So they're standing there and a chuppah appears and these languages of fire sit over top of them. What are the voices saying? Will you marry Me? Will you marry Me? And they reject it. They say no, Moses, don't let God speak to us anymore lest we die. You speak to God. We want somebody to go between us and God. We're not worthy. We're not worthy of this. We can't have this, so God instituted a feast every year on this day to commemorate it. You can read about it in Leviticus 23, we don't have time tonight. It's called the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Pentecost, because when you're standing at the base of a mountain and you see the thing fill up with smoke, and you see tongues of fire over their head, where do you see that happen again? Acts 2, which is the Day of Pentecost, which is the exact same day as that. It's just the anniversary of that day years later - so every year on that day they had to come together and they had to celebrate this day that God proposed to them.
On that day in Leviticus 23 it's the only place in the whole Bible that they were commanded to bring bread made with leaven. Everywhere else it had to be unleavened bread, but on this day it was different than all other days. They had to bring bread made with leaven. What they would do is they would offer this leavened bread to God as an offering. What was that saying? God, we're leavened beings and You're unleavened beings but You're willing to become one with us, thank You. So the priest would say something like this: I thank You my God that Your unleavened life is willing to become one with my leavened life. He would give thanks and then he'd bring the leavened bread down and he'd break it. He would take oil, symbolising the Holy Spirit, and he would fill the leavened bread with oil. After he filled the leavened bread with oil he would say now the Day of Pentecost has fully come. Now the Day of Pentecost has fully come.
So one day, one year they're all together celebrating this. They're all together and some of them would have been just going through the motions because they had to, and some of them would have been truly lamenting the decision of their ancestors not to follow God. Some of them would have been into it, but the priest, he says now the Day of Pentecost has fully come and says when the Day of Pentecost had fully come they were all together in one accord. The whole room filled in smoke and over their head they heard the sound a trumpet and they saw tongues of fire. It's the same exact event on the same exact day at the same exact time. What are the voices saying? Will you marry Me? The only difference is this time they spoke back, which is the birth of the church, which is the bride of Christ. Pentecostals for years have said you've got to get the leaven out of your life for God to use you. You've got to get the leaven out of your life for God to use you, and hear me clearly. You need to get the leaven out of your life because God wants you to have the best life, but God always uses imperfect people.
The thought that you're not worthy to approach God because you've got issues is a problem. The whole point of Pentecostals for years, you've got to get the leaven out of your life for God to use you! You've got to get the leaven out of your life for God to use you! But the whole point of Pentecost is oil flows through leaven - and aren't you glad? Come on, how many of us are glad about that? [Yeah!] Oil flows through leaven. In other words let me just say it this way; God wants to marry you, leaven and all. God wants to marry you, issues and all. Do you realise that God was proposing to a group of oppressed slaves? All they knew was slavery for 430 years. How much issues do you think they had? He was proposing to a group of people that He later had to say to them don't have sex with your mother, it's a bad plan. [Laughter] That's issues. When you don't know it isn't proper to have sex with your mother, when God has to tell you that, you've got problems.