source *It's a very strong and anointed sermon!
Description: Come find out what some of us do 23 times a day. Let's pray that God will keep us to not do it once! Exodus 12:14-20; 1 Corinthians 5:5-8; Ephesians 6:13-14a; Proverbs 12:22, 19:5; Revelation 21:8
The lord has laid this on my heart I believe and the name of this little message is 23 times a day. We shall explain it at the very end.
The most special day when Israel became a nation really was the night of passover. And as you know the last plaque, the tenth plaque that was put on Egypt because pharaoh suddenly refuses to obey God’s command was the death of the first born. The only way the Jewish people, the Hebrews will escape that death angel was to do what God says. Get a lamb on the 10th day of the 1st month, examine it, and keep it for four days and on the 14th day which would be the first month of the year, from there after they will slay the lamb. They would consume the lamb that night and they must stay in the house. But before they ate the lamb they would take the blood from the lamb and they would put on the door post, lentils of the door. And God said this were the holiday comes from, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.”
There was a meal that was to be eaten and a festival that begun that night. Passover came first or were coincide, it was a beginning of a week long holiday called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Because of the passover they had this week long 7 days feast. Seven speaks of completion or entirety so we can speak of wholeness. Our whole life is wrapped up at seven. I want you to notice this odd repetition which came to me in nowhere as I was reading from my Bible but led me someplace off on my reading for the scripture for one year.
Watch this here in Exodus,
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. (Unleavened Bread)
On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel
In other word not only slay the lamb but now get rid of the yeast from your house for 7 days.
16 on the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
In the Hebrew scripture, repetition is always meaning emphasis. Anything that is repeated or a double word it is the way of emphasis. God says during that 7 days period, “You must not eat any yeast”. So what does it to do with us? We are not Jewish. We don’t celebrate this, we do not celebrate pass over. We take communion because the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world came. We do not kill animals anymore, we do not eat lambs. That scripture is totally for the Old Testament.
Always remember this, anything you read in the Old Testament, none of it applies to us unless it is repeated in the New Testament. No verse in the Old Testament was written to us, it was written to Israel. We are not Jewish. When something is repeated in the New Testament that becomes the law of Christ or the teaching of Christ or the apostle’s doctrine and that applies to us. Now many things in the Old Testament are repeated like don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery and so and so forth. They apply to us many things in the Old Testament don’t too apply to us. Dress code, no eating pork, eating certain kind of shell fish, celebrating these holidays, all these kind of things does not apply to us and no one has a right to pick and choose what Old Testament verse they want and say, “Oh that one is really strong in preaching”. Then you go 'wait a minute if you are going to preach why you don’t preach this other ones.' “OH no that is not for us”. Wait a minute who says it’s not for us? If it is one for us it is all for us. So the way you to discern that brothers and sisters if you read through it you see types and shadows of Jesus Christ in the old testament but nothing applies to us unless it is repeated in the new testament because much more is added in the new testament.
On the sermon on the mountain Jesus wait pass on the law and says you have heard don’t kill your brother but I say if you are angry with someone you say you jerk, you animal, you beast and you’re like that you are guilty with murder. And if you look at a woman, not just sleep but if you look at her with lust you have already committed adultery. So the New Testament is our guide not the Old Testament. Not to be worrying about holiday of feast and all this things. We read it, we get edification from it and they give us picture of things that will happen in the New Testament. I hope that helps people who get confused when they read the Old Testament.
What does this have to do with us? Does any of this mention in the New Testament will this happen, it is mentioned. What the apostle Paul says that Jesus dying as the Lamb of God is a picture of the passover. Christ our passover Lamb has been killed for us not every year but once and for all. So in a way Christ is the fulfillment of the passover. Not many lambs, one Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Everyone who follows me so far say AMEN.
That was Passover now this is Christ dying. Now what follows passover? the feast of unleavened bread. So I get what passover is about, what it should meant of me is I remember Christ. I don’t celebrate it as a one day holiday, we celebrate it everyday. Now is there any symbolic meaning to us about the feast of unleavened bread? Well there is, look. 1 Corinthians 5;
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?
In other words a little evil, a little bad stuff can mess up your whole life. You can’t let even a little in. you can’t make a treaty with any of it.
Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.
In other words be what God made you. Christ saved you now celebrate the feast the right way for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
Christ our pass over Lamb is going back now to the Jewish holiday and He is saying they celebrated passover. We have our lamb but way better than some Lamb. We have the Lamb. And now He says this,
8 Therefore let us keep the Festival,
What festival? The festival of the unleavened bread for our whole life, not for 7 days, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul says now, come on now not in order to become a Christian because you are a Christian. Let us celebrate the feast. Passover preceded the feast of unleavened bread. Christ dying for us precedes a life that pleases the Lord. What kind of a life pleases the Lord? a life without yeast. Eat bread, live a life without yeast. Be careful with that yeast because a little yeast messes up the whole loaf. So now He says celebrate now for the rest of your life with unleavened bread, the bread of sincerity and truth.
