Pride

So, as we get into the sermon here this morning, this afternoon, this afternoon, as we get into the sermon here this afternoon, how much do you think about yourself? Are you always on your mind? Do you ever find yourself getting a little puffed up? Or do you mostly think about the needs of other people? Today, we're going to talk about pride, which is what will lead into the interactive Bible study after lunch as well. Maybe you'll get some ideas here as we go along. But first, let's talk about yeast. We've just begun the days of unleavened bread, and yeast is something that's commonly associated with bread and baking, primarily. However, there are surprisingly many other ways you can use yeast. I'm going to list about seven or eight of them. Most of these are not actually leavening agents. You can have these during unleavened bread, most of them. But they are yeast. For example, brewing beer and wine. Yeast can be used in the process of brewing to ferment a mixture of make it alcoholic, making chocolate. There's yeast in chocolate when the cocoa is being fermented. To treat your hair.

To deal with hair loss or add extra shine, there are yeast-based treatments to apply directly to your hair. You can use yeast to add protein to your diet. Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast can offer the same amount of protein as a cup of milk or an ounce of beef. As a skin moisturizer, yeast can work with collagen to help fight wrinkles and it's in several types of skin moisturizers. To fortify nails, as in your fingernails. Brewer's yeast is rich in vitamin B, which can help make chips' nails come back stronger. As a parmesan cheese replacement, it's becoming more common to see yeast now on restaurants. It can be used as a topping to replace parmesan in a form similar to grated cheese on foods like salad, pizza, and pasta. It can be even added to popcorn or used as a topper for pasta. Yeast can be used as a symbol of sin and pride. Yeast is multi-functional. Yeast are single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago and 1,500 species are currently identified. By fermentation, yeast converts carbohydrates into carbon dioxide bubbles and alcohols. For thousands of years, the carbon dioxide has been used in baking and alcohol in alcoholic beverages. Yeast microbes are probably one of the earliest domesticated organisms. Archaeologists digging in ancient Egypt, Egyptian ruins found early grinding stones and baking chambers for yeast-raised bread, as well as drawings of 4,000-year-old bakeries and breweries. Yeast have been used to generate electricity in microbial fuel cells and produce ethanol for the biofuel industry. But some species of yeast, such as Candida, are bad. They are known as opportunistic pathogens that can cause infections in humans. So what about yeast? What about pride? What about the symbolism of these days of unleavened bread? I've titled today's message Yeast, Pride, and Unleavened Bread. I've divided it up into five main sections. I'll try to keep it organized here. The first section I've titled The Analogy of Leaven. What is the analogy of leaven when it comes to these days, this week? So, as I mentioned, there are many common healthy yeast species using baked goods. There's also Candida. Think of leavening during the Passover season as an analogy of disease cells or Candida in the body that must be killed or removed when it comes to picturing sin. If you get to it quickly, then you can prevent further damage. But left unchecked, the infection grows out of control and can lead to our death. During the days of unleavened bread, leavening has the analogy of sin in Scripture. Pride puffs up. And this is a vital lesson of leavening that we're all familiar with. We talk about people having a big head. Boy, they've got a big head. Boy, they think they're big stuff. Vanity and arrogance truly are dangerous to our spiritual health. And they can lead ourselves to cut ourselves off from God, leading to spiritual death. But the puffed up stage of leavening is not immediate. As you know, it takes a while for the dough to rise, doesn't it? There's something going, boop, and it's up. It takes a little while for those carbon dioxide bubbles to generate and to cause the microorganisms to multiply and spread, for that carbon dioxide to do its thing. But then by the time the swelling comes, the process, the infection, is well along. And so, just like sin, it begins gradually. Gradually at first in your life. But if not removed, it builds and builds. So, that's just the analogy of leaven when it comes to sin for this one week a year. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 5. Read verses 6-8. 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6-8.

