Righteousness a Gift of the Holy Spirit

Here is the auto transcript from this week’s sermon on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Righteousness

Just another blustery day in Oklahoma, you know.

It is what it is, and God is good and he'll watch over us, and we'll be thankful for the rain and the wind can just, you know, keep going.

So today, by request of Pastor Chris, we begin our series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

He came to me and said, "Brent, I want you to preach a series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit."

And my first response was, "Nope."

Asking a preacher to preach on the gifts of the Spirit is like inviting a man to a picnic in a minefield.

Yeah, it's dangerous territory.

When Chris announced that he was going to preach the taboo series on the seven deadly sins, I thought, "Wow, and I'm supposed to follow that up with a series of messages on the gifts of the Holy Spirit."

Now you may be wondering which one of those is easier.

The seven deadly sins.

Why?

Because no one's going to argue about the reality of sin in their life.

Well, some might, but because we all know we have it.

And we might have those days where we can at least say, "Well, yeah, that one doesn't apply to me.

I'm not really having too big an issue with that."

But we know the next week we'll get there and it'll be like, "Oh, that's all about me."

But when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, well, them's fighting words.

Because we all may agree that the Bible says that we have the Holy Spirit, but the body of Christ at large is not on the same page as to what that means and which gifts are still functioning today.

Amen?

Sadly, it seems like finding a balanced view on this topic is likened to the parting of the Red Sea.

If you can actually find it, it's going to be a miracle.

And sadly, this topic is dominated by two different extremes.

One is what I call the cessationist.

This is the idea that the supernatural gifting of the Holy Spirit was only for the time of the Apostles and with the death of John, really the gifts of the Spirit died out and throughout church history we don't see them referenced or talked about as much, but in fact there are ancient church fathers who talk about seeing the gifts of the Spirit and even Augustine in 1000 AD changed his view from being a cessationist to believing that they were actually still operative.

And I grew up in the context of cessationism, which meant that now that the perfect was here, the perfect Word of God, that the canon was closed, that the necessity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit had died out.

Now let's be real honest about this.

There's no such thing as a cessationist.

Because everybody prays that their loved one will get healed.

So no one really wants God to be a cessationist.

A cessationist is really someone who wants God's Spirit to move, just don't do it where anybody can see it.

I want you to heal my loved one, but just don't do it while the preacher's actually praying in that moment.

They're not really cessationists.

They really kind of focus in on one or two gifts, you know that one called the gift of tongues?

I really should have had the sound crew cue the "dun-dun-dun."

But in truth, I don't really believe there are very many believers who don't want to see the power of God.

The other extreme that's also made the conversation difficult are the ones that I call the "sensationalist ."

In 1981, in the spring of my senior year of high school, the Trinity Broadcasting Network came to Oklahoma City.

Their stations were popping up all over the country and we were right in the middle of what we referred to as the charismatic revival.

And nightly they would have shows of revival with mass numbers of people getting saved and there was a very clear message that was being piped into the homes of believers all across the country and for most of us who safely went to our churches and only heard our view of this, suddenly a different view was being piped into our homes and the message, unfortunately, well fortunately was the Holy Spirit still moves.

Unfortunately, the message was very clear, if you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit.

And this caused all kinds of friction and factions in the body of Christ.

In fact there were, I don't know if you should call them missionaries, I don't know what you should call them, but I vividly remember a man jumping up in the middle of our church service where my dad was the pastor at the Draper Park Christian Church and my dad was, I believe he was in the middle of his sermon, and a man jumped up and immediately started speaking in tongues.

And my dad very calmly put his hands on the pulpit and waited.

And as soon as he got done, I thought, "Oh this dude is gonna get it.

Get him dad."

No.

My dad just said, "Is there anyone here that can interpret?"

"No?"

"Moving on."

We never saw that man again.

Not sure why.

To be honest, the nightly broadcasts were inspiring and challenging and moving.

