Preparing for Change

Now we all know what a resolution is. It is a commitment that we make to ourselves regarding a project or a habit that usually calls for some kind of lifestyle change.

We want to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking or drinking, get out of debt.

These make the top 10 resolves annually.

We feel determined.

We join a fitness center or a 12-step program or buy a book. We create a plan for change

Yet every year, 97 percent of us with firm resolve fail.

We mean well but in the end, we don’t lose weight, exercise more, stop smoking or drinking, or get out of debt.

Usually by February, it’s over and we are left unchanged. Why is that?

Even more significant, there are scores of people who claim Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, but whose lifestyle shows little difference from those who make no such claim.

It’s so common, we no longer think it all that strange that someone who says they are Christians, talks like the world, live together before marriage, struggles with addictions like the world, divorces at the same rate as the world, and does business like the world, yet all the while saying and believing that Jesus has delivered them from this world

What’s more incredulous is that there is no remorse for the sins they are persisting in, they claim they are forgiven are heaven-bound.

This isn’t an isolated event either

Teaching through discipleship on Wed. night to try and implement change in our own families, church, workplace and communities

Why? We want to be changed and marked by Christ

Marked – set apart, identified, we want His name on our boot!

In Exodus 12, God makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites

Throughout all that’s been done through the plagues, the Israelites have been on the sidelines watching but now they’re going to have to get into the game.

God is bringing about a change in their situation and they must do their part.

Exodus 12:1-13

Exodus has been showing us the history of God’s people.

We began in Genesis 15 where God promised Abram that he would deliver his descendants from bondage

In the time that we’ve been looking at this book, history has been unfolding,

Through it all, God has remained in control.

Even when the people of Israel have found themselves in slavery in Egypt, God has not forgotten His promises to His people.

In fact, God has already been fulfilling His promise to make a great nation from Abraham.

The Israelites now number in the millions

Exodus 12 marks a turning point because God will now continue to fulfill His promise by delivering them from the slavery of Egypt and taking them toward the land of promise.

The LORD was coming to Egypt in judgment.

The death of the firstborn had been foretold and would soon come to pass.

The Egyptians were in danger, but the Israelites were safe and secure from his judgment because of His grace to them through the provision of the Passover lamb,

A lamb whose blood would be the mark on them.

For the Israelites to be ready for their new life of deliverance from Egypt and freedom, they needed to get ready for the change that was going to take place Thousands of years later, you and I have the opportunity, to take our place in the history of God’s people.

God is still in the business of delivering His people from slavery

Not from some evil Egyptian task master – something worse – sin

Our Theme: We have been saved for a purpose but we must trust God

Do you believe that God has a purpose for you?

Do you believe that the sacrifice of His Son was done so that you could be a part of His family, taking part in His mission?

Or are you sitting on the sidelines, watching this life pass you by, missing out on what God is doing because you’d rather do it your way?

God wants to deliver you and offer you freedom from sin, the temptations of this world and even from yourself.

But there are some requirements to receiving and obtaining that freedom

Just as the Egyptians had to prepare for the change that was about to take place

You and I must prepare for the change that God wants to do in our life

Sacrifice – vs. 3-6

Sacrifice is a word we’re familiar with but it’s not something we like to participate in.

No one understands sacrifice quite like a mother – she sacrifices her body to give birth, time to teach & raise, privacy, careers, etc.

Why would she do this? Obligation? Requirement? Mandate?

Love, devotion, commitment, compassion

When we think about sacrifice in the spiritual sense, our thoughts should naturally turn to Christ, the lamb of God, who sacrificed His sinless life for our spiritually dead life.

We can’t fully understand what that means without the explanation that God gives us in Exodus 12

God was going to bring about deliverance and salvation through the death of a lamb but it was going to be a lamb of their own possession

We have hobby farmers now but during this time, livestock were literally all you had

You didn’t go to Food Lion and pick up what you need – you wanted meat, you raised it, killed it, butchered it and then you could eat.

God was going to require of them to sacrifice something that was near to them

Yes, the lamb is a picture of Jesus who would come and be the spotless lamb of God sacrificed for all

But here, the lamb is a sacrifice of the owner and most importantly it’s an act of obedience.

God makes the requirement and they’re to follow through – there was no other option

If you want your firstborn to live, if you want to be delivered from Egypt and Pharoah, then you will sacrifice what is costly to you

A sacrifice is still needed today – it just looks a little different –

Jesus spelled it out for us in Luke’s gospel (Luke 14:26-27)

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

If we really do believe God, He has saved us for a purpose, then we must trust Him and give up what we hold most dear

Our lives

That’s all that He requires

That we put His desires ahead of our own – that we go where He leads – that we live our lives in obedience to His word

Is that a sacrifice?

If it weren’t, we would have no problem doing so

However, we are more intent on what we want, when we want it and how we want to get it/there

For the Israelites, their act of obedience in sacrificing their lamb was a sign that they valued what God wanted for them more than what they wanted for themselves

It’s the same for us.