The book of 1 Corinthians was written during Unleavened Bread to the Church of Corinth. And Paul says, your glory is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? And you know how that is, right? That dough starts to rise just from a tiny little bit of yeast until it permeates the whole batch. Verse 7, therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. For in the day Christ our pastor was sacrificed for us. So through Christ's sacrifice, we can become unleavened. And we truly are unleavened spiritually once we accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice and have repented of our sins. Verse 8, therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. As the story goes, in the verses above this, the brethren were exposing themselves to infection, to sin, instead of quarantining the person who was spreading wrong attitudes. Have you ever taken a quiz to see how much pride you have? If you do a Google search there are lots of pride quizzes online. There's one titled, Am I Prideful? It's at beliefnet.com. If you ever want to go there and check it out, at beliefnet.com, Am I Prideful? They asked 12 questions. There were 3 multiple choice answers to each question. You decide how you would best answer each question. At the end you get rated. Here's the 12 questions. 1. When talking to others, how often do you talk about yourself? 2. Why do you do good things? You get 3 answers to choose from. Why you do good things. 3. How often do you think about yourself? 4. Do you do your work to further your own situation or to help others?

5. When you go to the store, the first thing you look for is...

6. How often do you find yourself discussing others' faults?

7. When bad things happen, your first response is to... 8. When someone criticizes me, my first reaction is...

9. How often do you talk about what you are doing on social media? 10. How often are you wrong? 11. Do you hold grudges?

12. How do you react when someone disagrees with you? 13. How do you think about yourself?

14. How do you think about yourself?

15. How do you think about yourself?

16. How much sin can we touch and say, that little bit won't hurt me? 17. It's only one part in 10 million, a bit of sin. 18. Chemical warfare involves using toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. 19. Chemical warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare and biological warfare. 20. But also, it's not a problem. 21. And chemical warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare and biological warfare. 22. But all three are considered weapons of mass destruction. WMDs. We hear about that a lot, don't we? 23. In practice, WMDs are able to cause much suffering, as most victims are defenseless civilians. 24. And many nations possess vast stockpiles of weaponized agents in preparation for wartime use. And so, by analogy, Satan the Devil has immense stockpiles of WMDs that he loves to unleash on God's people. Including biological and chemical leavening agents to launch upon us. So let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Let's go over to 2 Corinthians for a moment. Chapter 10. God gives us the power, through His Holy Spirit, to address the cause of the infection. To address the WMD. To address the sin, the leaven, the pride. Because it's actually a spiritual matter, right? Eating a piece of bread is not what's going to kill you unless you have celiac disease or something. But eating bread is not what it is. It's actually the pride. It's actually the sin. When it comes to the analogy. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not human, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. You know, it's a spiritual battle. Verse 5. So we have to cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself. Of course, exalting yourself is pride, right? You've got to bring down everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

It's a spiritual battle. Against spiritual, chemical, and biological warfare. WMDs of the devil. The old leaven must be put out and replaced by the Holy Spirit. By Jesus Christ living in us instead. That's the bread of life. You can't get rid of poisoned air in your lungs without putting good air in to replace it. You can't have lungs filled with space. Something has to be in there. And so the poisoned air in your body, in your lungs, has to be replaced by a good air. You have to get rid of the toxin. You have to input the Holy Spirit.

If a new man, if a new woman is not created at baptism after the old man is put away, the old man simply rises to live again. We all know how the old man, the old woman, likes to rise and live again in our lives. This is why we are to partake instead of the bread of life, which is Jesus Christ dwelling in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sin is a dangerous infection to be avoided at all costs before it gets ahold and starts to grow. So as you set aside the bread, the croutons, the leavening this year, think about putting out the infection of sin, the biological and chemical weapon of Satan in this analogy. And as we eat the unleavened bread, we can be reminded we're not just putting sin out, but God is putting His nature in to us. We're becoming more like Him.

It's a spiritual battle. Part 3 is simply called Puffed Up with Pride. Pride is an inwardly directed emotion. Pride can refer to a foolish and irrational sense of your personal value, status or accomplishments. You think more of yourself than you should. And when viewed as a vice, it's often known as vanity or vainglory. Look at the story back in 1 Corinthians 5 again.

