[Nick Lamoueux] I'd like to tell you a story this morning, a story about a man named Hakim Masjedi. Hakim Masjedi. Now, Hakim was born in the year 1980 to a poor farming family in Eastern Afghanistan. At age 21, Hakim was responsible for many of the duties that an individual as the head of a household would be responsible for because his father and his oldest brother had died 4 years prior when he was only 17. Now, at this point in his life, Hakim along with four of his brothers, two of his brothers' entire families along with all of their children, they all lived together in a small house on six acres of land. And, of course, they were subsidy farmers. And those six acres of land only produced 1/3 of the necessary food for their families. Moreover, Hakim became engaged to be married during his 21st year. Fantastic. Now, in November, on the 20th of November in the year 2000, it began to get pretty cold, very chilly.

So, Hakim went off into the mountains with his nephew Shamarooz, in search of firewood. And while they were searching for and collecting firewood on top of a nearby mountain, Hakim stepped on an anti-personnel mine, a landmine. And it blew his right leg off. He lost his leg below his knee. He sustained injuries to his left foot, to his abdomen. He received pieces of shrapnel in his face and in his eyes. And Shamarooz, just 15 years old, ran over to help his uncle, who by this time was lying in a pool of blood. And unfortunately, Shamarooz stepped on a landmine as well. And he lost his life. Now, somehow, Hakim managed to painstakingly drag himself down the mountain and come in contact with some individuals who brought him to a nearby hospital, where he underwent intense and extensive surgery. And even eight months later, July, the following year, 2001, Hakim was still in the hospital, still recovering from these substantial injuries. And all of this was recorded in a Red Cross interview.

And when he was interviewed, Hakim said, "We're a very poor family living under extremely difficult conditions. I don't know what will happen to Shamarooz's family. What about his mother, his younger brothers, and sisters?" And then Hakim concluded his Red Cross interview with a heavy sigh saying, "I'm engaged to a girl I love but that was when I was healthy, and now I'm disabled, and I don't know anything about my marriage or even my miserable future." And the interview concludes with the reporter mentioning how Hakim just buried his head in his arms crying. Paul Jefferson, a humanitarian and a landmine removal expert is quoted as saying, "A landmine is the perfect soldier. It is ever courageous, it never sleeps and it never misses." That is according to landminefree.org as are the facts in this sermon. It is estimated that there are more than 110 million landmines in the ground right now with an equal amount waiting to either be destroyed or planted. It is estimated more than 5,000 people are annually killed or critically injured and 15,000 to 20,000 are annually mildly injured by landmines. The top three most affected regions in the world are Egypt, having 23 million land mines, Angola, having 16 million land mines, and Iran, having 15 million land mines, followed by an extensive list inclusive of Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Sri Lanka, and the list goes on and on.

In the most heavily affected areas of the world, agriculture is the foundation of the economy. And landmines are planted in fields. They're planted in forests. They are planted around wells, other water sources, as well as hydroelectric installations, which make them as you can imagine, unstable or unusable. Have you ever encountered a landmine? Perhaps some of you who may have served in the military may have but I think for most of us, the majority of us, that is not something that we need to worry about, or is it? Days of Unleavened Bread is a time of year to focus on the complete removal of leaven from our houses, from our cars, from our workplaces, symbolizing the complete removal of sin from our lives. And today, I would like to discuss with you how the mine removal process can be used to demonstrate the importance of removing spiritual leaven from our lives.

In the business of mine removal, mine removal is referred to as demining. Demining. And in this sermon entitled "The Hidden Enemy," I would like to draw some analogies between the mine removal process and the spiritual leaven removal process. Spiritual leaven, Paul calls it malice and wickedness, Jesus Christ called the leaven of the Pharisee's hypocrisy. So, spiritual leaven is sin. So, we may consider this to be a sermon about the spiritual demining process as we will be relating spiritual deleavening to demining. First point I would like to consider, like demining, spiritual deleavening is expensive. Landmines cost on average $3 to $30 each to install inclusive of time materials. It is estimated that each landmine costs $300 to $1,000 to remove. The estimated cost to remove all the landmines in the entire world, estimated by landminefree.org is $50 to $100 billion.

The spiritual demining process can be expensive as well in a number of ways. Remember, Jesus Christ mentioned about the pearl of great price. Certainly, we must ask ourselves, are we willing to sell or give up everything to experience inclusion in the family of God and to experience eternal life? We have to be willing to lay aside every weight. In some cases, it may even include a career. But another way, I happened to be counseling at one point in my life with an individual in Africa when I was over there, who was struggling with alcoholism. And I emphasized a certain Scripture that we will turn to now in the book of 1 Peter 4.

