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Self-Sabotage Series, Part 4
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Family, I want to begin with a statement that may be difficult to digest but is necessary for our development: The devil doesn't just weaponize relationships. He also weaponizes religion. Satan doesn't use a pitchfork, but he does use pulpits. His schemes don't always show up looking like sin; they also show up looking like spirituality.
Part of Satan's strategy is to influence individuals to sanctify their self-sabotage in the name of their spirituality. Consequently, abuse, exploitation, manipulation, and self-degradation have been delivered to the saints in the name of religion. It is self-sabotage hidden in spiritual practices.
This crisis we can trace all the way back to the book of Genesis, chapter 3. Before Satan weaponized Adam and Eve's relationship with each other, the first thing he did was weaponize their relationship with God. He convinced Eve that a spiritual standard was actually a personal restriction. He influenced her to eat and touch what God said not to eat and touch because he framed the religious standard as a personal restriction.
She saw rebellion as an act of spiritual liberation, and then she evangelized her husband to practice this distorted version of the faith. As a consequence, the whole entire human race has been impacted by their activity in Eden. Not just because he weaponized a relationship—he weaponized their religion.
This conversation happens after Jesus performs a miracle with fish and loaves. The text says after this miracle, there were seven loaves left over. So they just had a miraculous spiritual experience—they just saw a miracle of multiplication. God still works miracles of multiplication. It's when God orchestrates addition without adding. He says, "I don't have to give you more to give you more. I'll take what you give me and I'll multiply what you give me."
After the miracle, Jesus and the disciples get in the boat because they're getting ready to go to a different destination. On the journey, they get hungry. One disciple says, "Give me get the bread out so we can eat. It's 12 of us. We got seven loaves. We can share the seven loaves and everybody can be full." Somebody goes back to the bag and they look in the bag and it's not seven loaves—it's one loaf. They're angry. They're hangry. They're arguing because they're like, "Why did who forget the loaves? How did you pick up one and not pick up the other six?"
But they left provision in one season that they needed for the next one. In one season, they had seven. In one destination, they had seven. And then when they get on the boat to go to a different place, they realize they left six in the past when they should have brought six into the future.
Whenever you hit a season and God gives you seven and you're not hungry, you need to ask God, "What is this seven for?" Because if you consume your seven when you're not hungry, you're only going to have one when you get hungry. Don't waste the loaves on something you don't need because you may hit a season when it is something you do need and you've left the loaves in a past season.
Here's a question I would encourage every believer to ask whenever God in his generosity and benevolence blesses us with more than enough. When you get overflow unexpectedly, just ask God the question: Now what is this for? Because if this is for what I want to do with it, I know what to do. But if this is something I'm going to need on the boat, give me wisdom not to consume in my now something I'm going to need in my later.
Watch what happens. They're arguing with each other about the loaves naturally. And Jesus uses the argument as an opportunity to address something spiritually. It's super important that you notice the sequence of the conversation. They had just experienced a supernatural miracle because they had watched the miracle of multiplication. And immediately after the miracle, Jesus warns them of the danger of spiritual error.
They had just had a move of God. And after the move of God, Jesus said, "Watch out now." They had just had an encounter with the power of God. And after the encounter, Jesus says, "Now watch out now because your spiritual experiences don't exempt you from spiritual error." He says, "I can be right about this, but that doesn't mean you're not wrong about that."
Jesus says to them: > "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
He uses yeast as a metaphor to describe ideologies and theology that infiltrate and influence a person's faith in a destructive way. Jesus is telling them, "I know you just had a spiritual experience, but I want you to be aware of what's influencing you."
Watch this. It starts small, but then it rises and spreads. So he says, "Now you just had this spiritual experience. I need you to watch what starts rising in you."
He says, "Be careful." He causes them consciousness about this issue because it can happen unconsciously because yeast can be rising and you not feel it rising. Pride can be rising and you not feel it rising. Arrogance can be rising and you not feel it rising.
He attaches two specific adjectives to yeast. First of all, he says, "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees."
The Pharisees were a strict, influential sect of Judaism known for their devotion to the law of Moses as well as their interpretations and oral traditions that expanded upon that law. This group was deeply respected by people, but deeply despised by Jesus. His most harsh rebukes were to this group when he says in John 8, "You are of your father the devil." He is talking about this group when he says, "You brood of vipers." He is talking about this group when he says, "You hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogue praying so that you may be seen and heard of men."
It is not them per se that he despises, but it is what rises in them. They were known for their legalism, elitism, judgmentalism, and sectarianism.
They held their personal practices at the same standard as scriptural truth. So they treated the oral tradition with the same amount of authority as the written law. The written law is a scriptural standard that everyone should universally follow. The oral tradition was their commentary on scripture. The scripture is trustworthy. Your commentary and your interpretation is suspect. So I'm obligated to do what the scriptures say, but I'm not obligated to do what you think they mean.
This legalism produced elitism because it's like: if you are not carrying out my interpretation of what the scriptures say, then you don't take the scriptures as seriously as I do. Not realizing that sometimes your personal practice wasn't a reflection of your love for God, but your personal practice is sometimes a reflection of your love for sin.
So they're acting like they're doing this because they're running into Jesus, but they're really trying to run out of that.
