Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, good morning.
[00:00:02] So they left me some space, so I'm not sure who's back there on the camera, but y' all better get ready. I might be moving. No, they normally box me in so I can't take off across the stage too much.
[00:00:13] Hey, if you got a Bible, we're going to be in Exodus, chapter 12, verse 43, and then we're going to go through chapter 13, verse 16. But I wanted to ask a question.
[00:00:25] How many of you are To Do List people?
[00:00:30] Come on. Where y' all at? All right.
[00:00:33] How many of y' all are like the classic sticky note. You leave them everywhere. How many of y' all are those people?
[00:00:41] How many of y' all are the newfangled To Do List people? You like, pull out your phone. You got your To Do List app, and you're using that. You know, you're taking notes. You got, like, 25 different reminders that go off throughout the day that just remind you of, like, oh, do this, do this.
[00:01:00] That remembering is actually a big business. If you just think of how many different things we do to remember things, that it's a big business. And yet in its simplest form, people have been doing this for a long time. Do I have some kids in here? Y' all write, like, homework on your hand. You're like, oh, yeah, I got the reminders right? Like, y' all remember doing that? It was like, oh, don't forget to call so and so today that there was an importance to remembering. And so you did things so that you wouldn't forget. Well, that's actually what we're gonna see in the text today. As you're reading your Bible, you may come to a section like this, and you're like, I don't know how to apply this text to my life. And so my hope is as, again, while we're reading this, we're gonna see the character of God put on display.
[00:01:51] And then, because we know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we can then begin to pull from this these WISD things that can instruct us on how we should live. And we can begin to make applications based off of that. But the whole point of this text is that remembering is important.
[00:02:13] That actually there's a danger in forgetfulness, that it's dangerous to forget.
[00:02:23] To forget who the Lord is, to forget what the Lord has done, and to forget what the Lord requires of us. That that's dangerous. Because when we start to forget those things, then we start to look other places, we start to act different ways.
[00:02:41] We start to pursue different things. And so today my hope is that as we're reminded who the Lord is and what he's done for the people of Exodus, we'll then be able to make some applications for who the Lord is and what he's done for us. Would you pray with me this morning, God, as we come to your word, Lord, and we look at your word, Lord, for instruction, for inspiration, for applications to our life, that we would know you, and that we would know what you expect of us and what you require of us. That we would know your character, Lord. I pray that by your spirit you would open our eyes and our ears to hear from you this morning, Lord, that you might captivate our hearts as we see you clearly, Lord, and that you might give us hope and confidence as we walk from here to walk by faith.
[00:03:40] As we live out this identity that you've given us, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:47] Well, let's read this text and there's some interesting things in this text today. Beginning in chapter 12, verse 43, we're gonna read the whole text and then we'll begin to make sense of this.
[00:03:59] Exodus. Chapter 12, verse 43, it says this.
[00:04:02] And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the statute of the passover.
[00:04:09] No foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of shall be eaten in one house.
[00:04:24] You shall not break any of the you shall not take any of the flesh outside of the house. You shall not break any of its bones.
[00:04:32] All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger sojourn with you, and would keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, then he may come near and keep it. He shall not be a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for all the native and for the strangers who sojourns among you.
[00:04:59] All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts. And the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beasts is mine.
[00:05:21] Then Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt out of the house of slavery. For by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place.
[00:05:34] No leavened bread shall be eaten.
[00:05:36] Today.
[00:05:37] In the month of Abib, you are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service.
[00:05:52] In this month, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you. And. And no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your sons on that day it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes.
[00:06:22] That the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep his statutes at its appointed time from year to year.
[00:06:34] When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord. All the first who opens the womb. All the first of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. Or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.
[00:07:05] And when the time comes and your sons ask, what does this mean? You shall say to him, By a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt and from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn of the land of Egypt. Both the firstborn of the man and the firstborn of animals.
[00:07:26] Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb. But all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontals between your eyes. For by a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. I hope that you see in that. As we read that maybe your mind got distracted by a few different things. But there's a theme that runs through this, that God is.
