Enter Into Abundance
Tribe
2024-04-21

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching greattribejh.

To see all your faces here today. There is there's a connect card that your biscuits are probably sitting on. If you take just a moment and fill that out, either if you're new, we would love to know that you visited our tribe family today, you can either leave it in your seat or put it in a little thing in the back there. Or if you're not a part of our tribe text blasts, it's probably one of the best ways that we communicate with our tribe family is to just send out a text blast and so if you're not on that, you can fill out that connect card. There's also an opportunity like if there's a prayer request, right, on the back?

Yeah, so you can fill that out as well. Question, did anybody in here growing up ever have a pet like lizard or chameleon or anything like that? Okay, you did, you did. So Stephen, what kind of reptile pet did you have growing up? It was a bearded It was a bearded dragon and those things get like that?

What was his name? Phoenix. Oh. Powerful. Well, the reason why I ask is similar similar to me and horses, me and reptiles, we don't get along so like so well, we're like, let's just keep our distance, like I see you over there and like okay, you're cool.

Next week I'll bring a video to share with you of a near death reptile encounter that Lissa and I had this past week. We were, oh yes, near death. Lisa and I were away last week, didn't Justin do a great job? So proud of these young guys that we have here that are serving hard and growing up in ministry, that just makes my dad heart really proud. Were, listen, I were gone last week and we went down to The Bahamas to get away for a little while.

Our idea of a relaxing vacation involves danger and camping. And one of the campsites, we were near viciously and brutally attacked by iguanas. Oh, yeah. See? Anybody ever have a pet iguana growing up?

Okay, so you're now the expert on iguanas in Jackson because nobody else raised their hands.

This one weighs 35 pounds. Oh,

do you have one currently? You had one. Are they docile? Are they nice? Oh, see, that confirms my fears of iguana.

You never turn your back on an iguana. Write that down. Well, we had a great time. I'll show you a video next week. For today's conversation, I've really debated on a couple of different titles, so if you're taking notes, I'll share with you the different ideas of titles for the conversation that we're gonna have today and why don't you just pick the one that you identify, like what resonates with you the most.

Option one is enter into abundance. Sounds good. Yep, that's good. Unless you have a bad taste in your mouth of like some sort of prosperity gospel and you think that's where we're going and like, we've got options for sermon titles today. So if that one doesn't float your boat, just go on to the next option.

The next option for the title of the conversation today is Portal of Blood. You can write. Irene, great to see you guys well since I really got Irene. Option number two is portal of blood, and then option number three is surrounded by Jesus. So you can pick.

And maybe there's a fourth option as we get into today's conversation, if you're just really feeling inspired by something else that was talked about, Death by Iguanas, maybe like you can write that as a sermon title as well. Seriously, Lord, take me before this thing looks at me again. If you have your Bible with you, would you please turn to the book of Exodus chapter 12? And in just a moment, we're going to read verses one through 23, as we talk about the historical occurrence of the very first Passover, when the nation of Israel was in slavery to the country of Egypt under the brutal dictatorship of Pharaoh. And God, after four hundred years of hearing the people cry out for deliverance, sent them a guy with a stuttering problem and a stick.

And we're gonna read this story. And if you are tracking with the family traditions of the Lord, tomorrow is a big family tradition called? Passover. Passover. Now, if you are thinking, wait, didn't you already talk about Passover?

How many of you remember me several weeks ago already talking about Passover, just before Easter? Okay, did any of you think, why is he talking about Passover so soon? Carlos like, and on our Shabbat text, the name of the text thread is Shalomis. But I was like, I don't know, I guess we're not doing Passover this year because we do Passover and then it's Easter and then Passover is actually tomorrow and I was really just goofed up on my dates. Oopsies.

But it's more than that. What, it's more than? Oh, well, here we go. Yes, for some reason I've always had it in my brain, like Easter and Passover, Passover, they're right there, but they don't really go together like I thought they did in my mind. I'm 50 years old, I'm just now figuring out that they don't perfectly overlap and coincide.

So what you're learning so far is I'm deathly afraid of lizards and I don't get my dates right all the time. But we are going to have a conversation about God's, one of God's, you might know it better as one of the feasts of the Lord's, or maybe you think of it as, oh, this is a Jewish feast, but really the Bible is super clear and he talks about God speaks and says, this is one of my feasts, and another way to think of it is a family tradition. If you came from a great healthy family, or if you came from a jacked up family, like good or bad, every family has traditions. And the Lord is no different in terms of family traditions. And God has established seven yearly family traditions.

