Christ in You

The title of the sermon today is Christ in You. Why eat unleavened bread? Last year, on the first day of unleavened bread, I discussed the meaning of the cleaning out of our homes and the putting out of leavening. I explained that leavening is much more than a symbol of sin, but it represents our sinful nature. That leavening was a fermentation process that completely consumed its hosts, the bread. And, likewise, sin completely consumes us, converting us into something that is unacceptable before God. Selfish, hostile, depraved, competing with one another, cheating one another, committing lewd acts with one another, not leaving the give way, as Mr. Dove mentioned in the sermonette. Our moral character is completely consumed by sin, just as bread is consumed by the fermentation leavening process. And if it's the old leaven or the old self, it is completely corrupting, completely corrupts us. I love the symbology... it's going to be one of those days. I love the symbolism of the days of unleavened bread. Some analogies that we draw, and usually most analogies break down. God's analogies never break down. They just don't. They're just absolutely accurate. Of course, he stacked a deck. He's the one who created the universe the way it is. For the intent of teaching us. And these analogies are perfect. And what I hope is that we have a not so shallow understanding of the days of unleavened bread. For if our understanding is shallow, then we will not appreciate them. And then we will wonder, why do we keep these days anyway? These days are an annual reminder of our conversion, of how completely converted we are to become. And the symbolism is powerful and accurate. And it cuts right to your and my core of who we are and why we need to change.

Brethren, leavening does not represent sin. That is such a shallow explanation of the days of unleavened bread. Oh, it does represent sin, but that's not enough. That's not going far enough. Or it wouldn't be leavening. Understanding leavening that it completely consumes us, the leavened bread that we throw out and the leavening that we throw out, is you. It's not just sin. It's not the outward act. It is you and me that we throw out completely. A lot of people ask, do I have to clean my home? You know. We just cleaned the kitchen and that's it. You miss it! You completely missed the point. This year I was cleaning out my cars. A lot of you don't bother with your cars. Read the Old Testament instruction. Everything inside your gate. No leavening is to be found. Do you park your car in your driveway? So if you haven't de-leavened your car, I encourage you to do so. Why? Because it leads to salvation? No! It's an object lesson. It teaches us something perfect about ourselves.

Value the lesson. It's just a symbol. So is every ceremony we do. The laying on of hands, anointing with oil. Baptism. They're all just symbolic, but they're important symbols. And putting that leavening out is important. I was de-leavening my car. You know what I found? Must have been there for years. I have those stow and go seats, you know. And they had this little flap that pops up and goes down when you... And I have never looked under that flap. And I found a package of saltine crackers. Not the saltine brand, but a different brand of crackers. But those saltine type crackers in a little individual pack, all nicely crushed up. And here's the thing. I don't eat those. We don't buy those. That came with the car.

With I bought the car. That's somebody else's sin. That's affecting me.

And you know, there's a great object lesson there of how completely converted we are by sin into something that's unacceptable to God.

So today I'm going to build on what we talked about.

Something that's opposite of the old leaven. There's more than one object lesson in the Days of Unleavened Bread.

And I don't want us to have this be some shallow thing that we actually dread doing, but that we actually still look forward to it as a faithful people to God. Jesus Christ asks, when He comes, will He find faith on the earth? And the answer is yes. The question is, will He find it in us? That's the question.

There's more than one object lesson in the Days of Unleavened Bread. First is to put out the leaven. To repent. To put out the old man. We'll talk more about that later. The second is to put unleavened bread in, but for seven days. And that's important. And there is a third object lesson with the bread.

