[Rick Shabi] Good afternoon everyone. Great to be here with all of you. Seems like we have been gone a lot of Sabbaths here lately. It's always good to come back home and to see all of you. At the same time, it's very good to meet many of our brethren in the very many places we've had the opportunity to be. That is one of the great blessings, I say, of the job to be able to do that. I want to thank Mrs. Yazell for that very fine performance. I'm going to say performance, very well, very well done. I've heard that him before, but never quite as good as that. So thank you. Thank you for that. Let me say hi to our visitors that are here, as well as those who are listening in on the web with us today as well. Great to be here on actually a very beautiful day here in Cincinnati with the sun that always makes things a little brighter.

Well, we're here. We're here on the fifth day of Abib, the first month of the year, some would call it the month of Nisan. But it's the first month of God's year on the fifth day, and a week from tomorrow evening on the 14th of Abib begins. We'll all be together here for Passover and to observe what is the most solemn and perhaps the most important part of the holy days' season for us, because it all started with Jesus Christ. And as we come together on Passover, we have a tremendous opportunity to renew our commitment to God and to renew our walk with him after having taken some time to review what it is we have done over the past year.

You know, it's kind of in a way our time to come before God for an annual review. Most of you have worked and wherever you've worked, you've had annual reviews and your boss gets together with you and you talk about the things, "Where were you last year? The goals that were set? What progress has been made?" And maybe your boss has some ideas of where you can go and what is the progress? What are your goals? What is he preparing you for as you work there? And you talk about those things. And when you come the next year, you talk about it again, "Where have you been? Where are you going? How have you progressed from last year to this year on the road to whatever your career goals are on a physical basis?"

And if you're really diligent about the job, if you really want the job, if you really are excited about what you do, you do make progress. You come to work every day. You're zealous for what you're doing. Whatever your hand finds to do, you do it with your might. You are diligent. You are there. You have ideas. You do more than what's expected. You just don't cross the boxes, "This is all that I have to do." And your employer sees that, and you are rewarded as you go forward because he sees you are someone who is committed. In a way, God has called us to a greater opportunity and a greater calling than anything this world could ever possibly offer. And He calls us and expects that as He opens our minds, we accept the truth, we repent, acknowledge that our past lives were going nowhere in the way that He expected us to go or that we need to be in order to be in His kingdom and fulfill whatever role He has in mind for us. And we commit our lives to Him.

You show us the way. We will follow you wherever you go. We will do whatever you say. We will accept whatever it is you have for us because we trust you. You will you will prepare us for your kingdom. And we know that you have our best interest at heart, God. And so we begin the walk, and then every year as we come to Passover, God expects us to look and see, "Where are where are we? Where are we on this path that He has us to? Where is this on the way that He has us to becoming who He wants us to become?" And He expects us to do that so that as we come to Passover and we come before Him, and we are present before Him and that holy convocation, that we've taken the time to review and we can see progress has been made in some of those areas, but, boy, we've fallen short in some other areas.

Sin is one we look at and think, you know...and can kind of identify that. There are some other areas that we can look at as well. You know, as we look at the world around us...and I know as I had people that worked for me, you always appreciate as an employer, and God appreciates those who have a zealous heart and a committed spirit, and they're there to do what you want. But you always have some that kind of do just enough. And it's kind of like they're not really profitable employees, maybe not bad enough to get rid of or fire, but not bad enough to get rid of or fire. But not the type of person you want to entrust more responsibility to. You know, God sees that in us as well.

And sometimes as we look at sins and those things that we might have fallen back on because all of us have things that we have to overcome and some things take the rest of our lives, those sins that do so easily beset. There are some attitudes we can look at as well. One of those attitudes would be apathy, complacency, just kind of going along with the things, thinking, "As long as we're here, that's good enough. I'm still keeping the Sabbath. I still tithe. I still come to the holy days. Isn't that good enough?" And as time goes on and as we've been in the church for maybe 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, we can kind of just relax and think, "I've made it. I haven't really strayed in my eyes," but maybe the zeal is missing.

And God looks at those things, and as we review ourselves...because this is the time, one week away from Passover, it's time to dig in and do the preparation work for Passover because we can't properly observe the Passover if we haven't done the due diligence in reviewing ourselves and doing the self-examination that God has. And we can be looking at some of those things. Complacency is just one of those attitudes. But let's turn over to Zephaniah. Zephaniah 1. Because speaking of the end times, you know, Zephaniah is talking about those times. Zephaniah, there you are, Zephaniah 1:12. God talks about people that are settled in complacency, just kind of like coasting, just kind of go along from year to year.

Zephaniah 1:12 "It shall come to pass at that time," God says, "that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in the heart, 'The Lord won't do good, nor He will do evil.'"

"He's okay. He's just there. He's just happy that we're doing the things that we need to do. He's kind of just taking it easy too, and time just goes on and year after year passes and we're still here."