The speakers were passionate and easy to listen to, and I found myself, like many other people, asking the Lord if I was missing something.

And so I asked Him to give me the gift.

You know, the one that seemed to be the one they wanted you to have, the gift of tongues.

And nothing happened.

The longer the charismatic revival went on, the more it developed into sensationalism.

Whole audiences were falling down, being slain in the Spirit, which I never understood that terminology because the Spirit gives life, not death.

Those were being claimed with no validating evidence.

I remember watching one night when a woman, who if I remember correctly, was a judge.

And while she was being interviewed on the show, she suddenly had a word from the Lord that God was going to give her a big blue Cadillac and she was never going to have to fill it with gas because it was going to supernaturally just refill itself.

We never saw a picture of the big blue Cadillac and we never saw her on TBN again.

Why am I saying all this?

In all sincerity, it is not to mock.

It is just to lay out the reality that these extremist positions, God doesn't do anything anymore to God does everything and He jumps through hoops when I tell Him to.

Between these two extremes, it became harder and harder to find a balanced teaching on what the Bible says about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And when it was all said and done, everybody just kind of retreated back into their own corners.

Now don't misunderstand me.

I was very intrigued.

But quite honestly, what started off as being intriguing eventually became insulting.

When I was asked just to accept that something was of the Holy Spirit just because someone said it was.

But that's not to say there was not some good fruit that came from it.

A new freedom of expression and worship crept into all the body of Christ.

I remember in those days that if you raised your hand, you were one of them.

I even had a gentleman, I was home one night, I was still at my parents' house and a gentleman called one to talk to my dad but he wasn't there and he began to, he said, "Well maybe you can help me understand."

He said, "I've heard that Draper Park has gone charismatic."

And I just busted out laughing.

If that's the case, that's the most low-key charismatic church I've ever seen.

And I said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

And I said, "You know, we have a few people that raise their hands in worship."

And on the phone, he began to just lament, "Oh, oh, oh, I am so, your dad has been so faithful for so long, oh."

And then South Side Brant kicked in.

Now you're talking about my daddy.

And I let him have it.

Don't you, don't you even think about besmirching my dad's character.

We're from a movement of churches that believes if it's in the Bible, it's for us.

And the Bible says, "Lifting holy hands in praise."

Doesn't matter if someone down on that corner is, you know, not just raising holy hands, they're jumping over a pew.

I don't care, it still, it still says what it says.

I probably should repent for the way I spoke to my elder that day, but you know.

The point of all this is that a subject so important has become such a battleground.

So where does that leave us today?

In truth, we are still as divided as ever over the topic of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Both cessationists and sensationalists still exist.

One well-known and respected Christian minister has led the charge against the charismatic movement.

He's led the whole cottage industry on the internet now of ministries that think their ministry is to call out other ministries.

Really?

Just running around telling, you know, and you know, lest I become that, I'll move on.

Forgive me folks, I'm going to have to get some water.

If you have some, drink some.

The frustrating thing about this is that this topic, when you go to the Scripture, you find out just how important this topic actually is for the body of Christ and how central it is to everything that God intended to do through the body of Christ.

As we come to a time of prayer, I want to ask you to check yourself.

Did you come today with an open mind or a closed heart?

Do you find yourself in one of those camps and are you willing to be open-minded enough to let the Lord either expand or contract to educate whatever is needed?

Is your heart ready to listen?

Are we ready to come to this study with a Berean spirit, testing what is shared against what the Bible says?

As we begin, may I share my own personal reason for needing this study.

People all around us are consumed with the rise of sin and evil.

We have become addicted to conspiracy theories and quite honestly, if you spend any time on the internet, we spend a ludicrous amount of time spreading and sharing the newest revelation of what the evil minions are up to.

For what?

We behave as if there's, that if we find a way, if we can catch them in their conspiracy, somehow we can expose it and stop it.

But the Bible says the exact opposite.

Sin will have its day.

