When I was younger, I worked countless part time jobs. I started working in a grocery store when I was fourteen, and I've been working ever since. As such, I've had the opportunity to work with a variety of people and personality types over the years. I will never forget one young man in particular (we will call him Bill). Bill and I worked together at a video store. Week after week, we shared time in the trenches together, helping hundreds of people rent movies (you wouldn't believe how crowded those little stores would get on the weekends). I remember him as being very secular-minded, and constantly on the go. No time for church, rather, it was on to this tournament or that event. Always busy, always moving.
I had lost track of Bill over the years, until one day I saw him at a local supermarket buying groceries. We were both adults at this point. We were a little older, and a little wiser maybe? We talked for about half an hour. He spoke about teaching an Alpha class, which is a series of Christian seminars typically hosted by churches. Bill spoke also about the love of Jesus Christ, and the effect it had on him. I could hardly believe my ears. Not because he wasn't worthy of a Godly life, but rather, it was the night and day difference. If you had placed the Bill of today in a room with the Bill of twenty years ago ... there would be two very different portraits. The Gospel had changed him. God had redeemed his soul and transformed his heart.
I want to talk about a particular story relating to transformed hearts. It is often known as the Parable of the Leaven. This teaching from Jesus occurs both in the book of Matthew and the book of Luke. It is very short, but as you can probably guess, also very profound. Matthew 13:33 says, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough."
From this little story, I believe we can take away two points in particular. First, much like leaven (or yeast), the kingdom of heaven can take some time to develop and mature. We ought not apply today's fast paced, technology driven lifestyle to the Gospel Effect. Not always anyhow. When the Spirit of God begins a work in us, it often starts slowly and might be barely noticeable to the individual. Maybe my friend Bill was aware of how God was changing his heart over time, but maybe not. Most certainly his wife noticed, not to mention the change I saw in him that day at the store.
Second, I believe we can take from this teaching that the kingdom of heaven starts from the 'inside' and works its way outward. Like leaven that permeates through the entire package of dough, Jesus begins working inside of a person's heart and mind. The changes are often not obvious from other people's perspective, until the overflow of God's love begins to come out of that individual through the words they speak and the things they do. At the end of that twenty year time period, Bill's born again heart was very prevalent to me. God had started a work in him years ago, and now he was teaching the Christian classes himself! Leaven may start small, but the end result is irrefutable.
We are sometimes impatient with God, aren't we? Instead of waiting for the dough to rise, we might decide that a trip to the fast food restaurant is a better idea. We drive past the window, hand our money to the employee, and off we go with a bag full of junk food. Quick, easy, and also not very good for us.
By contrast, if we wait on God and allow the leaven time to work through the dough, the end result is impressive (and much better for us than fast food). It goes without saying then, that God probably has to wait on us a good portion of the time. The Bible says He is infinitely patient with Israel, and with us also. And if we stop to think about things for just a millisecond, we can see how true this is. How many times have you and I failed to meet God's holy law? More than a few times I would think. If you disagree, stop reading this immediately and turn to the ten commandments in the Old Testament. Go down the list with each one, and apply it to your own life. Humbling, isn't it?
Little doubt that God is the very embodiment of patience and love. I often see this truth wherever I look ... even during a global pandemic. My advice is this: allow God's Holy Spirit to make little in-roads into your life. Give this Gospel Effect time to take hold, and work in you from the inside out. Who cares if other people around you notice this change immediately or not. Your sanctification walk is between you and the Creator. Revel in that intimate time together with God; Jesus died on the cross so that you could have it. Don't waste it.
Sooner or later, those around you will notice the end result. You will have your own supermarket meeting epiphany, just like Bill and I.
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