This morning Bob brought a good message from the parables series he is in on Sunday mornings. It was from Matthew 13:33. He talked about leaven and how it radically changes whatever it touches.
Bob used baking of bread as an illustration to show how leaven (yeast) works. I thought it was such a good illustration. Being somewhat handy in the kitchen, I could picture the things he was saying and it really made the sermon come to life for me.
He talked about how when the yeast is put in, it doesn't just work on part of the dough. It effects the whole thing. Picture it....you don't have only one end of the bread loaf rise and bake. The whole thing rises. This goes along with the verse that says "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump". It is a great picture of what happens when a person gets saved. The Holy Spirit moves in and they become a new creature. When true salvation comes, the person is different. They act, walk, talk, dress differently. Now, it may not be 100% of the time because they still fight against the old sin nature but there is a new desire to be different than before.
Another thing Bob talked about was that it's not only radical change that comes but gradual. It is gradual and progressive! You don't become super Christian overnight. There is growing to do. This comes through hearing preaching, reading the Bible and studying it and prayer. Some Christians grow slower than others in certain areas but the fact remains that the Bible says there WILL BE growth if they have the Holy Spirit in them. It is progressive growth...or should be. We should never stop trying to move toward more holiness, a better walk with the Lord, or better understanding of our knowledge of God's Word. We should never feel we have arrived or attained enough. We should keep striving to grow toward more righteousness. Back to bread baking...when making bread from scratch, you must give the dough time to rise before baking it. It gradually grows from the yeast that was put in until it is ready to be put in the oven. It also is a gradual process but is very progressive! Once started it continues until time to bake. Pretty cool idea huh!?
Thirdly, it's permanent! You can't undo yeast or leaven in dough. Once it's there, it's there. The process has begun and continues. You can't unbake a loaf of bread. Once you are saved, you remain saved until Jesus calls you home. The Bible is clear about this.
That's this morning's message in a nutshell. I thought it was such a neat way to illustrate how leaven works. By the way, I disagree with the teaching that every time leaven is mentioned in the Bible it refers to sin or something bad. For instance, the verse mentioned in Matthew 13:33 says that the kingdom of God is like leaven. So, for some who believe it is always bad when mentioned...heaven is bad? Noooo!
Just some illustrations to help you think about your Christian life.
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