Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We
want to thank you for joining us today, and we
hope you find today's sermon impacting as you
listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.
To find service times and watch messages online,
see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,
enjoy this week's message. Why don't you turn
in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. We're going
to pick up a little bit where we left off last
week. If we can do that. Well, you guys are scattered
to the wind here today. How am I? Let's see here.
All right. I may. Tim, could you bring that down
for me? We're going to just come down to you
all. All right. Jenny, you're going to keep playing
a little bit of music for me here while I get
set up. Thank you. Thank you, Tim. All right,
1 Corinthians chapter five. I'm gonna turn there
while you're turning there. Thank you, Jesus.
I know we've been praying a lot, but let's just
do one more time to open our ears and our heart.
Can we do that? Father, in Jesus' name, we come
now to the reading of your word. We come now
to, Lord, to that place where you who are. You
are the living word of God. The one who was,
is, and is to come. The bread of heaven. The
one that gives life. Lord, I'm asking now as
you are the great feeder of the sheep. You feed
us. And Lord, your word says your sheep hear
your voice. And God, I'm asking as it says all
through the scripture. Let him who hears. Give
him an ear to hear what the Spirit of God is
saying. This morning, in the name of Jesus, would
you open our ear? Would you open our heart? Would
you open, Lord, inside of us that we would be
ready to receive, that we might grow? Let the
Word of God come into our hearts, our mind, and
change us, transform us, shape us, guide us,
and feed us this morning. In Jesus' holy name.
And everybody said, amen. Amen. Thank you, Jennifer.
All right. Well, I'm not going to ask for a show
of hands who was here last week and who was not.
We don't take attendance like that on Sunday
morning. But I am going to move us in a direction
and kind of do a little bit of recap to try to
bring us maybe into some... understanding. Victor,
as you're sitting on the front, you're in dangerous
territory because you might get used for an example
a time or two here. So bring us into an understanding
that would maybe help some of us in this. I'm
hoping it'll help all of us. But how many are
you're new to the Christian faith in the last
five to seven years? Let me see your... Lift
them way up so I can, I'm an old man, and I'm
short, so I'm up here on the front. Okay, so
we got a pretty good percentage here of those
that are new to the Christian faith in the last
five to seven years. How many are, let's say,
in the last 12 years and under are new to the
Christian faith? Let me just see. Okay, a few
more that are popping out. All right, now, so
why is this so important? Well, for some of us,
let me tie this shoe. I don't want to trip. I'm
getting excited here. For some of us that have
been walking with the Lord a long time, sometimes,
and I'll put myself in the long time category
because it's been almost 48 years for me. And
I know some of you have been walking with the
Lord a lot longer than that, but I'll just call
myself the young of the old that have been walking
with the Lord. Sometimes we lose sight of things
that are supposed to be kept up front and quickened
and alive. And maybe we learned some things that
along the way led us to some conclusions in the
scriptures that maybe weren't the fullest that
they should be. How many have found over the
years of being a Christian that what you started
off believing and understanding God had to move
you into some understanding, expand some things,
remove some things in order to make it fuller.
Any of the ones that have been, okay. I'm speaking
to us this morning as much as I'm speaking to
the ones that maybe have never heard this. One
of the things that we dealt with last week, and
just to kind of give you a little bit. why we
do the things the way we do. When I first started
pastoring about 34 years ago, when I got into
the ministry full time, there were things that
I did just because I watched it done to the people
that went before me, right? They were well -meaning
people, loved God, loved, and I learned from
them. The Bible talks about that. Find faithful
men and women. Teach these things to faithful
men and women so that they will teach it to other
men and women. And the gospel has been moving
forward. When I surveyed the whole area of communion,
people take the Lord's Supper and communion in
a variety of ways. And I remember the Lord on
our journey here. Jenny and I had pastored, founded.
Life Bible Church, obviously with the help of
the Lord, it's his church, but asked us to plant
this church. We'll be celebrating 25 years this
fall. When we came out and planted this church,
about eight, nine years into the pioneering,
the Lord really spoke a word to me personally.
