Yeast and Pride

Mr. Oppie. I used to call your dad that, Mr. Oppie. That was wonderful. Thanks, Jesse. Appreciate it very much. Beautiful, offertory music for us here today. And good morning, everyone! And happy double Sabbath, high holy day to you on this last day of Only Living Bread. Jesse used to enjoy playing the piano in the Student Center in Pasadena when he was a teenager, and while we're having our lunch. So, yeah, very nice to hear Jesse again. He's got to be in Cincinnati in two weeks, out for Daniel's graduation. So, we look forward to having Jesse actually stay with us while he's in town for ABC graduation. Terry and I were up in the Bay Area for the Passover and first day of Only Living Bread for night to be with the San Jose brethren, with the Orinda, which is a San Francisco brethren, before driving down here for the last day of Only Living Bread. Tim Pebworth has been in France, so we helped out up there in the Bay Area while Mr. Pebworth was gone. And, of course, the Saglies are in the Netherlands and Germany. So I said, well, I'm going to be in Southern California for a wedding, so, you know, be around if you would like some help. Seen pictures on Facebook. They seem to be doing okay. They were having dinner with the Kiefers one time and saw a photo texted to us of the Saglies, so they're doing well with their extended family. Jackie, their daughter Jackie's extended family, so that's nice. They can do that. And so we're happy to be here with you today. We'll be in San Diego tomorrow for church, because the wedding's down in San Diego. So, we'll be down there tomorrow, leave after church this evening, and drive down. But things are going well in Cincinnati, and in a week's time we have the General Conference of Elders, the annual meeting of the General Conference of Elders, and so we're looking forward to that. A little excitement in town, and we'll be doing a tour of the new video studio for about 60 or 70 people that signed up to come see the new video studio, which is working very well for us, I might add. It's about 10 times the size of the old studio, and with a live studio audience as well, which has really enhanced the program, and we're getting almost double the responses we were getting before, so the new format seems to have certainly helped. So, let me ask you here on this seventh day of Unleavened Bread, this last day of Unleavened Bread, how much do you think about yourself?

Are you always on your mind?

Do you ever find yourself getting a little puffed up?

What do you mostly think about the needs of other people? Today we're going to talk about pride, but first, let's talk about yeast.

After all, these are the days of Unleavened Bread, and yeast is something that's commonly associated with bread and baking. However, there are surprisingly many other ways you can use yeast, and I'm going to list a few for you. Most of these are not leavening agents, but here we go. Yeast is used to brew beer and wine. Okay, we knew that one. To make 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. To add protein to your diet. Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast. Not brewer's yeast or baker's 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 in several types of skin moisturizers. To fortify nails. Brewer's yeast is rich in vitamin B, which can help make chipped nails come back stronger. And also as a parmesan cheese replacement. It's becoming more common to see yeast on restaurant menus. And it can be used as a topping or parmesan replacement in a form similar to grated cheese on foods like salad, pizza, pasta. It can be added to popcorn, too. Or used as a topper for pasta. And yeast can be used as a symbol of sin and pride. It's multi-functional.

Yeast are single-celled microorganisms. Single-celled. They're classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and 1,500 species have been identified. Now, by fermentation, the yeast species Saccharompsis cerevisae, which I don't expect you to remember, converts carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and alcohols. And that's the particular yeast that's usually used in baking. For thousands of years, the carbon dioxide has been used in baking and the alcohol in making alcoholic beverages. And the word yeast comes from the old English word yeast or gist, G-Y-S-T, gist. And from the Indo-European root y-e-s, yes. Yeast or yes, meaning to boil, foam, or bubble. And yeast microbes are probably one of the earliest domesticated organisms. Archaeologists digging in Egyptian ruins found early grinding stones and baking chambers for yeast-raised bread from 4,000-year-old bakeries and breweries. So yeast has been domesticated for a long time. But other species of yeast, such as Candida albacan, are opportunistic pathogens and can cause infections in humans. Yeast have also been used recently to generate electricity in microbial fuel cells and produce ethanol for the biofuel industry. So like I said, multifunctional. But there are some dangerous yeasts like Candida. So what about yeast? And what about pride? What about the symbolism of these days of unleavened bread that we are now observing and soon concluding? I've titled today's message Yeast and Pride. Yeast and pride. And I've divided it up into five main sections. And the first section is simply the analogy of leaven. The analogy of leaven and why we talk about that this week. As I mentioned a moment ago, there's a yeast species, Saracomsees serviceae, and it's good for use in baked goods. But there is also Candida. Think of leavening as an analogy. 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 unchecked, the infection grows and grows out of control and can lead to our death. A spiritual death in the analogy. During these days of unleavened bread, leavening has the analogy of sin. Pride puffs up. And this is a vital lesson of leavening that we're all familiar with. We talk about people having the big head, thinking that they are big stuff. Of course, not ourselves, of course. Vanity and arrogance truly are dangerous to our spiritual health. And they can lead us to cut ourselves off from God, leading to a spiritual death. But the puffed up stage of leavening is not immediate. It takes time for the tiny yeast microorganisms to multiply and spread. It takes time for that carbon dioxide to bubble up. And then, by the time the swelling comes, the process, the infection, is well along. When you start to see it, it's well along. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 5, read verses 6 through 8. Mr Roberts also read this in the sermonette today. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6.