One of the great changes in our life is that we stopped lying. In America, everyone in America, Poll shows "lies 23 times a day." We either tells a lie, we exaggerate into a lie to get out of a bad spot, and we act a lie by giving off an impression of something that is not true, which is a lie. And we get involve with lying which is supposed to be from our own life and we become a Christian, Jesus is all about truth so now celebrate the feast for the rest of your life. Not for the old leaven the old chunk, the way we all used to live but with the unleavened bread of sincerity means what you say what you mean in truth tell the truth. That is what they make you do before you get up on the stand. Am I right, I swear to tell the truth? And if you do not tell the truth, you can be in contempt in court, you can get in trouble.
The average of Americans lies 23 time a day and the lies makes us tell other lies because ones you start spinning a web of lies, there is no end to the lies. And most lies will cover us something we are ashamed of which then makes for more lies.
Now it is interesting that in spiritual warfare most Christians don’t understand this, when lies are part of our life we can’t fight the devil very well because the devil is a liar. When he gets us lying, he is injecting his nature into our being, into our spirit, into our heart. Now we are acting exactly like him, we are lying and he is a liar from the beginning, Jesus said. In fact when he speaks he lies. Lies are his natural language, he just lies. When he approached Eve he lied. So lying to us is all this stuff white lies, black lies, this kind of lie, God understands, everyone does it. That is not the way God looks at it at all.
So when the Bible says put on the full armor of God, so that we will be able to stand against all attract of the devil. Can I tell you why a lot of Christians can’t stand up against the devil? Pastor Christians can stand up because God is on our side. Listen stop the slogans just look at the ways things are on the ground. The way things are on the ground is what is it, it is what it is. And all kinds of Christians are losing badly. Why, because they were not able to stand. Why, because they haven’t put on the whole armor of God. Why do you think Paul says it is important to put on the whole armor of God if God is going to deliver everyone who goes to church? Well He doesn’t deliver everyone who goes to church. All kinds of people go to church living defeat and despair and shame and end up messing up not only their lives nut the life of their love ones. Why, because they are not fighting effectively. Why, because they haven’ put on the whole armor of God. How are you going to fight if you haven’t won armor on? And one of the first things of the armor found in Ephesians 6,
Therefore take up the whole armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you will be able to stand your ground.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,
Now the belt of truth is not the word of God because the sword of the spirit is the word of God. So the belt of truth here is the truth in this sense, truthfulness, sincerity, being real, not telling lies, not getting involved in lying things, not lying in your income tax, not lying.
Now listen, one of my grandchildren hears some people cheering when I say something like that and it hurts them and they came to me and said, you know papa it sounded like the church. You know they agreed of what you’ve said but it sounded like they were happy you’re like capturing people who lie but don’t they have problems with their lives? When we point out something that something might fall into we don’t go like “ Yayy Yeehy” that is church that is not Christianity. As I you tell him” that is not Christianity. When Jesus was talking nobody is yelling up on Him, you tell Him. Not that is not church, I want love of God, I want truth. Can you say AMEN to that?
I’m talking about different ways that we can lie because we are all tempted to lie and you have lied a lot in your life to lie. Who is in this building that hasn’t lied or cheated which is a form of lie? I lied all the way through high school and college, I was telling lies.
I was in a class in my freshmen year in university and couldn’t dare to play basketball and everyone told me take our 27 do you get a bear see if you just show up because the professor he is in another world. He is looking at Brace and Raphael’s and all of that. He I just going to give you a good mark. So the first task in came, I wasn’t even prepared because I don’t play basketball. I don’t care, they said, don’t worry we got the slip in our hands around the room. Do not worry. So somebody hand me a slip I looked at it with the answers and someone will say, “Psst, pass it on after you get what you need. I pass it on to the guy. As I pass it on to the guy the teacher walks right down the ail as the guy is taking it and he goes, Mr. Bowen what is that in your hands? Then he goes shoop! He put the whole piece of paper in his hand. Mr. Bowen I’m asking you what was in your hand, he goes “rrrrrrrah, rrrhrr”. I did not bother me it is a lie, those weren’t my answers.
Why are you looking at me like I’m the only one who ever lied? You never cheated? You never lied? You are just lying now if you say you are not lying. My goodness, how many have lied in your life? Some of you looked both at your hand, your feet, your belly, your chest, your shoulder. Well of course and God says that you can’t fight. How in the world are you going to fight against the devil when you are practicing something that is in his nature? How in the world are you going to stand against him when you lie every day, when you lie 23 times a day? No different than the world, lies. You tell lies, you lie and God is truth and Satan is a liar. Then you wonder where is my joy, where is my peace, pray for me.