Let's read verse 2. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 2. We just go back to that. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 2. 2 And you are puffed up, and if not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. So there was someone in the congregation sitting, and it tells you what it was there, but they just let it go on. He says, the whole congregation now is being puffed up by allowing this sin to grow, like leavening amongst them.

Puffed up is a very vivid description, right? Being puffed up. Of a person who is proud and vain, who wants to make themselves appear or seem bigger or better than they are. It's fake. Whereas they say they're just full of themselves. C.S. Lewis, in Mia Christianity chapter 8, which is titled The Great Sin, wrote, It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice.

It is a complete anti-God state of mind. And so among those, what the world calls the seven deadly sins, pride is one of them, right? And they say pride's the worst one. Oh, that's what got Lucifer, was pride. And there are many biblical examples of pride and its consequences. I'm going to turn back to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. Let me go to the Old Testament for an example of pride. Here in the Old Testament is a very notable example, and it's that of Uzziah. When he became king of Judah at age 16, he set his heart to seek God and put himself under the spiritual mentorship of Zechariah.

The prophet Zechariah lived at the same time. And as long as he sought God, as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. And as a result, he acquired wealth and also became politically and militarily powerful. 2 Chronicles chapter 26.

If you look at verse 1, Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king, instead of his father Amaziah. These days it's hard to imagine such a thing, isn't it? To put a 16-year-old up in charge of the country. Verse 3, Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jekaliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

According to all that his father Amaziah had done, he sought God in the days of Zechariah, the kind of pegs when he lived, same time as Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. Verse 6, He went out and made war against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabner, the wall of Ashtad, and he built cities around Ashtad and among the Philistines.

God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gubal, and against the Mianites. Also, the Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and the Paedian taxes. His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong. Verse 9, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, at the corner buckets of the wall, then he fortified them.

He built towers in the desert. He dug many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the lowlands and in the plains. He also had farmers and vine-dresses in the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved the soil. Moreover, Uzziah had an army of fighting men who went out to war by companies. According to the number on their rollers prepared by a jail described by a Messiah, the officer, under the hand of Hananiah and one of the king's captains. So we're getting this amazing list of accomplishments of this young king.

How much he was blessed as he led the country in a godly way. Verse 12, the total number of chief officers of the mighty men of Valor was 2,600. And under their authority was an army of 307,500 that made war with the mighty power to help the king against the enemy. Then Uzziah prepared for them for the entire army.

Shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, slings, drones, rifles, machine guns, whatever, the weapon of the day. They had it all. Verse 15, and he made devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.

So here in 2 Chronicles chapter 26, what happened? Things changed. What happened? There are hints in the text that at some point he stopped seeking God and the spiritual mentoring of Zechariah. This suggests a lessening dependence on God and a growing reliance now on himself and his own strength and wisdom. So when you look at verse 16, 2 Chronicles 26 verse 16, but, and here's the big but, when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. He became puffed up. He became prideful. The leavening got to him. Those CO2 bubbles started multiplying in his head. He got the big head. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. So, verse 17, Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. And then withstood King Uzziah and said to him, It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron. Hey buddy, you can't do this. It's for those who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary for you have trespassed. You have no honor from the Lord God. So what was Uzziah's response in verse 19? Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't be here. No. Uzziah became furious. And he had a censure in his hand to burn incense. He said, I'm going to do it anyway. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. Instantly struck with leprosy by God for his pridefulness and for his sin in burning incense when he wasn't a priest. Verse 20, Nazariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him and there on his forehead he was leprous. So they thrust him out of that place. Indeed, he also hired to get out because the Lord had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. God never healed him. He dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper. He was cut off from the house of the Lord. And Joseph his son was over the King's house, just as the people of the land. What a contrast to the first half of the chapter when he had this mighty war machine and everybody respected him. Verse 22, Now the rest of the act of Uzziah, from first to last, the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos, wrote, So Uzziah rested with his fathers and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial, which belonged to the king, for they said, He is a leper. And Joseph his son reigned in his place. Actually a sad story when you think about it. We hope we never get to that point in our lives where we become so prideful that we can tell God how we're going to do it and not follow the rules. It's easy for pride to increase as we become stronger, more successful, more prosperous, more recognized in our endeavors. In fact, anything, real or imagined, that elevates us above others can be a platform for pride. And ironically, this is true even when these blessings come as a result of God giving them to us. Sometimes God blesses us and it leads to our own destruction if we're not careful, if we don't realize where those blessings came from. That without God we're nothing. And as a result of all these blessings, Isaiah, rather than humbling himself in thanksgiving to God, began to think more highly of himself than he should have. He developed an exaggerated sense of his own importance and abilities. This pride of heart led to presumption before God and brought very serious consequences upon him. Remember the proverb, pride goes before destruction. Look at Proverbs 11, verse 2. There's one there as well. Proverbs 11, verse 2.