Paul said to the Corinthians, your glorying is not good. No, they thought a lot of themselves. He said, do you not know that a little leaven leavens a whole lump? So that little single-celled microorganism doubles, and you've got two of them. And then it doubles again, and then you've got four of them. And then eight, 16, 32, 64, 128. And suddenly you've got millions as they double. A little leaven grows to leaven the whole lump. Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. You are the people of God. You're supposed to be unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover, as we observed a week ago, was sacrificed for us. And then he says, 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. Sincerity and truth is the opposite of being puffed up with pride. So Paul said to the Corinthians, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? They were exposing themselves to infection, to sin, instead of quarantining the one who was spreading wrong attitudes. And you read about that in the first verse, the sin that was going on.

Have you ever taken a quiz to see how much pride you have? Probably not your favorite thing to do every day.

There are lots of them online. There's one titled, Am I Prideful? And it has 12 questions that's at beliefnet.com. And there are 12 questions you get asked, and then there are multiple choice answers that you choose from. And at the end, it scores you based on the answers that you gave to each question. The first question asked on this online pride test at beliefnet.com is, number one, when talking to others, how often do you talk about yourself? So you score yourself with some answers to go through. Number two, why do you do good things?

Number three, how often do you think about yourself?

Do you do your work to further your own situation or to help others?

Number five, when you go to the store, the first thing you look for is...

Number six, how often do you find yourself discussing others' faults?

When bad things happen, your first response is to...

Number eight, when someone criticizes me, my first reaction is... Number nine, how often do you talk about what you are doing on social media?

Number ten, how often are you wrong?

Number eleven, do you hold grudges? And then number twelve, how do you react when someone disagrees with you?

So maybe you're imagining some of the answers to the questions. So I took the test myself, and my result was just a little prideful. It said, you are struggling with a little pride, but you're trying, pray to God, to help you out. So maybe you should go to beliefnet.com and see what yours comes up with. But let's continue this analogy of unleavened bread, yeast, and pride. It's actually a spiritual battle that we're involved in. And so the second section I've titled biological and chemical warfare. Biological and chemical warfare. For a week each year, we can think of leavening as a weapon of Satan. The leavening we avoid comes in two types. Biological, which is the yeast, and chemical, which is baking powder and baking soda. There's the biological type, there's the chemical type of leavening that we avoid this week. Biological and chemical weapons are among the most feared types of warfare today. So it's an interesting analogy, isn't it? And so their spiritual counterpoints should also be to us.

A feared type of warfare. Some of the gases that have been used in chemical warfare can incapacitate a man in concentrations as small as one part in 10 million.

How much sin can we touch and say, that won't hurt me?

The only true protection is to get away from the cause. Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. And this type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare and biological warfare, but all three are considered weapons of mass destruction. You've all heard the term WMDs, right? So chemical and biological weapons are WMDs. In practice, WMDs are able to cause much suffering because most victims are defenseless civilians when it's used. And so many nations possess vast stockpiles of weaponized agents in preparation for wartime use. And so by analogy, Satan the devil also has immense stockpiles of WMDs that he's trying to unleash on God's people, including biological and chemical leavening agents ready to launch upon us. You'll buy analogy this week. So therefore, God gives us the power through his Holy Spirit to address the cause of the infection, to put it out, to put out the sin, the leaven, the pride. And so we in particular focus on it this week each year, although of course that's something that we fight against every day of the year. Look at 2 Corinthians now, chapter 10. Let's go from 1 Corinthians. Let's go over to 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, and read verses 4 and 5. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare, you see, it's a war. And not carnal, not physical, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. You see, it's a spiritual war, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself, that is prideful against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So we cast down any thought that's prideful, anything that exalts itself against God. And it's a spiritual war. The old lever must be put out and replaced by the Holy Spirit. You can't get rid of poisoned air in your lungs without taking in good air to replace it. To get rid of the biological toxin, you have to input the Holy Spirit. If a new man is not created after the old man is put away in baptism, the old man simply rises to live again.