He says, I want you to change the way you're
teaching communion. And I thought, oh. I must
not be hearing right. And so I keep going and
I keep doing. And the Lord said, I told you,
I want you to change the way you're doing. I
said, well, Lord, how do you want me to change
it? He goes, I don't want you just to add it
on for the majority of services. I don't want
communion to be something that's just a thing
you do in the midst of something else. I want
you to begin, and this is important because it
connects to what I'm going to say most all of
today. If you don't hear anything, hear this,
is that I want you to deepen, widen, and the
depth of people's understanding of why I bring
them to my table. I don't want them to just walk
away with only simplicity. I want them to understand
the depth of the fullness of my word of what
went into the elements, what went into the table,
and what is happening when we actually have that
meal together. And so it was one of the things
that God really moved on my thinking so that
no matter where I'm at, if you've followed us
for the last four or five years, certainly for
the last eight years, 10 years, I've shifted
that for most part, every time we come to once
a month communion Sunday, doesn't matter where
we're at in a series, somewhere, I kind of just
do the old TV commercial, stop, drop and roll.
And we stop the series that we're in and we move
into some aspect of the Lord, his nature, his
character of what we find in the communion table.
Last week we did that and we used a really, Not
a very common verse to establish something about
communion, which took us back to what I'm going
to call the feast of Passover, and that's what
it was. But for some of us in this room, we don't
even know when you say it took us to communion,
I'm having trouble even understanding communion.
What are the feasts? Well, I'm going to lay out
a couple of things, and I hope I do it justice
today. Okay, one of the things that we're going
to look at, and let's look at the verse. 1 Corinthians
chapter 5, and we can put it up on the screen
here. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and I'm going
to come back to this verse, but I want you to
see this verse in verse 7, part B. 1 Corinthians
5, 7b. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed. The apostle Paul, through the Holy
Spirit, is writing to the Corinthian church.
The Corinthian church is really a church like
you and I. It's made up of primarily Gentiles.
It means people that were not raised with an
understanding of who God really is. The Gentile
church where Paul met them is kind of like us.
They believed in a pantheon of gods having a...
Greek and Roman mindset. They didn't understand.
They thought there were many deities. And Paul
is now taking people who believed in the gospel
of Jesus Christ as God who sent his only son
to the world to forgive the world and to save
them from their sin and to break the curse of
death. The people were coming out of idolatry,
coming out of paganism, coming out of all forms
of issues of cultural displays of every form
of amalgamation of different kind of concepts.
And God brings them out of every area and brings
them into his church. He calls them saved, but
he also in the midst of calling them saved and
saints is working on changing their heart and
their mind. How many know that he's still doing
that? That's exactly what has happened to every
one of us in this room. If we've accepted Jesus
Christ, we are called saints, we are saved positionally,
and now he's working out that salvation through
sanctification, working in us to change our values,
change our mindsets, change our understandings.
And as he's saying here, he's addressing an issue
in the church. that he's got to root out because
in the church of what was happening in Corinth,
this church that Paul was a pioneer of and preached
the gospel to and all the people would have heard
the message was actually allowing something in
the culture of the church that was actually affecting
it. And so in order for Paul to address the root
situation that was taking place, he had to bring
them back. to what God did in the nation of Israel
when he called them out of bondage, out of slavery,
out of a condition that had them trapped. He
had to bring them a revelation of what was put
in them that very night that he would separate
the difference between those that were unsaved
and those that would be his. And he brings them
back to this truth. of Passover. Passover is
simply a term that was meant that when in Exodus,
when the children of Israel were coming out after
all of the plagues that happened through God,
as Moses delivered them to Pharaoh, the last
plague was the plague of the death angel. And
if blood was applied to the doorpost of the house
and there were a variety of other things that
had to take place, the death angel would pass
over and life would stay in that house. Anywhere
where there wasn't blood, the death angel would
take. Not only just of man, but also of beast.
And the Bible says that the difference between
Egypt and Israel was clearly seen on that night.
Now, Paul brings this Corinthian church that's
now several thousand years past what happened
in the Exodus. and so we are as well, but even
in the Corinthian church, he brings these people
back to the place of Passover. Why is that so
important? Well, he says, listen, Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Now, I need
you to get this in your heart. Everything that
God does in your life and in my life, and God
has always done, is always about establishing
truth and the empowerment of his Holy Spirit
to do what? To get you to actually progress and
move forward with him. There's nothing that God
does in his nature that he wants to actually...
keep something from you or keep you back from
the revelation of himself or forward progress.
Now, when I say the word that revelation should
be progressive, I'm not telling you that revelation
should be liberal, okay? It's not a political
definition. When I say revelation is progressive,
it means that it should build on, each thing
should build on one another. That's why the Bible
says, line upon line, precept upon precept, Here
a little, there a little. Why? Everything you
do in God should actually move you forward in
God. The kingdom of God should grow inside of
you. And every type and shadow, every revelation
that God is giving should all come and it should
stack on one another as something that's being
built on. You say, well, where do you get that?