And I touched on this on the Days of Unleavened Bread last year, and I'll probably touch on it some more, but that is putting new leaven back in. Because at the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread, we eat leavened bread again. And the symbolism of that is very poignant that we eat leavened bread when the sun goes down, because it represents something else. It represents the newly converted you as a result of eating unleavened bread for seven days. The analogy is perfect. We do not eat unleavened bread for eight days. We eat it for seven days. Some of you de-leaven your home a week early. I encourage you to not do that. Oh, you can do the rest of the house, but leave some leavening in the house until just before the Days of Unleavened Bread begin, because the seven days is important. We are to eat leavened bread for seven days. We're going to learn about the subject second object lesson today, putting unleavened bread in. So if putting the old leaven is not just putting sin out, but is actually throwing the old man away, we don't just sit there in a vacuum. We have to put something else back in. Let's take a look. Exodus 12, verse 14. Why do we eat unleavened bread for seven days? Exodus 12, verse 14. So this day shall be a memorial to you, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast as an everlasting ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove the leaven from your houses. Notice that, on the first day. And in Hebrew, that can mean the day before, right? Because when it was on Passover, they went to prepare the Passover. That was that night. And in one, I believe it's in Matthew, it says, on the first day of unleavened bread, which meant just before the first day of unleavened bread. Because obviously the first day of unleavened bread doesn't start before Passover, and they hadn't eaten the Passover yet. So just before the days of unleavened bread start, we're to put the leavening out. Take that box of Arm & Hammer and toss it in the trash bin. Because it's seven days, not eight, not fourteen, it's seven.

You shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person will be cut off from Israel. Why do we have to eat unleavened bread for seven days? The ancient Israelites kept these days, but the understanding of what the symbols meant did not come until Jesus Christ explained them. And He explained them to His apostles, and they explained them to us. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11.

I hope you don't mind going fast today.

1 Corinthians 11, verse 24.

There we go.

And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. So what does unleavened bread mean? That we are taking in Jesus Christ. Okay, so we got that part. Eating unleavened bread has at least four major meanings in the Scriptures.

The bread, which is also called the bread of affliction, is symbolic of Christ's suffering in our place for sin. And there's a consequence for sin. We're not going to talk about that today. The scourging that Christ endured is the second thing, also for the healing of our bodies. So when we break that bread, we remember that by His stripes we are healed. We do that at Passover time. So that's the second thing. The third, the bread symbolizes our unity. As the Apostle Paul says, we are the body of Jesus Christ. So the bread symbolizes unity. We are all sinners who have accepted the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And even though we break the bread into many pieces, it symbolizes one body, Christ's body that was scourged. And also, it symbolizes Christ living in us. And that's what we're going to focus on today. Christ living in us and our need to live by every word of God. I'm only going to focus on the one meaning of the bread, and we'll focus on the other three some other time. I'll leave those symbols for later. Today, I'm going to answer one reason why we eat unleavened bread for seven days. What does it mean to have Christ live in us? Let's go back. We were in 1 Corinthians, and if you're still there, go back to chapter 5. 1 Corinthians 5 and start in verse 6. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. Now, remember, 1 Corinthians is a bit of a rebuke. The Corinthian church was divided. They didn't get along with each other at all.

And he says in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6, as he's rebuking them in this letter, he says, your glorying is not good. That word glory can mean bragging. You're boasting. You people are running off with a mouth. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Do you know what a lump is? A lump is just flour and water that hasn't fermented yet. Here's the interesting thing about what Paul says. That's actually impossible. You can't take a leavened lump and make it unleavened. You can't de-ferment it. With men, that is impossible. So, this symbolism means that only God can do this by means of a miracle.

Once you have sinned, you have earned the death penalty. You are completely corrupted. You are completely changed into something that's unacceptable. And God has to fix it. You can't just become a new lump. It's not like taking a bath. It's not on the surface of you. It's in your heart.

So, to become a new lump is a miracle in and of itself. So, get the symbolism that Paul is saying here. Purge out the old leaven. That means repent. Symbolically, do away with the old you.

That you may be a new lump since truly you are unleavened. How are we unleavened? A lot of times, we take the symbolism of the Days of Unleavened Bread too lightly, and we skip along going, I'm putting sin out of my life. I'm putting sin out of my life. You don't put sin out of your life.

Remember when the apostles, when Jesus said a rich man couldn't enter the kingdom?

