You Are Not Unleavened Until It's in the Heart

Two weeks from today will be the first day of Unleavened Bread. And we will be here. My wife and I will be in Florida. Some of you have come back from Florida. We're going to Florida to help out down there in the Tampa area. But God's people will be observing the Feast of the Days of Unleavened Bread after having kept the Passover in exactly two weeks and later this year. But here it is.

And by the time we get to that first day of Unleavened Bread, we will have been prepared. We will have kept the Passover and the night to be much observed. But we will have been prepared in the process of the Days of Unleavened Bread by having our homes, the leavened, the leavened products removed. And for seven days, we will eat unleavened bread as God commands us to do. The question that I always ask myself and I place before you to consider this morning is, as my home and property will be de-leavened, will my heart be de-leavened? Where will the contents of my heart be? I know where the contents of my wife's kitchen cupboard will be, and they'll be gone. And I will have opened the doors on my cars and taken my leaf blower and blown it all out. That's how I deliver my cars. I've mentioned that before to you here, but I don't spend a lot of time on my cars, but leaf blowers just get in places that nothing else can't. I haven't yet got to the point yet where I've opened all the doors and windows of the house and taken the leaf blower through the house to de-leaven it. Debbie won't let me do that, and I'm afraid what might get else might get blown out. But at least the cars get de-leavened that way, and I wish I could turn that leaf blower on my heart and be assured. But I always ask myself that, where's the heart right now? Where's your heart? Because that's really, when it comes down to it, is the critical question when we come to the Days of Unleavened Bread. Recently, I went through an episode or a story in Scripture that put my mind to that question once again as I was preparing, actually, for a script that we taped this past week here for Beyond Today. And I'd like to take you through that because as I put this episode into the script, I time and the particular slant on the topic we were covering for a larger audience didn't allow me to actually expound on the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. And so I thought, well, I'll just wait and take that and expound on it for the congregation. It's a bit more to the point for us. And it is a story that we know quite well that is told back in 2 Kings 22 with one of the kings of the ancient nation of Judah, Josiah, King Josiah. In 2 Kings 22, beginning in verse 1, we find the story of a king who was only eight years old when he began to reign.

Every time I look at that, I think an eight-year-old boy reigning. Now, he had a regent. He actually had a mother who was probably a pretty good lady. Her name was Jadita. And Josiah, being a good king, a righteous king. I always remember one of the little books that we used to read our boys when they were young. Good King Josiah, I believe was the name of it. Here's this little king with a Josiah with a crown on his head that just basically covered most of his head.

At the age of eight years old, the crown was much bigger. He had to grow into that crown.

And he's eight years old. And no doubt, he had a mother who was a bit different than his father. Who was a very wicked king. And his grandfather, who was another wicked king.

I have to think that his mother somehow molded this boy into a different path than his predecessors. Because we read here, they became king. He reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jadita. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left. That's important to know.

His father and his grandfather, his father's name was Ammon, and his grandfather was Manasseh. His great grandfather was Hezekiah, who had been a very righteous king. But there had been at least two generations then, in many decades, that had passed where wickedness reigned at the top within Judah. And, frankly, Judah was now in its last phase of its life. And Josiah will be the last good king. In fact, at his death, there will be just a very short time and the kingdom will begin to be piecemealed up by invading troops. First, the Babylonians, and they will then destroy it. Over about three different episodes, the kingdom and the people will disappear. And Josiah represents the last part here. And Josiah is at reigns in Judah at a time when there is a great deal of turmoil, not just in Judah, but among the nations of Egypt and Babylon and Persia and Assyria that surround Judah in this period of time. In fact, the names of the places I just mentioned, along with Judah, as you know, represent what is today the area we call the Middle East. And in Josiah's day, the area was in a complete upheaval and turmoil. Not a whole lot different than what is happening over there today.