And sin is a dangerous infection to be avoided at all costs. So as we set aside the bread this week, the croutons, the leavening, think about putting out the infection of sin, the biological and chemical weapons of Satan in this analogy, the WMDs of Satan. 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 as we take in the bread of life, as we take in Jesus Christ, as pictured by the symbols at the Passover service last week. But it is a spiritual battle that can be likened to biological biological and chemical warfare. The third section I was simply titled Puffed up with Pride. Puffed up with pride.

Pride is an inwardly, inwardly directed emotion. Pride can refer to a foolish and irrational sense of one's personal value, of our personal status or accomplishments, but kind of in an irrational way. And when viewed as a vice, it is often known as vanity or vain glory. And in the scriptures you'll see it often referred to as vanity or vain glory. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 5 again. Look at verse 2. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 2. Back to the apostle Paul there, correcting the congregation, he says, and you are puffed up. And if not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. See, what was happening in the congregation should have resulted in people being disfellowshipped or put out of the church until they repented and changed. But they just let it go on. Paul said, you're puffed up. Puffed up is used as a vivid description of a person who is proud and vain, who wants to make themselves appear or seem bigger than they or better than they really are. You see a lot of that on social media, don't you? Everybody looks like they're having the best life in the world. Whereas some people say they're full of themselves.

Puffed up. C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, in chapter 8. Chapter 8 is called the Great Sin. C.S. Lewis writes, it was through pride that the devil became the devil. He says, pride leads to every other vice. It is a complete anti-God state of mind. And of course, when we read Ezekiel and Isaiah about Lucifer, we're told that it was pride that was his downfall, right? So C.S. Lewis says, it's pride that caused the devil to become the devil. It's exactly true. And there are many biblical examples of pride and its consequences. One of the more notable examples from the Old Testament is that of Uzziah. I'm going to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. Maybe you'll go over there with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. When Uzziah became king of Judah at age 16, he set his heart to seek God and put himself under the spiritual mentorship of Zechariah. And as long as he sought God, he prospered. And as a result, he acquired wealth and also became politically and militarily powerful. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 26 verse 1. Now, all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. Verse 3. So Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. 52 years. His mother's name was Jekylliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He was a righteous king. He was one of the good kings. Verse 5. He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. And I'm going to read down through here, and you'll see all of his accomplishments. Verse 6. He went out and made war against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of gas, and the wall of Jabner, and the wall of Ashdod. And he built cities around Ashdod and among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gurbal, and against the Mianites. Also the Ammonites brought tribute to Juziah. His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong. And Juziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the corner buttress of the wall, and then he fortified them. Verse 10. He also built towers in the desert. He dug many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the low lands and in the plains. He also had farmers and vine-dresses in the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved the soil. Moreover, Juziah had an army of fighting men who went out to war by companies. According to the number on their roll as prepared by Jael, the scribe and Messiah, the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains. 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 mighty power to help the king against the enemy. Verse 14. Juziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones. 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 till he became strong. And then things changed. What happened?