Zephaniah 1:13 God says, verse 13, "Therefore, their goods shall become booty, their houses shall become a desolation. They shall build houses, but not inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine."

"The great day of the Lord," he says, "is near." The time is near. And we've talked about that several times, and I could rehearse, again, all the things that are going on in the world, you know what those are if you're watching and paying attention. But in addition to all the things that are going on in the world, there's a lot of attitudes in the world that are different than they were three or four years ago. There's a lot of attitudes like hate, strife, just a tremendous division of people. A time where people just lie about anything in order to get their way. There's never been a time with the attitudes like we have now. Times of immorality, times where people...anything goes. A time where it's my truth, not the truth. A time where if you don't like my truth, I just as soon as I see you, gone, canceled, dead. I don't want you anywhere around because if you don't see things my way, how can you be any friend of mine?

So we see all these attitudes that are out there in the world around us, and they can creep into us sometimes because we live and work in society. We have neighbors who are that way, and we might find ourselves letting some of those things creep into us if we're not paying attention to who we are and the attitudes that God would have us be. Yet the time of the end is coming. It's near. It's near. We have no idea when, it's up to God.

Zephaniah 1:14 "The great day of the Lord," verse 14, "is near. It's near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter. There the mighty men shall cry out."

And then he talks about being a time of wrath, and trouble and distress, devastation and desolation, all leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. The very thing that you and I were called for, the very thing we look forward to, because that's the hope that all the world has to have. For us to be there, we have to be progressing in the way that God has called us to progress.

And so we have this annual review time to come before Him. Look at ourselves honestly, not from what our eyes are or the world says, but through the eyes of God, through the eyes of His Holy Spirit that are in us. When we look at ourselves and think, "How am I?" You know, we sang earlier.

Psalm 139:23 "Search me, O Lord."

At times we pray, "God, look at me. Are there any wicked ways in me? Are there wicked motivations in me? Are there wicked intentions in me? Show me those ways, because I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be like the world. I want to be like you. I want to be like Jesus Christ," exactly what God has called us to be. And those are the things that we should be looking at.

Attitudes are important, and God looks at those too. When we have a pure heart, we have a pure soul, clean hands, it'll be attitudes too. The attitudes that Jesus Christ had and He displayed, those traits that He expects us to be developing. You know, the time is coming when those 10 virgins of Matthew 25, you know, they'll be there, and they've all been waiting for the bridegroom to come. But half of them were just really complacent, just really not paying attention. They knew he was coming, they believed everything, but somehow they just fell asleep. And when the bridegroom came, they weren't ready. They weren't ready. Were they sinning? The Bible doesn't say you were sinning. They weren't out committing adultery, murder, lying, stealing, whatever they do. They weren't bowing down to idols. They were complacent. They just weren't ready. They hadn't progressed as God expects us to progress. To them, the status quo was okay. I'm still a church. I still believe. I'm still doing all the things that God required. But there wasn't any progress toward what He would have them be.

We know that God didn't call us to status quo. He called us to grow, to become more like Him each and every period of time. And He established this time before Passover for us to review, "What are we doing?" Not to just think about it, but diligently, diligently take the time to think about where we are, who we are. Ask God to show us, "What is it in me that needs to change? How do I need to grow?" If we go back to Matthew 25, or forward to Matthew 25, you know Christ, as He's talking about the kingdom to come, He's talking about all the things leading up to it. He gives us these three examples of people who, somewhere along the line they're at it, they just didn't grow. They never reached the potential that God had. He gives us the tools, He gives us His Holy Spirit, but they just didn't grow.

Matthew 25, we'll look at verse 24. I believe it is, yeah, 24. We have the parable of the talents, right? God gives us all gifts. He gives us all something when we come into the church because every person has something they contribute to the work of God. Every person does. They have the gifts that God has given them, and every joint supplies something to the working of the church. And you know the story, so one, He gave five and that person was diligent. They were a profitable servant. That 5 turned into 10. And one, He gave only two, but that two turned into four. "Profitable servant," God said, "come into my Kingdom." But that there was one that He gave one to, but that person did not multiply it at all.

Matthew 25:24 "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you haven't sown and gathering where you haven't scattered seed. And I was afraid.'"

I didn't use the strength you gave me. I didn't use the Holy Spirit. I didn't use the courage you gave me to go out and do things and to make things happen. "I was afraid, and I went and I hid your talents in the ground. And look, I gave it to you." I gave you what you gave me. I didn't lose it at least. I mean, maybe you expect the guy to say, "Oh, at least you didn't lose what I gave you. You didn't go backwards, revert to your old way or adopt the ways and the attitudes of the world, but you didn't grow. You didn't become. You didn't take the time to review and understand that I was looking for progress and not the status quo."