For many, it's an addiction of selfish arrogance.

It's driven by the lie, if I can figure them out, then I'll be able to overcome them.

But that's a lie.

For it is not by my knowledge of what they are doing in the world that saves and equips me, it is the knowledge of what the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is doing in me that makes me the overcomer.

God didn't call us to trick the evil in the world.

He told us to triumph over it by the Word of our testimony.

You see, we spend so much time focusing on what evil is doing.

And by the way, how much, how well does that increase your joy?

I mean the nightly news just makes me dance before the Lord and the Holy Spirit.

All those conspiracy theories just really, wow, just enliven my joy.

No.

Pretty soon my wife has to remind me she's not one of the political candidates and I can stop yelling at her.

I get it, I'm not him.

That's what makes this topic so relevant.

The fact that sin is increasing should be the sign for us, it's time for us to start expecting something.

You see, Romans chapter 5, Paul says this amazing thing.

He says that where sin increases, grace increases all the more.

I've come across believers who are so downtrodden and so dejected by the immorality and all the chaos and all the negative stuff in the world, and it just seeps into their soul and it's all they can think about, so much so that I've had people say, "Well, the days of a revival are gone, they're never coming back," and I'm thinking to myself, "Are you kidding me?"

The Bible says that when sin increases, grace increases all the more.

These are not the days of discouragement, these should be the days of expectation.

And that being the case, I need to know and you need to know what the Lord says He is already planning to do for those who love Him and trust Him.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Lord, we give this message this day, our hearts and this series to You.

Lord do whatever is in line with Your goodness, Your graciousness and Your righteousness.

Fill our hearts and minds today, start a new journey in our lives.

I pray this in Yeshua's name, amen.

Well, this morning I want to lay some foundation for our study of the gifts.

And wow, a miracle of God's timing, it couldn't be better.

Why do I say that?

Because as we dive into this quick overview this morning that we're going to do of Romans and a little bit of 1 Corinthians, you will be amazed, I was amazed, at how much of the terminology that Paul uses to discuss this very topic of the presence of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit is drawn from the very season we find ourselves in right now.

Passover, unleavened bread and first fruits.

And our familiarity with that terminology is going to make these things jump off the page.

The word pictures in the feast of unleavened bread and first fruits are especially a powerful source for how Paul is going to talk to us about the Holy Spirit.

Let me show you what I mean.

Romans chapter 8, excuse me, Romans chapter 1 verses 8 through 12.

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because of your faith is, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world."

That's pretty good testimony, isn't it?

That's a great place to start.

"For God whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always praying, making requests, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you."

So at this point, Paul hasn't been to Rome, but he knows about their faith, he knows what's happening, he knows the spreading of the gospel.

And he says in verse 11, "For I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established, that is that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine."

Notice Paul hasn't even been, he hasn't even gotten into the body of his letter, and he's already expressing a passionate desire to go to Rome.

Why?

So that he can lay hands on them and he can impart a spiritual gift for their strengthening.

And I want you to take note that Paul says this after acknowledging how far their testimony of faith in God has already gone.

Now why is that important for us today?

He doesn't write them and tell them, "Wow, you are really missing the boat, I better come give you a gift."

He doesn't start this journey by saying to them, "Because you are so deficient in your walk, you need me to show up and give you a gift."

He's already testified that the Spirit of God is in them, moving in them, gifting them, and is multiplying their testimony around the world.

And yet, he still wants to see them to give them another gift in the Spirit.

I don't know about you, but that kind of jumped off the page for me.

As we approach this topic of the gift of the Spirit, I don't believe we should do so from the point of, "Well I'm just not good enough, or I'd be functioning with more of the gifts of the Spirit, or the reason I need to pursue the gift of the Spirit is because I'm a failure in God's eyes, because I'm not doing this gift."

Come on?

That's where people often start this journey.

That they start this journey looking for the gifts of the Spirit because somehow they've come to the conclusion that they are failing God by not operating in this gift of the Spirit.