Whatever the Bible says, every believer should be universally held to that. True. But the application of scriptural standards is based on your wiring, your spiritual journey, and the unique temptations you've been exposed to. So the boundaries you need to set may be right for you. But if someone's activity doesn't violate a scriptural standard, you have no right to impose those boundaries on other people.
The Pharisee projects their own issues on everyone else and assumes that if you don't have to do this to stay right, you don't love him like they love him. But it may mean you didn't expose yourself to what they exposed yourself to. So you're not fighting that. You're fighting something else. But assuming your fight is everybody's fight when what you need to do is hold the line for you.
If your eye offends you, I got to go. This is the Bible, the scriptural standard everybody should adhere to. The way that is applied is based on your wiring, your past, your temptations, where you are in your spiritual journey.
First, it robs you of balance. When you rob the balance, it undermines your ability to be a Christian witness. This is why Christians always create these culture wars against the world. You're mad at the world because you're not doing your job. The world is out here indifferent because you're not influential. So you want to pick fights with the world instead of wondering: "Why don't they want what we got? Why aren't they coming to us at night like Nicodemus came to Jesus at night? Why aren't they climbing the tree to be with us the way Zacchaeus climbed the tree to be with Jesus? Maybe because we're not like Jesus."
To properly represent Jesus, you have to be full of grace and truth—not half grace, not half truth. Standing 10 toes down on God's standard and then meeting people with grace when they miss it. But the Pharisee abuses grace because they're moral, not Christian. You do know that's not the same, right? You do know if I don't steal, that just means I'm not a thief. It doesn't mean I'm like Jesus.
It robs your balance not only in terms of your witness, but balance in terms of your life. I could take you to a scripture where Paul literally addresses people in Corinth who don't understand biblical balance, and he's like, "Sir, ma'am, you're married now, so you've got to pray, but you can't pray all day in a certain way. You're married now. You've got kids now. You've got to pray at the soccer game."
Some people have the yeast of the Pharisee rising up in you or it spread to you from others. You rob your life of biblical balance. So in the name of working for the Lord, you actually disobey the principle of the Sabbath. No balance. I'm running for Jesus, and Jesus took naps.
Second, it robs you of blessing. I could take you to Luke where Jesus talks about "Give and it shall be given unto you." We can take that principle and apply it to everything. But he speaks very specifically there to judgment: "Judge not. For the same measure that ye meet, it shall be measured back to you."
When judgmentalism rises up in me, when legalism rises up in me, that's a seed I sow and that determines a harvest I'm going to reap. So if you don't learn how to live grace, how to give grace, you're going to learn what it feels like to live without it when you need it.
Third, it restricts you from becoming. Phariseism creates this illogical elitism. I call it illogical because it is actually a religion that is theologically inferior to the ways of Jesus. But you couldn't tell them that. They thought they were so theologically astute. And Jesus would be like, "Bro, you don't even understand the purpose of the Sabbath. Like, you're coming hard at the disciples. Why are they picking corn on the Sabbath? The man wasn't made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man."
There's this elitism that they carry that's illogical because it's inferior. But when a person operates with elitism, they already think they are who God's calling them to be. So they never become it. Here's the danger of Phariseism: it popularizes itself in waves.
I've been reading my Bible regularly for about 30 years. I've seen a lot. I've seen the waves and the waves sweep up two groups of people. One: newer Christians who are zealous spiritually but not anchored theologically. So all of a sudden they have this zeal, but as the Apostle Paul says to believers in Romans, it's not according to knowledge. So you just learned the difference between Corinthians and Chronicles, but you think you're qualified to identify a false teacher. You just got saved last week, but you think you're right about it.
But then he also says, "The yeast of Herod." Pharisees—that's legalism. Herod—that's syncretism. So you go from one extreme where you can't do nothing, and then you go to the other extreme where people think "I can do anything."
Syncretism is the blending of beliefs with the faith that don't complement each other. And Jesus said you've got to watch because that'll spread to you from others and you'll be operating in divine rebellion thinking you're spiritually awakened.
Ain't that crazy how some people lead a church and the rest of us don't? Y'all just don't. So none of us have sense. It doesn't work for you. It only works if you work it right. So there's a yeast of the Pharisee and then there's a yeast of syncretism. And Jesus told people that literally walk with him, "Watch out for both because both can rise up in you or spread to you."
This is not a problem to be solved. It's a tension to be managed. If you're really trying to live a third-way life, you've got to be aware of when you slide into Phariseism and pull yourself out. And then you've got to be aware when you're leaning towards syncretism and pull yourself out because full of grace and truth requires tension.
Legalism says: "I'm going to kill you for doing it." Syncretism says: "Do it as much as you want." The third way says: "I'm not going to kill you for doing it, but stop. Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."
I'm not going to kill you for doing it, but stop. Yeah.
What God is leading this house into is actually the ways of Jesus. Deliverance is happening through this series, but it's deliverance from religion. It is deliverance from the second way. Some of us need healing because that yeast that spread from the Pharisee has made you sick. You have no balance. You're not becoming, and it's robbing you of blessing.
And if you're here today and you've never met the Jesus of the Bible, I want to introduce you to him. Not an American Jesus, but a Jesus of the Bible. Not the Jesus in our head, but the Jesus in the Bible. I want you to get to know him, because he already knows and loves you.