Matthew 25:24 "As Lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant.'"

You complacent, apathetic person who never got the reason that I called you. I gave you everything you needed. I gave you what you needed to do. I had expectations of you. I gave you and I knew what I wanted you to do, but you did nothing. You just rested on your laurels. You just stayed the same. And God has some tough words for him.

Matthew 25:26-27 "You wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I reap where I haven't sown, gather where I haven't scattered seeds. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. And at least at my coming, I would have received back, my own with interest."

And He says, "Take it. Take the talent from him. Take it away from him. Give it to the others."

Matthew 25:30 "Cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." You know, sometimes maybe you've been in a situation where you thought your job was going to go somewhere or maybe you've heard of some people who have had that, and they just kind of took it for granted and thought, you know, "Pat myself on the back. The boss likes me. He wants to do that as long as I show up every day and whatever." And you kind of just coast instead of continuing to show the zeal, continuing to show the interest, continuing to show the drive that you need to have. Then one day the boss looks and says, "He's not what I thought he would be. He's not doing what I thought he would be." And you get discharged. And that future that you thought was yours in that company isn't there. I wonder about people like that. If they sit back and think, "What have I done? What should I have done differently? How I should have responded, I just thought that was there just for the taking and I didn't have to do more. I didn't have to keep working and doing all those things that the boss had seen me do. Lost a lot."

What will it be like for those who when Christ return says, "You didn't multiply anything. You didn't grow. You didn't become who I wanted you to be." A very difficult place to be when I read, "Weeping and gnashing of teeth." Those are pretty hard words to hear to put ourselves in place if that happens to be us. Because we just let ourselves drift and think we're okay and even maybe allow other attitudes to come into us. He gives another example in the rest of Chapter 25, there, He talks about those who will be welcomed into His kingdom because as they saw the opportunity to develop the agape love that God wants us all to develop. When they saw their neighbor in need, they helped. When they saw someone hungry, they gave. When they saw someone naked, they clothed them. When they saw someone that needed help, they provided it. They had no partiality. They didn't look down on people below them and think that they were too good to help anyone. They followed the example that Jesus Christ had set for us. No partiality. Everyone is important to God. Every single man, woman, and child. He died for all of us, all of mankind, because He genuinely would like that every man, woman, and child ever born would understand, would repent, would turn to Him, and would take the opportunities that He gives them.

Sadly, though, that won't happen for all mankind. Hope it doesn't happen to any of us here, but He says, "I'll give you the opportunities to grow. You know that I want you to develop agape. You know that's a fruit of the Spirit. And when I gave you the Spirit, I expected that love, joy, peace, gentleness, long-suffering, self-control, all those things you would exercise to become like Jesus Christ." Because it takes all those things. And the courage to face what it is that you have to face along the road, even the courage to say no when you know when the people you're talking to aren't going to want to hear no. Or the courage to say, "This is the way, walk in it," even when they don't want to hear it, but you say, "This is it. This is what God says."

So all those things that we can do to develop righteousness. But God said to those who, you know, weren't actively sinning, they weren't murdering, they weren't committing adultery, but He said, "You never did it. When you saw me naked, you just walked on by. When you saw me hungry, you just walked on by. You just waltzed through life, and you didn't grow in those areas." You didn't become the loving people that I talked about in John 13:35, that when they look at you, body of Christ, they see agape. They see love for one another. They see unity. And they see what it is that God created and called us for. So we have this time before Passover, and we do live in a difficult world, far more difficult world today than it was five years ago, to navigate the road. For our young people, I empathize when they work in places that they work and the things they hear and what they're expected to see and how to act, it's a difficult life we live, but it can be done. And God gives us direction. He shows us exactly what to do and gives us all the tools to do it.

The Corinthian society was much like ours, you've heard us say, "It was rich. It was morally depraved. It had a lot of problems in it," and God called people in that society to be in His church, in His body. And they called, and they did what God said. They were there together. And as they were coming to a Passover in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul wrote some things to them that we could look at as well as we're preparing here, now, just a week and a couple days or a day away from Passover. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 11. I'm going to read through beginning in verse 18 and down through some scriptures that we can keep in mind and learn about some things that you and I can do in this society that is very similar to the society that Paul was talking to as they were looking toward Passover and some of the issues that he saw with them as they were preparing. How do we prepare? What do we need to look at? What are we doing? What are we doing? Let's pick it up in verse 18.

1 Corinthians 11:18 He says, "So first of all..." Now, they had been coming together for a Passover meal. He goes, "For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there's divisions among you, and in part I believe it."

I hear that there's kind of like parties among you, not parties as in games and all that stuff, but the party spirit. You're kind of in groups. You're kind of in cliques, kind of like Democrats and Republicans in America. But you're kind of...there's these divisions among you. The actual Greek words would probably be, better-translated, schisms. There's differences of opinion between you that are dividing you. You're not one. You're not one. There's something going on that shouldn't be there. "It's a weakness," he says, "as they're approaching Passover."