Well, see, here in Western culture, One of the
things that we deal with the most is because
we still have Greek thinking. We're trained to
think in a Greek form of thinking, in a Greek
Roman form of thinking. We're not trained scholastically
to think like a Hebrew mind. Because all of our
systems, all of our education systems are under
a Greek philosophy. Folks, think about it. Why
do we have... fraternities and sororities with
Greek names and a bunch of Greek letters that
nobody reads. Alpha, beta, kappa, you know, okay?
Why? Because it's a Greek philosophy of thinking.
It's what? It's linear. But I'm telling you this
morning that if you'll ask the Holy Spirit for
help, One of the greatest damages that's been
done to us in Western culture is that we would
pick up Greek linear thinking and try to apply
that to a text that is not linear only. It is
more Middle Eastern Hebrew associated. Why? It's
meant to have a learning style, which is what?
Move it from the realm of keeping it up here
in your head to actually moving it into an interaction
that would allow a I show you and now you begin
to do with me. Greek mindset is what? I'll tell
you about it and we'll talk about it intellectually
and we'll just keep talking philosophically about
it rather than actually doing. And if you'll
recognize this, everything that's in the New
Testament, there's two filters really in Christianity.
There are those that simply want to have a mindset
of everything that makes sense to their natural
mind. And it comes down to, I just need to have
it in here and I just need to believe it, but
I don't have to display it anywhere in my life.
versus that you have to have both. There has
to be a knowledge of him and a growth in him,
but then there has to be what? An actually witness
that you're actually walking with him and that
the spirit of God and the word of God is actually
flowing out of you. Are you there? Now see, when
God builds a house, many of us think this way
because when we read the Old Testament, we think,
How did God build a house? God built a house
by, well, the Old Testament. There was tabernacle
and then there was Moses' tabernacle and that
had an order that was called the house. And that
house had an outer court, it had an inner court,
it had the holy place and then the most holy
place. And there was a progression to that tabernacle
that you went from... all of the furniture out
in the outer court from the brazen altar to the
brazen labor inside the holy place to the golden
candlestick, the altar of showbread to then the
altar of incense and then to that veil. And then
once a year, they'd get behind that veil and
they would be in the Ark of the Covenant where
the presence of God and they would atone. That
was the principle that God was going to set up
all the way back with the children of Egypt.
Israel and it would it would set this order of
how to approach God based on three major feasts
three major feasts now we're going to look at
this next week and and if I can Chelsea I'm going
to have you go to my my very um the slides on
the on the feasts if you will all right perfect
Okay, I didn't get here for first service, so
you guys are getting this. You're gonna get ahead
of the class here, all right? I need you to just
kind of take a look at these charts. And you
can see here, there's biblical feasts. Why am
I spending time on biblical feasts? Because the
Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit are gonna bring
these feasts front, line, and center for New
Testament understanding. And if we don't have
a framework, of what happened there that's actually
supposed to be fulfillment here, we're going
to miss out on the whole principle of what God's
wanting to do in you in his timing right now.
Now, one of the things that we look at, we look
at, okay, this is what happened. When we say
the feast, there were three times a year, three
times a year. And I'm going to just generalize
it. You see seven up there, but out of the seven,
there were three times a year that God required
that everyone inside of Israel would come to
Jerusalem to celebrate those feasts. And those
feasts are Passover being the first, Pentecost
being the middle, and Tabernacles being the third.
In between those three feasts, there were other
feasts and principles incorporated around the
early feast and the latter feast. Pentecost kind
of stands on its own. And so what we're trying
to do here is get the church to understand, as
we started last week and this week, is understand
the significance of Passover so that when we
get to Pentecost, you don't just see Pentecost
as some particular philosophy that some people
believe in the Holy Spirit and other people don't.
That's the worst thing you could walk away with.
What we want you to see... In the scripture,
that's how God presents it, is that God has been
working all along to bring types and shadows
in his Old Testament to show us how he builds
progressively and how he moves people along in
his purpose, in his will, and to operate in partnership
with his power and in kingdom authority. And
so what you have to understand is he has a calendar.
God had a calendar in the Old Testament. He started
these feasts start in the spring of our year,
most likely in March and April. And Passover,
as we read here in the scripture that we just
read in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7 part B says,
and Christ is our Passover lamb who has been
sacrificed. What did Jesus do? Jesus fulfilled.
Passover, meaning he is the lamb of God that
was slain before the foundation of the world.
The Holy Spirit says, it's been done. Passover
has been fulfilled. But then right next to Passover
is this thing called unleavened bread. And unleavened
bread has a connection to Passover that the A
and the B belong together. And if you don't see
that in your mind, understanding it in New Testament
theology, you'll just think that your salvation
is only yes, it's started in God, it's from God,
and I don't need to worry about anything else.