1 Peter 4:1, 1 Peter 4:1. Peter wrote, "Therefore since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that He no longer should live the rest of His time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God." Notice what Peter says here in verse 3, he says, "For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles— when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelry, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you." Now, I told this individual with whom I was counseling in Africa, "You are going to have some so-called friends of yours, people that you have known for your whole life may be, go and speak evil of you, as you try to overcome and break free of this alcoholism because you're no longer doing what you used to do. You're no longer wanting to spend time with them and hang out with them. You're trying to live with morals, and so you may have to lose out on some friendships. You may have to lose out on some relationships."

Is that an expense? Certainly, it is. It certainly is. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 14:26, "Well, you have to hate your family." What does that mean? Not literally, of course, but love less in comparison. We cannot allow anything to distract us from the truth. And it all comes… in fact, this actually brings me to a story I often think of. One time I happened to get a job. I had been searching for many, many months to find this job, and I finally got it, delivering packages for an unnamed company. And finally had a job. And the managers said, "Well, why don't you ride around with this fella?" We'll call him Frank. He said, "Why don't you ride around with Frank? He's had many years of experience delivering packages. He could show you the ropes." Great. So, I wrote a rode along with Frank and I was sitting there, and I happened to glance down and I saw all these CDs.

He had 20 or 30 CDs, just down here. What were they? They were the Bible on CD. I said, "Oh, are you interested in the Bible?" He said, "Oh, yeah, well, normally, I listen to the Bible. But I figured since you're along, I won't today." I said, "Well, I don't mind. So put in the Bible." And it happened to be in a section of Scripture going through the Ten Commandments. And so, Frank and I got to talking. And as so happens, after the third commandment, we happen to have the fourth commandment, and the Sabbath day was mentioned. And Frank said, "What do you think about Sabbath day?" "What do you think about the Sabbath day?" I said. He said, "Well, I think it's Saturday, and so many religions are deceived." "Me, too." "I keep the seventh-day Sabbath." "Wow, really?" He said, "That is amazing." He said, "I would but if I kept the Sabbath, it would upset my wife. And I'm not willing to do that."

You know, eventually, in our lives, it all comes down to the question, what effort are we willing to exert to remove sin from our lives and to turn to doing what's right? Is there anything holding us back? Is there anything we're not willing to give up to attain that pearl of great price? It is very expensive to remove landmines and similarly, it often requires great sacrifice on our part to remove sin. But isn't that what God wants? He wants from us a willingness to do whatever it takes to remove those sinful activities from our lives and to replace them with righteousness. But it's not a quick process, is it? And that brings us to the second point, like demining, spiritual deleavening, it's time-consuming. Spiritual delivering is time-consuming. It is estimated that if demining efforts remain the exact same as they are today and no new mines are laid, that it will take 1,100 years to rid the world of all its active land mines. Why is that?

Well, mines can be difficult to find. They can be buried under sand, dirt. They can be hard to reach. We saw in the example of Hakim, at the beginning, they were up on this mountain land. Land mines aren't typically… well, aren't always placed in areas that are accessible by vehicles. Also, landmines can be hidden or disguised as other things. You can go online and read about terrible, terrible events where people disguise landmines as footballs or things that children will pick up, or pieces of scrap metal that a scrap metal dealer will pick up and toss in his cart, hoping to feed his family but potentially losing his life. Demining is a long-drawn-out process. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 7, please Deuteronomy 7:1. Deuteronomy 7, I think it's fitting we look at this example today.

Deuteronomy 7:1, "When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go out to possess, and He's cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and” what? “utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son nor take their daughter for your son." Verse 6, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth." And then chapter 8 verse 2, "You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

Israelites spent 430 years on land not their own, 40 years wandering in the wilderness. They were instructed, "Drive out those other nations. Don't be like them. Be pure. Be undefiled. You are a special people." But Israel did not do as they were commanded, did they? They said, "Oh, all right, that's good enough. They're over there. That's good enough." They began to drive people out. But when it became too much work, requiring lots of effort, lots of faith, what happened? They ceased in their efforts. After teaching in the temple one day, Jesus Christ's disciples came to Him privately asking, "Jesus what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Well, He responded throughout Matthew 24, He said, "You're going to see false religion, many false Christs. You're going to see famines. You're going to see pestilence. You're going to see earthquakes. You're going to see great tribulation. You are going to see heavenly signs. You are going to see the love of many waxing cold."