And quite honestly, the Charismatic Revival preached that message loud and clear.

For a season, and then they kind of backed away from it, but for a season the message was if you don't speak in tongues, you don't even have the Holy Spirit.

Well that's very motivating, isn't it?

"Do I not have the Holy Spirit?"

But that's not where Paul starts, is it?

Paul doesn't start from declaring that they're deficient.

Paul starts from the place of the generosity of God's heart to give them even more.

And that's where I think we should start.

Not from a place of beating ourselves up because of what we didn't know, or what we haven't done, but just from this place of gratitude that God, whatever God ...

Has God done any good things in your life?

Come on, wave at me.

Has God done good things in your life?

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes.

>> Guess what?

He wants to do more.

You don't get so good with God that God says, "Well, you know, I've given them enough."

Isn't that good news?

The gifts of the Spirit aren't just given to deficient believers, they are given to strengthen believers throughout their life.

God wants you to have everything God wants you to have.

He gives because he loves, not because he condemns.

So let me ask you this.

Is it wrong to want or to seek that which he wants to give?

The correct answer is no.

But even in our modern day, with things like the prosperity gospel, where it's gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, and if I'm not filthy rich, once again, someone's going to tell me I'm deficient in the Holy Spirit.

The Bible doesn't say that.

You see how these things affect us?

You get to the place where you don't feel like you have the right to ask.

And yet, what does Jesus say is the foundation of discipleship in Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."

The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven as Jesus preaches and teaches it, is the manifest presence of God moving, God's power moving in your midst, in your life.

The Malkuthashamayim in Hebrew, the kingdom of heaven, is there.

Jesus says it's drawn near.

And the way you know it's drawn near is because it is impacting people's lives and it's the very thing that Jesus says, "Seek after it."

Now is it wrong to seek after that which we're told to seek?

Of course not.

Unless you're like Simon the magician and you're just seeking power for the sake of yourself.

And that's not going to work.

We're told to seek his righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Righteousness is the manifestation of God's holiness and his love, meaning when we see God act and give, it's because that is what his holiness and love do.

God's holiness and love always give.

This is why I cannot be a cessationist.

First of all, have I run out of need?

Nope.

Have you run out of need?

No.

Has God stopped loving?

Has God's holiness changed?

God cannot stop giving because that is the manifestation of love and holiness.

In fact, that is what righteousness is.

We've talked about this before.

The action of righteousness will always include some type of giving.

Charity, encouragement, forgiving.

It's grace giving.

That's what righteousness does.

That's how it manifests.

So by definition, seeking the kingdom is seeking the power that is the result of his presence in our life.

That's the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the gift.

And to seek his righteousness, to seek that which he has already freely decided to give to those who love and seek him, that's the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We seek those gifts so that we can receive?

No.

What does righteousness do?

Come on church, wake up with me.

It gives.

I don't seek the kingdom.

I don't seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit just so I can receive.

I seek them so I can do what God has done for me that I can freely receive so that I can freely give.

That's righteousness.

And because God hasn't changed his spots, and that's his MO in everything, I can't be a cessationist.

Every one of Romans lays out the transformational power of the gospel.

Remember Paul at the end of verse 16 through 18, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God.

For those who believe, to the Jew first, for in it there is a righteousness that is revealed."

What is he saying?

There is an evidence of God's holiness.

There's an evidence of God's love.

There's a manifestation.

This battery may be a cessationist.

Paul takes the first part of Romans just to talk about the transformational power of the gospel.

Then he takes the latter part of Romans.

You know that really weird part, the revelation of God's wrath and people turn away from God as creator and then their minds are given over?

Listen to what he says in Romans 124, "Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their heart to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them."

Isn't that interesting?

God gave.

What did he do?

He gave them what they wanted.

What they wanted destroyed their bodies.

This is very important because this is a juxtaposition to what the Holy Spirit is going to do in us.

