holy Spirit provides us contact with the mind of God as we abide in Him. So we saw earlier, as we abide in Him, we keep God's commandments. And verse 24, it tells us that He who keeps His commandments abides in Him. And that's one way.

We keep contact with the mind of God. We have an ability to understand and see things as God sees them. The second thing that it does is it provides us with a much deeper understanding of the things of God. It provides us with a much deeper understanding of the things of God. And that's 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 through 11. It tells us that God reveals things through His Spirit. Now, can things be revealed to us that are not from God's Spirit? Absolutely they can.

It's called deception. And it can happen. It absolutely can happen. So we really have to be discerning. We really have to be discerning. But God does reveal things through His Spirit.

He deepens mysteries. Deepens our understanding. So as we go through life, does our understanding deepen? Do we grow spiritually? Do we keep God's commandments? Going back to that first point.

The third thing, God's Holy Spirit makes overcoming sin possible. It makes overcoming sin possible. Romans 8 verse 26 tells us that the Spirit of God helps us in our weakness.

Now, again, we mentioned overcoming 100% of our sin is not possible in this life. We still fall short. All sin and fall short. But can we overcome some things? Absolutely. Absolutely. Little by little. A little better every day. Fourth thing, God's Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. It convicts us of sin. Just as I was convicted of my sin of omission, it convicts us of sin. It helps us to recognize when we've done something wrong, when we've transgressed. And of course, then it's very important for us to repent, to go back into draw near to God to make sure. But John 16, 8 tells us that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. So do we see our sins? We went through our Passover examination this year. Did we look at our life and really recognize where our sins are? Where those things are? The Holy Spirit does convict us of that sin. Hebrews 9, 14 talks about how the Spirit heals our mind as well as our body. Heals our mind as well as our body, purging our conscience of dead works. So kind of cleansing our conscience of those dead works, kind of transforming us into a new creation. The other things that it does, it allows the fruits of the Spirit to be seen in our life. If we're living our life with joy and with kindness, and the fruits of the Spirit will be there, it comforts us in times of difficulty and it brings to remembrance all things. If we let God lead us, if we let God lead us, if we follow, he will progress us forward on the continuum. He'll take us forward, which in reality was the only direction that ancient Israel could go, was forward from the moment that they found themselves in. And that's our last point today. They were to go forward with the Red Sea and Egypt at their back into the unknown. Follow me. Here we go. Because you can't turn around and go the other way. The Red Sea is back where it's at. Pharaoh's at the bottom of it with all of his chariots and all of his people.

There wasn't a return there, and it's interesting. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 17. I want to go here because we read through this sometimes, and I think we've missed this. I have dozens of times.

Deuteronomy 17 verse 16, and it's tucked into a series of short passages on the kinds of regulations for Israelite kings. Deuteronomy 17 verse 16, kind of tucked into the principles governing kings here, it says, but he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. So, you know, Egypt seems to have been a source for horses at that point in time. They did have chariots and all kinds of other things. But here's why.

For the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. You shall not return that way again. God was explicit. You are not to go back. You are not to go back. I don't want you anywhere near the Nile River. Don't go back. God brought them out. He didn't want them to return.

And actually, the Hebrew word for return there in that passage is translated to turn back, to return, to turn back. They were never to go back to the way of life that they had known before.

They had been delivered. They had crossed through that Red Sea as a type of baptism.

Those walls of water had come crashing down. There was no going back.

God's miracle was a one-way street. Here we go. We're going forward. Please follow.

When we take a look at the connection to our spiritual life that that represents, as with much of God's word, we see incredible parallels. When we enter the waters of baptism and we enter into this lifelong covenant with God, we put to death the person that we were before.

We symbolize in the watery depths of baptism a death. That is a death to the old man. And we come up out of that water a clean slate ready to become a new creation with the assistance of God's Holy Spirit. Those baptismal waters, in a way, represent a point of no return. No going back.