An interesting Bible study as a parent theoretical thought, waxing cold refers to when you blow out a candle and blow on that wax and it hardens. "You're going to see the love of many waxing cold. You're going to see lawlessness abounding. There will be a lot of heavy-duty events taking place, leading up to my return." Let's turn there, Matthew 24. Matthew 24:13, notice what Jesus says, a simple statement. Matthew 24:13, it says, "He who endures to the end will be saved." Verse 46, "Blessed is that servant whom His master, when He comes, will find so doing." After 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, however long you may have been attending church services, maybe you've been born in the church, however many years you've been keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread and the other holy days when Jesus Christ returns to earth following the interim period between His first coming and His second coming, how will He find you and me?

Year after year after year, will we be found striving to overcome sin, diligently working to remove the leaven of malice and wickedness and the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy? Will Jesus Christ return to find you and me so doing, regardless of how long we have been enduring? Will we follow the example of Israelites when they said, "Well, that's good enough?" Or will we be found expending every possible ounce of energy, developing our faith and our understanding, and working hard to remove, like, we see in the various Biblical lists, working hard to remove all of these various spiritual landmines in our lives? I hope we will. I hope we will be found so doing. We want to hear that "Well done good and faithful servant." That's what we're looking forward to. It is often expensive, time-consuming to remove landmines, but it is necessary to live a truly fulfilling life.

Why? What is the overall point? Point number three. Like demining, spiritual deleavening removes the threat of death. In an area that has been demined, in one of these war-torn areas, people are able to raise families peacefully, happily. They're able to have enjoyable relationships with their children, running around, playing without fear that, "Is my child going to come back?" They're able to plant crops without wondering, "Am I going to step on a landmine today?” I thought of an interesting analogy. There's a Scripture in 1 Corinthians 5:6 that says, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump?” And I thought to relate that to one mine in a field that spoils the whole field. In areas where demining has taken place, these areas are able to enjoy prosperity and financial success. And these people are able to live in relative peace.

Come with me to Romans 6:21, please. Romans 6:21. Romans 6:21, Paul writes, "What fruit did you have then and the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.” Very plain. And he goes on verse 23, to say “the wages of sin is death.” We need to stop sinning so we can stop earning death. Right? Very simple statement. Obviously, it's pretty impossible to just stop sinning. We need the help of a special tool. In many places where there are land mines and demining efforts going on, they are able to implement the use of robots to help detect these mines. On our spiritual demining process, do we have any tools available? Yes, we do. John 16 tells us about one of these tools, John 16. John 16:7, Jesus says, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I don't go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send it to you. And when it has come, it will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."

And then verse 13, "However, when the spirit of truth has come, it will guide you into all truth, for it will not speak on its own authority, but whatever it hears, it will speak and it will tell you things to come." Another relatable Scripture you can write down in your notes. Romans 8:14 that says, "The Holy Spirit will lead those who are sons and daughters of God." And Romans 8:26 says it will “help in our weakness.” Now, a robot notifies of a mine with all of its specially developed sensors. In a similar fashion, the Holy Spirit when it is living inside of you, it pricks your conscience. This doesn't feel quite right. This situation I'm in, I know I shouldn't be here, it pricks our conscience. Of course, we can ignore it. Can't we? But the result will be much the same as if we ignored a landmine, wandered right into a field. It might be okay. You might not die. Maybe you'll just lose a leg.

Now, a person could just be injured. Wouldn't the best option be to remove the landmines altogether? Just get them out of there. In this analogy, sin. Now, in some cases, we might even be tempted to think "Well, it's not affecting anybody but me. It's just affecting me." But is that ever really the case? Well, actually, the Church of God in Corinth was temporarily under that impression. Let's go over there and check out what was going on. 1 Corinthians 5, they were under this impression. Sin is not affecting anybody but myself. 1 Corinthians 5:1, Paul writes this letter to the Church in Corinth, an extremely gifted and talented church. But notice chapter 5 verse 1, he says, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles— that a man has his father's wife!”

Verse 2, he says, "You are puffed up, and you haven't rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you." One man and woman here had the thought process, " Well, this only affects us." But notice that Paul corrected the entire congregation.

