[Steve Myers] Well, here we are in the Days of Unleavened Bread. And maybe you ask yourself, what is Unleavened Bread all about? What comes to mind when you think of that? Is it matzos? Maybe it's skipping the donuts. Perhaps it's the deep meaning of what Unleavened Bread is all about. It's about the story of the resurrected Christ. It's about Jesus Christ living His life in us and through us. It's about truly being repentant of sin. It's about the fact that God has given us the power of His Spirit to live a godly life.

And so what a great reminder God gives us for this whole week to look at ourselves and say, "Well, where am I now when it comes to doing those very things? In fact, where do I want to be? Here's where I am. Where am I going? Where do I need to be?" In a way, Unleavened Bread kind of sets a target for us, what we're going to aim for. And in fact, I think it sets the goal in order for us to realize, how are we going to do that? How are you going to make those specific steps in order to get where we need to be? How can I achieve the goal of becoming Christ-like? How do I grow in grace and knowledge? How do I put on Jesus Christ? Have we've been asking those questions? Those are big questions, monstrous questions, huge questions that I think God gives us these holy days so that we do step back and ask those things. How do I walk in righteousness?

Well, we know it just doesn't happen by itself. We know I need an action plan. I need to take steps in order to grow spiritually. So what is your action plan for growth? Unleavened Bread is certainly a reminder that we've got to have one. We need an action plan. Does God give us examples of that plan? How do we put those things into motion in our life? Fortunately, the Bible is full of all kinds of examples that can help us to establish an action plan. Sometimes it seems that trying to do what's right is especially tough because look at the kind of world that we live in. We live in a world that makes it difficult to put on righteousness.

Do you ever feel like, "I am surrounded by all these difficult things, by all the bad sinful things in this world. So how can I overcome when these kinds of things are just surrounding me and impacting my thinking day, after day, after day, after day?" Well, it is possible. It is possible. In fact, this afternoon, I'd like to look at one individual in the Bible that was much like us, someone that was surrounded by evil, and yet had an action plan for growth. His name, Josiah. King Josiah of Judah was just like us. Except in some ways, a little bit different. In fact, tonight's musical is based on the life of King Josiah.

And in his life, there's an Unleavened Bread lesson. In fact, embedded in his life is an action plan for growth, because Josiah was surrounded by evil, just his life itself. Before Josiah, you know who was king of Judah? His name was Amon. He was a bad, bad king. Before Amon was another bad, bad king, those are the lyrics from one of the songs they're going to sing tonight, Manasseh was a horrible king. And didn't just rule for a year, or two, or three, but for 55 years this evil king reigned in Judah. Then Josiah came along. At age eight, things began to turn around. But after Josiah, things went right downhill all over again.

And if you turn over to 2 Kings 21, you can see how Josiah literally was surrounded by bad kings, by evil, Manasseh, before him, his grandfather, his father, Amon, bad kings. Scripture says in 2 Kings 21 “that Manasseh did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Amon, his father before him, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” After Josiah, you don't have to turn there, but make your way over 2 Kings 22, Jehoahaz “did evil in the sight of the Lord.” Then there was Jehoiakim. You'll never guess what it says about him. He “did evil in the sight of the Lord.” After came Zedekiah. What did Zedekiah do? He “did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

So over and over again, before Josiah, after Josiah, he was surrounded by evil. Did that mean that he had no chance of doing what was right? Well, in fact, just the opposite. If you look at 2 Kings 22, right at the very beginning of the chapter, Amon is assassinated, the evil father before him. Josiah becomes king at eight years old. Notice what it says, beginning of chapter 22 of 2 Kings. It says, "Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem." Verse 2, "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left."

You know, you read something like that, and after recognizing what went on before him, what would come after him, you can't help but ask, "How did he do it? How did he do it?" It was because he had an action plan for growth. He set an amazing example for us so that we can establish an Unleavened Bread action plan for growth. In fact, I think you could narrow it down to at least four things that he did that helped in that action plan for real change, for transformational change, transforming not only his kingship but transforming the entire nation. Josiah set an amazing example.