Jesus said that, and the apostles said, well, if they can't, who can be saved? What was Jesus Christ's reply? With men, it is impossible. It's not even possible. So, how do we get sin out of our lives? Well, that's what we did at the Passover. Jesus Christ had to die in our stead, and it was with His blood that our sin was blotted out. And that word, blotted out, means completely removed. It doesn't mean just covered over. It means it's gone. So, this is pretty powerful what Paul is saying here to the Corinthians. He starts off telling them, you people need to quit bragging.

And then he says, you need to repent. Purge out that old leaven that you may be a new lump. For you are truly unleavened. For indeed, how are you unleavened? Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

Amazing symbolism. Therefore, let us keep the feast. That's why he's talking to a Greek, a Gentile church in Asia Minor, which is now today Turkey. And he's telling them to keep a feast. That most people just consider Jewish. It's not just Jewish. It's gods. And we are gods. We belong to him, so we keep the stay. Keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness. Notice, and I've read over this in the past, notice that there are two different leavens that Paul mentions here.

The old leaven, and what's the old leaven? Well, that's you. That's me. That's the old me before I repented. But wait, there's another danger even after the old you is gone, because malice and wickedness can still creep in. Let's look at the word definitions, according to Thayer's dictionary, for malice and wickedness. According to Thayer's malice, the word for malice means an ill will, a desire to injure, depravity, wickedness that is not a shame to break laws. In other words, beware that you don't fall into the leavening of not caring whether you break a law or not.

That means that a Christian cares about the law of God. That's what malice is. It's caring that you don't, or it's not caring, whether or not you break a law of God. And that's a leavening that can come in after the old leavening has already been thrown out. And then there is wickedness, because he said the leavening of malice and wickedness. And the two go hand in hand.

What happens when you let go, when you let go, even after you were baptized, of the restraint of the law of God? Well, wickedness happens. And that word, according to Thayer's, means depravity, iniquity. In other words, doing the lowest things a human being could think to do.

And Paul gets around to that in 1 Corinthians, that they were doing something in the church, at least a member was doing something in the church, that even the Gentiles didn't do. So Paul wasn't kidding around when he was talking about malice and wickedness. A laissez-faire attitude towards the law. I don't care about the law anymore. Malice and wickedness, the end result of malice, which is pretty much worse than what you were when you were the old lump.

He says, but with the unleavened bread, back to verse 8, the end of verse 8 there, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my epistle, not to keep company with sexually immoral people. According to Thayer's definition, the word sincerity means purity or genuine, like you genuinely desire to keep the law.

It's not that you keep the law perfectly. That's not what Paul was saying. He was saying that you were genuine in desiring to keep the law, and that's the opposite of malice, where you don't care whether or not you keep the law. Sincerity represents what we become when we truly repent, when we're washed and clean and pure. We fully intend to follow God, but that's not enough.

That's not where he stops. We don't just put the leavened bread out. We also eat unleavened bread, and that's where truth comes in. Truth means two separate but related things. It means objectivity and subjectivity. Let me explain, according to Thayer, that word truth. I know that sounds technical, but it's really not. It's really basic and easy to understand, believe me. Objectivity and subjectivity. This word, truth, has two sides to it. One side is the actual law itself. So we're supposed to take in the unleavened bread of the law, the truth, which is, you know, don't kill, don't kill, don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, one god, no idols, keep the Sabbath, on and on and on.

That's the objectivity side of it. That's the law. That's the part that comes from God and Jesus Christ. But there is a subjective side, a subjective side to truth. And it doesn't mean the truth is subject to your opinion. Oh, no, no, no. That is not what it means. It means the truth has to become a personal experience. The per, the truth, has to be experienced by you. And you have to fulfill both sides of that equation in order to have the unleavened bread of truth put in you.

So Paul gives an amazing analogy right there. Malice and wickedness, an intent to break God's law that leads to absolute depravity, or the intent to keep God's law, which leads to a personal experience by you to become God's law. Because it doesn't stop with just the objectivity of the law, thou shalt not kill. It has to become subjective. In other words, it has to become internalized in you and me so that we would never even think to kill. We would never even think to harm. We would never even think to hate. That's the subjectivity side of truth.

