Leave In The Leaven

hallelujah it's it's good to be in the house of god always but not just to come to a building but to come into the presence of god to feel the presence of the almighty god without him it's just emptiness an empty building empty ritual empty liturgy but when he steps in when he steps in and does the things that only he can do that's when that's when the miraculous takes place that's when the glory of god is seen amen god bless you this morning for your faithfulness we welcome all of our visitors to the house of the lord this service is all about you it's about those who may not know the lord in the

power of the holy ghost and pentecost pentecost sunday is about you coming to know the lord in the power of his spirit i'll tell you like the kardashians tell their boyfriends i won't be keeping you long but i do have something i want to preach this morning by the power of god and by the anointing of the lord not conventional i i probably if i would just stick to the script should read from acts chapter 2 verse 38 you know or acts chapter 2 verse 1 when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all of and in one place and one accord and you know and we could read the conventional scriptures but

i want to take us all the way back to this what we are celebrating today in leviticus the second chapter verse 11. no meat offering everybody say no meat offering that is a distinct prohibition none zip nada nil nothing no meat offering which she shall bring unto the lord shall be made with leaven now leaven was simply yeast for ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any everybody say in any in any offering of the lord made by fire everybody got the prohibition no leaven no way in any sacrifice will ever burn on this altar verse 15 of chapter 23. this is pentecost and ye shall count unto you from the morrow after

the sabbath from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering seven sabbaths shall be complete seven sabbath equals 49 days even unto the moral or the day after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days everybody say 50 days that's pentecost and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the lord you shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of 10 to 10th deals they shall be a fine flower uh-oh they shall be bacon with leaven they are first fruits unto the lord no leaven will ever appear on the altar of god but this divine exemption on the day of pentecost says oh okay bring me two loaves and leave in

the leaven leave in the leaven and from that subject i would preach to you this morning leave in the leaven god bless you and you may be seated in jesus now what we just read is an apparent contradiction to the jewish mind they had within the confines of the law what they called hakuzim they were the anomalies the aberrations the things that they had to do but they didn't understand why they were doing them and they didn't understand why they worked it's like if at home you know when you when you take a dustin cloth and you and you wipe your furniture down you're cleaning the furniture but you just got the rag dirty it's

a contradiction they would bring their sacrifices to the priests and in the cleansing of the people with these sacrifices it made them clean but it made the priest unclean and he would remain unclean until the evening when when he would be welcomed back into the congregation they couldn't understand how these things worked and i can tell you that there is still a mystery an aura of mystery about god that we don't understand i can't tell you about how all it works but he has commanded certain things of us as he did of them there was always this contradiction or this aberration the anomaly that was placed into their ceremonies the first pentecost and i won't

spend the time to go into all the story but it sprang from the lord speaking to moses while they were yet in egypt and he told him one day he says this month shall be the beginning of months for you now on their civil calendar it was already the seventh month but god says i'm gonna make this the beginning of months for you so on the sacred calendar the first month was the seventh month on the civil calendar and the seventh month of the sacred calendar was the first month of the civil calendar it's about as confusing i mentioned this to the prayer group the other day it's about as confusing as me and my

checkbook because they had a way of doing things you understand the the jewish uh and and these rabbis that study the chronology of judaism they they have a way of figuring things out there are in judaism what's called the four gates certain holidays could only fall on certain days and so in order to accommodate that they would just throw in an extra day adjustment we will we will add a day here or we'll subtract a day here in order to make for example yom kippur the the the or rosh hashanah the the new year it can't fall on a monday a tuesday uh uh uh or it can't fall on a wednesday or a a

friday or a sunday but it can fall on a monday tuesday thursday or saturday you got that like i said it's about as confusing as my checkbook sometimes i get off try to balance that thing and and finally i just put in their adjustment and i reconcile the two of them it's not hard when you don't have a lot you know i'm not on the forbes fortune 500 list yet you know matter of fact you know you got problems when you go to the atm for a bank balance and it spits out a recipe for ramen new noodles with a food pantry phone number on the back of it you got problems so they tried

