Some time ago (2004), The Cape Times reported on a South African man, who surprised nine men robbing his home. Eight of the robbers ran away, but the homeowner managed to shove one into his backyard pool. After realizing the robber couldn't swim, the homeowner jumped in to save him. But once out of the pool, the wet thief called his friends to come back. Then he pulled a knife and threatened the man who had just rescued him.
The homeowner said “We were still standing near the pool and when I saw the knife I just threw him back in. But he was gasping for air and was drowning. So I rescued him again. I thought he had a cheek (or the nerve) trying to stab me after I had just saved his life” (Kashiefa Ajam, “Homeowner Threatened by the Robber He Saved,” The Cape Times, 3-23-04; www.PreachingToday.com).
God has saved so many of you from drowning in your sins. So how do you respond to such mercy? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 13, Exodus 13, where God shows a rescued and redeemed people how to respond to His mercy. He had just brought the people of Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 13:1-3a 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 beast, is mine.” 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 (ESV).
That’s how you respond to God’s mercy. 1st…
REMEMBER THAT GOD SET YOU FREE.
Keep in mind that His strong hand delivered you, not your own. Remind yourself that God graciously saved you by His own power.
That’s what He did for the people of Israel. They had been slaves in Egypt for 430 years without any way of escape. Then God miraculously brought them out. Through a series of 10 plagues, and through the blood of the Passover Lamb, God overturned the stubborn will of an Egyptian pharaoh, who not only let them go; He demanded that they leave Egypt right away.
Through no effort of their own, God graciously rescued His people, and that’s what He did for you, as well. Through no effort of your own, the moment you put your faith in Christ, God saved you from slavery to sin.
Al Masters in Pennsylvania had a little boy and a small business and considered himself very blessed. Then just before Christmas some years ago, a 15-year-old kid driving a car without a license killed Al’s little boy. It sent Al Masters into a rage with a deep desire for revenge. The law exempted the 15-year-old from the maximum penalty, because he was a juvenile, but Al Masters wanted the very book thrown at him.
Then, on Christmas Eve, his wife got him to go to church. There, he heard the story of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds of Christ’s coming and realized that he was one of the world’s “ungood.” He began to weep over his own sin. The next day, on Christmas, he set out to find out more about the boy who killed his son. He found that he came from a broken home, that he lived with his mother, who was an alcoholic. He went and he met the boy. He gave the boy a job in his shop, and then later took him into his home (Bruce Thielemann, “Glory to God in the Lowest,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 75; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s what God did for you when you trusted Christ with your life. His wrath burned against your sin, which killed His Son on the cross. But instead of enacting revenge and the full penalty of the law, God made you a part of His family and gave you a job in His kingdom.
Please, don’t forget what He did for you. Remember that God set you free. Then…
CELEBRATE YOUR DELIVERANCE.
Commemorate your rescue from slavery. Regularly rejoice in the freedom God provided for you. That’s what God told the people of Israel to do.
Exodus 13:3b-6 No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, 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, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD (ESV).
Actually, this period of time begins and ends with a feast, a party (if you will), in the spring of the year. First, there is the Feast of Passover on the 14th day of the month (Exodus 12:43-49; Leviticus 23:4-5). It’s a feast which celebrates God passing over the threshold of each Israeli household to deliver their firstborn from the death angel. That feast is followed by 7 days of eating unleavened bread, after which there is another Feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-8), which celebrates the Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
They celebrate with unleavened bread, because their exodus from Egypt was so quick, they didn’t have time to let the dough rise before they baked it. If they were to have any bread for the journey, they had to leave out the yeast and bake it right away.
Exodus 13:7-10 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son 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, 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 this statute at its appointed time from year to year (ESV).
Every year, for a week in the spring, they celebrated their exodus from Egypt with a party on each end of the week. They celebrated God’s “strong hand” in bringing them out of slavery. Like putting a sign on their hand and a sign between their eyes, they celebrated every year to remind themselves and their children what the Lord did for them.
God told the people of Israel to celebrate their deliverance, and that’s what God tells us Gentile believers to do, as well.
Ephesians 2 says, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12-13).
Remember from whence you came. Remember what God did to rescue and reconcile you to Himself. But don’t just recall it to mind. Rejoice and celebrate your deliverance on a regular basis.
In his book The Unnecessary Pastor, Eugene Peterson writes:
“My two sons are both rock climbers, and I have listened to them plan their ascents. They spend as much or more time planning their climbs as in the actual climbing. They meticulously plot their route and then, as they climb, put in what they call “protection” pitons hammered into small crevices in the rock face, with attached ropes that will arrest a quick descent to death. Rock climbers who fail to put in protection have short climbing careers.”
Peterson goes on to say, “Our pitons or ‘protection’ come as we remember and hold on to those times when we have experienced God's faithfulness in our lives. Every answered prayer, every victory, every storm that has been calmed by his presence is a piton which keeps us from falling, losing hope, or worse yet, losing our faith. Every piton in our life is an example of God's faithfulness to us. As we ascend in the kingdom of God, we also realize that each experience, each victory is only a piton—a steppingstone toward our ultimate goal of finishing the race and receiving the crown of glory” (Eugene Peterson, The Unnecessary Pastor, Rediscovering the Call, Eerdmans, 2000, p.12; www. PreachingToday.com).
When you celebrate God’s work in your life, you hammer a piton in place, which keeps from falling and losing your faith. It also helps you take the next step of faith towards maturity and a glorious future.
Here’s a suggestion. Just like you celebrate your physical birthday, find a way to celebrate your spiritual birthday, the day you came to faith in Christ. And if you can’t remember that day, pick a day, any day (maybe six months after your physical birthday) and make that your day of celebration.