With Syria and Iraq and Iran and the turmoil in Sildan Egypt, the area is still going through an epic change. And that's what was happening during the time of Josiah. God tells us the story here in Kings. And really, all we focus on is the story in Judah, which is the most important for us. But there are a lot of other headlines being written in Egypt and in Assyria and in the area of Babylon at that time as well that would impinge upon the story. But for our purposes, and as God wants us to focus, we go into the story of an eight-year-old boy who becomes king and the reforms that he begins to do within the nation. Let's look at verse 3. It came to pass in the eighteenth year of Josiah that the king sent his scribe named Shaphan, his secretary, he sent him to the house of the Lord saying, Go up to Hilkiah, the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people, and let them deliver it to the hand of those doing the work who are the overseers in the house of the Lord. Let them give it to those who are in the house doing the repair to the damages of the house. In verse 5, note that, to carpenters, to builders, to masons. The money then would allow them to buy timber, hewn stone to repair the house.

This is in the eighteenth year, it says, of his reign. So, some time has passed, money has been collected, a lot has been going on that we're not told about. But here in these verses, we also see, in a sense, how deep the problem has been, where the country, the land, had been given over to idolatry to the point where the most magnificent public building of Jerusalem, the temple, was in disrepair. Where they had had to buy wood for the timbers within the house, and more cut stone. Now, this is the temple that Solomon had built, and it was a very grand, beautiful edifice that had been maintained through the years until the nation began to slip.

And to consider that the most beautiful, most prominent public building, the house of worship, the house, the temple of God, in Jerusalem had been allowed to get to the point where water leaked through the roof to damage the wood. That's why you put in new timbers in a house today, if the roof has been neglected for years and years and years. I've been in houses many times, and you look up and you see the drywall hanging down. You know why that drywall is hanging down? It's because water's got in there. It's either been from a leaky pipe or a bad roof that has allowed water to run down into the house. And if it's not fixed in time, you can live a long time in a leaky house. We all know that. I don't think you do, but I've been in houses that evidence that. The temple had been let go for a long time. Now, why would a building of that size and that importance be let go? Well, as we know from the story, idolatry had taken over Jerusalem and Judah.

And along with the worship of all the various idols of the day, they built altars and shrines and small buildings to those gods and goddesses and the deities that they were now worshiping. Now, to build a shrine, an altar, to a pagan deity takes money. Where do they get the money? They get the money from people who are devotees of that pagan god. And those are, in this case, are people who would have been at the temple, who would have been giving their tithes there, but now their money is going someplace else. And so money is running out of the temple away from it and it's supporting other buildings. And you get even though the impression, I can understand that over time, there's no money for the people and the priests and those who are charged with the upkeep of the building to keep the building in repair.

And therefore, the roof goes bad and water comes in, timbers rot. But stone doesn't rot. Why do they have to cut new stone? My solution to that, my thought is that maybe they were even actually cutting out loose the stone that adorned the temple and selling it off. And it probably wound up in some of the pagan temples and shrines and altars that were built. And it was a means by which the priests could kind of keep it going. It's a sad thing to contemplate. Scripture doesn't tell us that, but it's quite likely what happened. And so the building of the temple, the temple had begun to be piecemeal out, sold off.

They had not yet got so bad to where they sold off the vessels, the golden vessels and all of that within the temple. That seems to have been intact. Josiah begins to correct that. He begins what we would look at as a revival, a renewal. And it's getting to the point of now the temple. And money now is there to provide for all of this.

And so he has it delivered. And that is done. Verse 7, there need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered to their hand because they deal faithfully. Then Healkiah the high priest said to Shaphan, the scribe, when he had brought this and kind of set up the structure of the accounting for it, Healkiah says, by the way, I have found, in verse 8, the book of the law in the house of the Lord.

The book of the law. Many think that that's just the book of Deuteronomy. Others think that it's the entire five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. It could very well have been just Deuteronomy. As later referenced, the book of the covenant. And that would involve more than just Deuteronomy. But if it's just Deuteronomy, let's say that it is. This is the book that is found. I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Healkiah gives the book to Shaphan. That's an amazing statement in itself.