to fix things and so the lord says here's what you're going to do the first passover we all know the story about how they they would take a lamb on the 14th day of nisan the 14th day of that first month and they would kill that lamb and then on the 15th day they would eat that lamb and so when god was bringing them out of egyptian bondage he says kill the lamb on the 14th day of the month take the blood and sprinkle it on the doorpost and then get inside your house the way that you always come in is through the blood there is no other way to get in and escape the

penalty of sin except by the blood but there are those religions out there who will tell you you don't need to do anything more than just profess i'm telling you that according to what god told them in egypt was not only do you put the blood on the doorpost you also make a meal of the lamb so that when you you might come in through the blood but when you go out you're going to be packing the lamb you you can't make the journey without the lamb on the inside you got to have that spirit there is something to this you come in by the blood but you need the spirit of god to make

the journey you got to have it and so when he brought them out of egyptian bondage on passover and unleavened bread he brought them 50 days later to a mountain called sinai that burned with fire and there he gave moses all the points of the law there was a five-point covenant that he established to make a people an ethnic group into a nation he gave them a law and established their civil social and religious orders he gave them a tabernacle a central place of worship he gave them a priesthood he gave them sacrifices and he gave them holy days that would memorialize what god had done for them and here was given the instructions concerning

what would be acceptable sacrifices in the sight of god and what we read to you was the feast of what we call pentecost to them it was called shavuot it is the feast of weeks but we've got a much cooler name than weeks we don't just say welcome to week sunday we say welcome to pentecost pentecost is not an old testament term it's only used three times in the new testament but it's a translation uh transliteration of the greek term for fifty it means fifty days and and so after jesus he became the first fruits of the resurrection 50 days after that is when the promise of the father came into the world and so

50 days after this feast called unleavened bread and first fruits there would be a feast a sacrifice as it were right in the middle of their year their sacred year there would be this feast and it was kind of a nothing holiday we get excited about pentecost but to them it wasn't much it just was the end of the wheat harvest and the beginning of the fruit harvest they were going from the labors of reaping their fields of wheat and barley and now they were going to reap the oil and the wine wish i had time to spend on this for a while but what you and i are enjoying when we talk about pentecost

is not something that we have labored for it's something that is given to us it is the oil of anointing and the wine of the spirit we enjoy the joy and the gladness of the gifts that god has given into our lives but during this time god says i'm going to tell you exactly how to celebrate this day this feast of weeks this thing called pentecost now one of two major types of corruption in the bible is this thing called leaven god apparently did not like leaven it became a type of sin in a person's life corruption that would permeate a little leaven he said jesus said leaveneth the whole lump just a little bit

of sin makes you a sinner it doesn't take a whole lot and so god apparently says don't ever bring anything to my altar that has the corruption or the stain or the stigma of sin about it except for this one time this feast of weeks this thing called pentecost he and and he says i'm gonna tell you how to do this now their altar was not your backyard barbecue grill it was about seven and a half feet square it was about four and a half feet tall it had a huge grill on it and a huge fire was built under this thing and so he says to them on this day in this feast this

is going to be the order of sacrifice i want you to bring seven flawless lambs bring a young bull bring two rams bring meal offerings and drink offerings can you imagine the carcasses piling up on that altar of sacrifice and the fire kindling upon them seven lambs a bull two rams meal offerings and drink offerings and he said beside that bring me a a a goat for a sin offering and two more lambs for a peace offering what an approach to god this everybody say this is pentecost a huge sacrifice would precede the waving of these loaves and so they would pile the altar full of these sacrifices these carcasses of lambs and bullocks and

rams and meal offerings and drink offerings and the fire would begin to kindle upon them creating billows of smoke can you imagine the scene as the smoke begins to billow as it leaps upon the bodies of these sacrifices and the smell like a barbecue going on the smell of meat cooking on the grill but the lord says that is a sweet smelling savor to me so you've got the billowing smoke and this scent this aroma that is ascending into the heavens and then and only then was the priest to take these loaves and begin to wave them over the altar imagine the scene to us it's alien we can't we can't hardly picture it but