Interesting what Paul said there when you get into the actual words and what they meant. It's far more than just taking the word of God and reading it. It's becoming a person that is perfect and fully complete that represents the word of God. So taking in the bread from the Days of Unleavened Bread, you are taking truth internally, but then it has to come out through you.

And that is the symbolism of the bread. We keep the feast in sincerity and truth. We eat the unleavened bread, and we are symbolizing letting Jesus Christ change what we are. A lot of people don't realize why we eat unleavened bread. Why do we have to stop eating hamburgers and pizza and donuts and fluffy things and replace it with cardboard? I literally almost choked in the car today on the way down here on a matzo, because I didn't have a drink.

And that baby was dry, and I had to force it down with more matzo. But I finally got it down, and we didn't crash.

It's letting Jesus Christ in to completely change what we are. And if we get that when we eat it, I love unleavened bread. Don't get me wrong. My wife and my kids, my daughters, they make great unleavened bread. We can't wait. It doesn't survive the night. They pull it out of the oven, gone. They get frustrated with us, because A, we're pigs, and B, they have to make more.

John 14, verse 6. This is what taking in unleavened bread symbolizes. You know, this isn't anything new. I mean, what I'm telling you is as old as the hills.

But I still hear people say, I'm putting sin out, and when the days of unleavened bread are over, well, I'm getting ready to go eat some sin. I just think, you know, are we taking it seriously? Do we live so shallow? Bad times are coming. You better be close to God.

And getting the symbolism of what we're doing during the days of unleavened bread is what we're doing on this earth. It's why we're here today.

John 14, verse 6. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, the unleavened bread that we eat for seven days. He is the truth. When we keep the feast in sincerity and truth, we are internalizing what Jesus Christ is. Do you see what I just put together there with 1 Corinthians? We're supposed to eat the unleavened bread in sincerity and truth. What's truth? Well, Jesus Christ said, He's truth. He's the way. He is the unleavened bread. That's why we eat it during this week. And that's more important.

It's not more important, but it's more than just the outward obedience to the law of God.

The days of unleavened bread are more than the outward obedience to the law of God. The days of unleavened bread are about conversion, are about becoming just like God, so that when people see your face, God is glorified.

Wow! What a neat lady that is! What a wonderful man that is! It means we must be completely emptied of our selfishness, as Mr. Dove said today. I believe God guided him to say that today.

Your selfishness needs to be emptied, not your personality. Your personality is a gift from God. It's wonderful. We are so different and so unique. I love the variety that makes the tapestry of the Church of God, not just this congregation. Each congregation has its own personality, too. And it's a beautiful thing. That's not what gets emptied. What gets emptied then? What are we throwing out? Selfishness. Putting yourself, your desires, your lusts, your greed, your anger. Throwing it in the trash.

Not your wants and your dreams, your malice and your wickedness.

You know Jeremiah 17.9 and Romans 8.7. Jeremiah 17.9 and Romans 8.7. I won't take the time to read them, but they describe the human heart. If you need a review, read Jeremiah 17.9 and Romans 8.7. A lot of people come up to the ministry and they want to put on a good face.

You dress up, you know, and you don't have to do that. You don't. You do not have to impress anybody because if the minister has read his Bible, he already knows what his and your heart is.

Wicked above all things or, you know, desperately ill. Who can know it? Only God. Hostile towards God. We already know that. Our job is not to impress people. Our job is to empty ourselves. Of what?

You know, your love of reading books, your love of literature, your love of art, my love of jumping off 30-foot cliffs into water? No! That's our personality! Some of you love to ride horses. Some of you love farming, just getting your hands in the dirt. I get that. I love that, too. I don't have time for it, but I love it. I love watching things grow. That's not what you empty yourself of. Some of you take a four-wheeler and go in the most insane, no-road, cliffhanging, driving adventures that I couldn't even imagine. And you love it! You don't need to empty yourself of that. It's your selfish nature. It's that greed inside us. Putting the leavening out represents the repentance that we must go through when we recognize we have to do more than just stop making a few mistakes, but we actually have to become like God and Jesus Christ. There is something wrong with my heart and your heart. There is something wrong with me, and I want it out. And that's what the Dayzil Unleavened Bread are all about. Something has to go back in and replace it. And it's unleavened bread. It's flat. It's humble. It hasn't had time to process the brand, so it is very scouring. Unleavened bread goes in, and it comes right back out. It cleans you out. It's full of fiber. Now, leavened bread is not that way. A fully fermented, what we today call sourdough loaf, actually is easy on the stomach, just like white bread is. It's easy to digest. It's filling, but it doesn't scour us out. Unleavened bread? Whoa! That's like putting a Brillo pad through.