If they found it, that means that it had either been lost or it had been neglected. And in other words, it had not been read for some time. And it was back in a corner, a store room, forgotten, under a lot of other refuse or material that had just been pushed into a room. Like can often happen anywhere in our homes or in an office building.

And you forget that it is there. And a decade goes by, two decades go by, new people come in and they don't even know what's down in the basement. And it hasn't been read and they find it here. And so Shaphan described, went to the king, bringing the king words saying, your servants have gathered the money and it's been delivered.

And then Shaphan shows the king saying the priest, Healkiah has given me a book. And Shaphan begins to read it to him. And so he unravels this scroll of Deuteronomy and he begins to read it before the king. And verse 11 is one of the most profound thoughts. It happened when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes.

The point I was making in my script this week is this. The reading of the Bible for us today, the reading of the Word of God is a very powerful, powerful thing. And it should evoke such a reaction in you and I.

Not that you tear your clothes. Keep those on. But this is a figurative sense to show that there is an emotional reaction to the reading of the book. The Word of God, it says, in Hebrews, is sharper, more powerful than a two-edged sword. It divides asunder to the innermost workings of our heart, mind, soul. The Bible can do what swords can't do. History and events throughout time have proven that over and over again. The Bible can do what a sword and might cannot do.

It can change hearts. It can move people to action. It's moving Josiah to action here.

And then he is cut to the heart by what is read to him. When he heard the book, words he tore his clothes. And he commanded Heolchai and all the others. He said, Go, verse 13, inquire of the Lord from me for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that have been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do according to all that is written therein. And so they go. And they actually go and find a woman prophetess named Hoda who says to them in verse 15, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to me, behold, I will bring calamity on this place and its inhabitants all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods. My wrath, she goes on to say, God's wrath has been aroused against them. And yet she then shows through the word of God that Josiah, this king in verse 18, because of the manner in which he reacted, he will be spared. And in his lifetime, the retribution, the judgment that the book says would happen for idolatry would be spared. There'd be a reprieve because Josiah responded and tore his heart and it had cut him to the heart. Now, this is what happened here. And through verse 20, they brought back the word to the king. They tell him what hold of the prophetess says, that there will be a time of calamity, but it won't happen during your lifetime, Josiah, which basically gives him the green light to go on and continue with his reform and work very hard, which he does. Now, some of the commentators say that the part of the book of Deuteronomy that he read would be back in chapter 13. Some say it's Deuteronomy 28. It could be the whole book, for all we know. But what may very well have got it to the point where it cut him to the heart was what was read in chapter 13 of Deuteronomy. And I won't go back there and read it for time's sake, but let me just summarize it to you. Basically, what God told the people in Deuteronomy 13, if anybody in your midst comes up, somebody from your hometown, we could say somebody from your home church, and says, look, let's quit this service to the God that we read about here. You don't have to do this anymore. We're going to set up another practice, another custom, another teaching, i.e. idol. And let's go do this. We would say today, let's nail a tree to our floor, put silver and gold on it, and call it what we want and say we're going to honor God.

You don't have to do these crazy Old Testament things. We're going to do something different. This is how we would apply it today. God said, if somebody comes to you like that, you take them and you kill them. That's what He says. And then you take everything that they own out into the street and you burn it. Don't let it get a toehold within your Israel. This was how the state and the nation and the people were to do it. Now, we don't do that today. But in a sense, we should take the spirit of that and say, we don't want anything to do with that type of teaching, and we're not going to let it be in our midst. And when we see it, we're going to put it away from us.

We've had to even move away from it in our time and in our history. But some feel that that's the section that Josiah had read to him, and it cut into the heart that it did.

It would be logical. Deuteronomy 28 also shows the ultimate penalty that would come upon Judah and the people in Israel for doing it, which he already knew from the history of the Northern tribe nation of Israel, did happen and recognized that it would happen to them. And so, he is repentant and he continues with his revival, his renewal among the people.