They wanted what their lustful hearts wanted and so God gave them over to that and it destroyed the body.

But we seek the kingdom and his righteousness.

Did what they sought after in their heart affect the way they thought and lived?

You better believe it.

And that is why we're told to seek righteousness, a new appetite for the power of his presence in our lives so that we can freely give as we have freely received.

You see my friends, the gospel is the exact opposite of that self-centeredness but if God, I mean think about this, if God is willing to give them over to their lust, how much more is he willing to give us over to the love of his heart?

To give, to equip and when we seek God and his righteousness, when we seek his kingdom and he pours the spirit within us, what does it do?

It strengthens the body.

You see the juxtaposition?

So what you want is actually very, very important in this journey and I say that because I know good people, really good people who don't want the gifts of the spirit.

They're afraid of them.

I'm not saying that to beat them up but what I'm trying to say is if you don't want it, you don't get it.

But if you don't want it, guess who suffers?

The body.

In this day of rising evil, can we afford a body that is not filled with his presence and his gifting?

I don't think so.

It's okay to want what he wants to give but check your heart because he will give you what you want.

Romans chapter 3, very familiar passage, verses 21 through 26, "But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."

What does that verse say?

It says that there is a manifestation of righteousness that came separate from the law that the law and the prophets pointed to.

What is that righteousness?

Jesus.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who would believe for there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace.

What is a gift?

Something that is given.

A gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith.

This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier for the ones who have faith.

Notice how Paul describes what God did through and in Jesus.

He publicly revealed him as a propitiation.

Everybody say propitiation.

Now apologize for spitting on the person next to you.

This big huge theological word, it just means a covering.

It's the same word we use to describe the covering of the ark of the covenant where the blood is sprinkled.

When we go through the Passover Seder, somehow we are supposed to make the connection between the blood of the lamb that covered the house and a cup of the fruit of the vine.

How do we do that?

Well, if you go get some of the commentaries written by the Jewish sages, you'll see that they make a connection between the Hebrew word kos which means cup and another word that's built on its root, kesui which means covering.

Every cup that we drink is a reminder that we are redeemed and we are saved because we are covered.

And Paul wants us to know why did he do that?

Why did he publicly show that Jesus is our covering?

Because everything he did through Christ's body was to demonstrate righteousness.

Did you hear that?

Everything that he did in and through the body of Christ was to demonstrate righteousness.

Are you with me?

Why does he give us the gift of the Holy Spirit and why does the Holy Spirit give us the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we can do what?

Demonstrate talk to me, demonstrate righteousness.

There's a reason he demonstrated righteousness in the body of Christ and now he does the exact same thing in us by putting the Holy Spirit within us, gifting us so that we can go out and be a public demonstration of his righteousness.

Isn't that amazing?

What a privilege.

That's kind of scary because that also carries a responsibility.

Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness but how can he demonstrate his righteousness in me if I will not seek what he has for me in Christ?

Are you understanding the issue is desire?

What do I want?

What did he do for those who wanted the lust of their flesh?

Have it.

And what did it do?

It destroyed the body.

What happens in the body of Christ when we want, when we seek, when we desire the gift and the gifts of his presence?

What does God say?

No, no, I'm not into that today.

I stopped doing that a while back.

No.

He pours forth the Holy Spirit.

That's why he tells us the foundational challenge of discipleship is seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Romans chapter 8 verses 5 through 10, "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit.

For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it's not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit."

Do you believe that?

See, I think we can, amen, I think we can say it in church but sometimes we leave church and we go from the spirit right back to being in the flesh.

Paul says that's not who you are.

He says, "And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.

If Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you."

So what do you want church?

Death or life and peace?

Well you can say, "Oh I want life and peace."

Well guess what, you're going to have to want it.

It's not that you have to somehow go seek it in the context of finding something you don't already have but he is calling it to become the passion, the purpose, the focus of your life, that which you are pursuing.