you've got this priest with two loaves of bread and and he's standing by the altar that's just pouring out smoke and pouring out this great aroma that's ascending to god and he begins to look like a wild man as he begins to wave these loaves in the smoke of the fire that's coming off of the sacrifice waving something that heretofore could never be brought into the holy place it could never be brought before the lord this was the anomaly the thing that they could not understand it was the presentation of something that would never be able to enter into the presence of god the priest was bringing something that god had distinctly prohibited and now

he is waving it on the altar or by the altar of sacrifice and while we know that sin can never enter the presence of god somebody say amen god hates sin he abhors sin but on this day of pentecost god acknowledged something about sin he was saying i can never get it out of your nature i can never get it completely out of you but i can do this there's going to be smoke billowing from the altar of sacrifice while the priest is brazenly waving these loaves flaunting them in the face of god as it were say listen i have never found any other reason for you to wave everybody wave at me the only

reason you do that is to get my attention every other time when sinful man enters into the presence of god he says hide me from his presence but in this case on the day of pentecost sinful man steps into the presence of god and god says because of the billowing smoke it's overwhelming the sight of sin it's obscuring it from my eyes and because of the sweet smelling savor it's obscuring the stench of sin and it's not reaching me and i can see something going on down here and something that was formally totally unacceptable now became acceptable why did it become acceptable because of god's choice god simply says i'm going to do it what

made it acceptable let me just interject something here hell would intimidate you and me by quantifying sin making book on us that we're going to make the wrong decision your sin so hell says is too big it's too much you've sinned too many times for too long you've sank too low and you've gone too far that's what hell says about our sin but as god looks at all of that he is more taken by the size of the sacrifice then he is by the size of our sin he's not looking at our sin except through the filter of the smoke of the sacrifice that he himself provided on the altar hallelujah his sacrifice is bigger

than your sin his sacrifice is greater than the size of your sin i'm here to tell you this morning that there is a grace that is greater than all of your sin it's not too big you haven't fallen too far you haven't moved too far away from him the grace of god will be under you when you reach the bottom hallelujah the bible says and this is my proof where sin abounded men flaunt their sin in the face of god but where sin abounds we say our world's too far gone it's never too far gone from the grace of god you say my family is lost and they won't come back they've never too far

from the grace of god they haven't sinned too big or gone too far to the depths where sin abounded whew look at the sin god he says no look at the sacrifice look at what i did look at how much i gave to provide away let me tell you something this morning if you're here visiting with us if you're online watching this don't let the stigma of sin keep you from the power of pentecost don't let the satan tell you that the sin is and the stain is too great don't let him tell you that because the power of pentecost is the sacrifice will overwhelm any sin that you may bring to the altar there's

an army out here of people that are living testimonies to the power of god that says hey i was one of those i'll speak to the sinner today and tell you that what you are i was and what i am you can be not because of me but because of the sacrifice of calvary because of the blood that jesus christ shed for me because of the grace of god that caught a rape sinner and picked him up out of the depths up and set him back on a rock don't let the stigma of sin keep you away from the power of pentecost today give me a witness here anybody come when you were drug addicted

somebody needs a stand and give a wave offering right now if you were in drugs give a wave offering if you were bound by alcohol stand and give a wave offering if you were bound by tobacco stand and give a wave offering if you came out of a messy family situation stand and give a wave offering if your marriage was messed up stand and give a wave offering if you were nothing more than a garden variety center you need to stand and give god the glory because of where he's brought you from oh yes oh yes there's a great cloud of witnesses an army of alcoholics and tobacco users and addicted to pornography and all

kinds of things of sin but god but god said i'm looking through this at them through the filter of my sacrifice i can't smell their sin because i smell the sweet smelling savor and the aroma from my sacrifice you can be seated ah grace that is greater we sang several songs i noticed the lyrics we sang about chains being broken there's one song caught my attention if you got pain he's a pain taker if you're lost if you feel lost he's a waymaker if if you need freedom or saving he's a prison shaken savior if you got chains he's a chain breaker today i'm talking about one who is looking past your sin and the