That's what it does.

That's what Jesus meant when he said, Eat this. This is my body. A lot of people thought he was talking about cannibalism. He wasn't talking about cannibalism. He was saying he was going to take a beating. The consequence of sin is not just death, but all the bad things that happen until you die, because every time you sin, something bad happens as a result. Every time you toss an egg up in the air, it drops on the floor and crisp splat all over the place it goes. There's a consequence to every action. And Jesus Christ's body had to be broken. And he said, take this broken body. What did that mean? And eat it.

Take it inside you. Not just the outward appearance of being a great Christian, but actually in the private area that are just your thoughts, that can't be shared with another human being, because it can't be seen or heard or felt by another human being. God said only He could see the heart. That area is what needs to change.

He says in Luke 22 and verse 19, and he took bread and he gave it and broke it. He gave thanks and broke it and he gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And we do that on Passover. But then, immediately following Passover, we do it for seven days. And the symbolism doesn't change. It remains the body of Christ that we're eating, we're internalizing. We are to become converted.

John 6 verse 48, he says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. This bread is which comes down from heaven that one may eat and not die. You see, when you ate manna, I'm sure it was perfect nutrition. I bet you they were in great health eating manna. You know what they weren't? converted.

converted. They were still selfish people. When they went up to the promised land, what did they do? This manna eating group of former slaves. They ran away from the giants in the land and wouldn't go in. They wouldn't take the promised land. They didn't have faith in God. So what did they do? They tried to take a mountain that God had given to somebody else. They got their rear ends handed to them. Then what did they do? Oh, they finally became converted and yielded to God, right? No. But they were eating manna the whole time. Manna, manna, manna. No, they rebelled against God and started to walk back towards Egypt. And God killed a bunch of them for rebelling.

Manna didn't convert them. And that's what Jesus Christ is talking about here in John. He says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. Even though I'm sure it was perfect nutrition.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread. He is our guide.

He is not the baby in the manger or the Savior on the cross. Yes, both of those things happened. But He is now our captain of salvation. His majesty on high. And He happens to be our big brother and He happens to love us. He happens to be on our side. All we got to do is cooperate with Him. That's what He's asking. Would you cooperate with me? And what do we do most of the time? Our carnal nature? Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. No, I will not cooperate with you, because I want something. And He's saying, well, would you like salvation? Let me just put that on the table. I'm the living bread, which has come down from heaven. He's living. He is our Savior. He's alive. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. What bread? The bread you're eating for the next seven days. It means something. It means the old man is out and a new man is being cleaned up and installed inside you, personality intact, selfishness gone.

And the bread that I shall give is my flesh. And He did. And He took a beating. The Old Testament lamb never took a beating. It was quickly and mercifully killed, and that was it. And his blood was put on the doorpost, and the symbolism stopped there. Jesus Christ took it a bit further.

Which I shall give for the life of the world. And then drop down to verse 53. And then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood. In other words, you accept that He died in your place, and now your life is no longer yours.

But now belongs to Him. And don't worry, you're in good hands. He can give you, and will give you, so much more than you could ever give yourself. It's a no-brainer, but our carnal nature doesn't want to give in, even after baptism. So why eat bread for seven days? Why not just one event like Passover, and we're done? Because the conversion process is supposed to be a complete process. We are to become completely clean. We are to become a new lump.

God completed creation in seven days. We eat unleavened bread for seven days. We are to be completely recreated inside. It is a process. That's why it doesn't just have one event.