If you keep your finger there in 1 Corinthians 11, go back to the first chapter. Look at this word schisms, translated divisions there. Division can have just kind of like an easy feel to us. We know it's not good, but schism tells us there's something we've done. Nothing is a schism. He uses that same Greek word in 1 Corinthians 1:10, as he introduces the chapter because it is a problem. It is a problem in the Corinthian church. In verse 10 he says, "I plead..." This is asking you, "I plead with you, brethren..." I want you. I want you to do God's way. I want you to be with God and one with Him and each other.

1 Corinthians 11:10 "I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing." One gospel, one truth, one Bible, one word, one spirit, one body, one Jesus Christ. "That you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you."

Sometimes those differences, I kind of see it this way. "I don't think God expects us to really do it that way," he says. "Let's just soften that a little bit and do it this way." He said, "And God's okay. But God's okay if I just do this or that," and I'll give some examples later maybe. But are we doing it exactly the way God said, with the heart and with the intent? "That there be no schisms among you, but that you be perfectly, perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."

Same Spirit. Same Holy Spirit that God gives you and me. That we would see things the same way. Same zeal, energy that He would give us. The same commitment that He would give us. The same fruits of the spirit if we use them and not just let them lay dormant and just go about our lives and pat ourselves on the back thinking, "Just because I do this, this, this, I'm okay."

There's a few other times that word is used, and we find it back in the Gospel of John. Let's just look at that to see kind of how this word that Paul uses is used as it speaks about Jesus Christ in the time that He lived in. Because He lived in a society where the people would say they were the people of God. They were God's people. They kept the holy days. They kept the Sabbath. To them were entrusted the Scriptures. So they thought that they were doing everything okay then comes along Jesus and He says, "Well, no, you're not living the way God looked to you to live. Judaism the way you are teaching it. You have placed your own traditions and your own ideas above the commandments of God." And they didn't like hearing that because they thought, you know, "Who are you? Who are you to tell us what to do?" He was the son of God. But here in John 7, and let's pick it up in verse 38. Well, John 37, I'll start there.

John 7:37-43 So it says, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Verse 39, "But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, which those believing in Him would receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore, many from the crowd when they heard this saying said, 'Whoa, what He is speaking is truth. Truly this is the prophet.' Others said, 'This is the Messiah.' But some said, casting doubt, 'Does the Bible say that Christ will come out of Galilee? Will He come out of Galilee? Well, that isn't where He came out of. Hasn't the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem where David was?'" Verse 43, "So there was a schism among the people because of Christ."

Some believed, some knew, but others had a doubt. He doesn't come from Bethlehem, He comes from Galilee. And some sided with that and all of a sudden just because of a simple situation there you have a schism. You have some people for Christ, some people against Christ. And you go on and read that someone wanted Him to be apprehended that day. God didn't allow that happen. John 9, see another example of that word. Here He has healed a blind man on the Sabbath.

And in verse 16 of Chapter 9, it says, "Therefore, some of the..." Let's look at verse 15.

John 9:15- "Pharisees asked Him, the man who was healed, again, how he had received his sight. And he said to them, 'He, Christ, put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.' And therefore," verse 16, "some of the Pharisees said, 'Well, if He did that on the Sabbath,'"

I mean, how could He think it's wrong or right to pick up some clay and rub it on his eyes and heal him, right? They said to the blind man again, "Oh, how can a man...He doesn't keep the Sabbath." Others said, "How can a man who was a sinner do such signs? Look at the miracle that happened. This man was never able to see. Look at the good he did." But some say, "He didn't keep the Sabbath." And there was a schism. There was a division among them. Christ did something good, and all of a sudden there's these divisions, these schisms among there. I won't take the time, another example is over in John 10:19. But this is what was happening in Corinth as they approached Passover.

Earlier in the Book, earlier in the epistle, Paul says, you know, "Some of you say, 'I'm following Apollos.' Others are saying, 'I'm Apollos, I'm following Paul.' Others say this..." Paul says, "I'm following Christ." And they're allowed these attitudes and these things to come that would divide them, that would create this schism. Well, that's one of the things that he would say. We certainly see schisms in the world around us today. And there have been schisms in the church of God over the years. You can name many of them that started off by something, not of God, that separated people. And all of a sudden you have two groups, and those two groups aren't talking to each other. And those two groups have their own thoughts in mind. Paul says...we're in 1 Corinthians 3.

1 Corinthians 3:3 He says in verse 3, "Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, aren't you carnal, and behaving like mere men?"

So as they approached Passover, there were these things there in the Corinthian Church. And maybe we need to look and see, could there be anything like that in us? Anything in us that's separating us from a brother because of something that is carnal?