person that you are to the person that you can be when you come and you give yourself to him huh i wish i was talking to a whole bunch of sinners today but i'm thankful to be talking to a bunch of sinners saved by the grace of god hallelujah if you think you're too sinful let me introduce you to somebody who says hold my coat as a parent he was terrible one of his sons raped one of his daughters and then her brother killed him you think you got a messed up family this guy had it then his son rebelled against him went into his wives and in the in the sight of all of

israel and tried to take the kingdom away from him take his position away from i'm saying you think you're a sinner and you've got problems david says hold my jacket as a husband he's doing the ancient version of pornography as he walks out on the balcony one day and sees a woman over there in the next yard and she's bathing and he says i gotta have her doesn't matter that she's married he brings her into the the palace and he has his way with her turns around and has her husband killed so that he you think you're a sinner you think you're beyond hope you think you're too far gone you think you've got problems

hold my jacket he delivered up not only uriah to be murdered he also delivered up seven of saul's offspring to the gibeonites for them to be killed anybody multiple don't raise your hand multiple murders in here today no serial killers this guy he had some sin in his life how then did he become who he was because everybody say god's choice god's choice it was only because of god we use that term listen after his own heart we use it as david's surname david a man after god's own heart if you go back to first samuel chapter 12 verse 13 this is the way the dialogue went god speaks to israel and he said i

gave you a man after your choosing and after your desire first samuel 13 14 he says this time i'm going to find me a man after my choosing and my desire it wasn't speaking of the character of this man because we saw what his character really was it wasn't speaking to the character of david whew it was speaking about the choice of god when god chooses you my friend you don't have to remain what you are what god imputes is stronger than what nature imparts to you you may have been the son of an alcoholic you don't have to be that you may have come out of the depths of sin because of a genealogy

that you shared with somebody but after god chooses you you don't have to be that any longer unacceptable becomes acceptable because of that amazing grace whoa how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me that's where we all were and so david after he realizes this he tells god i'm going to build you a house and god says forget it boy but i'm going to build you a house i'm going to make you a throne i'm going to build you a kingdom that's going to be lasting forever and so this same guy that i was talking about with all the family problems and with all the issues going on in his life and he

got a glimpse of the glory of god and the bible says that he brought back the ark of god to the heights of zion now the tabernacle of moses was still standing they could have taken it there but david said no no no no we're going to make this accessible you realize that david got by with stuff that got other people killed why god's choice god's choice and so david says bring back that ark and and we're not going to build a tabernacle it's not going to it's not even going to have an altar it's not going to have a labor it's not going to have a courtyard not going to have anything i'm just

going to put up a tent i'm just going to build a tent and what this man with all of his dysfunctional problems did was he established a new order of worship when he put the ark of god just in a tent an old order of priests learned a new order of worship listen you can read it for yourself after the initial sacrifices were burned before god there was never another sin offering offered on an altar in the tabernacle of david instead sister christie he said you're going to be a priest i want heman and asaph and ethan and i want them to get instrument this is what his tabernacle is all about the one that

david established this guy that felt the grace of god he said from now on you're not just a musician you're a priest unto god brother brian you don't just sing songs you're a priest unto god this is not about just showing talent this is about being a priest unto god this is what david established with his tabernacle was a new order of worship because we understand that the sacrifice has already been made and so when we come here to the house of god it's all about this i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice what are we supposed to do we're supposed to praise ye

the lord let everything that hath breath praise ye the lord praise him on the instruments of music praise him on the uh in the songs that you're saying praise gee this is a new order of worship folks we call it church service it really should be church service replacing those burning carcasses were singers and musicians and their ark was not hidden behind the veil my god you could get up close and personal to the presence of god now whereas before you couldn't do that david says you know enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise but but when he got rid of all that he said dwelling now in the secret

place of the most high i'm able not i can bypass the courtyard and all those sacrifices and come directly into the presence of god and i can worship him here folks what a privilege and an opportunity we have in jesus christ we can come into the presence of god and worship unadulterated worship there were no courts there were no altar no labor no holy place and no veil this is david everybody say david's tabernacle after peter preached on pentecost fast forward up to the time when cornelius and his household had received the holy ghost and they were having a dispute what are they doing here the jew says what a what are them guys doing