Proverbs 11, 2.

When pride comes, then comes shame, or then comes disgrace. So be careful if you become prideful because then you may be shamed. But with the humble is wisdom. If you go across to Proverbs 16, verse 18, a couple of pages over, Proverbs 16, verse 18, pride goes before destruction. There it is. Pride goes before destruction and a horrid spirit before a fall. There are a number of stories about pride in the Bible. There's the story of Haman in Esther, chapters 3-7.

Nebuchadnezzar, of course, was turned into a wild animal, basically, for a number of years in Daniel chapter 4, preached pride. And they offer valuable insight into pride, those stories. Well worth reading, even this week. The story of Haman in the book of Esther is a remarkable story. As you recall, Haman hatched a plan to murder all the Jews and even constructed gallows upon which to kill Mordecai, one of the Jewish leaders. He was so proud of those gallows that he was going to use. But in the end, the gallows were used on him. Be careful. Pride goes before destruction. Pride turns everything into a means to an end. To get respect and approval. We want people to respect us. We're always adding things up, comparing. We're always asking, am I getting the thanks I deserve? Am I getting appreciated here? Nobody appreciates me for what I do. How am I being regarded? With an eye eye eye. With a prideful person, it's all about me. And we all have a bit of it. I don't think there's anybody that does it. I took the test and I got a little bit. So take the test, see how much you have. Pride is a concentration on self-absorption. There are two forms of pride. On one hand, you've got the superiority form of pride. I'm better than everyone else. And that's easily recognized by people as pride because people with a superior air are constantly comparing themselves. They're always thinking, how do I look? Am I being appreciated? And Bahamian felt underappreciated. So that's the superiority form of pride where, you know, I'm strong, I'm good. There's another form of pride. It's the inferiority form. That's when you're down on yourself and you don't like yourself. You don't like how you look. You're very self-conscious about yourself and always beating yourself up. But you're actually just as self-absorbed, just in the opposite way. You don't see you doing all the same comparisons as in the superiority form. You say, I am humble.

I have nothing to be proud about. What have I got to be proud about? I'm very humble. I have nothing. That's the inferiority form. But we usually recognize the superior form very quickly, right? Someone thinks it's got the big head, but... A moment ago we read where Paul uses the phrase, you are puffed up, 1 Corinthians 5, verse 2. And then he makes a connection for us between a person who is puffed up with pride and the way a batch of dough gets puffed up, when a small amount of leaven is put in the batch.