Chapter 23 continues the story. The king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and he went up to the house of the Lord with the men of Judah and the priests and the prophets and the people, small and great. And he begins to read in their hearing the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house. Josiah stands in his position of authority, and he basically says, I'm going to follow God and the Lord, and we're going to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all His heart, verse 3, and all His soul to perform the words of His covenant that were written in the book. Josiah publicly pledges his desire to reform with every bit of every fiber of his heart, and the people took a stand for the covenant. It tells us at the end of verse 3. And so, they were moved as well. Again, a public reading of the scripture. Again, I say the Bible is a pretty powerful book. Its words can move people where a sword can't. It can even move nations to do things. And there are examples of that as well. And so, he begins a reform then that, beginning with verse 4, where they go through Jerusalem and Judah, even up into the land of what was Israel to Bethel, removing the idols and the shrines and the pagan priests. And it is a thorough reform to the point where the altars are cut down, pushed over, grounded into dust. And the dust and the ashes spread even over the graves of people who had participated in the worship of those. And even some of the bones of the idolatrous priests were hauled up out of the grave. Old Testament times were pretty rough. To think that through would be a pretty good film.

Today, we have a lot of other gruesome stuff that's told and filmed that has nothing to do with the Bible and the Word of God. Put some of that out, and if it were done in an effective manner, one of the most effective I remember seeing a number of years ago, they did a movie called King David. You can see it, but you can find it probably on Netflix. And they were telling the story of David and it opened with the story of Saul coming in. Saul and Samuel came and found that Saul had spared Agag. You know the story there from 1 Samuel. And they showed Saul drawing a sword and turning in some of the slickest sword work you'd see on film and cutting off the head of Agag, which is what the Bible describes. And to this day, I thought, wow, that was pretty good film. They did a good job. And the story is told in the Bible and it's there for us to learn the perils of idolatry or disobedience to God. And it can be pretty effective. And if that were part of a national revival or epic, then it might have perhaps a more positive impact than others. But through the verses here, he goes through and you see that virtually every idol, pagan god, and goddess that was probably in the known world of their day had found root in Jerusalem and Judah. It is a thorough purging. And he goes through here in verse 14, he broke in pieces the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image, and filled their places with the bones of men. Pretty strong, pretty thorough physically of what came down. And he's in Beth El, and he turned in verse 16, he saw the tombs that were on the mountains, and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled that altar, a pagan altar, according to the word of God, which had been spoken during the time of Jeroboam. And he left the bones of a prophet that had even prophesied that he would come and do that. And he left that intact. He said, let him alone in verse 18, don't move his bones. And so they let those alone with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. And he goes on and he made a thorough cleaning of the idolatry of the land. The temple is restored. And this takes some time to accomplish within the setting of the day. And it is a reform. And then they begin to really get serious. In verse 21, the king commanded all the people saying, keep the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.

And that is found in the book of the covenant in Deuteronomy as well as in Leviticus.

And so they did. And such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. And in the 18th year of King Josiah, this Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. So nothing had been held like it. There had been a cleansing, a removal of filth and idolatry and all of its accompanying practices. Everything had been put away. And they kept the Passover. The account in Chronicles says that they kept the days of unleavened bread as well, which follow on from the Passover. And there had not been a festival kept since the days of Judah. A remarkable occasion, all because a king had the Bible read to them. And those words have meaning and impact and power and provoked this reaction within a man who was already on the right path, but now accelerated that and brought the country and the nation along with it.

The story goes on, and I'll just summarize it.

The Josiah, for all of his reforms, it didn't last. Sometime after this, he engages himself in a battle that kind of passes him by. The king of Egypt is heading up toward Assyria for a major clash of armies at that time. And Assyria is in its waning days, and Egypt is kind of pressing its weight, trying to punch it really above their weight. But Josiah goes out, and he gets caught up in the battle, and he gets himself killed. He's warned not to do it. The Pharaoh's name is Nico, says, I don't have anything with you. Stay away. But he gets himself killed. And he's brought back, and he's buried, and there is a great deal of lamenting. Jeremiah the prophet is a contemporary. Jeremiah knows what this means, because the words of the prophet is who said that the calamity upon the nation is going to be spirit while Josiah is alive. Now he's dead, and they know that there's going to be a day of judgment. Judgment day is coming. Jeremiah talks about it in his prophecies. If we understand the timing right, very likely, even at the time, there was probably a very high public funeral that was given to Josiah being a king.