And so when we look at his example, we'll talk about it this afternoon in the sermon, we'll sing about it tonight in the musical. You'll see an amazing change. It helped him in his pursuit of righteousness, his obedience to God, and his spiritual growth. And of course, when we look at where we're at, well, in some ways, we're like Josiah. God's called us into His family. He's opened our minds to His truth. We've left the Egypt of this world behind. And as Josiah becomes king, it was a mess of a world. And yet, God called him to change. And he had to change by changing the way the world worked, by changing the way Jewish society worked. He had to basically change the law.

Now, sometimes that happens in our world, laws change sometimes. Have you ever heard of some of these crazy laws that are out there on the books, there's some really weird ones that are out there? Did you hear the one, in fact, I couldn't really narrow down where this exactly originated, you could attribute it to New York City, you could attribute it to Buena Park, California, you could attribute it to Rosette, Utah. Supposedly, they all had this particular law on the books. You know what this law was? The law was prohibiting a man to look at a woman in “that way.”

Now, if you violated that law in Rosette, Buena Park, New York City, supposedly, it was a $25 fine. You might say, "Well, big deal." Okay. That wasn't the end of it. If you were a second offender, if you did it a second time, you know what the law said? The law said you may not go out of your house again without wearing blinders. Supposedly it's a true law. So they were forced to wear a pair of horse blinders wherever and whenever they went out. Now, horse blinders, you might say, "Well, isn't that a little extreme?" You know what they are. They are those little leather pieces of blocking so that the horse can't see anything to the sides, can't see anything in reverse, kept them looking forward. That's all they could do. They couldn't turn their head any other way. They could only look forward, kept them from being distracted.

Now, you might say, "That's kind of strange. What does that have to do with an action plan?" That action plan was Josiah's first step for growth. His first step in his action plan for growth, wear blinders. Not a bad action step for us either. Look at verse 2, 2 Kings 22:2, "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father, David, [wearing horse blinders].” Okay, doesn't say that exactly. What does it say? “Not turning aside to the right or to the left.” That's an Unleavened Bread idea. Live like Josiah lived. Don't turn to the right, don't turn to the left. Keep your eyes focused on the goal of living God's way. That's what Josiah did. And it follows the example of a good horse trainer.

Horse trainers and handlers know you can modify a horse's behavior by limiting its vision. By limiting the horse's vision you modify their behavior because you're going to obstruct their vision. They can't look right, they can't look left, and they can't even look behind them. Well, they might be able to hear that horse that's catching up to them, but they're not going to be distracted by it. And they're going to press toward that finish line. That's what we need to do. That's what Josiah did. In a sense, he put on spiritual blinders, so he wouldn't get off track. He wouldn't follow his father Amon's example, he certainly wouldn't follow his grandfather Manasseh's, he was going to do things right. He was going to do things right. And that's a challenge for us.

I was reading about the application of these blinders. Do you know that there's a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews that a few years ago actually tried to put this into practice? You could read about it in The Times of Israel. According to The Times of Israel, some ultra-Orthodox Jews literally provided stick-on blinders for the man, for those ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, supposedly they said “to protect them from the many impure and lascivious images in their environment.” All right, do we have to go to that extent? We have to stick something on our glasses in order to do that. We don't have to. We've been given God's Spirit. By the power of God's Holy Spirit, we don't have to turn right or turn left. We can stay focused on the goal.

And when we consider God's standards in our life, they become, in a way, blinders, a right kind of blinders, because it alters our behavior. When we rely on God's Spirit and live by the standards of God, does that change anything? Does that change the way we think? Does it change the way we act? Does it change the way we feel? It should, it should because God's standard then is our standard. And we modify what we would normally do under regular everyday human situations to react and act by God's standards. And so when we consider that, shouldn't God's Word function as kind of a pair of blinders in our life, shouldn't it help to guide us? It's something, boy, we better have on. We better be ready when we walk out into this world. Not like some silly law, but by living by God's law, by having those standards in place, we're ready to live by those standards.

You can't set those standards once you're already out there. You know, what's going to happen? We walk into a situation, we don't have that standard of God set in place in our mind, and in our heart. We're going to lose our temper when we're faced with the situation. We better have those standards set in place before the challenge comes before the temptation comes. You're in the middle of a passionate moment, that's not the time to rely on the standard. That standard better be there already. So what standards do you already have in place before any temptation arises? We better have them there. Are they those standards that say, "Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." Are those standards, the lips that truly deal in righteousness are His delight.