But if we were to take notes from modern Christianity today, it would just be one event.

We would call it something like, I don't know, Eucharist. And we'd all line up, we'd put a little biscuit on our tongue, and that would be it. We'd be done. Because once you're saved, you're always saved. There's no conversion process. There's no getting rid of selfishness. The old man doesn't need to go away, but the days of unleavened bread are for seven days. And for seven days, we're not just to not eat unleavened bread. You missed the whole point. If you just don't eat unleavened bread. We found great unleavened tortillas, by the way. Awesome. You could still have tacos.

But we are to be completely washed from malice and wickedness. Malice meaning willing and unashamed to break God's law. And wickedness meaning there is no low that is too low for us to sink in our depravity. Baptism is just a symbol of the old man going away. The actual death of the old man does not happen until we are completely clean, until we are made perfect as it says. The word means mature. It is a lifelong process. Keeping the feast in sincerity and truth means repenting of or turning away from being the old man. And we're supposed to remember that we're eating unleavened bread. We're taking on the character of Jesus Christ. We're supposed to react as he reacts. Let me tell you something, brethren. We can do that. You can become like Jesus Christ. You need to hear that every once in a while, because a lot of us doubt that. Well, it's a lifelong process. And then we tack this on at the end. And I will never actually be like Jesus Christ. Then you're calling God a liar, because he said you will. He said he would complete it in you. And he will. You can become like Jesus Christ. You can react like he reacted. You actually can be whipped and humiliated and slapped and spat upon, marred beyond recognition, nailed to a tree and bled to death without railing a single accusation.

Not by your strength, not by my strength, not by all of our strength combined together, but by the strength of the one who did it. Because he works in you. And you can become converted. And you need to become converted, or you will not be in the kingdom of God. You can do this.

And you need to believe that. Because I know for sure some of you don't actually believe that. But it's not because you can do it, or I can do it, or we together can do it.

But Jesus Christ is capable of doing that. Have faith in him, which means trust him. Let go. And let him do it. Your job is to cooperate. He does the heavy lifting.

You can become converted. We're supposed to remember when we're eating unleavened bread, that it symbolizes something. Isn't that neat? I think it's really cool that God uses food as a symbolism for conversion. Because you can take one look at me and say, I love food. It's food! It's great! What an easy object lesson! A crispy cracker with some cream cheese on it, or a nice enchilada. And when you take a bite and all of those flavors fill your mouth, you remember I'm supposed to internalize something. I'm supposed to become not me anymore, but like Jesus Christ, completely converted. Yes, you can do that with the help of Jesus Christ. Please stop believing that you can't do it.

Because when you believe you can't do it, you don't move forward. You just do the same thing year after year. I'm not asking you to believe in yourself. I'm asking you to believe in God and Jesus Christ. Please stop believing that you can't ever become like Jesus Christ. Yes, you can, and it's why you're here. And if it's not why you're here, you're wasting your time. But I don't think you are wasting your time. I think you want to be in the kingdom of God. I do, too. And yes, you can.

It's probably why he uses food. It's so delightful to eat.

Notice what Paul wrote, brethren. And remember, when he wrote these words, he was already baptized. He was already a very converted, very dedicated, very loyal man to God and Jesus Christ. And he wrote in Romans chapter 7 and verse 18, I love these words. I do not find these words discouraging because Paul's just like me. And since he's just like me and he made it, we can make it. And Paul said in Romans chapter 7 verse 18, for I know he was absolutely certain. This was not a doubt. This was not something wishy-washy. Paul really wasn't wishy-washy. He says, I know that in me that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For the will is present with me. That's sincerity. Right? He's sincere. But does it just happen overnight? Do we just take the Passover and just eat it one time and we're done? Nope. Doesn't work that way. That's why it's seven days. It represents a complete process. For I know that no good dwells in me. For the will to do is present with me. But how to perform what is good? I do not find. It's not inside me, Jesus Christ said. With men, it's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. For the good that I will to do, I do not. But the evil, I will not do, that I practice. Yeah, me too. Boy, howdy. You've got my attention. Let's read on. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it's no longer I. But sin dwells in me. It's not just the outward actions of sin. Paul gets the fact that doing away with unleavened bread is getting rid of the old man. It's inside me. It's inside you. And that's what's got to go away. He says sin dwells in me. And he really wants it out.