But do you understand that God in Passover, and
this is what we dealt with last week, God in
Passover said, I'm gonna bring Jesus, I'm gonna
put his blood on the doorpost of your life, I'm
gonna have you eat the lamb that represents eating
of all that he is as the savior and as the deliverer
and as your healer and the strength. But in addition,
right next to it, I'm going to say for a week,
I'm going to command you to now check your house.
And I'm going to ask you to remove from your
house every bit of unleavened bread. Now this
is important because it lets us know that God...
starts something and does something that only
he can do, but then he never just leaves it all
by himself. He's always looking to bring you
into his purpose and his will. And notice that
the whole point of unleavened bread, even though
Jesus is the bread of heaven, even though Jesus
is the living word of God. He made the people
begin to walk through an understanding of if
you're going to live under the blood of the lamb,
you're going to have to participate and walk
through your house in order to remove the leaven.
You say now, well, that's just Old Testament.
Well, no, it's not because that's what the Holy
Spirit brings back into the Corinthian church.
Listen to what it says in verse six. Verse six,
we'll keep that screen toggled and we'll go back
to Corinthians. Your boasting is not good. Do
you not know that a little leaven, I'm gonna
say some words here and then we're gonna describe
it. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Now
cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a
new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Okay,
let's talk about the strange language here. Leaven
and lumps. Some of you are old enough to remember
the Looney Tunes commercials and Warner Brothers
and the old thing going, how many lumps you want?
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and three or four
lumps would appear on his head. That's not what
the Apostle Paul is talking about here, just
so you know. He's not looking just to give you
a lump with a sledgehammer. That is not it. He's
actually looking to do something that our culture
is very unfamiliar with. Most of the people in
this room, we have gravitated on the basis of
time not to make things from scratch. We buy
our bread. already packaged in, what, the plastic
wrappers and cellophane, already sliced. We didn't
mix the flour. We didn't put in the ingredients.
We didn't knead the dough. We didn't bake it.
We didn't do any of that. We just simply go to
the store out of convenience and we buy already
what's already pre -made, pre -sliced, pre -done.
The Holy Spirit was taking the Corinthian church
and saying something to them. He's saying, listen,
I need you to go back to why this is so important.
I need you to go back to the lump. And if you
understand, if you're a baker at all, you'll
understand that the lump represents what you
start with with bread. You're either gonna start
with a lump of dough that represents how you
measured the flour. the amount of oil you put
in, and all of the ingredients that actually
become and will become the bread that you will
partake. And the Holy Spirit through the apostle
Paul says, you need to understand that you are
a new lump. You're not an old lump. Turn to somebody
and say, your lumps have changed. Hallelujah.
Come on. I mean, your lumps have changed. I mean,
the reality is, God is trying to do what? He's
trying to remind you that who you were in your
initial put together of your old nature is not
who you're supposed to be anymore. He's already
declared you. And this is why it's so important
in New Testament theology. He's already declared
you. You're still alive. You're still a person.
But spiritually, when you had the blood of Christ
come over the doorpost of your body, What does
that mean? Your mind, your will, your body, your
soul, and you invited the Spirit of God inside
of you, you now have positionally become something.
You're like the bread that you were, only you're
not the old, you're the new. Paul writes this
again. This is first, notice the interesting
choices of verses, even in the divine penmanship
of what God is dealing with. 1 Corinthians 5,
7. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If any person's in Christ,
they are a new creation. Behold, the old is gone,
the new has come. I find it interesting that
in two different letters, right at the fifth
chapter, he's dealing with what kind of lump
you really are. Right? And here he starts it
out. He says, you are a new lump. Now look it.
He says, cleanse out the old leaven. that you
might be a new lump. Why is this important? Because
Passover linked, that God said, whoever will
not celebrate the cleaning out of their house
by removing leaven, and I'm gonna explain leaven
in a little bit, not 7 -11, but leaven, whoever
won't clean out the leaven, I'm going to cut
off from Israel. Not only will I, I'll pass over
you, but I'm going to give you grace. But if
you refuse to clean out the leaven, I'm actually
going to cut you off from my life. I'll cut you
out of the nation of Israel. Now that is where
the Holy Spirit picks that up in Exodus chapter
12, picks it up for the New Testament, for the
New Testament church about members in their church.
that we're not living as new lumps, but we're
choosing to take the truth of God's grace and
live like they lived prior to coming to Christ.