When those standards are already in place, temptation takes on a whole different direction. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly.” Are those standards already in place? Those standards had to be in place for Josiah in order to overcome the world around him, in order to overcome the horrible example that went before him, the pressure of the world, they had to be there. And he had to act on those standards.

One of those standards are delineated. And hold your place here in 2 Kings. Turn over the 1 John 2:15. 1 John 2:15 is certainly a reminder of the kind of blinders that we need to wear in a spiritual sense, to help guide us, because the poles, and the draws, and this evil world that surrounds us wants to steal our life, wants to steal our life from us. John was inspired to write about this in 1 John 2:15. I'll read 1 John 2:15 from the Message translation, maybe just a little bit different more modern translation. I like the way it's worded here. 1 John 2:15, it says, "Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world— wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important— these have nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out— but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity."

So we have to have those blinders on from what the world wants, what the impact of the world can do to us. And so it works in the real world, it works in the spiritual world. A couple of famous movie directors said these very things, movie director Mark Walters said, "When I'm in the middle of making a movie, I have blinders on. It's all about just getting that movie out." George Lucas said the same thing, Mr. Star Wars, he said, "You got to keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead." Spiritually speaking, we must do that. Our number one action plan for growth has to include wearing blinders, wear blinders.

Josiah set a second example in his action plan for growth that we could use as a second step. You know what Josiah did, pretty soon after he became king, he learned to radically obey. Not just simple obedience, but he put it into high gear. And he radically obeyed. Something interesting about Josiah. He not only wanted to live God's way, he wanted to set an example so that others would live God's way. He wanted to lead and help the people to live God's way. And this was a tough job, especially with all the evil kings that went before him, not only that was against him. You know what else happened? There was such a stretch of evil that went before him that they lost the Bible. They lost the Book of the Law in the temple. Can you imagine things getting that bad that there was such a stretch of evil, they couldn't find it. So here's a boy king who had little or no instruction or at least good ones in regarding what God wanted him to do.

Now Josiah decided it would be a good thing to repair the temple. What happened during the remodeling process? Well, during the remodeling of the temple, they found the scroll of the Book of the Law. So the high priest finds the scroll, they begin to look at it. And one of the scribes, Shaphan, brings it to the king. So if you look back at 2 Kings 22:8, we pick up the story there. 2 Kings 22:8, it says, "Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it." Skipping down to verse 10, "Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, 'Hilkiah the high priest has given me a book.' And Shaphan read it before the king."

“Now what happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.” He rent his garments. Now this is pretty amazing on a couple of levels. First of all, finding the book after all those years, second of all, having the fortitude to go before the king and basically say, "You know, we've been doing things wrong. This could either go really well or…” All right, everybody knows in the play, what's the line? "Off with their heads." Yeah, it could go either way. But what did Josiah do? He went on an obedience spree. He went on an obedience spree. He heard the Word of God. He tore his robes as a sign of grief, a sign of repentance, a sign of sorrow because he began to realize how far he and his people had strayed from God.

If you were to read the next couple of chapters, it tells what he did. He began to tear down and burn all the pagan temples and altars, and he destroyed their images, their idols. He went on a spree. And this wasn't something that was easy to do. This cost him something. This was costly. This was time-consuming. In fact, most of the kings that were halfway decent kings before him never did this. Well, they themselves personally turned to God but they didn't tear down the idols, they didn't tear down the altar, Josiah did. And this was time-consuming, it was costly, and it was difficult. This was radical obedience. Josiah was going to do what was right and it didn't matter what it was going to cost, because he recognized by realizing the Word of God who knows best. He recognized God knows what's best for us. And Josiah was going to radically obey and do what's right.