Before long, the leaven or the pride or the sin spreads everywhere, fermenting and leaving hundreds of little bubbles of carbon dioxide in the dough, causing it to be puffed up. That's an interesting way that Paul put that. And in the same way, pride, vanity and other evils grow and spread when even a small amount is initially present. Pride is an evil attitude that often leads to other, more specific sins. A proud person is full of spiritual bubbles. Lots of visible surface area, nothing inside but gas. It's hollow. It's a great word picture that would have been immediately understandable to most people as recently as the last century. Now we've got all our bread at a store, mostly, and have little experience with preparing dough. We even prepared some dough this morning, but that doesn't happen a lot in some homes. Now we've got our bread at the store. We don't insert a leavening agent like yeast ourselves. We don't have to wait and allow the bread to rise and expand in the air before we bake it. We just go buy a loaf of bread, and it's sliced already. Ready to go. That's probably why most modern translations like the NIV or the NLT tend to translate puffed up. My translation says puffed up. Most newer translations put it as pride. Paul says that you have pride. But I like the word puffed up, actually, from the original. It kind of gives a really good illustration and picture story of it. Pride is a reasonable translation of the underlying Greek word fusio, but for me it doesn't capture the imagination in the same way as the phrase puffed up does.

As a result, it's harder for modern people like us to understand the contrast Paul is making between the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and people who are puffed up with pride, like a loaf of leavened bread. Also in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul was teaching the non-Jewish converts in Corinth. That wasn't a Jewish community. That was a Gentile community. They weren't Jews. He was telling them, keep the feast of unleavened bread. He says, keep the feast. So it's not just a Jewish observance, as we know.

It's not just for the rest of Israel and the other tribes. No, it's for the whole world. In Exodus, God says, these are my feasts. It doesn't say they're Jewish feasts. It doesn't say the Israelite feasts. He says, no, these are my feasts. And they're for everyone. Just point 3. Point 4, the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Lots of word pictures in here from Jesus Christ. He talks about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It's in Exodus 12 where God initiated this holiday season when the Israelites came out of Egypt. You may have already read it leading up to these days.

It's in Exodus 12 where he says, for seven days you will eat unleavened bread as a part of this festival unto me. And so that's when it was first instituted when they left Egypt, which, of course, we remembered last night. The nights not observed, that's when they walked out of Egypt. Last night, historically. But he said, you'll eat unleavened bread as a part of this festival to me. And it's an interesting analogy, too. Egypt, in Scripture, is a type of sin.

We leave sin behind, we leave Egypt behind, we leave the world behind. Because leaven is a type of sin. And Exodus 12 specifically tells us to observe these seven days of unleavened bread. And then, Christ talked about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their false doctrine. Let's turn to Matthew 16. Starting verse 5. He said to avoid that. He said to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

So, leaven is a type of sin that can puff one up with pride, with vanity. And for this seven-day festival we've just begun, God says, eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He says, get out of Egypt. Matthew 16 verse 5. When his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

Then Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And I thought, what on earth is he talking about? They reasoned among themselves, saying, is it because we have taken no bread?

But Jesus being aware of it said to them, oh, you of little faith. Why do you reason among yourselves because you brought no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Well, the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many loaves baskets you took up? You said, if I was talking about bread, I could have just made some appear. He said, no. Verse 11, how is it you don't understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?

But to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to be aware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Their doctrines were very prideful, like a loaf of puffed up bread. Their doctrine gave them the big head, the Pharisees. False doctrine, false teachings, false examples of righteousness being puffed up, filled with pride. A flat piece of bread, not puffed up with yeast or other leavening agent that causes it to rise, is a type of bread God uses to teach us a lesson to put sin from our life.

He wants us to flatten ourselves in relation to Him, to flatten ourselves and learn humility and service before Him. We are to represent Jesus Christ and Him living through us as the bread of life. Leavening is a symbol of sin that helps us understand something very important in God's plan for just seven days each year. There's another pride test that I found. It's from a radio interview, titled a pride test. It's given by ReviveOurHearts, which is a religious website that helps women to do well, at reviveourhearts.com.

I listened to the whole radio interview. It's rather long. At one point, they listed a number of characteristics that may indicate a problem with pride. Let me read these to you and think to yourself, am I being a Pharisee with any of these questions? Do I just get a little puffed up in how good I feel about myself and my righteousness? Let me read them to you. Just think as we go along.