And it's important because what's leaven? Leaven
in the Bible, leaven all through scripture, it's
both in the old and in the new, always speaks
of that which causes a rising. It's a rising
up. to pride. It's a rising in arrogance. It's
a rising of man's old ways. It represents anything
that puffs up and anything that brings into a
place of superiority as man, man's purpose, man's
ideals, man's concepts. The whole principle of
cleaning out leaven was what? to actually to
get you to clean out that which you relied on
yourself, your way of thinking, your successes,
your own abilities, remove it out and surrender
it and recognize I'm going to eat bread now that's
dense. It's not the light pastry, French, ooh
la la, croissant that puffs up in so wonderful
pastry. No, no, no. It is the deep, thick bread
that is intense. I'm not eating it for flavor
or pleasure. I'm eating it because God told me
to because it's a revelation of the purity of
only the word of God and nothing else. God goes
back into the Old Testament, brings that forward
into the New Testament, and now says, I need
you to get this because this is what you have
to partner with in order for me to move you forward,
children of Israel. If I'm going to bring you
into progressive revelation and understanding,
I've got to get you to understand that only Jesus
can do what only Jesus did. He could only be
the lamb of God. His blood, the blood of the
God man, the holy blood of the father's DNA that
would represent the blood of all nations. Only
he could die for the sin of the world that every
person that would apply that blood would not
just be Tiffany's side of the Jewish side, but
it would be as Gentile as, what are you normally?
Norwegian, even. Even the legions and Sven get
saved. Okay? I mean, the reality is, natural
Israel, by the blood of Jesus Christ, and Timothy
Sven Munson of Norwegian descent, and Asian,
and Italian, and Latino, and African, and Chinese,
and Filipino, and you name it, the nations of
the world are found in the blood of Jesus. And
with that reality, he doesn't just stop there.
And here's what most people have learned in Western
thought. It's just all about me getting saved.
You see, if that was the case, if it was only
about you getting saved, only about you coming
out under the law of death and sin, Jesus paying
for you, setting you on good ground and going,
okay, you're no longer under that. We wouldn't
have any other feasts. We wouldn't see any progression
from Passover written from the Bible. Why? It'd
be enough. I got you out of Egypt. I just brought
you. You don't need to celebrate whatever Passover
means. You don't need to celebrate tabernacles
and all of the feasts that are around there.
Why? Because it's just about you. Do you understand
that that's the whole reason that he included
the unleavened portion with the cross portion
of the blood of Jesus? Is because by nature,
we're selfish. By nature, we want to make it
all about us. And by nature, he included in the
blood of the Passover lamb, he included what?
He invited their responsibility. He has never
unhooked himself from that. Salvation is only
by grace, but it also carries a responsibility.
Meaning, I can't, how do I say this carefully?
I can't clean my house without the agent that
God gives me to clean it. But I also can't clean
my house just telling the blood of Jesus to do
it by itself. Wouldn't that be nice? Just put
the Ajax and you can tell how often I clean here.
Put the Ajax and the, I was going to say the
Listerine, but that's what you do mouthwash.
Put the Ajax and the Pine Sol and all of the
stuff that you clean your house with, you just
set it on the counter and you just say, in Jesus'
name, clean the house. Yeah, if it would, but.
Thank you, Will, for that because it's totally
wrong. Because that's, think about it, that's
what Western culture has made Christianity out
to be. God saved me and he does everything. I
don't need to partner with him. It's just all
about me going to heaven and as long as I get
my hell insurance, I'm good. Whole doctrines,
philosophies, whole groups of denominations have
built that mindset on that form of linear thinking
that all the gospel is about is about getting
you to heaven. That's only half of the equation.
It's the first half. You see, the equation has
an A and a B side for all you math majors. Okay?