There was probably a young man named Daniel standing and watching that episode.

This is the same Daniel that is the prophet Daniel, will be the prophet Daniel. He's contemporary as well. And so the reform doesn't last, is the point. They keep the Holy Days. They clean the land up. They put out the giant loaves of bread called idolatry and pagan shrines of the day. They clean the land. But the subsequent story shows that the reform didn't last beyond the lifetime of Josiah. It was an outward reform. You read what Jeremiah was saying to the people. He says, look, don't trust in this building that's been rebuilt. Read Jeremiah 7. He said, don't trust in it.

Change your heart. Change your heart. Change your lives. And they didn't. And then they eventually went into captivity. It is a very important lesson to us as we read it and think about it, as we begin ourselves again this year to keep the Days of Unleavened Bread, prepare our hearts through examination to take of the Passover service.

Josiah kept a Passover by accounts here. Anything had been done with such solemnity, grandeur, perhaps even sincerity since the days of the Judges, not during any of the time of the other kings. And that's speaking a lot because Hezekiah, if you remember, they kept it twice when they reformed in His time. But Josiah's was special, and yet it didn't go far enough because it did not go to the heart of the individuals. There are reasons for that, but at least we did see what happened with the king. And it could have been something more lasting for people in the street. For many, it probably did, but not quite enough. The country and the nation had gone too far. And ultimately then, their days were numbered, and Judah came to an end as a nation. And the story goes on. They kept the days of Unleavened Bread, they kept the Passover, and so do we. But we keep it with a different meaning and understanding than they did.

We keep the Passover with the symbols of bread and wine, and a foot-washing service. Knowing that they represent Jesus Christ, His body given for our sins, and His blood shed for our sins as well. And we know that it's not a lamb, and it's not the ceremony that we see completely in Exodus or Leviticus. We keep it with different meaning, different symbols, as Jesus changed that. Keep it at the same time, but with a completely different meaning.

As Jesus Christ's life, death, suffering is put within it.

And therefore, we also keep the days of Unleavened Bread with a different, deeper meaning as well. Because we understand that we are to be unleavened. Paul says we are unleavened. In 1 Corinthians 5, he makes that comment. The only way we can be unleavened is because we have been forgiven of our spiritual sins through Christ's sacrifice. And yet, we put the leaven out, as Paul says, in the same place to do. Certainly, the teaching of God applies to us from Exodus and Leviticus as well, to put it out and to eat unleavened bread during that period of time. But we eat it with a different meaning.

We do what we do for a different meaning. And if it doesn't move us beyond the time of Josiah, as high as that was and important as that was, then we would have to ask ourselves, are we truly unleavened in the heart? Does it go to the heart? Will we be keeping a feast that this year will move us closer toward a renewal, a deeper spiritual revival that is needed at all times for us as the people of God and gets to the heart and the core and the meaning for us?

I was trying to figure out the other day how many days of unleavened bread this will be for me. I can count the passovers, but I've kept the days of unleavened bread longer than I've kept the passover. I remember in grade school going to taking my lunch to school during these days as my mother was beginning to learn about it. Instead of giving me a white Wonder Bread sandwich, I had these little flat things called rykrisp.

We didn't have matzos in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where I grew up. I'd not heard of matzos, and we didn't have enough of the Jewish community for the local IGA to stock in matzos. My first unleavened bread was rykrisp. I was looking at this and people were asking me at lunch, what is it? I said, I don't know. But that's what I'm eating this week, so leave me alone.

I think it's about number 56 in terms of the days of unleavened bread for me.