There are hints in the text that at some point he stopped relying on God, stopped seeking God, and the spiritual mentoring of Zechariah, and lessened his dependence on God, and had a growing reliance on himself and his own strength and wisdom. So look at 2 Chronicles 26 verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. You see, only the priest was supposed to do that. I guess he figured he was important enough he could do it too. Verse 17, so Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men, and they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, it's not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. But for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn the incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. You shall have no honor from the Lord God. So at that point, what would have been the best reaction? You're right, I'm sorry. I should never have done this. I've sinned. I'll get out right now. No. Verse 19, Uzziah became furious, and he had a censer in his hands to burn incense, 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. He was immediately struck with leprosy. Verse 20, and Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there on his forehead he was lepros, so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed, he also hurried to get out because the Lord had struck him. And verse 21, King Uzziah was a leper then until the day of his death. It was a harsh punishment. He dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord, and then Jotham his son was over the king's house judging the people of the land. In the rest of the acts 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 kings, for they said, he's a leper. And then Jotham his son reigned in his place. It's actually quite a sad story. He was a king that had it all. He was righteous. He was doing the right thing until he got the big head and thought that he was more important than he really was before God. It's easy for pride to increase as we become stronger, more successful, more prosperous, and more recognized in our endeavors. In fact, anything real or imagined that elevates us above others or above God can be a platform for pride. And ironically, this is true even when things come as a result of God's blessing. It was God that blessed Uzziah, but it went to his head. And as a result of all his blessings, Uzziah, rather than humbling himself and thanksgiving to God and repentance, began to think of himself more than he should have and developed an exaggerated sense of his own importance and abilities. And this pride of heart led to presumption before God and brought very serious consequences upon him. So that's one of the better examples of pride in the Bible and the serious consequences of it. Remember, pride goes before destruction. You can make a note of Proverbs 11 verse 2. Proverbs 11 verse 2, when pride comes, then comes shame. Well, then comes disgrace. You've got to be careful. Otherwise, you'll become disgraced. And Uzziah did become disgraced before God and before the priests. Another one, Proverbs 16 verse 18.

Proverbs 16 verse 18, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Yes, pride goes before a fall. The stories of Haman in Esther chapters 3 through 7 and also the story of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4. Both of those stories also offer insight into pride and are well worth reading if you want to. Esther and Daniel, stories of Haman and Nebuchadnezzar. The story of Haman in the book of Esther is a remarkable study in pride. As you'll recall, Haman hatched a plan to murder all the Jews and even constructed gallows upon which to hang Mordecai. But in the end, the gallows were used on him. 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 that I deserve? Am I getting appreciated here? How am I being regarded? See, with a prideful person, it becomes all about them. It becomes all about me. Pride is a concentration on self-absorption and there are two types of pride. On the one hand, you've got the superiority form of pride, where you know you're the best, which is easily recognized by most people because someone has a superior air and is constantly comparing himself to others.

They're always thinking, how do I look? Am I being appreciated? Of course, Haman felt underappreciated in the story in Esther. But there's another form of pride and that's the inferiority form. This is when you're down on yourself, you don't like yourself, you don't like how you look, you're very self-conscious, you're always beating yourself up. But actually, you're just as self-absorbed. You don't see you doing all the same comparisons as in the superiority form. Trying to act humble, but you're actually doing the same thing.

A moment ago, we read where Paul uses the phrase, you are puffed up, in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 2. He said, you are puffed up. 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 into the batch.

That's there in 1 Corinthians 5. Before long, the leaven, the yeast, spreads everywhere, fermenting and leaving hundreds of little bubbles of carbon dioxide in the dough, causing it to be puffed up. And in the same way, pride, vanity and other evils grow and spread, even when just 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, but nothing inside but gas.

It's hollow. And so it's a great word picture that would have been immediately recognized or understandable to most people as recently as the last century. But now we all get our bread at Vons, but Safeway. And we have little experience in preparing dough. We don't have to insert leavening agents now, like in the old days. We don't have to put the yeast in. We don't have to allow the bread to rise and expand with air before we bake it. And we just go to the store and buy it ready-made.

And that's probably why most translations, most modern translations, like the NIV, the NLT, tend to translate puffed up simply as pride. The translators figure that pride is more understandable than being puffed up. But pride is a reasonable translation of the underlying Greek word fusio, but it doesn't capture the imagination in the same way the phrase puffed up does.

Puffed up really says it all. And as a result, it's harder for modern people like us to catch the contrast Paul is making between the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth that's flat and people who are puffed up with pride like a loaf of leavened bread. And also Paul was teaching the Gentile converts of Corinth to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was telling the Gentiles, these are the feasts of the Lord.

They're not Jewish feasts. And he was telling them, too, they needed to keep the feasts of unleavened bread. It wasn't just for Jews. And so that's the point about being puffed up with pride. Let's look now at the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It's the fourth section I have.

I've titled the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So you'll recall in Exodus chapter 12, we read where God initiated this holiday season when the Israelites came out of Egypt. Next to verse 12, starting in verse 14, and he said, for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as a part of this festival unto me, he said.