Somebody came to me on the line tonight, just to reinforce this, and they got involve in some marriage involving somebody getting their paper. That is a lie. You are married somebody for their green card, are you kidding me? And then you are going to celebrate the festival with unleavened bread when you are doing tricks like that? Oh no, but everyone does that I can make some money. We are Christians we are not doing what everyone else does. Come on let us put our hands together, that is a lie. That is a lie.
When we work with people and true pastors we tell them we do anything we can to help you. But if you lie to us how we are going to help you, you brake trust. Now we can’t help you. If you lie to us then what are we going to do. But it is easy for us to lie. Some of us have a serious continence about lying. you grew up in a house, you heard your mother and father lie all the time. My dad lied 23 hundred times a day about drinking, he lied. My dad lied all the time.
So now no one is laughing in anyone we are all just sitting here saying God, have mercy on us, right. But there is more, so this thing about lying, speaking untruth which we all have and comes easy to us. Have you ever got caught just with something, you are just embarrassed because you forgot something or someone and you just lie. I have a friend in college he lied for no reason, he did not even have to lie. He just likes to lie.
So now look what the Bible says. Oh, oh, no one is laughing now, are they? What is it saying, Lord detest lying lips but he delights in.. And people say I missing out the blessing of God, I don’t sense His spirit with me and I want Him to heal my body. Well why you don’t start the whole thing by just stopping lying. Who knows what that might open up? But there is more a falls witness will not go unpunished and He pours pour life will not go free. They are not going to go free. Not lying because God is a God of truth. God hates lying because God is about truth.
Then finally, Oh my but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic, all the idolater, and all their place will be on the fierily lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
I was shocked by that figure and I started saying to myself, God keep me from lies. Ministers can lie, they can tell stories that are not true. When I wrote my first book the guy sat down and says where you did go to school and this is my co-writer, and we did not know he said that well. So I just tell him what happens and I told them what my sorrows were. Did you know that they have so many experiences of people making up stories, he check everything I told him to find out if this is true. Then he wrote me an email and he said you know the more I get to know you the more I love you in the Lord because you actually told me the truth.
I went to a church recently and the pastor told me that he have a congregation of about 3 or 4 thousand people in his church and I went there and the building exceeds 280 people. He said yeah but we have multiple service. You have to have 200 services every Sunday to do that. How about our brothers and sister have a little heart searching tonight and people who smoke they embarrassed their folk and they are embarrassed that they smoke so they lie they don’t smoke. Whenever we do something wrong because we cover it because we are convicted with the devil tempts us to lie but then the lie says that you have to tell another lie to cover that lie. Before you know you got a whole nest of lies.
Look what the liars are linked with, those who practice black magic. People go to those people who practice voodoo and hide in some place in the world or here in New York or whatever. Practice in voodoo and demons and all that. Well they are going to be in the same lake with the people who lie. Those people who live just sleeping around, they have no morals and yes all the adulterers and all the fornicators will be in the same of punishment as the liars and the murderers. God hates lying.
Now why I’m God would help me speak about this, this is the strangest thing. You know resisted somewhat, I used to say God this is not any kind of way to lead people to prayer. Whatever it is the Lord has encouraged me 23 times a day. I want him to be different in that be holy even as I am holy. How many happy Jesus never lies. Tell me some, what kind of a relationship we gave with Jesus. How can we trust someone who lies?
In the multitude of words they don’t like sin because the more you talk the more you have a chance to lie. Someone says it is better not to talk just be quite because people might think you are smart. You also have less chance to lie. I do not want to lie. How about you? How many here with me I want to put away all lying things, all falsehood. We want to be men and women of truth. If He both can trust us than we are not going to speak the truth then why then speak of Jesus.
Let us close our eyes.
I can’t remember, sharing every preaching about lying, I must have preached of it so many years ago. Lord forgive me, God forgive us for every lie we ever told. Save us from living lies, save us from pretending to be something we are not. Forgive us, have mercy on us. I pray that you get an open door between now and Sunday and you are going to fulfill what we prayed about.
(Altar call)
(I want close just by saying if there is anybody here who would like to come forward, this is so hard for me to say because I love all of you and I want to protect everybody here because I want you to protect me. But if there is anyone here who says pastor I just want to stand in front ask God help me to just celebrate the feast with the unleavened bread with sincerity and truth. I want God to take away all the acting, all the junk, and all the lies, all of it. Maybe you are in a situation now that is just a lie. You are living with someone and you are acting like husband and wife that is a lie, they are not, you are not married to them. Anybody else wants to come up and stand right here. We’ll get someone who can pray for you.)
(Father God we are just going to sit and stand in your presence, we are not going to sing. There is a time for everything under the son but tonight we want your light to shine on us. And as you light shines on us get rid of everything that is not real in us Lord. Everything that is fake, everything that is a lie, we act spiritual way and we act that way and this way and then we know that is not who we are. So rather have us act like saying nothing Lord)
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