here they don't follow all the stuff that we follow church get ready god's gonna save who he wants to save they're not going to look like us they're not going to come from the same background that we've come from they're not going to know the same things that we know they had the same dispute in the early church and james stood up in acts chapter 15 verse 16 and he says this after this i will return and build again the tabernacle not of moses not solomon's temple not zerubbabel's temple i'm going to build the temple the tabernacle of a man who was an abject failure in himself but he tempted my cause and made my

presence available he said i'm going to raise up i'm going to build again the tabernacle of david which is falling down this is what happened on the day of pentecost let's stand i'm going to quit leaving the leaven let me tell you where you've come today on pentecost sunday the day of pentecost hebrews chapter 12 verse 18 says this you're not coming to the mouth that might be touch that burn with fire nor into blackness and darkness and tempest that was moses that was moses gig right there you couldn't come near the presence of god brother brad because if you did god would kill you but where have we come but ye are come remember

where david took the tabernacle remember where he pitched the tent it was on mount zion you've not come to sinai you you have come to this raised up tabernacle of david mount zion the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem and an innumerable company of angels my god i don't think that we fully appreciate the place where we are today that old priest could only go one time a year pull that veil back and go into the presence of god but here we are as often as we want in this tabernacle of david this day of pentecost we can pull back the tent flap and walk full face into the presence of god let's

thank him for that right now oh god we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna do a march right here in a few minutes and any visitor that wants to come any guests that's among us i want you to feel comfortable to join these the the march of the redeemed what about those loaves oh brother the garden i forgot about them what about those loaves you know those those loaves that had leaven in them that leaven that can never be brought into the holy place here's what god said to do i want the priest to take those loaves home and eat them the priest was supposed to take that those loaves and eat them so the next

day when he comes to the tabernacle he's got the loaves in him and now he can enter into the holy place with that which could never enter into the holy place before but because it's in him because it's in him in him we move and we breathe we have our very being in him everything that we do folks is in him that which was unholy and unclean because he took it in him by one spirit are you all baptized into one body i wasn't qualified i was not a levite i was not of the tribe of aaron i was not of that familial lineage but by him by him therefore if any man be in

christ that's the key just be in christ and if you're in christ there is a throne of mercy full of grace to help in a time of need and i can come boldly before that throne not because of who i am but because i am in him in him for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him in him i just want david's ragtag army to flood the front of this church you know what it says of david's army it says they were in debt all that were distressed he got he got the dregs of society following him where

were we before the lord found us how far down did he have to reach to pick us up and pull us out of sin i'm telling you that what he's done for all of these whose hands are waving before the lord he can do it for you also if you'll just repent of your sins you'll be found acceptable in the sight of the lord come on church i want us to come with a with a worship i want us to come with a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise unto the lord this is pentecost it's what it's all about it's entering into the presence of the lord this is that which was spoken by the prophet

joel thanks be to god because in him hallelujah i can rejoice this is what we've come to do tear down strongholds break the chains i'm in trouble in jesus name tonight we got a right hey all you got to do is praise him just begin to worship him you need the presence and the power of god in the holy ghost just lift those hands acknowledge before the lord i need you i need you i want to be in you jesus christ tonight we've got a right to shake the foundation with grace is hallelujah this is what we've come to do tonight is hallelujah now with no music would you begin to shake the foundation with

phrase can we praise him for what he's done where he's brought us from and where he's taken us are you thankful that he became the sacrifice for us in acts chapter 2 when peter was preaching he said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost but that next verse is very important it says for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off it doesn't matter it doesn't matter your race it doesn't matter your education it is for everyone that believes are you thankful that you and i

are counted in that hallelujah one more time as we close can we thank him lord we thank you for the sacrifice your sacrifice you died for us and you filled us with the power of the holy ghost and we thank you we thank you hallelujah hallelujah and it feels like pentecost in here today