We get together, we do stuff, we have, it's for a specific purpose, and of the seven times a year that God invites the whole world really to participate in these family traditions of the time of year that it is, it is the time for the family tradition of Passover. And it's important for us to have an understanding and a background of where this family tradition got started, and we're gonna talk about its meaning. So why don't we jump in and we'll take turns reading verses one through 23? It's a lot of verses, so we have a mic in the room. Do you know, oh, let's see, has the mic.

And we will pass the mic around and I'd love for you to read, usually we all in here read from the New Living Translation, but whatever you got is gonna be good to go. So we'll read verses one through 23, read a few verses, and then you can pass off the mic and have somebody else read and we'll get through one through 23, here we go. Oh, and the reason why we have the mic, so we can hear your voice, but then all of our families that are away or traveling in Tulsa, Oklahoma for work get to be a part of the livestream.

Who is a great me? I knew it. While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron. From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice.

One animal for each household. If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat. The animal you select must be a one year old male, either a sheep or a goat with no defects. Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of

the fourteenth day of this first month. Quick pause. When it says take special care of this animal, tradition tells us that the sheep, like the little lamb that comes in, or the goat, when they say take special care of it, they for seven days brought the animal into their home as like a guest and doted on it and loved it. And what did every little girl in the family do for that lamb? Fell in love with it.

Fell in love with it, and what did you say? Named it. Named it. What little girl doesn't name little pets, even if it is a nasty lizard? Let go of the lizards, Brian.

She would name it, take special care of this animal. And then let's keep reading and then just connect dots on your own for what this meant for that family.

Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the door frames of the houses where they eat the animals. That same night, they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast. Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. The whole animal, including the head, legs, and internal organs must be roasted over the fire.

Do not leave any of it until the next morning. Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.

This is how you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.

Quick pause. Sorry, one more pause. I am the

Lord. Yes, thank you for Yes, very good. I will execute judgment against all of the little g gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord. Just, oh, there's so much to unpack there in that verse alone. Do not mistake the appearance of lack of activity of the Lord's work in your life for his apathy or his ineptitude or his inability to work.

There is a time already set on his calendar where he will move in a way that is overt and that you can, if you have eyes to see, encounter. He's not capricious where he flies off the handle, that's it, I've had it up to here, bruh, and he acts. If you have not seen him move in your life in this moment in the way that you need him to or want him to, it does not mean that he is impotent in any way. He saw all of the mistreatment of Israel perpetrated at the hands of Pharaoh. And it was this night that he chose to move against them in devastating final totality of a showdown between the one true big G god Elohim versus the little g, little e Elohim gods of Egypt.

And he absolutely devastated them, humiliated them. Okay.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Israel. This is a day you are to commemorate. For the generations to come shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance. For seven days, you are to eat bread made without yeast.

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. On the first day, hold a sacred assembly and another one on the seventh day. Do not work at all on these days except to prepare food for everyone to eat. That is all you may do.

Celebrate the feast 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. In the first month, you were to eat bread made without yeast. Didn't I just read that?

Okay. He's he's reminding get this

point across. Mhmm. In the first month, you were to eat bread made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty first day. For seven days, no yeast is to be found in your houses, and whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Whether he is an alien or a native born, eat nothing made with yeast.

Whenever you live, you must eat unleavened bread. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood of the basin, and put some blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame. No one of you shall go through, shall go out the door of his house until morning.

When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

Since you picked up on that in this passage towards the end of this lengthy passage that we read, talking so much about yeast, Let's pull off on that detour for just a moment and talk about that. Why does God make a big deal about the yeast? First of all, is the thing the thing? No, the thing's not the thing, the thing is not actual yeast, it's not like God has a gluten intolerance, right? The thing is not the thing, so what is the thing?

Help us out. You got something, you want the mic? Come on, let's get him the mic. All the way up here, Lee. Now you know why Cat is so fit and trim.

Do you have your monitor if you get those splat points? So

I'm thinking that the yeast symbolizes something that I would only be guessing at if I, so symbolizes something. He

was at the free throw line ready to throw the granny shot and then handed off the ball. You got this, you got this. Lob it up there.