The very type of thing that God says use His Spirit, and strength, and our determination to wipe that out and replace it with a desire to be at one with one another. You know, when we look at Christ and what He did for us, He died that our sins could be forgiven. He died that we could be reconciled to God. And as He was about to be arrested that night, He says in John 17, "My will is that they are all at one with one another," at one with God and Jesus Christ, at one with one another as well. That was His will. That's what He died for. And that's what His will is for all of mankind, that we would all be together. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11. So as Paul introduces and talks about their Passover time, he talks about these schisms that are among you. In verse 19, he makes an interesting comment in 1 Corinthians 11:19.

1 Corinthians 11:19 After he says that, he says, "For there must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you."

"For there must be factions among you..." Now, factions is an interesting word. It's not the same Greek word. That's divisions or schisms. It's a different Greek word. Those of you who have the Old King James in your hands see that it says, "Heresies among you." When we think of heresy, we think of false truth, someone pushing a false truth. But when you look at the Greek word that's translated heresies in the Old King James, but factions in the New King James, you see that the New King James does have a better sense of what the original Greek word was. It's number 139. It actually looks, when you look at the Greek word, like the word heresies, that's where they get it from. But let me read to you what the original Greek word translated heresies is there. I'm going to read this directly from the Vine's Expository Dictionary. Easton's Bible Dictionary says the same thing. So does Strong's.

Vine's is a little bit more complete in its definition of what the original word translated factions there in the New King James is. It says, "It means literally a choosing or a choice, and that which is chosen. And hence," they say, "an opinion, especially a self-willed opinion, which is substituted for submission to the power of truth." You know what that is? There's a self-willed thing that comes here that leads to what our modern-day thought of heresy, which is a self-willed opinion which is substituted for submission to the power of truth. A little different than the Bible. Maybe adding to, taking away, maybe interpreting in our own fashion for our own purposes. "Substituted for submission to the power of truth and leads to division and the formation of sects." Little groups, little factions, little things based on what someone wants to believe, and they have other people that kind of join in that belief. It's just a part of carnal human nature. "Such erroneous opinions," he goes on to say, "are frequently the outcome of personal preference or the prospect of advantage." What's in it for me? Where just...and then, well, he gives two verses, and I'll have you look at...well, let's turn there.

Let's turn there because... Galatians 5:20, here we have the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19. These are the carnal works. These are the things that are the natural us.

Galatians 5:19-20 "The works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, and heresies."

Those, S-E-C-T-S, those little groups that form around an opinion that comes not from the Bible, but cause differences of opinion and cause these groups to form, just like the Pharisees back at the time of that. We see it all around us in the world today. That's the way the world is. It is a thing of Satan. But it can creep into the church if we're not aware or if we're not paying attention to what is going on. So anyway, that's heresies.

So here Paul is speaking some words to them here. He talks about the divisions, the schisms. He talks about these groups that have formed because there's a difference of opinion just on the meal they're going to eat before Passover. Something as simple as that, as we're going to go on and see. But he says in verse 19, "There must be these things among you." There must be? For people of God, that's what would happen? There must be factions among you? There must be these heresies among you? Why? Then he gives the reason that those who are approved may be recognized among you. God wants to see what is in our hearts. What is it? Do we follow him? Do we follow the truth? Do we love the truth? Do we know the truth? Do we sense the spirits? Are we capable of following the Spirit of God and His voice? Or are we more prone to follow the world, the attitudes of the world, the attitudes of some like has happened in the church in times past where these factions began to develop? So he says this is what happens in the church. He told us that in Acts 20 as well. "Therefore..." Now very quickly through verses 20 to 21 here.

1 Corinthians 11:20-21 "Therefore," he says, "when you come together in one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper."

When you come to Passover, it's not to be a meal. It's not supposed to be a social gathering where you worry about what you're going to eat and what you're going to drink. And some are all happy and joyful and even get drunk, and others are more worried about, "Well, this is the food I want. That's the food I want." And all these other things. He goes, "That's not why you're coming to Passover." Eat at home is basically what he says. You're coming to Passover for a very specific reason. You have spent the time, we're going to see, examining yourselves, and you are coming before God in the place that He has called us to be. And we are committing to Him. We are remembering what Jesus Christ said. So he comes down to verse 22.

1 Corinthians 11:22 He goes, "Don't you have houses to eat and drink in?" And we can compare this to anything that we might be thinking about Passover. The complacency that we might be? "Oh, as long as I go there and I wash each other's feet and go through the physical ritual, that's enough?" No. God is saying, "Do you understand what that signifies?" Just like Jesus Christ, you are willing to serve anyone, regardless of their station, in any way that God would have you serve them. Just like Jesus Christ no longer was God, but was willing to be born as flesh, humbled himself that He could come to earth and die for our sins. Like Him. But when we take that, when we come before Him and we do that ceremony, that's what we're signifying. That's what we are showing God that should be in our minds. Not just got the feet washed, dried, shoes put back on. Check, there. If that's all it is, then we're not a profitable servant. Then we're not growing. Now, we're not recognizing the significance of the day or the occasion that God has us coming to.

