Cleaning House

Exodus 12:17–20 ESV

And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

Here we are, with our first sermon of 2021.

As always, we begin our new year with plans for how we are going to start fresh.

Out with the old

In with the new

We are going make changes in our lives!

We like to carry that over to our spiritual lives.

We think about the things we should do more:

Read our Bibles

Pray

Be more charitable

The list goes on.

But we find ourselves struggling with these resolutions, and eventually we give up.

This is the all-too-familiar pattern!

So now, you are probably thinking too things.

We’ve heard all this before.

What does this have to do with the Exodus 12?

When we think about changes, we think about external things.

A new diet.

Working out.

Getting better organized.

They’re good things, and they take effort, but it’s all something I am doing.

I can change a habit, change my appearance, maybe even change my behavior, but am I really changing what needs to be changed?

Exodus 12 gives instructions regarding Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This festival is remembering how God delivered the Israelites from Egypt.

It also points the way to understanding how Christ delivered us from sin.

As part of the festival, it was required that all leaven be removed from the house.

(Showing bag of yeast) You might think that would be an easy task.

“I’ll just go to my pantry, put my yeast in a Tupperware container, and store it in the car until everything’s over.”

But there is so much more to it than that.

Yeast is a type of mold.

I know it’s disgusting, but it’s true.

And just like any mold, yeast quickly reproduces in the right conditions.

These women didn’t buy their yeast from the store in nice, easy to use packets.

They kept it in jars.

It was way too easy for yeast spores to fall unnoticed when they were cooking.

These spores were free to begin reproducing in the cracks of the floors, spreading around the house on people’s feet or clothing.

Any and all mold are a type of leaven, so removing the leaven from the house meant deep cleaning to make sure there wasn’t any mold or mildew anywhere in the house.

It wasn’t just thrown out.

All the leaven that was found in the house was burned in the fireplace.

Then the fireplace was cleaned, and the ashes were taken from the house.

In other words, they didn’t just hide the stuff until it was convenient to bring it back.

They destroyed it.

In this time of looking at new beginnings, we have to take a serious look at ourselves.

We want God to do great things in our lives.

We want deliverance from bondages.

We want a change in our circumstances.

We want to see change.

But we want it to happen without actually changing.

If we want real change, it has to be in the most fundamental parts of ourselves.

It has to go beyond changes in behavior.

We need a change in our heart.

When God instructed the Israelites to completely remove the leaven, he was symbolically showing them the need to get rid of sin.

People easily repent of the big stuff, thinking that those things are real sins.

But we hold onto little things in our lives, not realizing its impact.

Matthew 17:20 compares faith to a mustard seed that produces a giant tree when planted.

But, as small as a mustard seed is, a yeast spore is even smaller.

A virtually microscopic spore of yeast, left unchecked, will reproduce and multiply until it infects everything around it.

We can think we have gotten control of that sinful nature, only to find it rising up within us again.

Part of the reason is that we keep ourselves in an environment that is perfect for that sin to grow.

We say we want to forgive others, but we surround ourselves with constant reminders of what they did.

We allow negative talk to surround us and feed our spirits.

We continue to put ourselves in positions to be tempted in areas that we are weak in.

We can be so confident in ourselves that we don’t notice that tiny bit of leaven creeping in and growing.

But another reason is that we refuse recognize sinful attitudes for what they are.

I am justified in my unforgiveness.

I’m not really getting drunk—it’s just a slight buzz.

Why do we really need to get married?

It’s just a piece of paper.

Nobody really waits anymore.

What’s wrong with telling a customer what they want to hear? It’s just good business.

I love God, but my spiritual life has nothing to do with my personal life.

In other words, we fail to surrender EVERYTHING to Jesus at the cross.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal.

And we have held onto it for so long, it feels like part of us.

Who will I be if I let go of that hatred?

A young drug dealer once came to Jesus, but he turned away when he realized he was expected to stop selling drugs.

He was making thousands of dollars a week, and he supported his family.

His mom and grandma, brothers and sisters, his girlfriend and their baby all depended on him and his income.

How could a good God expect him to give that up?

He didn’t have an education.

How could he support everyone on $8 an hour at McDonald’s?

But how can we expect God to do what he wants to do in our lives if we don’t give him EVERYTHING?

Before God can change anything else, he needs to first change US.

It’s not enough for us to try to change what we think is wrong with us, because we will never go deep enough.

The thing about leaven is that you can never truly get rid of all of it on your own.

There will always be some microscopic spore you overlooked.

If you want that moldy contamination out of your house, you really need a professional.

To kill that mold.

To treat your house so that new mold won’t come in and take root.

As we look to this new year, and the changes we need to make in our lives, we really need to ask God to show us what really needs to change in us.

And then we need to surrender every part of us to him so that he can clean house.

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Let’s read the following together, as a prayer of confession and repentance. Don’t just speak the words, mean them from your heart, just as King David did when he wrote them.

Psalm 51:1–14 ESV

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.