And of course, Unleavened Bread reminds us, God knows what's best for us. He knows what's best. He loves us perfectly. And obeying God, well, it's not only a command but it's in our own best interest. When we think of the wonderful example of Josiah, there was even a more powerful example. Think of the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. What was the supreme expression of Jesus' obedience? How did Jesus Christ Himself, radically obey? Well, He died for us. He went through the excruciating death of the crucifixion. And it was His supreme expression of not only obedience but also His expression of love, love for the Father, and His love for us as well, because 2 Corinthians 5:21, it reminds us, we won't turn there, "He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And so through that perfect expression of love, Jesus Christ died for us. And so Unleavened Bread reminds us, that was a sacrifice that was given to us.

Now, can we walk sin-free, not just physical leaven-free, just not just so we got the yeast out, but can we continue to walk in that way? You see through Jesus Christ, we've been given a great reversal, and we don't have to live in sin. God's given us the gift of His Spirit through the death of Jesus Christ that sets us free from sin and starts that spiritual process of transforming our lives. What an amazing blessing this is. What a phenomenal thing that Christ has given us that we can truly radically obey through the power of His Spirit.

And you might say, "Well, why does it work?" Because of love. It works because of love. Doesn't God's way work because of love? When I was reminded of this. One of the things I really don't appreciate that much, I don't like cleaning out the refrigerator. I really don't like it. My wife seems to take joy in cleaning out the refrigerator. You know, there are all those drawers and things that come out, it's like, "Oh, you're kidding me? There's another drawer that comes out?" Well, yeah, they do, taking the time and the effort and trouble. We found some yeast-filled, what were they? There were some kind of flatbread. Didn't look like they're set of yeast, but they were hiding behind the drawers back there, a whole package of them.

And yeah, okay, the outcome clean refrigerator. That's really nice. It's wonderful. But is that how I want to spend my time? Not really, I don't like that. But because my wife knows it's important, and the woman that I love the most in this world, when I help her clean out the refrigerator, or when I help her dust, she really appreciates it. And it's probably better than sending her a dozen roses. Okay, well, maybe not a dozen roses. But she likes it. And, you know, you think about the point… What am I trying to say? Okay, I don't mind cleaning out the refrigerator, I don't mind dusting, I don't mind sending her flowers, why do I do it? I love her. I do it because I love her. Okay. I have to admit, it brings me joy because it makes her happy. I know she loves it. And well we can be together and do it. It doesn't matter what we're doing, it's good to be together. We love that. That is such a great thing.

And as I got to thinking about that, isn't that the way it works with God? Isn't it? Christ said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Yeah, that's a command. You can't fudge with that. You got to do it. But He didn't say, "If you love Me, you'll obey Me and prove how much you love Me." He didn't say that. That's not what Christ said. When we love Him, our obedience flows out of that relationship. Yes, it's a command. We must do it. But we love Him. And it brings us great joy because it flows out of a relationship of love. And that can't help but bring radical obedience. That's our second step in our action plan for growth.

But it doesn't stop there though. Josiah had a third step in his action plan for growth. You could call it model me, model me. You know, like, you know, the model that walks around. Yeah, kind of like that, kind of like that. Model me, his third step in his action plan for growth. Turn back to 2 Kings once again. 2 Kings 23 shows this next step in his action plan. Let's notice it. 2 Kings 23, right at the very beginning of that chapter, Josiah points to modeling me or imitating, mimicking, however you want to put it, notice the scenario here in the reign of king Josiah, chapter 23 verse 1 of 2 Kings, "Now the king set them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him." So he calls them all together. Verse 2, "The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem."

Interesting. Where did they go? Not to Josiah's throne, they went to God's house. They went to God's house. All the men, the elders, they all went up. Says “the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great.” So they gathered at the temple. What did he do? It says, "He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord." Do you notice that? Who read it? Shaphan, the scribe? Hilkiah, the high priest? No. The king read it. He read in their hearing all the words. Verse 3, "Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book."

Josiah renewed that covenant with God. And he did it publicly. He did it in front of everybody, the leadership, the high priest, the regular priest, all the people, from the least to the greatest. He wanted everybody to be in on this. Now, when you make a promise, it's one thing if you're the only one that knows because you can go back on that promise and, yeah, who knows? “I think I'll try to eat less ice cream tonight. Okay, nobody else knows. Okay. Yeah, I think I'd like some.” But what everybody knows, they're going to say, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? You promised. You promised to do this." So he does this in front of everybody because he wanted all of them to be in on this. So he publicly states this in front of all of them. And it wasn't just, "Well, I'm going to try to do this, everybody, you know, don't be hard on me if I don't." No, he says, "I'm going to do it." And he does it with all his heart, all his soul, everything. He goes all in.