1 Corinthians 11:23-24 "I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'"

Think about what I did. I gave myself for you. I literally gave myself for you. I was willing to let my body be beaten, and bruised, and scourged, and brought to the brink of death, and the pain that I suffered for you. Do you recognize it? Do you remember it? Do you see what God has called us to? Do we feel committed to Him? Do we appreciate what He has done? Do we have that reverence and that awe when we come before Him? On that night, recognizing and in our minds as we've immersed ourselves in what we are doing on that night to come before Him and to worship Him and to acknowledge what He has done. And if we believe in him, the effect that it should have on us, that, yes, I have messed up in the past year. Yes, I've taken the time and God, I'm coming before you and Christ, I'm coming before you, and I am ready to get back on the road again. I've repented of those sins and I am determined that with the power of your Spirit, I will overcome and march forward.

He was willing to do it all. Are we willing to do it all? If we go about, you know, in the same manner, "He took the cup after supper saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often you drink it, in remembrance of me.'" I shed my blood for you. I shed my blood for you. I gave my life. And He asks us, "If you will take up your cross and follow me, would you be willing to give up your life?" Your ideas, your way, and follow God in the way that He leads us to be. Are you willing to accept what He does as the twists and turns in life that come along our way? Are we willing to follow Him or say, "No, no, no, I don't think this is what God has in mind for me," but that we trust him that it really is what He has in mind, just like as He led those Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years. There was a direct path that would have gotten there in 10 days, but for 40 years they wandered through that wilderness and things happened to them that they never counted on.

Now, they should have learned lessons through that time, the trust in God, the faith in Him, and that He was preparing them. They didn't have His Holy Spirit. You and I do. And there will be twists and turns. And we may not like those twists and turns, but we thank Him because He knows what we need in order to become more like Jesus Christ and less like ourselves, more like the attitudes of Galatians 5:22 and the fruits of the Spirit and less like those works of the flesh that we read about in Galatians 5:19.

1 Coringthians 11:26 "Often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes."

You are publicly stating, "I follow God. I'm committed to Him." And when we come before Him, and we take that bread and we take that cup, we mean it. In our heart, it's there with all our being, we follow Him. We've walked with Him. We're there. We've been baptized. We've been following Him. And we should be changing. We should be growing. We should be more trusting. We should be more in the proper attitude. We should be more and more in one accord with each other and with God as each year goes by.

But if we come with a flippant attitude or, "Yeah, it takes a few minutes to wash someone's feet, have them wash my feet. Yep, I took the cup. I took the bread," aren't we betraying God just like Judas? He walked with Christ, but he never got it. He never gave up who he was. He let that carnal nature remain in him, and he betrayed God or betrayed Jesus Christ. None of us want to be like that. He called us for a reason. And when we come before Him at Passover, we need to be committed to Him, having taken the time to contemplate these things. Paul goes on in verse 27, and as he reminds the Corinthians and us, it's serious. It's the most somber evening of the year when we come before God and we start the holy day season with the reverence and awe, recognition of what Christ did for us, all those things that should be in our heart as we come and we commit to God.

1 Corinthians 11:27 "Therefore," he says in verse 27, "whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."

He doesn't say, "Because none of us are worthy," but he says, "In an unworthy manner." If you come there and you haven't taken the time, if you haven't prepared before Passover, if you haven't done the hard job of true and sincere self-examination, what am I doing? Where am I? Search me, O Lord. What is in my heart? What is in my mind? What do I need to change? What do I need to repent of? What do I need to be? Correct me. You know, we can ask God, correct me, just let me know what it is if we're committed to Him. You'll be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord just by coming to Passover in an unworthy manner because you didn't pay attention, you didn't take it for the serious nature there was and what we do when we come before Him that night?

1 Corinthians 11:28 "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup."

It's too late to examine yourself next Sunday afternoon. We got a week. We got a week to really look at what it is that we're doing. Who we are? What our missions, what our motives are? What are the intents of our hearts? Is there any wickedness in us that God needs to show us and then we repent of?

1 Corinthians 11:29 "Examine yourself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body," not really getting it.

We were in England a couple weeks ago for the leadership conference there, and through all the conferences that we have, we always have a significant amount of time that is dedicated to you ask us any questions that you want, anything that you've heard about in the work that you want to have clarification on, any Bible question, we have no agenda, anything that you want to ask us, we are open books. If we can say it, we will. And we do.