More than five decades I've been putting the leaven out and eating unleavened bread. I learned something new every year. Every year it grows within me. I come to a deeper understanding of what this festival means and what God wants us to learn. I've taught it many of those years, as well as keeping it myself and taught people to observe it. I've even learned how to teach people to keep the days of unleavened bread in a better, more spiritually directed way. While we put out the leaven from our homes, I've learned, frankly, to spend more time working on the spiritual leaven than the physical leaven. While it will all be put out and we will eat unleavened bread during those days, I've learned that I better get my heart cleaned out. Like I said, if I could just take that leaf blower to my heart. I've learned that I better get my heart it might be a little easier. I've got to get that done. Colossians 3 is a passage that I go to, especially at this time of year, to help me deal heaven to the heart. Let's look at it briefly.

I think that God inspired Paul to write this to help us during the festival period of unleavened bread because he talks about putting off bad sin and putting on righteousness. Or putting in righteousness is the way he put it. It's putting off and it's putting on.

A lot of what is really the theme here of the first 17 verses of Colossians 3. Beginning in verse 1, he writes, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is setting at the right hand of God. This echoes language out of Romans 6 where he wrote that as well. We are raised up out of a watery grave with our sins forgiven as a result of baptism and the faith in the sacrifice of Christ and accepting that sacrifice. Then we go through the outward symbol of baptism. Paul says in Romans 6 we come up out of that in a type of resurrection. This is the same imagery that he's getting here. He said, put your mind on that which is above, where Christ sets at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above and not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Our intent was that we would kill that person that lived prior to baptism and put it to death. The old man, as it is called. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. I think it's the J.B. Phillips translation, one of those that has gone out of popular use in more recent years. I have an actual copy of the Phillips New Testament translation. But Phillips says here in verse 4, when Christ, who is the secret center of your life, appears.

He is the center of our life. He's secret in a sense that, you know, it's not necessarily seen, but certainly it should not be secret in the way we live. But when Christ, who is your life, he says, appears, you will appear with him in glory. Because that life that Christ is will then have been in us increasingly in larger amounts through a lifetime of overcoming sin. Which is what we picture when we put the leaven out physically before the days of unleavened bread. But it is the putting in of righteousness then that is most important. And we must come to understand that the only way we will put in righteousness, the only way we will really overcome the spiritual sin, is with the help of God. It will not solely be by our efforts. We must assert ourselves. We must resist sin. We must seek to flee various types of sin and recognize it. And yet, to me, through the years, the biggest lesson that I sought to learn and to impart and to talk about is that it is the putting in of Christ's life within us that helps us then to not only overcome but to solidify that. So that it does renew our heart and it does cut us to the heart and it changes the heart to where then our obedience to God in all ways is from the heart and not just by outward appearance.

Do you really love to keep the Sabbath or is it still a habit? Ask yourself that question. A few years ago, I had a conversation with a member that I've known since college days and we were talking and he was putting this point across to me. He said, I love to keep the Sabbath. It's not a matter of just what I was taught by my parents or just that I do this out of fear. I love to keep it. And if my boss tells me I've got to stay over past sundown, it's a no-brainer for me. It's a no-brainer, he said, for me. I really enjoy it.

And since my routine has changed, not being in the field ministry, my enjoyment level has increased.

Saturday night used to be just drop totally exhausted. But six days a week is what it comes down to anymore now. Mr. McLean was talking about hats. Yeah, hats keep getting piled on all of us in the church anymore and in the ministry and out of necessity at times. So it's six days a week now. So I really do enjoy the Sabbath, and it becomes more of a day of arrest. But for all of us, whatever point of God's teaching and God's law, it has to come from the heart. It's written on our heart. And then, therefore, the obedience is one of joy, not obligation, not dread, not fear, because Christ is in us. And when we eat that unleavened bread, when I eat that unleavened bread every day during the days of unleavened bread, that's a remarkable symbol to me of the life of Christ. I remember what Jesus says in John chapter 6. We could just quickly turn there. When Jesus talked about the fact that He was the bread of life. John chapter 6. When His disciples couldn't fully understand His message, He drills deep there. He said in verse 48, I am the bread of life. Verse 51, I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

The bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Verse 54, whoever eats my flesh, drinks my blood, has eternal life, and I'll raise him up at the last day. Verse 58, this is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead, but he who eats this bread will live forever.