There's an A plus a B. I didn't do so good in
math. That's why I moved more toward a humanitarian
arts degree. But anyways, the reality being there
is a second side to this thing. The A side is
Jesus by his blood can only pay for sin and breaking
the power of the Lord of death. Do you understand
that? Satan, because of Adam's transgression,
Adam and Eve's transgression, now became ruler
and was over sin and death. That's why the apostle
Paul would write later in the New Testament,
he says, oh, King Agrippa, when he was talking
about giving his testimony, going to Rome and
even to Caesar, he laid out to Agrippa and to
Festus and the others, he said, I've been transferred
from the kingdom of darkness into the glorious
inheritance of his son's love. The principle
being, that's what Jesus did on the cross is
he broke the lordship of death. That's Hebrews
chapter two. He says, he broke the fear of death
in which we were all subject. He breaks the Lord
of death, the power of death, which is sin. That's
what Paul writes again in 1 Corinthians 15. Oh,
death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where
is your victory? For the strength of sin is the
law. But thanks be to God our Father who's given
us the victory in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
broke... The lordship of death, being held captive
from being separated from God, paid the price
of sin and did what? Also established everything
that God sent in his law about his holy nature
that we would break. He also satisfied it on
the cross. And with those three things, Christ
liberates us. And then he does what? He grabs
you and I and he says, now, I'm not just gonna
apply the blood. Now you're gonna partner with
me. Because the Passover was never meant to just
be fulfilled naturally. It was meant to be fulfilled
both naturally when Jesus fulfilled it and that
the church would spiritually fulfill it. Meaning
what? That you inside of Christ, Christ in you,
the hope of glory, I'm in Christ. would recognize
I've now applied the blood of Jesus. I now feast
on the lamb as the word of God. And now with
the help of the Holy Spirit as the light, come
on, walk with me, the light and me as a person.
So this represents, Victor, good looking guy
here. Okay. Represents the light of Christ wearing
a white shirt. Very nice. Way to fit the example
today. Okay. Wearing the light of Christ, we're
gonna do what? I'm gonna take my conscious heart
and mind and the light of Christ now, because
the blood has come and the presence of God has
come, is gonna walk with me in the very aspects
of my mind, of my heart, of my emotions and my
motivations, and he's going to shine light on
where I can bring leaven. Leaven is what? Where
I've believed. My way is better than God's way.
Where I've puffed up me. Where I've puffed up
people's opinions. where I've made things that
were easier for me and it's time like this that
I don't just keep that once a year like they
did naturally. I now live with the blood and
the Holy Spirit with me and he's now removing
and always speaking in grace and an understanding
of where I now have kept leaven. Thank you. You
may keep burning. Right there. All right. Now,
in that process, it's not just for me personally.
It's not just for you personally. See, many times
as a Western thought, we think, well, this scripture
is for me. It is, but that's half the, again,
Western thought gives you half of the equation.
The other half is, it's not just for me. It's
for us. It's for the church. That's why he's
writing it. He's writing it. for the community
called the church so that they would know how
to collectively allow the light of the Holy Spirit
and the blood of Jesus to keep the body of Christ
clean, not just relegate it to our own personal
private deal where nobody can speak into. Oh,
snap. Do you understand that that's part of the
reason that people don't want to do church? It's
not the fact that, oh, Dwayne and Lana were just
elders in the other church or pastors and they
just didn't treat me right. And I just, I mean,
they wounded my inner puppy and I just haven't
got over it for 25 years. No, that is not the
reason. You know why? It's because most people
don't want the accountability that it actually
comes. The reason they don't want to be in the
house of God for the purpose of God is they want
to keep their relationship with Jesus private.
Why? They don't want to be responsible for growth.
They don't want to be responsible for serving.
They don't want to be responsible for actually
discipling other people and actually putting
down roots and actually recognizing that their
life is meant to be life giving to others. We've
built, oh, come on now. Come on. Don't make me
high step and get out there to you. Come on.
The reality is the issue of Western thought and
Western Christianity is it's what? We stop singing,
it's all about you, Lord, and we change it. It's
all about me. And we focused on what we want,
how we want, how we want to live. And we can
mark out all sorts of pages of the scripture
to try to justify the fact, well, it's only really
about me and heaven. No, no, no, a thousand times
no. Why? My God. I feel like Joshua and he looked
at the sun and said, stand still time. Hallelujah.
All right. We have a thinking. That what God
is building is only one dimensional. If you've
been here long enough, you've heard me say this
about marrying the Old Testament and the New
Testament. I say it this way. The Old Testament
is the blueprints of what God designed all the
things that would be seed thoughts and revelation.
They would be signs. They would be prophecies.
They would be understandings. They would build
the whole framework. That when you get into the
New Testament, those blueprints would now begin
to build the building. Why? Because the building
wasn't according to the old. The building was
according to the new. And God says, according
to his scripture, he doesn't live in houses of
wood and stone anymore. He now lives, what? In
people. And he's called you. the living stones.
So he takes all of the principles of the blueprint
and he brings it to what? Inside the temple called
you. And then he says, it's not just about you
though. We're now living stones. Notice what
he says, living stones now being fit together.
Wouldn't it be, you see, Western Christianity
paints the picture that you and Jesus as the
cornerstone and one stone are the house. And
that's just simply not true. You and Jesus are
wonderful. That's your salvation. But the house
is supposed to be connected to living. It's plural
and it's also Pentecostal. Living stones means
that God is bringing, what did he say? took down
the wall of separation and I'm now bringing Jew
and Gentile together and I am building a house
of living stones for the dwelling of my presence.