Well, okay, I'm just gonna throw it out. So the yeast symbolizes, I don't know, I'm choking up.

I'm done. Hi, G. When it's brought up, you'll be like, yes, yes, I knew. And we'll still give you credit for it.

Well, in Luke 13

Come on.

Jesus says, What else is the kingdom of God like? It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.

Okay, that's not where I thought you were gonna go, but

yeast makes something rise.

Okay, but why are we So if the kingdom of God is like a little pinch of yeast that is leavened to make the whole, that's like a good thing

for bread. But why in Exodus Because it also represents mixture with other cultures that are doing things that are pagan with little G gods. So once a little pinch of yeast gets in, it permeates through the whole dough and everything is affected by it. So if you let just a little bit of another culture in that is worshiping little g gods, that will affect all of you.

Amanda is amening you up here at the front. Yes, you're right. So the kingdom of another realm can be like a little bit of yeast, whether it's the kingdom of God, it permeates the whole loaf, or a pagan kingdom infested with little G gods, it will permeate your whole lifestyle and culture, and somebody's gonna come up with the verse that I was originally thinking of. Joy's like, I mean, I've got it, I've had it this whole time. And you're not in a smug way, but you're like, let's just let the kids try to answer first.

I'm sorry, I don't

have a verse for you.

Okay. But, and I'm stepping out

here like Lee, but I

think it

has something to I love it, these granny shots all over the place. Airball that sucker.

I think it has something to do with when you put yeast for the bread to rise, it takes time. And so the unleavened bread was so they could be ready to depart.

Okay, yes. Really? On a very practical culinary level, the idea is when it says take your tunic, tuck it into your belt, the idea is you eat this meal with your boots laced up and your jacket zipped up with your backpack on. In this idea of haste and expediency, we ain't got time. We ain't got time for the dough to rise.

Like we got to get this done. Here we go. Oh, I got a verse Brian. Okay, let's see, here we go, for three.

Is Matthew verse 16 where Jesus is referring to the yeast of the Pharisees.

Come on. And he's he's on a boat, right? Oh, okay. I don't believe he's on a boat. Okay.

Well, maybe he. There's my air ball. Context, I don't know. Alright, just read it to us because that's what I was thinking.

Okay. So Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says, be careful and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which I believe is referring to like kind of the corrupt spirituality that is present with what the teachings of the Sadducees and Pharisees are. So that's the verse that I found, like that religious hypocrisy that's happening.

All right, golf clap everyone. So good, so good, all the way up here. Joy, yeah Joy, and then Nina. Oh, I

want Nina to go first.

Everybody's like, who's the deal with Nina? This is the

Sunday school answer. The yeast is sin, represents sin. First Corinthians five six through eight, you're boasting about this is terrible. Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast by removing wicked this wicked person from among you.

Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast which is what you really are. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival which is what Nancy's reading about. Not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

Good, come on First

Corinthians five:six-eight. No,

no, no.

Who knew so much about yeast?

We're calling this the alley oop, we're calling this the alley oop.

My verse

was the same as Joyce.

Class for Nina, everyone, baby steps. Nina gets full credit. Yep. That's so good. How many of you in here mountain bike?

Okay, some of you, all right, yeah. How many of you like to keep your mountain bike really clean? Like you could eat off of it, yes, yes, because the adage is a clean bike is a fast bike. That's right, clean bike is a fast bike. I love to keep my bike as clean as possible, but like in the springtime when you go out riding, hitting the puddles, it's unavoidable and after about the third puddle that you slosh through, what shifts in your mind?

Now, gears. When that drivetrain is all crunchy. After the third puddle you hit, you're like, hey, what do you start doing with the puddles? Look for them. You're like, my bike's already muddy, I'm just gonna hit some more puddles.

And then you're like, woo hoo, this is fun, until it's time to clean your bike up. And you're like, what have I done? Next to that verse in my Bible, I have a little picture of a mountain bike, because that's what I think of when I read that verse about a little bit of yeast of sin and compromise mixing through the whole batch of dough. When my mountain bike is clean, I like to keep it really clean, but then sometimes just because of the fallen world that we live in, we mess up, we blow it, but we all have that tendency to be like, well, I've already splashed through one puddle, what's the big deal if I just go ahead and aim for every single puddle on the trail? And Paul is warning us to watch out for the small compromise.