Paul is passionately emphasizing that Christ's spirit is in you and because his Holy Spirit is in you it manifests in life but now take notice of the very terminology of this Passover season that we're in in Romans 8, 22 through 23, "For we know that the whole creation grown suffers the pains of childbirth together until now and not only this but we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our body."

Passover is the feast of first fruits and most of us are well aware that Paul will in 1 Corinthians 15 help us make the connection between that holy day and why Jesus resurrected on that day.

He is the first fruits of the resurrection but how many of you have spent any time focusing on the fact that you have received the first fruits of the Holy Spirit?

I hadn't.

Paul uses leaven terminology to focus our thoughts on what the Holy Spirit will bring about in our lives and in this season we are told to get the leaven out of our house.

Why?

Because if any part of the dough is leavened the whole part of the lump is leavened.

But what follows the feast of unleavened bread?

The feast of first fruits.

And church I want to suggest to you that part of the problem is we may be really good about talking about getting the leaven out of our house but we don't do a great job of talking about the leaven of the first fruits getting in our life.

He says we have the first fruits of the Spirit.

Is the first fruits holy?

Of course.

Then the whole lump is holy.

What's he talking about?

The body of Christ.

Romans 9, 16 Paul uses the same illustration to explain why there's hope for the restoration of the remnant of Israel because it started with the first fruit which was holy.

He writes in verse 16 of chapter 9, "If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also.

If the root is holy, the branches are too."

Church, we are the body of Christ filled with the unleavened first fruits of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit.

You see the illustration of leaven works both ways.

We focus so much on getting the old leaven out but spend so little time talking about getting the first fruits in.

And that starts tomorrow.

What does Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians 5, 7 and 8?

"Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened.

For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.

Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Man, that's awesome.

The problem is what Paul said just before it.

In 1 Corinthians 5, 6 he says, "Your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?"

And we won't have time to go into it today but understand that when Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians he starts also with a very positive affirmation of what God has done in their lives.

In fact, he goes so far as to say that they do not even, they are not lacking even one gift.

I mean that's literally what the Greek says, that they are not lacking one gift, that they have been enriched, they have been given everything.

And yet if you know anything about the Bible, if you know anything about the book of Corinthians, the very moment he stops talking about that he has to immediately start talking about divisions in the body.

Will I identify with this person?

I identify with that person.

That person baptized me.

Will Paul baptize me?

I know we don't have anything like that.

Will I keep the Zadok calendar?

Will I keep the Enochian calendar?

Will I keep the Orthodox rabbinic calendar?

Have I gone to Medlin?

Will I do Passover this way?

We've gotten so full of ourselves we even have types of Passovers we won't attend.

We have people celebrating in March, April, May, I'm just waiting for the next one to come down when we're celebrating Passover in July.

Why?

Because everybody is so full of themselves trying to be the one who's right.

I'm going to end with some confession here.

I don't know if it was last Monday, when it was.

I went to the store and I got a big old loaf of bread and a big old bag of tortillas.

Love me some tortillas.

Just to make it worse, I got some English muffins.

I came home and I put them on the counter.

Tanya looked at me like, "What are you doing?"

I want to be honest that most of the time we have tried on occasions to rid our house of all the physical leaven, but most of the time, to be truthful, unleavened bread becomes abstaining from eating it.

That's usually because our schedule is so crazy that we're going and being gone so much that we don't always have time to actually address the condition of the house.

You can stone me later.

I said, "Brent, why did you go buy all that leaven?"

There's a moment in the Passover where we hold a piece of bread, the afikoman, the hidden matzah.

One of the things that I teach in the Seder, because that's what we're supposed to do, is that that piece of matzah, which the church has used for the Lord's Supper, communion, whatever you want to call it, is more than just a symbol.

It has signatory authority because when you take that, we are warned not to partake of it in an unholy manner because what we are doing is, it is a testimony of what we believe.

If we don't believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we ought not take that piece of manna.