Now, the interesting part is what happened then as he dedicates his life to the one true God? Well, if you look at the end of that verse there, verse 3, He makes this vow to obey God with all his heart, all his soul, performed the words of the covenant. What also happens? It says, "All the people took a stand for the covenant." So we have a kind of a model me approach. Josiah says, "This is what I'm doing. Imitate me." And the people took a stand. Literally, that means to become a servant of, or to make a promise, to stand your ground. And they were going to stand with him. They took a stand, not just for Josiah, but they could look beyond Josiah and take a stand for God, take a stand for that covenant that God had made.

And so this was a recipe for success. They were going to model really Christ-like behavior. They were going to keep the covenant. And the leader was going to do what was right. How much easier then for the people to follow, to model the king? What a wonderful result there. They pledged to do the same thing. They were going to follow that recipe for success. Have you ever had that experience? Seems like Unleavened Bread. How many times do you have just certain special treats just once a year at Unleavened Bread? Anybody else like that? Okay, it's kind of our family. And of course, when you do that, you automatically remember everything about that recipe, right? You know, probably not. If you're like me, I can't remember what happened last week, let alone last year, you got to get out the recipe. You got to get out the recipe.

Now, my wife makes wonderful unleavened bread. It's not the bread of affliction. It's pretty good. It's really good. But it's not her recipe. You know whose recipe it is? It's great grandma's recipe. It's great grandma's recipe because grandma made the best unleavened bread. This is her grandmother. We called her great grandma because of our kids. You get the recipe out, here's the ingredients you need, follow the recipe. You follow great grandma's recipe, how's that going to turn out? It's going to turn out good. Okay, but is it just because, well, here's all the ingredients and all the right portion, and that's going to make it good. Is that all it's about? Not exactly. Was it because my wife is such a great cook? Well, she is, I better put a disclaimer in there. Well, no, it's not because of the ingredients. It's not because of her abilities.

I think it points back to the fact she trusts the one who gave her the recipe. She trusts the one who gave her the recipe, because in a way, you have that wonderful unleavened bread when you're finished, or I could say a whole bunch of other things that she makes. That recipe promises the best bread. But knowing who gave it is the first step. Now, you think about that for just a moment. You have to take that step of faith and do what the recipe tells you, but, you know, great grandma did it right. Now, think about life. Think about the recipe for life. God's given us a wonderful recipe for life, an unleavened life. He's given us His Word. He's given us His Spirit. Why can we know the outcome? Why can we know what's going to happen if we believe and we follow? Why can we trust in modeling that recipe for life?

Okay, it's not just because of the ingredients, it's not just because well, “I know what it says,” it's not just because of it depends on my ability to follow the recipe, because sometimes I mess up the recipe. You see, it's because I know it works because of the one who gave it, the one who gave it. God wants us to taste His goodness. He wants us to taste His love, His mercy, His grace, and we can. And we know that his recipe can be trusted. I mean, you know, the old saying, the proof is in the pudding. That's right. Now actually, did you know the original saying wasn't that? The original saying was the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. That means the value of something can only be judged when you put it to use.

I mean, what good does this book do if you don't put it to use? What good does great grandma's recipe do if you don't make it? What good does saying, "Oh, I love God," if you don't live this way? You see, that's what's so critical then. In this very same way, the proof for the truth of God's Word that we believe is shown when we actively put it to use in our lives. That's Josiah's example. Isn't it amazing, Josiah didn't stand up and say, "I now order every one of you to follow this example of God. And you better do it or I'm going to kill you." He didn't do that. He recognized that we follow people who set good examples. Yeah, man, unfortunately, sometimes we follow people that set bad examples like his father did, like his grandfather did, like those that came after him. Josiah recognized that. He recognized the fact that he could influence people for good.