In Hebrew it says, to watch out for the sin that so easily entangles. And all the way back in the book, in the story of the Exodus, God gives Israel and us a picture of sin by making such a big deal about the leaven and the yeast. Search your whole home, top to bottom, looking for yeast so that it can be expelled from the house. Idols, sin, compromise, and here's what God was getting at with this family tradition. As you're cleaning your house, the small print, God is saying, as you're cleaning your house, cleaning out the cupboards and your jars and the kitchen and the whole house, the bedrooms, everything, as you're looking for yeast, he wants us to make the connection of our heart like that home, that we would invite the person of the Holy Spirit.

And I'm looking at Amanda, because you've said it before, it's one of your favorite verses, Psalms 139, Search my heart, O God, point out anything offensive in me so I can get rid of it and lead me in the way of everlasting life.

I was just gonna say that, yeah, like it's a process and like practicing Jews today will go through their entire house searching for anything, like there is yeast in makeup, ladies, there is like all of these things that you wouldn't expect and they go through the ingredients of everything and then they remove it and sell it. Usually they'll sell it to a neighbor for a dollar.

A

Gentile neighbor? Yeah, a Gentile neighbor so that it's no longer their possession and then they'll buy it back after Passover, but they literally remove it from that's how they trick themselves, but they remove it

from their homes, everything. Anybody ever had an amazing time of ministry, like you've been either physically or emotionally at the altar, Lord, I lay this down and take this from me. And then as soon as the altar call is done, you're like, you just pick that burden back up, put it in your pile, we're no different. Thank you, Gretchen, that's beautiful. Right after joy and then here comes a burning question.

When we talked about Passover and Tribe kids, the old school version of taking the yeast and removing it, they would take it out of their house and then they would burn it. It was one of my favorite Acquire the fire ministry To do, yeah. We crumbled bread all over the floor and picked it all up and put it in a bucket and took it outside and burned it. But I love that picture because the beauty of the Feast, like you talk about rehearsing and remembering is that five senses experience of these pictures are all pictures of what either what God has already done or what He's about to do. And this idea of taking that sin and completely burning it up and completely extinguishing it so that there is literally no trace of it left.

It's such a beautiful picture of what God wants to do in our hearts and in our lives.

The Bible says, As far as the East is from the West, so far have I removed your sins from you. The New Testament says, consider yourselves, realize, acknowledge that you have died to the power of sin over your life and it no longer has to be your master. Yeah, come on up here for a burning question and then we're gonna talk about hyssop. Okay,

this is what I'm thinking. We have the advantage of the New Testament, what Jesus said, what Paul said regarding yeast. Now back then, in the scripture that we're reading, how did how did those people know that the significance of yeast? Is yeast translated in Hebrew to sin?

I think I well understand your question. How did a contemporary person reading that or going through that experience, how did they connect those dots?

That's what I'm asking. This is a

good question for us to wonder about. I'm not stumped, I'm considering, and I might be stumped, but how would they have equated? In Leviticus, the mic is going back there to you, in Leviticus, offerings were prescribed to make an offering to the Lord that was super clear, do not have any yeast in this bread that's baked for this offering, but then there were other, there was other bread that was baked that didn't have the specific instruction not to have yeast in it.

It's good. Was it in Corinthians where it was talking about when they were, the exodus from Israel and they were making their bread and they said, you don't have time

to put the yeast, it doesn't have

time to rise. So did it all have something to do with time the Passover was coming and the yeast would prevent them from being prepared?

Yes, you're correct. And Suzanne was mentioning that just a few moments ago, that's a good, Lee, that's a really good question. How would they have connected those dots? Let's chase, maybe I can just stay right there.

I don't think that they thought about it like that. I think because for at least my understanding from what I know of this tradition is that they celebrate Passover as like a representation of freedom because they were freed from slavery. And so I don't think for them it translates so much as sin or like the symbolism. It's like they're just remembering what God did for them and how it represents freedom.