I find then a law that evil is present within me. The one who wills to do good. I want to do good but I have a carnal nature. He's telling us. I see another law in my members warring against the law in my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And he starts painting this picture of a battle that goes on inside us. And it is that battle that eating unleavened bread for seven days represents. A lifelong battle to become like Jesus Christ. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Well, Paul goes on to tell us who will deliver us. It's Jesus Christ.

We do things our own way according to our own desires. But our desires cause us to look at what other people have and then we covet what they have. And we go, oh, what I have isn't so good anymore.

It's easy to do that. Oh, my car's not as good. I need a new car. You don't need a new car. If your car's working, you don't need a new car.

Do you need a new car to keep up with everybody else? I tell you, you'll be broke trying to keep up with everybody else. Just say to yourself, oh, wretched man that I am.

We do such stupid and evil things to other people to get what they have. Selfishness leads to disobedience. Disobedience leads to anger and quarreling. Selfishness is the attitude that we need to overcome. Let's notice the connection between selfishness and anger. Back, we're still in Romans. Let's go to Romans 2, verses 7 through 11.

Selfishness just leads to contention. Romans 2, verse 7. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking, that's pretty much everybody. And do not obey the truth. They don't eat the unleavened bread.

But obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of a man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. God doesn't play partiality. He holds you responsible for what you know, so he starts with the Jews because they have the oracles of God, but he gets to the Gentiles as well.

It's a good transition scripture because the Days of 11 bread picks your coming out of that, the conversion process. We started on a new journey with baptism, and if you haven't started that journey yet, I encourage you to do so. Because you start to deal with life's troubles more maturely, and the trials don't become easier, but dealing with them becomes easier. Because your attitude towards them changes, but dealing with yourself becomes harder and heavier until finally that old man is dead.

We are seeking the glory and honor and peace side of Romans chapter 2. Jesus is our Passover. He died in our place so that we could have a fresh start, so that we could become unleavened, something that's impossible on our own. The Days of 11 bread are seven days because becoming unleavened is a journey that doesn't happen instantly. Oh, God could just put it in us by fiat, but then it wouldn't be us. It would be him. Then he wouldn't have a son or a daughter. He would just have a robot. Somebody programmed. He doesn't want a robot.

He wants you.

That takes time. It takes a process. It takes your life. It's a complete process. And so we eat 11 bread for seven days, picturing the complete conversion process.

We're called out of our selfish ways. We're called to become the opposite of selfish. The opposite of selfish is giving. More than a single action of sin or a mistake, that box of baking soda doesn't represent just sin. It represents how sin converts you into something that's unacceptable. We recognize that when we're looking in a mirror, it's me that needs to change. Even decades after our baptism, we still see a war being waged inside. And we should be reminded when we eat 11 bread for seven days that we are fighting a war alongside Jesus Christ, because without him, it's a useless battle.

So it's more than just living by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. It's becoming every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Eating 11 bread symbolizes living by every word. Yes, it does. It simply symbolizes more. And I want that our worship of God not be shallow and in name only. And it can easily become that. Oh, we've got a D11 again. Some people are so pharisaical about D11ing. They actually lift up the couch and vacuum under the cushions. And we criticize the repentance process.

And then we don't really eat 11 bread for seven days. We just don't eat hamburgers or pizza for seven days or puffy tacos. And we miss the symbolism. It's such a shallow worship that we have when we do that. And it's not that eating 11 bread gets you into the kingdom of God. It's that we miss the annual reminder, the little boost that it gives us in the conversion process when we do what God said to do, which is eat 11 bread for seven days. We have to go farther than outward obedience. Eating 11 bread pictures Jesus Christ living in us, learning to love other people much more than ourselves. John 15, verse 13, How do we do that?