It is Christ's life within us. And when I eat that unleavened bread every day, that's what I'm thinking about. What are you thinking about?

And it is a rote symbol for me, and we don't have a whole lot of ritual in the Church of God, but we're coming up to the big bulk of it right now with the Holy Days and Passover for us. And they are rich in meaning, spiritual meaning. And that unleavened bread that I gladly eat and enjoy points me back to John. These statements I just read to you out of John 6. I want that life in me, and you do as well, because that is the bread that we eat that will allow us to live forever as Christ's life is within us. And going back then to Colossians 3, he goes on, he says in verse 5, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. And he begins to list the fornication, the uncleanness, and the passion. Josiah cleaned out all of the pagan idolatry of the day, grounded in the dust, and scattered it to the four winds. And at least there was a cleanness on the land, but unfortunately it didn't go all the way into the hearts of the people for many different reasons, but it must for us. The evil desire, the covetousness, which is idolatry. We don't have these wooden posts today in our backyard. You're not bowing down before some stone idol, but we could all be tempted to bow down to other forms of idolatry that are extant today and are still grasping and trying to claw their way into our lives. And he just mentions several of them here. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.

Verse 8, he says, but now you yourselves are to put off these things. Or again, we could say, to put out the anger, the wrath, the malice, the blasphemy, the filthy language. Put it all out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you've put off the old man with his deeds.

If you hear a lie, if you sense a lie, a misrepresentation, an inaccuracy, a malicious slander, get rid of it. Call it what it is. Deal with it. We still have those around us, those problems like that. They still can crop into our fellowship. Put it out.

Discern it. Do not lie to one another, he says in verse 9, since you've put off the old man with these deeds. And so there's quite a list through verse 9 of things to put out that speak to spiritual matters and spiritual problems and where they cropped their head up in our midst, in our church, among ourselves. Any of these to any degree, form, or shape. We've got to have the ability to discern it and call it what it is. Go to your brother. Deal with it. Within your sphere of influence, responsibility, and not let it take root. And then it begins in verse 10, he says, and you put on the new man, or you're putting it in your life, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who has created him, where there is neither Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness and humility, meekness and long suffering. These are the matters that we have to put into our heart and to where the revival and the renewal goes that far.

Bearing one another, forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you also were called in one body, and be thankful.

And then let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, He says. Just as it did, as the word of God did when Josiah heard it in his day, and it cut him to the heart, he tore his clothes figuratively, and he initiated a vast revival and renewal within his own life and his own people. The word of God is very powerful, and it gets things done.

Let God's word move in and through us as we prepare ourselves for the Passover and for the days of Unleavened Bread. Remove the fear. Whatever it is that we might be afraid of, issues in our own personal lives, the future, health. Ask God for the help to deal with the fear. He's given us a spirit of power and love and sound mind, not a spirit of fear. Put on love.

Let peace rule your heart. In other words, pursue peace actively in our fellowship, in our congregations, among all of our relationships. Pursue peace. Let it rule in your heart. Not division, not malice, not lies, not misrepresentations, not accusations that lead to fear and uncertainty and a certain level of unnerving of our mission and of our purpose and of our confidence in one another, in our ministry, and ultimately even in God to guide and direct His Church. Work for peace, brethren, among yourselves. Go to your brother first. Seek reconciliation. Seek understanding. But go to your brother. And let, lastly, the word of Christ dwell in you. If we can do these things, if we can begin to take to heart in our heart these matters, more so this year, we can begin to grow a culture of trust in the Church that will allow God to do things with us that we could only dream or imagine or hope.

So, understand that we are not de-leavened until it gets to the heart.

Understand that, and then we can keep God's feast, and let us do so.