Now, do people return? Sure. But the indication is to go forward. There's a number of locations that scripturally kind of illustrate this. A lot in his family when they left Sodom and Gomorrah, they were given very specific instructions not to turn back. And we can look at Lot's wife. She had family there. She had other things. But the instructions were, do not even look back.

One foot in front of the other, and do not turn back around. And she did. She lost her life.

Elisha, when he was chosen by Elijah, he slaughtered the team of oxen that he was plowing with through a huge feast. It was symbolic of, I'm not coming back to this. This was my livelihood.

It's done. I'm following Elijah. And so, we have a lot of these examples throughout Scripture that illustrate these points of no return, so to speak. Let's take a look at another one. It's Luke 9. We've got just three passages left here. Luke 9. Luke 9 contains a very powerful example of the commitment that we've signed ourselves up for.

The covenant that we've entered into. And I'm going to give it... the Scripture we're going to look at specifically is 62, but I'm going to come up with some context as we go into this, because we need to see the opposite of the commitment. Luke 9 verse 57. Now, it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Christ basically tells us how you sure? I'm homeless. Like, I don't have a place to go. Are you sure you want this life? Are you sure this is what you want? Then he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me go first and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse. Reasons for why they can't do this, or why they can't do that, or why they can't do this. Verse 62, but Jesus said to him, no one, no one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. No excuses. No excuses. The cost of this way of life, the life that we have signed up to lead, is our life. That's the cost. That's what we pay. We give that life over to God. We put both hands on the plow, and we go forward. A few pages forward in Luke 14, just a couple pages ahead, we see a similar admonition. Luke 14 and verse 25. Luke 14 verse 25 says, Now great multitudes went with him, and he turned, and he said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. We recognize the word hate there means loveless by comparison. It doesn't mean literally hate. It means, because we, you know, Christ taught against hate. But loveless by comparison. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, doesn't sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it? Lest after he's laid the foundation and is able to not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war against another king doesn't sit down first and consider whether he's able to actually win the battle? It goes on to next. Before we committed to God's way of life, we counted the cost. That's why we do baptismal counseling. We want to make sure that people understand what they're getting into and what that commitment really entails. We looked at whether we were really willing to fully commit ourselves to this life because we recognize that once we start, you can't stop. There's no going back. If you do go back, it's not a pretty picture. It's not a pretty picture. Final scripture we'll take a look at today is in 2 Peter. If you turn over to 2 Peter, we're gonna go to 2 Peter 2 and verse 2. 2 Peter 2, chapter 2.

2 Peter 2, we'll pick it up in...we'll do 18. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome by him also as he brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment or commandment delivered to them.

Would have been better to have not known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn back.

As we go forward from these days, you know, we started the whole premise of this message with the question of, you know, your heels are at the back of the waters of the Red Sea, right? We've just come through the days of Unleavened Bread. Those waters have come closed and, you know, here we are. We're going forward from here. We can't afford to get a kind of laissez-faire attitude or a laissez-faire viewpoint of sin. We can't. We have to see sin for what it is. We have to see it for what it is. We have to see that it earns us death and that that death penalty is paid by the blood of Jesus Christ. And as a result of that, once we know these things, once we've committed to these things, once we've said, yes, Lord, this is what I'm doing, there's no going back.

Forward really is our only option. We have to go forward. And that's the commitment, really, that we made at baptism. That's what we signed up for. That's what we signed up for. We've spent the last several weeks preparing for this Holy Day season. You know, we've taken a look at our lives. We've analyzed the places where we missed the mark, where we've fallen short. We recognize them. We've repented of them. We've renewed that baptismal covenant at Passover. We worked to put the sin out of our lives, symbolically as well as, you know, physically removing leaven from our lives over the last seven days, and worked on taking in that unleavened of sincerity and truth.

So here we are. The days of unleavened bread are over. You're here. The Red Seas at our backs.

Where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? As we leave these days of unleavened bread, as we leave these days we've just completed, we have to renew our focus to abide in our Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ, us in them, and them in us. We have to allow the Holy Spirit, that essence of God residing within us, to lead us, really listening to that voice of God and following its lead in the only direction that we have to go. That direction is forward.