[00:07:52] Has just, in a miraculous way, he's just rescued his people from 430 years of slavery. And so there's this incredible energy that's coming out of this. Like maybe you've been there. Like, it's like Something great happens, like you've just won the game, and there's this excitement that you feel invincible.
[00:08:14] And yet God knows that you need to remember what has just happened.
[00:08:20] That God has just worked a miracle, and yet he knows mankind and that he says, I don't want you to forget what I just did.
[00:08:30] And so he sets up these different remembrances. We see several different remembrances. The first is the Passover. We've talked about that the last couple weeks, that this Passover was this ceremony of bringing a lamb into the house. It was reflective of the Passover when they sacrificed this lamb that they had brought into the house, that was an unblemished lamb. It lived with them for four days. Then they killed the lamb. They put the blood on the doorpost. The angel passed over, they ate the lamb inside. God brought them out of Egypt. He passed over them because of the blood of the sacrifice. And so he says, you shall keep this Passover when you go into the land as a way of remembering.
[00:09:11] Then he says that there's gonna be this other feast, this feast of unleavened bread, this feast that. Because on that night, then you had to gather up your bread, and it could not even rise because you had to do this.
[00:09:23] You shall keep this feast of unleavened bread. When you go into the land, that you're gonna remember this, that for seven days, you're not gonna have leaven in your house, that you're gonna eat these flat tortillas and your kids are gonna be like, I don't like sandwiches on these flat tortillas.
[00:09:39] And they're gonna ask you, why? Why do I have to eat bread like this? And you're gonna tell them, because we had to rise in haste because the Lord rescued us by his strong hand and he brought us out. And this is a way of us remembering and not forgetting what the Lord has done.
[00:09:57] Then he says that you're going to sacrifice the firstborn of every animal that your livelihood, your. Your flocks and your herds. That the firstborn of every animal is going to be the Lord's, and. And your kids are going to go, why?
[00:10:14] Because the Lord, when he rescued us out of Egypt, then he took the firstborn of every Egyptian, of every household that didn't have the blood.
[00:10:26] He took the firstborn, but the lamb that was slain redeemed the firstborn that was in every house where the blood was shown.
[00:10:38] He says, you're gonna give. Every firstborn of your sons are gonna be set aside to the Lord. We actually see this come Up a.
[00:10:46] That this then shifts to the Levite. This tribe of Levi becomes the sacrifice of the firstborns. That there's a whole tribe that's devoted to the Lord instead of the firstborn of each family. Then it's the Levites who become devoted to the Lord.
[00:11:03] They're not sacrificed, they're redeemed by a lamb.
[00:11:09] And so we see these three different things. And what I'd like to do is begin to just look at this a little closer and make some applications for us that really what we see going on here is actually four lessons that we can learn from this. All right? So the first lesson that we see that maybe we can begin to apply this is that redeemed people guard the meaning of salvation.
[00:11:35] Redeemed people guard the meaning of salvation.
[00:11:39] If we just look back at verse 43:51 of chapter 12, then. Then we get this really interesting rules and regulations as to who can keep the Passover and who cannot keep the Passover. It's really interesting. It seems restrictive in this. It seems exclusive in this, that specifically there's mention multiple times throughout this little passage that only those who have been circumcised, the families with the males who are circumcised, can participate in this Passover.
[00:12:15] Circumcision was a sign of the covenant.
[00:12:20] This was a sign that showed that you were God's people.
[00:12:25] Now follow with me. I know this is a little stretch and so I'm giving lots of information, but we gotta keep following all of this to get to this application. So God gave Abraham this sign of circumcision, that his family should be circumcised, which set them apart. It consecrated them.
[00:12:48] It set them apart so that they were different.
[00:12:51] But it was a sign of God's covenant with them that God made this covenant where he promises to Abraham, I will be your God and you will be my people, and I'm going to give you a land and I'm going to make you a blessing and I'm going to grow you into a great nation.
[00:13:08] He made a promise to them and Abraham's side of that promise that identified them as those people that they were circumcised.
[00:13:17] Maybe in our day we could think of it like this, that he was sporting his team's jersey, like, oh, you're one of us. Like, I don't know if, like, being in Louisiana, I'm an Oklahoma guy.
[00:13:30] Every now and then I see somebody sporting some OU gear and I'm like, ah, they're one of mine.