When we sacrifice our preferences, our choices, our commitments to Christ, it’s an act of obedience showing Christ that we believe Him at His Word and we’re willing to follow Him.

Readiness – vs.11

If sacrificing ourselves is an act of obedience proving our trust in God, then you also must be ready to move

When we moved from GA to NC, we didn’t make the move in one day or in one trip – we spent months preparing: throwing stuff away, giving stuff away, selling things

When we got to NC, we didn’t really have a place to live so we had to prepare that as well

Looking back it seems crazy but we knew God was leading us to NC, so we wanted to be prepared

We do this for other things as well – going on vacation, going fishing, etc.

The preparation signifies something – not only do you intend to go but you are going

BTW - In vs. 8-10 God instructs them to prepare the meat from the sacrifice and to do so in a particular way

God directed that they roast it. Why? Because it was the way of nomads

The nomads of this day were known for their grilling skills.

You traveled from place to place – there wasn’t much opportunity to preserve and prepare meat for storage – you threw those lamb chops on a skewer and you roasted them over a fire

The common way of pagans who ate sacrificial meat was to eat it raw

They were not to boil the lamb either (v. 9).

When you boiled it, you cut and divided it into smaller parts to cook it in a pot or cauldron

Roasting enabled you to cook the lamb whole, undivided and unchanged in its appearance.

The point: this wasn’t another meal, it was a sacrifice – it was meant to look and feel different

Notice vs. 11 that when they were to eat the meat they were to do it in a certain way

Belts fastened, sandals laced, staff in your hand

This was a symbol of urgency and readiness

Like most people, the Israelites would have had their shoes off, their outer robes off and their staff standing in the corner

Here they were to be ready to dine and dash

This too was an act of obedience – by eating in this manner, they were signifying that they would be ready to go when God called them to leave.

How about you and I? Are you ready to go when God calls?

If we’re walking in obedience to Christ, giving up our lives for His sake, when He calls you to do what’s next, are you ready to move?

What if He sends me to Africa? Don’t worry

What if He wants me to change careers?

What if He wants me to start a ministry?

What if… God wouldn’t do that would He? Ask Moses.

If we’re going to commit our lives to Christ, then we must be ready to move when He opens the door

Bumper sticker: Until God opens the door, praise Him in the hallway

How do we get ready then?

Do what He commands you to do in Matthew (28:19-20):

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

In vs.19 that “Go” in the original means “as you live your life” - make disciples

You take what you are learning from God’s Word and you instill and invest it in the lives of others: children, spouses, family members, friends, coworkers, etc.

You be faithful and obedient, fulfilling what Christ had commanded and when He opens the door to move you to what’s next, you’ll be ready

As I have mentioned sacrifice and movement require something

Identity – vs.12-13

The families of Israel were to smear the blood of the sacrificial animal on the doorposts and lintels of their houses.

This mark would protect God’s people from the death angel whom God was about to send in judgment throughout the land of Egypt.

This would identify them as followers of YAHWEH

This would preserve them from the angel of Death

Their identity was marked by the sacrifice of a lamb

Our identity is still marked by the sacrifice of a lamb – the lamb of God

We care far too much about identity in the wrong ways

Social media has taught us to believe the lie that this world is all about us.

Companies have conditioned us to believer that their product is the only one to have

We tend to believe that our identity is something that we do or participate in

We can be identified by a number of products, organizations or jobs

The only identity that matters is the one that offers salvation – escape from an eternal death

The Israelites had to follow God's directions completely, the key step being the application of the blood to the doorposts of their houses.

By obeying God, they were identifying themselves as the people of God

It wasn’t the blood of the animal that saved the Israelites though.

The thing that brought deliverance to the children of Israel was faith in their one, true, promise -keeping God, and obedience to His command to apply the blood of the lamb in the way He told them

This was a way that God was distinguishing Himself from the false gods of the Egyptians.

Everyone would then know it was the true God delivering His people and nothing or no one else

The plan was God's plan.

The power to execute the plan was God's power.

The result of God's deliverance could only take place as He would bring it

The people had simply to obey Him from a heart of faith.

If you live your life sacrificing yourself to Him…

If you live your life in obedience, doing what He has commanded, prepared to follow where He leads

There will be no doubt as to who you belong to or to Who has changed you and delivered you from the trap that everyone else falls into

It can only be explained by the power of God in you and through you

Conclusion

Are you ready for change in your life?

You can make all the resolutions that you want but you’ll still be limited by one significant obstacle: you

However, if you want true lasting change, purpose and direction, have you put yourself in a posture for those things to take place?

Have you received God's deliverance - salvation - through the blood of His Son, the spotless Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ?

Have you died to yourself?

Are you living obediently?

Do others see evidence of the power of the one, true God in your life as you walk in faith, surrender. and obedience to Him?

Sacrifice and obedience are two prerequisites that must take place for God to use you to your full potential and to satisfy that longing for purpose and direction in our lives.

My prayer is that we will be moved to take God at His Word, to give our lives to Him and walk with Him in obedience

Then we can sit back and be amazed at what He is able to do in us and through us.