And the question came up in England, as a longtime member said, "What does it really mean about discerning the Lord's body?" And we answered, but I thought it was an interesting question. And as I spoke and said, "What is discerning the Lord's body, what did Christ do? What did He do? Why did He give his body for us?" I already talked about it once, that our sins could be forgiven, that He wants everyone to have eternal life, that He wants everyone to come to repentance, that His Holy Spirit would be given to people, some now in this age and to everyone else in the next resurrection or in the second resurrection. He came so that people would be reconciled to one another, that's what He came for. His prayer was that we would be one with one another, and we symbolize all those things when we come to Passover, that we would have humble spirits, attitudes of service like Him, willing to do whatever He says, willing to serve each other, no partiality, no looking down, no esteeming ourselves better than someone else, but trusting that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And He came, He showed the way, He's the truth, He's the life, and that we follow Him. And that we have absolute trust in Him that He will lead us to where it is that He has called us and said that He would.

That's discerning the Lord's body, do we have that belief? Do we have that? That's what we're saying when we go there and we take that bread, we believe, we understand what He did for us, we understand that He is the way, the truth, the life. We understand that He is our soon, the world's soon-coming king, but He is our king today. We follow His way today. We follow His way of life today. We are led by His Spirit today. That's why He said come out of the world, don't be like them, don't adopt their ways, don't let their attitudes, ideas, sins, ways of life, or other things creep into your way, do it my way, follow the Bible. Live by every word of Jesus Christ or every word of the Bible, every word of God as He said in His first words back in Matthew 4:4 after He was baptized, live by that way. Commit to your calling, and finish the job that God has for us, that's discerning the Lord's body, those are the things that he wants us to do, those are the things that we must do.

You know, he says forgive, we sang the song, forgive that you may be forgiven. If there's any kind of things between people, talk about it. If there's things, forgive. God says, "I won't forgive you if you won't forgive others," be reconciled, talk about it, come back together, let the Bible be our guide, let the Spirit be our guide, and some of the attitudes or other things that might be among us, let it no longer be there, not discerning the Lord's body. We can talk about Christ's body, His physical body. It was beaten, and it was bruised. And all those things that we know, when you read through Isaiah 53. And as we prepare for Passover and we read through some of those Scriptures that prepare us and see that Christ knew when He came to earth, He knew exactly what He was going to go through. And He was still willing to do it for you and me. He knew that night when He was going to be arrested, exactly what He was going to go through. And it was a horrible thing that He went through.

And as He prayed to God and said if there's any way this cup can be taken away from me, can we do it? The answer was no, this is what the plan is, you came to earth to finish that part of the plan, you came to make the whole difference in the world, the most significant event in the history of mankind was Jesus Christ, His death, that you and I had a future where there was no future and there is no future without Him. That's His physical body. He gave his life, and He asks you and me, as Paul says in Romans 12:1, "Are we willing to give our lives as a living sacrifice?" Are we willing to be His disciple, and as His disciple be willing to give up all those things, put God first even when husband, wife, friend, whatever, maybe wanting you to go another way, you choose God first? No idols as we heard in the sermonette, hands clean, goal is purity, not just physically adhering to the law, but spiritually adhering to the law.

Let's turn to Colossians 3 for a moment. Colossians 3. As we're coming up on Unleavened Bread and during this next week, you know, as we unleavened our homes and we put out the bread, put out the leavening, it has, of course, as you know the spiritual application. That what we're doing is as we are examining ourselves and as we are putting out all those works of the flesh, attitudes of the flesh, carnal things that are still part of us, and as God opens our minds to see or as we read in the Bible or as others point out to us, put those out and Colossians 3:5, He gives us the analogy of what we're doing.

Colossians 3:5-14 "Therefore, put to death..." Put it out of your life, "Put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry," which is exactly what Mr. Bouche read already. And then he goes on to say in verse 8, "You yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Don't lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and you are putting on and are to be putting on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him," where there is no partiality as he says in verse 18. "Where you serve each other as the elect of God," verse 12, "put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you so you must also do. But above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfection," agape.

Those are the things...that's what we're supposed to be putting on, and as we put the leavening out of our houses and then we eat that unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, those seven days that we're eating unleavened bread, we're thinking about that. What is God putting into me? What am I taking? What is my daily diet as I digest the Word of God and make it part of every bone and part of my body and my heart? That's what we're doing during that time. It's a significant time in our lives, and it's a significant time for us to remember what it is that God has called us to. To renew that zeal, to renew that commitment, to renew that purpose, and to come before Him with that intent and ask Him for that zeal we need to have.

If I could go back, let's just talk about the body of Christ again because there is a Greek word that is translated body there in 1 Corinthians 11 and in the places in the gospel where we take the bread which represents His body. But then there is the body of Christ. We're here in Colossians. Let's look at Colossians 1. And in verse 24, he talks about the body of Christ in another sense.