[00:13:36] I don't know that person. I've never met them, but I'm like, oh, yeah, family, right?
[00:13:43] I don't know if you've ever experienced that, but it's like, oh, it set them apart.
[00:13:49] We're together.
[00:13:50] We're identified as a people.
[00:13:54] And so this circumcision was a sign of being identified as God's people.
[00:13:58] And so in this Passover, which was representative that God passed over his people because of the blood of the sacrifice, then only those who that was actually true of could eat and partake of this Passover.
[00:14:17] Again, this seems restrictive and exclusive. If you're from the outside looking in, but from the inside looking out, it's protective.
[00:14:27] Now, what do I mean by that?
[00:14:30] Identity has to have definition, otherwise it's meaningless.
[00:14:36] Identity has to have definition, otherwise it's meaningless. If you're identified as a Sooner fan, as an Oklahoma fan, then you can't just wear purple and gold.
[00:14:55] That's meaningless. If you're an Oklahoma fan and you're wearing purple and gold to an OU game, what does that even mean, to be an Oklahoma fan? It loses its meaning.
[00:15:06] If you're the people of God, and God, because of his covenant, his promise that he's made to you, if anybody and everybody can be a part of that, then what does it actually mean?
[00:15:22] But before you go too far on that, I'm intentionally using some language there that's leading us. And you're going, well, wait a minute.
[00:15:31] God makes provisions that anybody can be a part of this.
[00:15:35] It's not exclusionary in that that you can't be a part of this group.
[00:15:42] But you have to come on his terms.
[00:15:44] You can be a part.
[00:15:47] God made a way that every sojourner and foreigner could be a part of this group.
[00:15:55] But in order to belong, you have to partake of the covenant.
[00:16:02] You can't get the blessing without belonging.
[00:16:06] We live in a culture that wants all of the benefits but doesn't want any of the belonging, doesn't want any of the restrictions.
[00:16:17] I want to do it my way and have my cake and eat it too.
[00:16:22] And yet the scripture very clearly in this section, God tells His people that my redeemed people guard the meaning of salvation.
[00:16:33] And so this was the instruction that he gave to them.
[00:16:38] This also shows us this reminder that there is a blessing to belonging, that you get to partake of something because it's reflective that you belong.
[00:16:50] Now, again, there are incredible applications. And we're going to jump forward at the end of the sermon to the New Testament. And we're going to begin to see the way that this functions the way that we do. Church is reflective of some of this. That to be a member at this church means something.
[00:17:04] It might seem exclusionary. You're like, man, y' all keep talking about this six week connection group. And like, man, why you gotta go through a connection group in order to belong? Because we say it's reflective of the people that belong.
[00:17:17] It means something to belong here. It means something that you have partaken of God's covenant.
[00:17:24] So it means something. The second thing that we see in this text is that redeemed people live holy lives. Redeemed people live holy lives. Redeemed people guard the meaning of salvation. But then redeemed people live holy lives. Look at chapter 13, verse 1 and 2.
[00:17:43] It says, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me.
[00:17:48] This word consecrate there means to set apart. It means to make holy or to set apart. That means to prepare something for a purpose.
[00:17:59] So he says, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whoever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both man and beast is mine. And then if you jump down to verse 11, he says this again, that when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord.
[00:18:20] All that first opens the womb, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb. If you won't redeem it, then you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among you, you shall redeem.
[00:18:38] So what's the point of this? This redeeming is that you are setting apart, that they are devoted to the Lord, that you've set them apart to the Lord, that this is the beginning, the first, the best.
[00:18:55] But it's all rooted in remembering, right, that this setting aside didn't earn them anything.
[00:19:06] Track with me here.
[00:19:08] This way of living didn't earn them their rescue from Egypt.
[00:19:15] This redeemed living, this setting aside was reflective because they had been rescued from Egypt. They lived out holy lives in response to what God has done, not in efforts to earn what God had done.
[00:19:31] Catch this. This is massively important.
[00:19:35] We don't live holy lives as if we can try to put God in our debt and say, well, I'm good enough, that God will accept me.