We should not eat it because we are testifying against ourselves.

That's why I went and got manna for my house this week.

Because when I look back at my life, I realize that when this season comes along, I have spent time making sure, "Oh, I don't want to eat that, that's got leaven in it.

Oh, I want to get rid of that, that's got leaven in it."

And I've done nothing to spend a ten seconds getting the leaven out of here and here.

And to spend the week not eating leaven is a testimony against myself.

And I said, "Lord, I'm not doing it until I do what you really want.

You want the leaven out of here."

Have you ever seen the movie, "The Jerk"?

Steve Martin, kind of a doofus.

There's a scene where he is working at a gas station and there is a whole display case full of cans of oil.

Are you old enough to remember those?

You'd fill up the gas and you could buy a can of oil and pour it in yourself.

If we don't do that, we drive in and let somebody else do it now.

But there's some guy that's stalking him and is from a distance with a gun, a rifle shooting him.

And as he shoots, he misses and he hits a can and the oil starts pouring out.

And he shoots again and the oil starts pouring out.

And he shoots again and the oil starts pouring out.

And Steve Martin is looking at this and his interpretation is, "He hates these cans."

And I think sometimes we come to this season and we think, "He hates that leaven.

Get it out of my house."

He doesn't hate leaven.

It's only a week.

And it ends with first fruits.

And I found myself thinking, "Am I a jerk?

Am I a doofus?

Am I spending all of my time trying to get that leaven out of my house and doing nothing to get it out of my heart and mind?"

I want to tell you something.

This has been one of the best Feast of Unleavened Breads I've ever had.

You know why?

Because I decided to be intentional about getting what he does hate out of my heart.

I've had a great week.

I fell.

I had a day where I didn't win so much.

It really beat me up.

In fact, I was so frustrated about it.

I'm like, "Lord, how am I going to stand, you know, and talk to him today about it?"

But you know, his mercies are new every morning.

Church, why am I telling you this?

Because he doesn't just want to get the leaven out.

He wants to get the leaven of the first fruits in.

Tomorrow is first fruits.

And it starts the 40-day or the counting of the Omer.

So you've spent a week getting the leaven out.

And today we begin our journey about focusing on letting the Holy Spirit in, seeking him, wanting him, opening our heart and mind to him.

You see, God never tells us just to empty the heart of one thing.

He wants to fill it with something better.

Leadership team, you can come back.

And you may not agree with me for the decision that I made.

Wait a second.

Nope, don't care.

The Bible says go and work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not mine.

I'm not saying it's wrong to get the physical leaven out.

But somehow if we're going to make this journey where we have the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it has to be something that we want.

It has to be something.

It's not -- I don't know how -- I'm not going to ask you to, you know, wave your hands because then you'd feel judged too.

And I'm not trying to.

But we've never successfully gotten all the leaven out.

And you probably never have either.

But now unleavened is coming to an end.

And it's time for a new journey.

And I want to encourage you with what we've seen in the Scripture today.

It's not wrong to want what He has already decided to give.

Amen?

Seek first this week the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Not because you feel like you're -- well, I don't do that.

No.

But because He's generous and He wants to give you more and more and more and more.

He'll give you what you need today, your daily bread.

He'll give you what you need tomorrow, your daily bread.

He will give and give and give and give.

He will give you words that are not your own.

He will give you speech that is not your own.

He will give you power that is not your own.

He will give and give and give because that's what a holy, loving God does, because that is His demonstration of righteousness.

And the world is waiting for you not to go out there and bemoan those who have given their hearts over to the lust of this world.

It is waiting for a demonstration of a people who know who God's righteousness is, who are filled with the gifts of His righteousness, and are ready to go out there and demonstrate in the way we speak, in the way we hug, in the way we give, in the way we pray, in the way we care.

I hope your life starting tomorrow is full of leaven, the leaven of the first fruits of His righteousness and His Spirit.

Amen?

Let's worship. (gentle music)