And it's an interesting analogy, too, because Egypt in Scripture is also a type of sin. They were to come out of Egypt during those days of unleavened bread. Egypt and leaven are these analogies of sin. And then Christ talked about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their false doctrine. It's in Matthew chapter 16. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 16 for a moment, because he said to avoid this. So leaven is a type of sin that can puff one up with pride, with vanity.

And for this seven-day festival, God says, eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He says, get out of Egypt. Matthew 16 verse 5, when the disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And so they reasoned among themselves, saying, is it because we've taken no bread?

But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, oh you of little faith, why do you reason among yourself because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand? Do you remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Don't you remember the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? You know, if we'd just forgotten bread, I could have easily made some.

He said, that's not what I'm talking about. I made seven thousand loaves before. How is it, he says, you don't understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then verse 12, 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.

So ah, false doctrine, false teachings, false examples of righteousness. They thought a lot of themselves and all their laws and regulations that made them righteous.

It was about being puffed up, being filled with pride.

A flat piece of bread, not puffed up with yeast or any 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 relationship to him, to learn humility and service. We are to represent Jesus Christ and him living through us. And that's what unleavened bread is all about. It's a symbol of sin that helps us understand something very important in God's plan. There's another pride test that I found. It's from a radio interview titled A Pride Test. It's on a website for, it's a women's religious website called ReviveOurHearts.com. And here's some excerpts from the radio interview that gave a long list of characteristics that may indicate a problem with pride. So think to yourself, am I being a Pharisee with any of these questions? So I've got a list of them here. Let me go through them and imagine some of the answers you might give to yourself from this pride test. 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 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 or to others? Are you excessively worried about what other people think about you? Do you become defensive when you're criticized or corrected? Is your pride hurt? Are you a perfectionist? Do you get impatient and irked with people who aren't? 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 opinions are not considered when someone makes a decision and you are not informed about the change?

Do you react to rules? Do you have a hard time being told what to do?

And you may be 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'm not handsome. I don't have any achievements to be proud of. So be careful. That could be the other form of pride. Are you uncomfortable inviting people to your home because you don't think it's nice enough? Is it hard if you let others know when you need help? And here's one more I'll read from this list. When is the last time you said I was wrong? Will you please forgive me? And so you're sitting here thinking how many of these questions apply to someone else you know. You're feeling pretty good that most of those things I just listed don't really apply to you. And now you want to get a tape of the sermon. And hand it out to about a dozen people you know.

Because that list applies to them. So be careful. That could be an evidence of pride itself. Let's finally look at number five, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. That's in Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 9. Let's turn there for a moment. Because in this parable, there's a warning to us. Be very careful about exalting yourself. So Luke 18 verse 9. Flip over there for a moment. Here Jesus spoke a parable to some who, quote, trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

So Christ is giving this parable to a group of people that he felt thought too much of themselves as it was. And he says, verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Notice he's praying with himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. Pharisee says, I fast twice a week, maybe three times. I give tithes of all that I possess. Maybe sometimes I give two tithes. You know, I'm super righteous. Verse 13, 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. Christ says, I tell you, that man went down to his house justified more than the other, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And so we learn a lot about, or a lot from this parable about our heart towards God. Here are just three observations about the Pharisee who exalted himself before God. So check yourself against this list. The Pharisee felt overly confident before God. He wasn't really afraid to talk to God like this. It was overly confident. The Pharisee defined righteousness by how others perceived him rather than how he looked before God. It was a good outward appearance. Wow, that guy tithes all the time. That guy fasts every day. What a righteous fellow. And the Pharisee demonstrated his view of himself by how he mistreated others. He actually looked down on other people.

By acknowledging our sinfulness, just as the tax collector did, and crying out for God's help, we can then be exalted before God. Christ said everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And by God. Humility involves assessing ourselves honestly before God. And during these days of unleavened bread, we hopefully have come to realize our sinfulness in comparison to Christ, and accept the help that he has provided through his sacrifice, the help that God has provided through Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our sins. Sin is a dangerous infection to be avoided at all costs. It can become a WMD if allowed to grow and multiply. So as we set aside the bread, the croutons are leavening this week, think about the infection of sin. And as we eat unleavened bread instead, we can be reminded that not just to be putting sin out, that we're putting the bread of life in, putting Jesus Christ into our lives through the Holy Spirit. And that's what unleavened bread is all about. Leavening is a symbol of sin for just one week a year.

And it helps us to understand something very important in God's plan, and that is yeast, and pride, and unleavened bread.