[00:19:44] That's not the way it works. We can never earn our way up. We can never climb the ladder and achieve enough. We can never undo the bad which we've done in the presence of a holy God. We can never do enough.
[00:19:59] But when God has done it for you, you live in response to that.
[00:20:06] So we live holy lives in response to what God has done. And so he said, set aside the firstborn. Now, there's some interesting things just so we don't stuck on it. Why would you break the neck of a donkey? You know, you're like, what in the world?
[00:20:21] Listen. This was a way that God was providing for his people. It took longer for donkeys to reproduce. It took longer for donkeys to grow. It was more invested in the donkey. And so you could redeem a foal, a colt of a donkey with a lamb. They reproduce faster.
[00:20:37] There's less investment there.
[00:20:39] God's saying, hey, so that you don't sacrifice a donkey, you can sacrifice a lamb on its behalf, but if you're not going to sacrifice a lamb, God says, I'm not dropping the standard.
[00:20:51] The firstborn is mine.
[00:20:54] He doesn't minimize the standard, but he does give us a means of accomplishing what he's called us to listen.
[00:21:03] The application of this is incredible.
[00:21:07] God does not diminish the standard or minimize the fact that he calls us to be holy, but he gives us a way to do it.
[00:21:18] He gives us his spirit to dwell in us. He changes our heart of stone into a heart of flesh. He gives us the way in which we can do it.
[00:21:28] He provides what we need.
[00:21:32] Redeemed people live holy lives.
[00:21:36] And this aspect of sacrificing the firstborn was a way of saying, lord, they're yours.
[00:21:44] The next generation is yours.
[00:21:47] It's yours.
[00:21:49] You have rescued us, and we are grateful, and it's yours.
[00:21:55] The animals, they were sacrificed, but the firstborn of every son was redeemed.
[00:22:02] This points us to the fact that life is preserved through a substitution.
[00:22:10] There was a lamb that still gave its life, that it was redeemed through a substitution.
[00:22:16] The third thing that we see, the third lesson that we see, we've got that redeemed people guard the meaning of salvation. We see that redeemed people live holy lives. The third lesson that we see here is that redeemed people tell their story. Redeemed people tell their story throughout this text, specifically in chapter 13, verses 3 through 10, and then 14 to 16. You get these two aspects where he tells kind of the same thing in two different aspects. He says, okay, so with the unleavened bread, here's what's gonna happen. Your kids are gonna ask questions. Then he says, with the sacrifice of the firstborn animal, here's what's gonna happen. Your kids are gonna ask questions.
[00:22:55] And specifically, this way of remembering, just think about it. It's like, dad, why?
[00:23:05] Why do we do that?
[00:23:08] In order for me to communicate that story, I have to retell the story.
[00:23:12] I've got to remember. Why do we do this?
[00:23:16] Because God rescued us.
[00:23:18] Because God redeemed us. That's why we do it.
[00:23:22] Because this is a response to what God has done, that you tell your story.
[00:23:28] When your sons ask that this happens because your life looks different.
[00:23:34] Catch this.
[00:23:36] The only way they ask this question is if your life looks different from those around you.
[00:23:44] If there's no difference, if there's no distinction, there's no question.
[00:23:51] Redeemed people tell their story because their life looks different.
[00:23:56] But this isn't just a communication of rules. Like, if you notice in the text here, when he says, like, why do we do this? There's not a focus on, well, you have to do it this way. It's not an instruction of rules.
[00:24:09] It's also not an instruction of morality.
[00:24:13] When you tell the story of redemption, it's a story of redemption, not a story of rules and morals.
[00:24:21] I think this is where a lot of times we get it wrong.
[00:24:26] Why do we have to go to church?
[00:24:29] Because that's the rule.
[00:24:33] Why can't I go do this or say this or talk like this?
[00:24:40] Because that's the rule.
[00:24:45] Why do we have to live this way?
[00:24:48] Because we have to be moral.
[00:24:51] And that's not the story.
[00:24:55] The story is that God rescued us and we live in response to what he's done. Let me tell you what he's done that I had a problem I couldn't fix. I was bound in sin and slavery and despair with no hope.
[00:25:16] And he made a way that he met me in the place where I was at, that I didn't have to clean myself up first. That it wasn't because I earned it, that he came and he rescued me. No. He met me where I was.