Are you preparing for that moment when you jump in front of the bullet and take the bullet for somebody else so that you can show perfect love? Or is there a much simpler meaning to this passage? It's not just a single test of bravery to prove that you love God.

We lay down our lives every day for each other, not indeed only, but from the heart.

Every day when we treat others better than we treat ourselves, when we do not revile other people, even when they deserve it, every day when somebody else gets the bigger piece of pie than us and we don't make a big show out of it so that everybody knows they got the bigger piece of pie than us. Because if you're doing it for show, that's your reward. And that and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but it won't let you into the kingdom of God. But when you just quietly serve and you don't announce it, you don't blow the trumpet, then nobody really notices. God does!

That's laying down your life. That's the love of God.

Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

Laying down your life doesn't necessarily require your death. Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, alive and well, laying down your life every day for other people. And you are becoming converted. And you are becoming like Jesus Christ. Yes, you can.

Yes, you can. Holy, acceptable to God. No longer are you unacceptable. No longer are you that old leavened bread, that selfish, completely corrupted person. But now you're something acceptable. Which is your reasonable service. It is not unreasonable for Jesus Christ to expect that of us, given what He did for us and what we just celebrated two nights ago.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that's what eating unleavened bread symbolizes. A renewal, a cleaning, a cleaning out, and a building up. That you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. It's not a single act of dying for others that He requires of us. It's laying down your life daily for each other. That's what He's looking for. God will mold us and shape us like clay until we are there. Until it's in our nature to put others first and ourself last. And not feel cheated one bit. But to be grateful that we have the opportunity to love somebody else. Because first we were loved by God. And even if we don't get the biggest piece of pie, we're going to live forever. Let somebody else eat the pie. You enter the kingdom of God. How do we do that? Well, Paul tells us. Philippians 2 and verse 1.

Philippians 2 and verse 1. Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from His love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? This must be a New Living Translation.

Then make me truly happy.

Excuse me. By agreeing wholeheartedly with each other.

Get along with each other. Prove that you are the children of God. Loving one another, working together with one mind and one purpose.

Don't be selfish, verse 3. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others better than yourself. I'm sorry I forgot to write down which translation that was, because that's a really good translation. We are the body of Christ. We are supposed to become that unleavened bread. The new lump. But a new lump does not stay unleavened. A lump grows and it ferments, and it becomes leavened again. And at the end of the seven days, we eat something fluffy and puffy and lovely, don't we? And it's not sin. It's not the old man that was thrown out. But it's the newly, completely converted you. Completely like God. A new lump. Where you go through the complete process of taking in sincerity and truth all of your life, which is Jesus Christ and everything that he was, and then you become completely converted.

And that's what leavening is. It's a converting agent. And if sin converts you, you're completely unacceptable. And if Jesus Christ converts you, you are completely acceptable and lovely.

And that's why at the end of the days of unleavened bread, we eat leavened bread.

We are to become completely converted by Jesus Christ. And leavening doesn't represent sin so much as it represents conversion. And if sin is doing the converting, then we are completely unacceptable. You can't unleaven a leavened bread. It takes a miracle to do it. And that's what Jesus Christ's sacrifice did. And then our job is to take in Jesus Christ all of our life and become converted. And yes, you can, because he will do it in you. And at the end of that process, you are a new lump that becomes completely converted by God's Holy Spirit. And that is the perfect analogy of conversion. And isn't it awesome that God used food for that analogy? 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. I'm going to read this from the New Living Translation. 2 Corinthians 4 and 7. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God and not from ourselves. And thank God that it is left to ourselves.

Brethren, we would just mess it up. But we're not to ourselves. And that is the encouraging thing about the Dayzil 11 bread. We're not taking in ourselves. We're taking in Jesus Christ, who is not a baby in a manger and is not a beaten man on a cross. Not anymore. He is now very alive and very powerful, very capable of converting us. And he's on our side.

Why do we eat unleavened bread for seven days? Can you now answer that question?

Without ever forgetting it again, that we are taking in Jesus Christ, that He is cleaning us out and completely converting us, that we look and become just like Him.