That is why it's so important that you get Christ
on the inside but it's also important that you
begin to join yourself to both Jew and Sven and
Oli and Asa and you begin to see that God is
actually looking to what? Not only take the grace
of God that he dealt with you personally, but
now he comes to bring his presence in a greater
capacity when the stones gather together in love,
in unity, and preferring one another. And the
residence of God and the presence of God begins
to fill the corporate house as well as the personal
house. I'm preaching myself happy, and I hope
you're enjoying it as well. Now, back to the
chart. Okay. Now, you're saying, Pastor, we're
going to get through all seven feasts? No. Okay.
We're barely getting out of Passover here this
morning. If you'll see the three feasts before
we ever get to Pentecost, notice what he's doing.
He deals with Passover. The very same day or
the next day, he deals with unleavened bread,
which deals with what? There is no old nature.
Everything is new nature. The old nature is buried.
That's the unleavened bread. We're a new lump.
And then he goes first fruits. You say, well,
why do we do first fruits? Well, part of it is
this. It's part of the understanding of Passover.
First fruits was what? I'm bringing something
out of the field that has not been harvested
and called mine. I'm giving the first as an offering
before I ever take the field. I'm giving the
first as an offering that the rest of the field
would be made like the first. That's why the
very first first fruit offering was done at the
same time right after the end of Passover, which
ended on a Sabbath. First fruit starts when?
On the Sunday right after the Sabbath ended.
So as soon as the Sabbath of the law ended, the
first resurrection Sunday would be the celebration
of first fruits. And that's what we celebrate
when we celebrate, in essence, Easter is what?
The death, the burial, and the raising from the
dead of the Lord Jesus Christ as the first fruits.
And the Bible's filled in the New Testament with
what? Jesus is the first fruits. So that what
follows after, and just kind of pat your neighbor
on the shoulder, that means you. Come on, that
means you. What follows after Jesus is you get
to do exactly what he did. That death no longer
will keep you. And how what God did with the
first, he promises to do with the second. And
in type and shadow, all in the whole, if you
want to just narrow it down. all in the wholeness
of Passover, unleavened and first fruit is connected
under the canopy of Passover because it is saying
to us, we are going to move you to the understanding
of what God did for you. And then we, in the
midst of that, join you to what God now wants
to partner with you so that you have a solid
foundation so that when you come to the next
feast, you'll not only celebrate what it is naturally,
but you'll be ready to partner at a deeper level.
You see, when I said God builds according to
the blueprint, here's what America wants. Here's
what Western culture wants. I want a house that's
one level, ranch style, and if I just want a
house, I'll just make it bigger. and I'll just
spread it out. Do you know that in every other
part of the world, ranch -style houses are not
the main construction element? Everything around
the world is built up for people to live in multi
-stories and for people to live multi -generational.
Now, maybe I'm going to, Jenny, if you want to
come up to the piano, I hope to drop something
on you here that will help you make sense of
something. We get ranch style, not that if you
want a ranch style house, God bless you. I'm
not saying that that's wrong. I'm not saying
go sell it and buy something else. I'm telling
you, don't try to put your faith like your personal
home. Because God's blueprint was never to build
a mindset that just enlarged your footprint of
single family dwelling on one floor. You can
say, well, why are you saying that? Because God
is multidimensional. Meaning, now I'm not being
weird here. Think about it. He is into what?
He's into width, but he's also into breadth and
depth and height. He wouldn't have sponsored
through the apostle Paul in Ephesians through
one of the greatest prayers that was ever prayed
when he said, I pray that the Lord fill you in
height, breadth, depth, and width with the what?
Love of God. What was he looking at in you? If
he knew you were the temple, he was not just
saying, well, I just fill you with just the width
of love. Why? Because Western Christianity, ranch
style, we are a mile wide and an inch deep. That
is not biblical. It's not close to biblical.
Fact is, real biblical faith does what? It builds
you in every dimension. You see, love can't get
into you. Height, which I'm challenged on, height,
depth, breadth, and then I got the width thing
down, okay? Height, breadth, depth, width of
the love of God. What does that mean? It means
he's getting now, are you ready? He's getting
now into my thinking. He's getting into my emotions.