So what you're suggesting, and then we're going talk about hyssop, is for us, we see that and it jumps out to us. But it was like dad who's playing hide and go seek with his child, it's his turn to hide and he's hiding behind the curtain, but his big size twelve boots are sticking out from underneath the curtain and like half his arm is showing, like, I'm literally hiding right here and they were just like, where are you? So maybe they, perhaps they completely missed it collectively. I don't know,

yeah, yes. And I think that like, for them, it's there's a song that we sing in Passover Dayenu, which is even if that was all you did, that was enough. So it's like a time of thankfulness for what he did for them, a time of remembrance. And then I would maybe argue that because they don't look at the symbolism of like little g gods and sins, that's why we see so many instances of them after this event of going back to little g gods, back to idols, and becoming a little bit legalistic like the Pharisees.

Everybody say, All right, that's our period on that. Let's talk about hyssop. When you read this verse, where's the verse that talks Verse 22. Oh, do we have verse 22 on the Yeah, let's put it up there. Drain the blood into a basin, then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood, brush the hyssop across the top sides doorframes of your houses.

No one may go through the door until morning. If you're brand new to church, welcome. I preheated you for what we were gonna talk about by saying an option for today's message, so you and your friend that brought you should have told you it could, it's tribe. Hyssop, what hyperlink is in your brain for hyssop? When you read hyssop, where does your brain jump to?

Another place in the Bible. Psalms 51. Oh, that's not where my brain jumps, let's see what we got. Psalms 51. Psalm fifty one seven.

Psalm says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. It's good. Jacob and hyssop? He

took a hyssop branch and I forget what it is.

It's in Genesis, yep, yep.

He rubbed them and it gave somehow they came out with black stripes or black spots and that's how I knew, anyway, that's what I'm thinking.

Okay, so hyssop, as we can get from verses, we can piece this together, that hyssop is identified with consecration being set apart. So we see that in the story that you're talking about in Genesis with Jacob and the flocks, what Justin read in Psalms 51. What do you have, no, Carolyn? Carolyn, I did see her little hand sneak up, so let's see what Carolyn has to say.

Thought of the crucifixion of Jesus.

That's where I went, yeah.

And that's in John. Okay. And it's when they put the sponge with vinegar and put it on hyssop on his lips. Yeah. That's where I went.

Yes, yes. The idea, so if hyssop in the Bible is used for consecration and to be set apart, we read it in Psalms, we can read about it in Genesis, why there is some significance of a hyssop branch being used during the moment of crucifixion with Jesus, that there was a sponge on a stick and to go into detail about that moment is very, very crude and graphic and for another sermon, not inappropriate for church, but like, woah, it's so intense. It's touched to his lips and he rejects it. And the idea with that, if hyssop is consecration and good, why is Jesus rejecting it? Because in that instance, it is an artificial method of consecration.

It's like man's striving and effort at consecration, which Jesus is like, nope, we're not taking any shortcuts, we're doing this by the blood. No religious shortcuts to consecration, to holiness, to right relationship with God. We're doing this by the blood. Option number four for sermon title.

And that blood, it says the hyssop is also considered to be spiritually purifying and serves as an aid in cleansing oneself from sin and immorality. Yes.

Let's look at verse 22. Drain the blood into a basin, then take a bundle of hyssop branches, dip it into the blood. Now I want us to look at where the blood is applied. Brush the hyssop across the top, which in carpentry terms could be called the lentil, across the top and the sides of the door frames of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning.

So we have the top painted with blood, we have the left side painted with blood, we have the right side painted with blood. There's one side that we're missing. The bottom. Very good, Isaiah, the bottom. So you think, well, it's just not there and it doesn't, like all of the Sunday school stories that I've ever seen, it's always been the top and the two sides, that's it.

But did you know that the bottom was painted also? Not because it drips, but literally across the bottom. Now, before I explain why, let's talk about a really weird, I don't know if it's just American, but maybe it's Western tradition of a bride and a groom when they come back from their honeymoon, what do they do? He picks her up and carries her into their home. Why he do that?

Tradition.

Will's like, oh wait, I don't, did you do that Will? I did Will and Bree's wedding last summer and I could literally see your wheels turning like, uh-oh, wait, I don't think I So I mean you can this afternoon. But why is that a tradition? Where did we come up with that tradition? I mean, it's a new beginning, it's a new chapter.

When Selah was going to college, I didn't pick her up and walk her onto campus in my arms. What? Probably. Maybe I It's been so long since then. So the tradition, and I don't know how broad it is past America, but the, we'll just say American tradition of a husband, a groom bringing his bride into their home by picking her up and bringing her into the new home actually has its roots here in this story.