And he demonstrated that they couldn't stand by idly while there was sin in their midst, while their brother was there stumbling. They couldn't just let that happen. Regions that have many mines, the people who live in those regions do everything they possibly can to get those mines out of their regions. They petition their local governments. And if there are no funds, they search for non-profit organizations and they look to other governments in other countries to try to help them and get these terribly devastating mines out of their midst. Verse 4, 1 Corinthians 5, "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, delivers such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying" Paul says," "it's not good. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”

"Therefore" Paul says, "purge out the old leaven, that you may become a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” Get it out. Paul says, "Get the sin out." Church in Corinth, Paul wrote a whole chapter, chapter 12, the gifts chapter. "You have all these wonderful things. You could speak in tongues. You can prophesy. All of these wonderful gifts for edifying the body." God's Spirit was there amongst them, working with them, present in many fashions but was that enough? Is it enough to just have spiritual gifts? Haggai 2, if you'll please turn back to the book of Haggai, you'll find it to be the third from the end of the Old Testament. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Haggai 2:13. By 13, I mean, 12. Haggai 2:12, God speaking to the priests through His Prophet Haggai, and He said, "Go, I want you to ask these priests." I’m stalling for a moment. "If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge of it he touches bread or stew, wine, or oil, or any food, will it become holy?"

The priests answered and they said, "No." Verse 13, Haggai said, "Well, if one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it become unclean?” Well the priest answered and he said, "It shall be unclean."

Notice verse 14, “Haggai answered and said, ‘So is this people, so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord, 'and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer is unclean.’" The point being made by Haggai was a few righteous people don't make an entire nation righteous. Conversely, a few unclean or rotten people can make an entire nation unclean. The point being made by Paul in 1 Corinthians, piling good deeds and attitudes and spiritual gifts, piling on those things doesn't make us good. We have to get rid of the old person and be completely changed. We have to get rid of the sin in our lives not to continue sinning and just adding a few good things along to it because sin doesn't just leave on its own.

It doesn't just leave on its own. The overall point by Paul and Haggai is that sin never affects only you. It never affects only you. Sin is the hidden enemy, which can take root inside of you and inside of me. And so, even if it's a secret sin like Mr. McClain was talking about in the sermonette, even if it's secret and you think no one knows about it. What does that sin do? It eats away. It's corrosive. It's morally and mentally and emotionally corrosive. And even if it's a secret sin that's inside of you, it will degrade relationships. It will degrade and destabilize your mental stability and damage your overall state of mind. It's like the hidden mold perhaps in the walls of a house or, like, our current analogy, a hidden spiritual landmine. And so, the only cure is to get rid of it. We have to get rid of it. And, of course, those internal conflicts or sins or past mistakes, well, they're not always something that is tangible. And so, the only way to get rid of them is to go to God humbly and petition our merciful and our loving Father, and beseech Him, and ask Him for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ's death, and His poured out blood to cover the penalty of our sins and then stop dwelling on them because they've been forgiven once you take that sacrifice upon you.

And because these internal faults or secret sins can literally eat away at our mental well-being, which does scientifically proven it does translate into decreased physical health, I want to spend a quick moment talking about this. There's an old adage, an old cliche, if you will, that goes, "no sense crying over spilled milk," right? We're familiar with that. Clean it up and move on. Well, Dale Carnegie in his book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he suggests we should enact the following five steps in this type of situation where we are dealing with overcoming these internal sins or hidden sins because we need to overcome them. We have to. We can't keep dwelling on them. How do we do those things?

Dale Carnegie says, number one, determine the problem and its cause. You need to define what the issue is. Number two, determine or define all of the possible solutions. Number three, ask yourself the following question, what is the worst that could possibly happen if I cannot solve my problem? Number four, prepare yourself to mentally accept the worst if necessary. And number five, calmly tried to improve upon the worst-case scenario, which you have already mentally agreed upon to accept or to come to terms with.

So, do we have a Biblical example of Dale Carnegie's five-step technique in action? Yes, we do. You may wish to write down 2 Samuel 11 and 12, where we could read about or recount or recall King David when he went up on his rooftop one evening, and he happened to see over there a beautiful woman who also happened to be bathing. And he sent for her and had her brought to his chambers.

And King David committed this sin of adultery, a very grievous sin. And he ended up having her husband killed. So, Dale Carnegie's steps in motion or steps in action, rather, the determination of the problem here, the cause, well, Nathan came, God sent prophet. Pointed out, "Hey, David, you've sinned. You have sinned." And then Bathsheba went on to give birth to a baby who God said would die. That's the problem. Very clear. We see that problem very clearly. So, examining all possible solutions. Well, David fasted and he prayed about this. And he eventually came to the point of accepting the worst, remember, perceived the baby had died. And as said, David, then finally stopped fasting. And his servants, they wondered about his actions there, "Why were you fasting when the baby was alive, but now it's died and you've stopped?" David accepted the outcome. And then, when we come to the point of trying to improve upon the worst-case scenario, what do we have recorded in Scripture?