He's getting into my motivations. He's getting
into the very, essence of what I value. That's
why Jesus could say, it's not what goes into
the man that defiles the man. It's what comes
out of the man. Why? Because once it comes out,
it means it's been there a long time. And that's
why just ranch style in the spirit doesn't cut
it. Why? There's no depth of growth. There's
no depth. Why? And that's why we gravitate to
Western thinking because we're not opening our
heart to actually have a spiritual encounter
with the Holy Spirit. We'd rather just understand
the gospel with our mind than actually be vulnerable
and hear what the Spirit of God is saying in
addition. Are you there? Why do you think? I
almost went back up on stage. Why do you think?
That when God shows us the city of God at the
very end of the scriptures here in Revelation
chapter 21 and 22, why does he not show you a
giant ranch style house coming down from heaven?
You got yourself a 1400 square foot ranch baby
coming down. That is your mansion, Texas edition.
No, that isn't what he's doing. What's he showing
you? He's showing you a city that is square.
Now, is that because God is creator, all he could
come up with is master cubes? Beloved, I send
you the cube. No. It's he was modeling something
in the cube that we miss. That heaven, its dimension
of God and his people is what? Height, breadth,
depth, width of all the same measurement that
every aspect is full. Every aspect is deep. Every
aspect is filled. It's God does not build something
that just has one dimension. He builds you. That's
why you're created in the image of God, body,
mind, soul, and spirit. And if he's the God of
wholeness, he's going to bring wholeness in every
level of your personhood. And wouldn't the city
of God and all of the people redeemed also live
in the fullness of who he's supposed to be? That's
why he wants to move you forward. Because he
doesn't just want you to know the truth about
salvation. He wants you to experience the truth.
He wants you to live the truth. And then he's
prepping you. He wants you to be filled with
that truth so that you can actually release that
truth wherever you go, extending the king and
the kingdom. Would you bow your heads, your hearts
with me? Father, this morning, Lord, I thank
you for this church. And Lord, by church, I'm
not talking about walls. I'm not talking about
wood or stone. I'm talking about people. I'm
talking about the saved people who've been redeemed
by your blood, by your grace, through faith,
and that have called on your name. Lord, and
you heard their prayer. And as the Bible said,
if they confess their sin, You will forgive them
of their sin and cleanse them of all righteousness.
You also said in three different places and whoever
calls on the name of the Lord. That means who
you are, what your purpose was and what you came
to do will be saved. I thank you for those that
you've redeemed in this house. Lord, as you're
feeding them and as you're growing them, I'm
also now coming to you and I'm praying for those
that have not truly known you. on the inside.
They have a mental understanding. They've been
caught in the beam and the tracker beam only
of rationality of the gospel. And God, the gospel
does make sense to a sinner, but it's also supposed
to be something that is so tied to your nature
that is wonderfully glorious and spiritual. Lord,
you said if Jesus would be lifted up, you would
draw all men and women unto you. And so, Lord,
today we have lifted you up, your purposes, your
plan. And that is to encounter people, to do
for them what they couldn't do for themselves,
and then to draw them into partnership. And today
I ask, Lord, as we open this church service now,
Lord, To that place where they come to meet you.
In just a few moments. I'm going to give an altar
call. What that simply means is I'm going to
give a request. Because the spirit of God is
here. He's the one responsible for drawing people's
hearts and minds to the Lord. My job is to give
the message. His job is to embrace you. Forgive
you. love you and begin to grow and walk with
you as you walk and grow with him. So if you're
here this morning and you've not asked Jesus
Christ into your heart personally, into the very
depths of your heart, your soul, your mind, you
would say, Lord, I'm not going to trust in myself
anymore. Today under this, under what I've heard
today, I need you. To come and fill me. And be
my King. Be my Lord. Be my Savior. Not only save
me from Lord the curse of death and sin. But
to bring me into fellowship with you. As Lord
and friend. If that's you this morning. And you'd
be willing to pray that prayer. As the Holy Spirit
is here. I'm going to ask you. I don't need you
to come front. But I do need you to have a response.
So I'm going to ask you just. If that's you,
right where you're at, just lift your hand above
your head so that I can see it. And that's part
of the witness and part of the response package.
And as you lift your hand, I'm gonna send somebody
to come and pray with you. And together, they're
gonna call on the Lord together and ask Jesus
to come and fill your heart and bring you under
his care and his leadership and love. Is there
any here that would say, that's me? I wanna accept
Jesus. In totality. No longer just making him
a mental image of someone that was a good teacher.
But I want him to come and save me from my sin
and fill my life. Make him king and Lord. Just
a little bit longer. As you're hearing my voice,
you say, that's me. I need the Lord on the inside.
I want to know him in spirit and truth. If you
would like to give, click the link in the episode
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