But I need to explain the idea of a threshold to you. Do you see threshold or like the bottom piece? Do you see that anywhere in this passage? Nope, and if we're only looking at it in English, you won't see it. But in the original language, there is a word here that would jump out to us as like, oh, oh, that's it, that's it.

So I'll let you take a guess at what word could be used in Hebrew that in English we think of could be, let's just call it the threshold. There it is. She's hitting threes all day long. I listen

to the same podcast.

So in Hebrew, that word basin, we think of it like a bowl, and it would make sense if you're going to slaughter a lamb that, what do you do with all the blood? Like it just makes sense in our minds, it goes into like a basin of blood and then you dip that in there and do your thing. However, in Hebrew, the word basin also means a threshold and there typically was when you crossed into somebody's dwelling, you actually, and in many places around the world even today, you see this and if you've traveled much, it's only in America that we have thresholds that you just walk right through. Every other country in the world, you have to do what? You gotta step up and over it, and us Americans, we're always like tripping into doorways.

You, any of you ever experienced that? Where you're like, especially in Mongolia, a lot of Asian countries, but many countries around the world, especially Middle Eastern countries, Asian countries, you have to step up and over because that threshold had a depression in it that in long, long, long, long ago times, you could put either salt, which was an alternative to blood, or actual blood in that basin. And now God is saying, take a hyssop branch, cover the left side, cover the right side, cover the top and that basin, that lintel in the threshold of your door, that raised area that you actually have to step over because in many cultures of that region in that day and age, that is where the family altar was. Not on the mantle above the fireplace, not in a corner of their living room, the family altar was at the threshold of the door. Why there?

Seems kind of weird to our American minds, why there? You gotta step over it, that's the entrance into your home. You're exactly right. So if you were going to make an offering to the little g gods, you would do it right at the doorway, the entrance of the doorway to your home to invite the little g gods into your home to bless your crops, to bless your family, to bless your fertility, whatever it is. And so the tradition became to not walk along, step up one step onto the threshold and then another step down into the dwelling, but to step over it, and when you stepped over that threshold, it was your physical gesture of participating in that sacrifice or in that covenant.

And in those days, to what a woman wears today, She wears a pretty dress on her wedding day, and you don't want to ruin your wedding dress as you're entering into that covenant with your spouse by her getting her dress all mucky and bloody by stepping over that. So the husband, being a gentleman, would scoop her up and step over that threshold and into their new home and enter into covenant together. In a way, when we look at this passage, it is like a portal of blood, which was my first option. Oh, my second one. Oh yeah, my first one was entering into abundance.

So here's the idea, we're gonna land the plane with this, is that we know that the shedding of the blood of that lamb was a foreshadow to Jesus being the ultimate sacrifice. As John the Baptist said, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea Of Galilee one day, he pointed out to people that had come to hear him speak, he pointed to Jesus and said, Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, and his shed blood creates, I'll just use some weird words to get your attention, creates a portal for us to enter into right relationship with him that can be accessed no other way, by no other means. Only through the shed blood of Jesus are people allowed to have right relationship with God. And if you have a right relationship with God by any other means than by the blood of Jesus, you're fooling yourself. And it's some tradition, something that you've come up with.

You think you might be having a right relationship with God through the portal of, well, I'm a good person. Ain't gonna work. Enter into the right relationship of portal with God, entering into that realm, that dimension, trying to, if I am a bad person, I try to have my good works outweigh my bad works. Nope, that doesn't work. Only through Jesus is the right and authentic way to enter into that relationship.

The feast of Passover was a foreshadow, and as Joy mentioned, this physical reminder of stepping through. And then God says, once you step through, don't come out until morning, of entering into a covenant with the Lord by the shed blood of the lamb, that's on the left, the right, the top and the bottom, and Jesus fulfilled that. One last verse, John chapter 10, not only is his blood what provides a way for us to enter into abundance, but he even says, I am that door, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out to find pasture. The thief does not come in except to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

And then he says this, I have come that they may have life. Not bios life, not psueche mental, emotional thought life, but the Greek word that's used there is what? Zoe, zoe life, which is the kind of life that can only be imparted by God. Zoe life, and that they may have it to its absolute fullest in abundance, which is where we got the first option for the title this morning, entering into abundance. We enter into abundant life by surrendering our will and whatever sin or baggage that we've come in with, it's banished and left outside, and then just as we are humbly, we just enter in.