We can do the same. We can do the same. Josiah sets us an amazing example. Even more importantly, Jesus Christ modeled perfect behavior. Remember He said, "I have given you an example." We read it just the other night, John 13:15, we read it at the Passover. Didn't He say that "I've given you an example, that you should do as I have done.” And He used that example of the foot washing. But it works in life. It works in life. And so that's a powerful action step for growth that we model Christ's behavior. We model Josiah's example. All right. That takes us to our fourth step, our last step. Our last step in an action plan for growth.

That action step is found in the power of zoom. The power of zoom. Now, what in the world am I talking about, the power of zoom? Well, if you're still there in 2 Kings 23, I have to flip back there. 2 Kings 23:25. Notice how this applies in Josiah's example. The power of zoom, 2 Kings 23:25. It says, "Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him, who turned to the Lord as he did with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” Amazing thing here, we have four steps in our action plan. Here, there are four all in phrases right here in this one little verse. Do you see these four all-ins, with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength, with all the Law of Moses, fully committing to the Bible.

Where was his focus? What did Josiah zoom in on? You know, he powerfully zoomed in on God's Word, and His will, and His way. He didn't have a vision that took in everything that could be a distraction. He focused precisely on God's will and His way. The power of zoom, the power of zoom can help us to put on the mind of Christ. I mean, we probably all use the power of zoom, haven't we? Anybody ever used Google Earth? Okay, raise your hand. How cool was that the first time you ever did that? How many of you have looked at your own house or where you live from the satellites? Okay, we've all done that.

All right. When you see the earth, you don't see too much. It's like, "Oh, yeah, there's North America," you know, "where do I live?" I remember when that first came out, it was a lot more difficult to find where you live because it wasn't like, "Oh, I typed in my address and it'll just go right there." When that first came, it was a lot harder, so you had to keep repositioning things until you got about where you were and then you're looking trying to find. When you look at the earth, you can't figure out where you live. But when you start using the power of zoom, you go from this entire globe to zooming in past North America, past just the United States, past just Ohio. You narrow it right down, even past Cincinnati, or Williamsburg, to the exact location of Williamsburg High School. So I know exactly where I'm going and how I'm going to get there. That's the power of zoom. It's focusing exactly where you want to go, right where you need to be.

And so what a great example of how focused we should be, the power of zoom. Unleavened bread reminds us of that. What is it that we're focusing on? What takes our focus away from God's way? God has got to be our primary focus. Can't be our career, can't be our job, can't be even our family, can't be other distractions, can't be recreation. That can't be what we zoom in on. That doesn't mean those things don't have their place. But we got to be careful, our primary focus, what we zoom in on most has to be what's important to God because He knows what's best for us. And that's what's so great about the example of Josiah.

And kids, children, you know how old Josiah was when he became king? Eight. He was eight years old. What a powerful example. It was probably only about 10 years later that they found the scroll. He was a teenager. Teens, do you have an action plan for growth? Josiah did. What a great example. What a wonderful example. He set a course to live God's way as a young boy, as a teenager, didn't stop when he was a young adult. Right into his adulthood, he zoomed in, we could say on Christ. He zoomed in on God's way. And Unleavened Bread is such a great reminder for us. It forces us to zoom in on our Savior Jesus Christ.

We're told in 1 Corinthians 15:17, "If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile." It is useless. You're still in your sins. And so what a great reminder for us. Unleavened Bread brings us back to the reality of our action plan for growth. The power of zoom focuses us on the fact that we are crucified with Christ, but we're still alive. Galatians 2:20 reminds us, yeah, it's not that old person, not that old way, not that old, sinful individual, but Christ is living His life in me and through me. And the life that I'm living now, the only way it's possible to live a spiritual life is by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

And so our action plan for growth focuses us on the critical fact of the Days of Unleavened Bread. It focuses us on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The power of the resurrection, He is living His life in us. And that's what truly empowers us to get the leaven of sin out, and really grow spiritually. And so what a great God we have. He's given us the means to grow in the way of Jesus Christ. He's given us a plan. Let's follow that action plan for growth. Let's wear those spiritual blinders. Let's commit ourselves to radically obey and follow the model, not just of Josiah, but imitate every good example, and most importantly, the example of Jesus Christ. And let's powerfully zoom in and keep that focuses on God's will and His way. Because if we implement these four steps, and we have that action plan, there is no doubt, God will give us spiritual growth.