Colossians 1:24 He says, "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church."

His body broken and beaten for us, we take that. You and I are part of His body today. We're part of the body. Same Greek word. And the other places where it talks about the body that He's placed us in, we're all there. We're part of His body. We said we would be part of His body.

If we go back to 1 Corinthians, this time chapter 12, no chapter breaks when Paul was writing to the Corinthians, right? So in Chapter 11 as he talks about what they should be doing at Passover and they should be examining themselves and discerning, diligently discerning the Lord's body, he goes right into what we call Chapter 12, and then he talks about the gifts of the Spirit that God gives us. And this word body that pertains to the literal body of Jesus Christ, he uses again in Chapter 12, verse 12 or verse 11.

1 Corinthians 12:11-13 "One of the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. For as the body," that's you and me, "for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." All part of the same body. Some God sees as feet, some God sees as hands, some God sees or has a purpose of whatever the parts of the body are, but they all fit together to perfectly become that body, that temple that He is building in us. Verse 13, "By one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, we've all been made to drink into one Spirit, for in fact the body is not one member, but many."

1 Corinthians 12:18 "But, now, God has set the members, each one of them in the body just as He pleased."

We're right where God wants us to be. It's His body. It's Christ's body. We need to grow in the place that He has put us, doing the things that He wants us to do, trusting in Him to do the things, because He's also working with us to weed out so that we continue to put off those carnal ideas and thoughts that might hold us back and lead to schisms in that body. We don't like schisms in our body. When I have a broken leg, that's not great, is it? When I have a broken arm, that's not great, because we want the body all to work together. That's what Jesus Christ wants.

Verse 29 of the prior chapter, you know, God says something that we should all take heart of. If we don't examine ourselves, He will give us the trials, He will do whatever it takes to get our attention because He loves you and He loves me. And He wants all of us to be in His kingdom. And so if there's some pain to get our attention along the way, He will do it, whatever it is, so that we become like Jesus Christ and put on those traits of His and weed out the garbage that is our natural selves. And He says in verse 31, "If we would just judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged." If we would just listen to God, if we would just pay attention, if we would let His Holy Spirit lead us, and when we see something that's not right in us, just repent. Don't fight, don't resist, just yield to God, just submit to Him, just do His will. We said we would do that when we were baptized. We said that's what we would do. Passover is a time for us to recommit, to remember what it is that God has called us to, and remember what we committed to Him at the time we became part of His body, and He gave us His Spirit, His body.

One last point before I close. There is a reason that God puts us in a body. There are things that we learn from each other. We can't ever develop agape sitting at home by ourselves. We can't ever learn to bear with one another, love one another, reconcile with one another if we're just sitting home by ourselves. I mentioned COVID brought a number of not-so-good attitudes that we're dealing with in the world that sometimes if we don't watch it can creep into our lives. One of those attitudes that came during COVID was when we had to...because the government, said something that took us by surprise at that time, said no one meets at that time. And so we did Zoom services. And it's a blessing that we had Zoom and YouTube and those things that people could sit at home and we could still be together by internet anyway. But those days are past. If those days are past, God wants us to be part of His body. He does call holy convocations.

And I want to look at Leviticus 23 here for a moment. Leviticus 23 where God talks about His holy convocations.

Leviticus 23:1-4 "God, Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them the feast of the Lord's which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.'" That means you get together as a body. "These are my feasts."

First one he mentions is the Sabbath. "Sabbath is a holy convocation," he says, "don't work on it," but it's a holy convocation. He expects that if we are well, if we are able, if we aren't shut in, if we can get here, to get here and to be part of the body. There it is important. It is a holy convocation that God has said. Now, if some are well but don't have the transportation, it's an opportunity for the rest of us to say, "Well, I could pick you up. I could swing by and pick you up so that you can be part of the body." There are opportunities that God gives us. But the Sabbath is a holy convocation. And you see down in verse 4, he talks about the feast of the Lord.

Leviticus 23:4 "Holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the appointed times. On the 14th of the 1st month at twilight is the Lord's Passover."

It's a holy convocation. The body comes together before God as His body to do the things and to recommit to Him. On the day of Pentecost, God says that group of people, He's called out once at that time, they were all in one accord, "In one place." Together as one, believing the same thing, speaking the same things, committed to God, and they were in one place.

As we move forward here and look forward to Passover next week, don't discount it. Don't just do a check off the box, this is what we need to do and think just about the physical things. Let's diligently, and I'm using that word diligently, let's diligently prepare for Passover. Let's get out of it. I shouldn't say get out of it. Let's do it so that God can give us what He intended for us to receive as we prepare for Passover and commit to Him and allow Him to mold us together as one in unity, bound by truth, bound by His Spirit, thankful to God, in awe of God, motivated by the Spirit of God, and motivated by the fear and reverence we have for Him.