Jesus, help me. So as Christians, we do not celebrate Passover by smearing blood on the doorframe of our houses. We don't do that, because we know that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, although we still have a tactile, tangible reminder of what he did. And people who celebrate God's family tradition of Passover, it's mostly Jews, but I don't wanna call it a Jewish feast, not to diminish them in any way, they just got to be the first ones to celebrate that family tradition. But they do it once a year, we get to do it all the time through the sacrament of communion.

So I thought we would wind down service today by reminding, reaffirming our relationship with the Lord and reminding ourselves of his invitation to us to enter in to cross over that threshold of communion and relationship with him through the sacrament of communion. And so I'm gonna get a swig of water, I'll take the mic, please. The Bible records that when Jesus was meeting with his disciples in the upper room, they were celebrating a seder meal, Passover meal. They were celebrating the feast of the Lord of Passover. And then he flipped the script and he said, for thousands of years, you've been celebrating Passover, and it has meant this to you.

And he says, I'm about to introduce a plot twist, the deeper meaning and the fulfillment of the meaning of Passover. And he explained, and it's recorded in the Bible that during the meal, Jesus took bread, he blessed it, and then he broke it. He gave it to his disciples and said, take and eat. This is my body which has been given for you. The Bible records that during the meal, he took another cup.

And with that cup, he gave it to his disciples and said, take and drink. This is my life's blood threshold poured out for you, and it ratifies or confirms a new covenant that I'm making with you in my life's blood. As often as you partake of the bread and of the cup, you are remembering and you're reminding yourself of my sacrifice on the cross until I come back, and we get to see each other face to face. And then he said this, he said, I'll not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you in my father's kingdom. And that happens when our our blood pump stops working and we go to be with him, or if our blood pump is still working and he returns riding on the clouds, We'll be caught up in the air to meet with him, and and there will be a wedding feast, the wedding supper of the lamb, where he's gonna lift this cup again and say, oh, it's time.

So that's why we that's the the the scriptural foundation for why we participate in communion. God, I ask that right here in this moment that you would transform these simple common elements into a sacrament, which is simply a means of grace where we can touch you by faith. God, I ask that you would meet us in the mystery of this meal and that as people partake of communion today, all over new and afresh, it would be as a in their heart, it would be like that physical gesture of stepping over the threshold and entering into newness and sweetness of relationship with you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen.

Here's how we do communion at Tribe. In just a moment, I'm gonna invite Jay forward. He's gonna help help me serve communion this morning. And we'll start in the back, work our way up towards the front. You come forward.

I will serve you the bread because it's my way of getting to love on you. It may seem like a really small gesture to you, but it's really important. And I just it's one of my treasures to serve you communion and then you step to the side, you take the bread, and you dip it into the cup, and then you can have your moment with the Lord as you make your way back to your seat. And our communion is open to anyone who calls on the

name of the Lord to

be saved. And if there's anything between you and the Lord before you come to the table of communion, just take care of business. Lord, forgive me for. I'm sorry for. Please wash me clean.

And then you can come up and receive communion. And if you stay in your seat and don't receive communion, that's alright. You do you. Okay? Jim.

Stand up.

And then prayer in

the back too. Forget. Don't forget, there's prayer available in the back. Would that be alright if I prayed over you? Whether you're visiting from out of town or you just moved here.

You got a big week or an easy week. I mean, who has an easy week? Let me pray for you. Lord Jesus, thank you, thank you that you provided a way on your own terms, as unique as they are, for us to be able to enter into right relationship with you. Oh, let us never take that for granted.

Let us forsake all other ways that we try to manipulate you and convince you into right relationship. You've provided the most beautiful way for us to enter into relationship with you. And with that comes your blessing, covering, and protection. And as the pastor of Tribe, I pray that over our Tribe fam here today. Lord, would you cover them with your blood, protect them, bless them, increase their favor with their fellow students and with teachers, with their supervisors, with their employees, increase the favor on their life because of the abundant life that you've provided for us.

Cause their spirit and soul and their body to prosper in all that they do. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong Son of God. And everybody said, Amen. Amen. I love you so very much.

I want you to have a great week and remember, you got this.