Do you look down on those who are less educated, less affluent, less refined, or less successful than yourself? Do you think of yourself as more spiritual than your mate, or people in your church, or people in your workplace? Do you give undue time or attention to your physical appearance? Are you proud of the schedule you keep, how disciplined you are, how much you're able to accomplish? Are you driven to receive approval from others? Do you have to have the last word? Do you generally think that your way is the right way or the best way? Do you get your feelings hurt easily?

Are you guilty of trying to leave a better impression of yourself than is honestly true? Do you have a hard time admitting when you're wrong? Do you have a hard time confessing your sin to God? Are you excessively worried about what other people think of you? Do you become defensive when you're criticized or corrected? Is your pride hurt? Do you tend to be controlling or manipulate the people around you?

Do you frequently interrupt people when they're speaking? Do you often complain about the weather, your health, your circumstances, your job, the church? Do you think you deserve better? It shouldn't be happening to you? Do you talk about yourself too much? Do you overly worry about what others think of you about your reputation or your family's reputation? Do you get hurt if your accomplishments or your acts of service are not recognized or rewarded? Do you get hurt if your opinions are not considered, when someone makes a decision and you are not informed about the changes? Do you react to rules?

Do you have a hard time being told what to do? Next one, they say, maybe you're thinking, I'm not proud. I don't have anything to be proud about. I don't have any special gifts. I'm not beautiful. I don't have any achievements to be proud of. And they say, well, that can be a subtle form of pride. That's the inferiority form of pride, right? A couple more. Are you uncomfortable inviting people to your home because you don't think it's nice enough?

Is it hard for you to let others know when you need help? And finally, I've got these back from them. They had a lot more. When is the last time you said, I was wrong, will you please forgive me? It's a very interesting pride test list from the radio interview. And you're probably sitting here thinking, how many of these questions apply to someone else?

Right? You're feeling pretty good that most things I just listed don't really apply to you. Glad I'm not one of them. Glad I pray every day. I'm not an extortioner. There's another parable, right? Not like that publican. And so now you want to get a tape of the sermon and make sure you share it to people you think really need this subject.

So there's another little pride test. The laymen of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They just felt very good about their doctrines and their beliefs and their own righteousness. Finally, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Here it is. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. And we'll turn to Luke chapter 18 and read that version. Luke chapter 18. In this parable, there's a warning to us. Be very careful about exalting yourself. Luke 18 verse 9. Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. So there's the problem right there. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. So this is who he's telling us to. Verse 10. Two men went up to the temple to pray and went to Pharisee and the other a tax collector. As you know, the tax collectors very much looked down upon in those times. Maybe today too. Verse 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterous, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I'm slim and trim and fit. Because I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. You, who humbles himself, will be exalted. So you let others exalt you. You let God exalt you. You don't claim it for yourself. We have time after lunch in the Bible study. We'll talk about this parable a bit more. There's a lot more to it than what I've just covered here. But we learn a lot from this parable about our heart towards God. Do we trust in ourselves for our righteousness? There are several observations about the Pharisee who exalted himself before God. You can check yourself against these things. The Pharisee felt overly confident before God. He trusted in himself. The Pharisee defined righteousness by how he compared to others rather than how he compared to God. He compared himself to criminals. He said, I'm pretty good compared to those guys. And he demonstrated his view of himself by how he even mistreated others. I should wrap this up here today. By acknowledging our sinfulness, just as the tax collector did, and crying out for God's help, we can be exalted before God. Humility involves assessing ourselves honestly. Especially assessing ourselves honestly before God. During the days of unliving bread, we must recognize our sinfulness in comparison to Jesus Christ, except the help that he has provided through his sacrifice. Sin is a dangerous infection to be avoided at all costs. So, as I said earlier, as you set aside the bread, the croutons, the leavening this week, think about putting out the infection of sin and your own pride, the little bit that you might have. As we eat the unliving bread, we can be reminded that we're not just putting sin out, but God is putting his nature in through the bread of life, Jesus Christ. And that's what unliving bread is all about. Leavening is a symbol of sin for just one week a year that helps us to understand something very important in God's plan, that is not to be puffed up.