[00:25:28] And he said, I want you.
[00:25:31] Me?
[00:25:32] Yeah, you.
[00:25:35] I want you.
[00:25:36] That I have plans and purpose for you.
[00:25:40] That I have a good in store for you.
[00:25:45] That you can use me. But you don't know how much I've messed up. You don't know all the things of my past. You don't know all the things that I've never told anybody. Yeah, I do. I want you.
[00:25:57] So we live in response to what he's done.
[00:26:00] And we Tell the story.
[00:26:04] Look what he says. He says, by a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery.
[00:26:11] That by his strong hand.
[00:26:14] What shall we say? It's because of what the Lord did for me.
[00:26:18] These are personal.
[00:26:21] In your life, what has the Lord done?
[00:26:25] That's the story you tell.
[00:26:27] It's not just morals.
[00:26:30] But then he says that you should do two things, that these things shall actually, you shall bind them on your hands so that you remember this. And he says they shall be as frontals on your eyes so that you remember this. Imagine like this. Like you wake up every morning and you're like, all right, let's go.
[00:26:47] You are redeemed.
[00:26:50] It's like you walk and you look in the mirror and you remind yourself of your identity.
[00:26:56] Who am I?
[00:26:58] I'm redeemed by God.
[00:27:00] I have a plan and a purpose.
[00:27:02] That God chose me. He redeemed me. He's called me to something.
[00:27:08] Living on purpose today, it's not meaningless. Everyone that I meet today is divine appointment.
[00:27:18] What if you lived like that?
[00:27:22] A holistic remembrance of what God has done on your behalf.
[00:27:29] That's what we're called, to put reminders your life.
[00:27:36] Bind them on your forehead, put them on your hand.
[00:27:40] This was your actions, this was your thoughts, that everything that you did was different because of what God has done for you. That's your identity.
[00:27:51] He tells them to set them apart. Now, I do have to give a caveat right here.
[00:27:57] You don't have to be weird for Jesus.
[00:28:00] Like, you don't have to be weird.
[00:28:02] Like, you can do this in some cool, intentional, meaningful ways. Please don't put a sticky note on your head and walk around that you are redeemed and sport some Norris fairy swag. Please don't.
[00:28:20] But there ought to be some way that your life looks different, that your kids go, why do we do that?
[00:28:27] That your friends go, why do you do that?
[00:28:29] And you can say, it's just a little way of reminding me what the Lord's done in my life.
[00:28:34] Can I tell you what he's done in my life?
[00:28:37] Because if he can do it for me, he can do it for you.
[00:28:41] We need to remember the last. The fourth lesson we'll conclude here is that remembering isn't just about what's happened in the past.
[00:28:52] Remembering is about anticipation for the future.
[00:28:56] Catch this. God gave these things.
[00:29:01] And they were.
[00:29:03] They were remembrance. They were yearly occurrences. They were things that they did. They were festivals that they kept every year that they reminded themselves of in order that they would anticipate the coming of the One who would fulfill it.
[00:29:17] Catch this.
[00:29:20] Why do we keep these feasts?
[00:29:22] So that we don't miss when he comes.
[00:29:27] Why do we keep these feasts? It's remembering what he did, and it's remembering what he promised to do.
[00:29:34] Why do we keep these feasts? It's because the bread of life that was without leaven, without sin, came and dwelt among us and gave his body, which was broken for us.
[00:29:48] It's because the Lamb of God, who was without spot or blemish, who came and dwelt among us, whose bones were not broken, so that we wouldn't miss him when he came.
[00:30:00] It's because the firstborn Son who gave his life as a ransom for many, came and so that we wouldn't miss Him.
[00:30:09] See? Why do we, the people of God, not keep all of these feasts and festivals? Because Christ came and accomplished them.
[00:30:17] That's why he came and accomplished them for us.
[00:30:22] That he is the bread of life. He is the Lamb of God. He is the firstborn Son.
[00:30:27] But. Catch this. But he gave us some new ones.
[00:30:31] Let me give you the four ways of remembrance that he has given us.