David recorded, Psalm 51, he humbled himself before God and he repented of his wrongs. And he married and he comforted Bathsheba. It was a bad situation, no doubt, but he did the best he could. What about the spiritual demining process? How does that fit into all of this? Well, in Psalm 51, we'll just remember that David, verse 1, he said, "Blot out my transgressions." Verse 2, he said, "Wash me thoroughly from iniquity, cleanse me from sin." Verse 7, he said, "Purge me with hyssop,” verse 9, again, "Hide your face from my sins, and blot out iniquities." In verse 10, he said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." David wanted those spiritual landmines out of his life. And he knew only God could do that for him. He knew where to get the power for removing those deadly landmines of sin and he knew it had nothing to do with his own personal abilities. Maybe as a reference, you can write down Psalm 19:12-14. The whole idea of acknowledging these inner and secret faults is to acknowledge them before God, to then ask for His forgiveness and move forward, not dwelling on those mistakes of the past. We can't stay in the past.

But just not dwelling on them isn't enough because then there is a void. Very similar to the lesson portrayed by removing physical leaven, right, we don't eat the leavened bread but then we eat the leavened bread. After being forgiven of sins, we need to go forth, fill our minds with things which are acceptable in God's eyes. We need to meditate on things that are true, noble, just pure, all of those things. Once we have removed spiritual landmines, we need to put something in their place. And there are many different lists throughout the Bible of all of these good things, fruits of the spirit, all of those notable things to meditate on. Philippians 4:8, the various spiritual gifts that God offers to His people. During the progression of the Days of Unleavened Bread, we should be studying those lists and looking to the symbolism of this festival as we seek to remove leaven, and sin, and spiritual landmines from our lives, and not just leave a big gaping hole but seek to put in those good and righteous thoughts and motives in actions.

When militaries or other individuals decide to plant landmines or other similar explosives, you can imagine it's relatively rare for them to pinpoint on a map the exact locations of the landmines they're burying. Even if they do record and map out certain areas that contain landmines, the exact locations of the mines are not always known and not always specific enough to avoid inadvertent and often fatal contact. The maps that are available usually never fall into the hands of the opposition. And even if one does procure a map that pinpoints exact landmine positions, there's wind. There are earthquakes. Sand and soil can shift causing mines to move or even become more deeply ingrained or buried. Yes, the demining process is a dangerous one, a tedious one, not something to be undertaken with a lackadaisical or a half-hearted attitude. Ignoring landmines and walking into a minefield will result in catastrophe. But so too will seeking to remove those mines with a careless attitude. Removing spiritual landmines and spiritual leaven, in effect sin, it's no different than removing a real landmine. It's no different. So what you and I need is a map.

And we have a map right here in these 66 books of the Bible. We have a map of spiritual landmines. God inspired it to be put together in a specific fashion for our benefit. So, let's go as a final Scripture now to Ephesians 12. When I put my Bible down, it just opened to that page. So, I'll wait for you to turn there. Ephesians 6:12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." You and I, my friends, are engaged in spiritual warfare. Our enemy, always on the offensive. He doesn't take a day off. He doesn't ever approach his battle with a lackadaisical attitude. He is always seeking to take us down. Satan wants us to fail. He wants us to step on a spiritual landmine and fall victim to sin. As we diligently study our map, we will begin to notice numerous spiritual landmines in our lives that we can work on removing.

The spiritual demining process is likened to spiritual deleveaning and it is not an easy task, but it is essential. Spiritual demining can be expensive, but the end result, very worth it. Jesus Christ talked, Matthew 19:29, about receiving a hundredfold and eternal life for our efforts to follow Him. The spiritual demining process can be extremely time-consuming. In fact, it's a lifelong process. But if we diligently work to live righteously and to overcome sinful behavior, we will be found so doing when Jesus Christ returns. And finally, the spiritual demining process, it removes the threat of death. And when we accept God's calling and become baptized into the Body of Christ, and we accept the sacrifice of His blood to cover our sins, and then allow that Holy Spirit to lead us, He will through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit help us to avoid and to detect those spiritual landmines, including the extremely well-hidden ones so that we can relish and we can enjoy and we can experience a long and gratifying and fruitful life.