[00:30:37] Number one. He gave us the Lord's Supper on the night when he was betrayed. Then he gathered his disciples together and he broke the bread. And he said, this is my body which is broken for you.
[00:30:48] Do this in remembrance of me. That they partook of a broken body.
[00:30:54] He grabbed the cup and he said, this is the blood of my covenant.
[00:30:59] Right? There's a promise here. There's a promise in this. This is the blood of my covenant. That as often as you drink it, you do it in remembrance of me. In remembering of what Christ has done.
[00:31:12] That there's a backwards remembering, that we don't take the bread and take the cup in order to earn salvation. No, it's a remembering what Christ has already done in accomplishing salvation for us, that you can only partake of it if it's true of you. So we partake. And we say that if you haven't put your hope and faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then we ask that you not take the Lord's Supper because it means something.
[00:31:47] It's restrictive. There's a definition to who gets to take it, that this is the blood of his covenant.
[00:31:54] And so it's reflective of what Christ has done for us.
[00:31:58] He said, do this as often as you eat and drink in remembrance of me and anticipation of when he comes again.
[00:32:07] It looks forward.
[00:32:09] He Gave us baptism.
[00:32:13] We got to see it.
[00:32:15] That you would be buried with Christ, proclaim his death, his burial and his resurrection.
[00:32:28] That's restrictive.
[00:32:30] That you don't just baptize anybody, you baptize people. That it's true of what Christ has done in them and it's an outward symbol for them, that it doesn't earn you anything. It doesn't make you saved by getting baptized in these waters. There's nothing super special about that. That's Shreveport water.
[00:32:53] But it's a sign and a symbol of a covenant that I'm his and that I've been buried with him in death. And that just as he rose, I will rise again.
[00:33:06] He looks back at what Christ accomplished for us. It looks forward to what he promised for us.
[00:33:12] There's two more. The weekly gathering of worship.
[00:33:16] This is one of the ways of remembering that the Lord has given us. He said, don't forsake the assembling together. Don't forsake gathering together. What is this? Why do we do this? Well, because that's just what you gotta do. And you gotta. If you wanna be good enough for God, then you gotta go to church. No, this is a family reunion.
[00:33:38] See, we gather each week to remind each other. This is your identity. You're a son and a daughter of the king because he's adopted us in. We're family.
[00:33:50] This isn't about rules and morals.
[00:33:54] This is about identity.
[00:33:57] And if you go two, three, four weeks, four, five, six months, a couple years not seeing your family, not remembering who you are and whose you are, you begin to forget.
[00:34:15] You begin to act different, talk different, live different, because you've forgotten who you are.
[00:34:23] Not about earning, it's about what he's done for us last. We get the scriptures. God's given us the scripture.
[00:34:32] He's told us not to forsake the Scriptures. He's promised us that the scriptures will not pass away. He's told us that these are profitable for all godliness.
[00:34:45] But how do you go to the Scripture? Is it a checklist of like. Well, I gotta. I gotta follow the rules. Gotta keep my morals. Gotta read my Bible today.
[00:34:56] Listen, you ought to look at this the way that you pull out an old photo album and remember, hey, remember that.
[00:35:05] Remember when we experienced that together.
[00:35:07] Remember that moment in our life.
[00:35:10] Remember what God has done. Remember who he is. Remember what he's promised to do. Remember him.
[00:35:19] We don't read the scriptures to check a box.
[00:35:22] We read the scriptures to remember, to anticipate.
[00:35:28] He's told us who he is, what he's done and what he's going to do.
[00:35:34] Don't forsake those.
[00:35:36] There's danger and forgetfulness.
[00:35:40] Let's be a people who remember what God has done for us. By his strong hand and his mighty arm, he is rescued and redeemed.
[00:35:51] Would you pray with me, God? Would you help us to do this?
[00:35:59] To remember that you accomplished what we could not?
[00:36:08] That you satisfied the penalty of sin?
[00:36:15] That on your own son, you poured out your wrath so that we would not experience that?
[00:36:22] That you would pass over us because of the blood of the Lamb.
[00:36:27] Lord, help us to be a people who remember and who live holy lives.
[00:36:33] Set apart to you in response to what you've done on our behalf, we ask it on Jesus name, Amen.