It not only helps you. It helps your children and grandchildren, as well. Like verse 8 says, it’s a day you can tell your son, your daughter, your grandchildren what God did for you.
In early January this year (2024), an Alaska Airlines flight experienced a sudden loss of pressure when a door plug popped out midflight in a Boeing Max 9. Miraculously, the flight was able to land safely without any fatalities or even major injuries.
For the FAA and the NTSB, the crisis did not end when the flight landed safely back at Portland International Airport. Both agencies needed to get to the bottom of how and why the door plug flew off in the first place. This required locating any of the debris that flew off midflight, including the door plug, which is the size of a normal airplane exit door.
Enter Bob Sauer. Sauer works as a science teacher in Portland in the plane’s flight path. Sauer heard that NTSB authorities were searching for debris in his area. So, on a rainy Sunday night, he took a flashlight into his dark backyard to see if he could spot anything that seemed out of place. Sure enough, dangling midair among a small grove of cedar trees, was something that didn’t belong.
Sauer told a reporter, “It was definitely an airplane part. It had the same curvature that the fuselage has and had a window in it.” Sauer called an NTSB hotline and sent a few photos of his discovery. Within a day or so, investigators descended on his property, excited to confirm that it was indeed the door plug.
It turns out the plane was not directly overhead when the door plug failed but landed in Sauer’s yard because of several scientific factors. So Sauer used the incident as a teachable moment and spent the first fifteen minutes of his Monday morning astronomy class explaining his discovery and relating it to the principles of terminal velocity, using the plane’s airspeed, wind speed, and air resistance during the door plug’s descent.
Sauer was glad it didn’t land on his house, because something that size, moving at that velocity, would’ve punched a hole in his roof (Maxine Bernstein, “Portland teacher ‘Bob’ recounts finding Alaska Airlines door in yard,” Oregon Live, 1-14-24; www. PreachingToday.com).
Life is full of teachable moments, which work far better than any lecture. So use the celebration of your deliverance as a teachable moment for your children and grandchildren. Invite them over to the party and tell them what God did for you.
How do you respond to God’s mercy? 1st, remember that GOD set you free. 2nd, celebrate your deliverance. And 3rd…
CONSECRATE YOURSELF TO THE LORD.
Dedicate your life to God. Give yourself fully to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
God asks the people of Israel to consecrate their first-born, to set them apart for the Lord. We saw that already in verses 1 and 2, but starting in verse 11, Moses explains what God means in more detail.
Exodus 13:11-13 “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 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, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem (ESV).
After they arrive in the Promised Land, God wants them to sacrifice every first-born animal, except the donkeys. God declared the donkey an unclean animal (Leviticus 11:2-4), so it was unsuitable for sacrifice. Even so, God commanded the Israelis to kill their first-born donkeys or replace them with the sacrifice of a lamb. And since God abhors child-sacrifice (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Jeremiah 19:5), He required that the Israelis redeem, or buy back, their first-born sons.
Exodus 13:14-16 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt” (ESV).
God required the consecration of every first-born son or animal, so the Israelis could remind their children about what His strong hand accomplished when He brought them out of Egypt. He killed the first-born animal and child of every Egyptian, so He asks the Israelis to consecrate their first-born animals and children. Again, it was like putting a sign on their hands or between their eyes—an in-your-face, clear reminder of God’s deliverance.
In the New Testament, God declares every believer His son (Galatians 3:26-29) and a fellow-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17; Galatians 4:1,7,28), the first-born of all creation (Colossians 1:15). Now, when the Bible calls Jesus the “first-born of all creation,” it does NOT mean He was the first created, no! It means Jesus has the prominent position in all of creation, a position which we believers share with Him.
Ephesians 2 says, God “seated us with [Christ]” (Ephesians 2:6) in a place “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21).
God treats every believer in Christ as a first-born son—Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female (Galatians 3:28). So, like He asked the people of Israel to consecrate their first-born, God asks every believer to consecrate himself or herself to Him.
In Romans 12:1, the Apostle Paul writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”—or better, your reasonable worship.
In Romans 1-5, God saves the believing sinner. In Romans 6-8, God sets the believing sinner apart for Himself. And in Romans 9-11, God secures the believing sinner in His love, which never fails. Therefore, the only reasonable response is for the believing sinner to give himself or herself completely to the Lord as a “living sacrifice.”
So dear believer, commit yourself to God, and let Him have all there is of you to have. Don’t just make a contribution to God. Give yourself to Him with full and total commitment. When you look at a plate of ham and eggs, you know the chicken made a contribution, but the pig was committed (Robert Ard).
God wants all of you, not just a part. And God wants you now, while you’re alive, not just after you’re dead. Vance Havner once put it this way: “[God] wants our bodies as living sacrifices, not corpses” (The Vance Havner Quote Book).
It’s the best and only way to respond to God’s mercies in setting you free. Give yourself completely to Him.
Pete Davis is an author and civic advocate from Falls Church Virginia. Recently, he spoke at the Harvard Law School graduation ceremony with a message called, “A Counterculture of Commitment.” Since then, that message has been viewed more than 30 million times and was recently expanded into a book. In that book, he wrote:
“Freedom isn’t sufficient for a fulfilling life. The car lets us go anywhere and the internet lets us see anything—but happiness has not come automatically. Despite our ability to think freely, to find all the cracks in the stories we have been told—the world we want to live in has not automatically emerged from the ashes of the old one. The liberated spirit has helped avoid some tragedies, but it hasn’t built global peace. It has helped diagnose the maladies of our time, but it hasn’t figured out a cure.
“A free world requires creativity, belief, unity, and inspiration, too. That’s because liberation is only half of the story of who we are. The other half is dedication. People want to be free, but we want to be free to then do something… We leave, but we don’t cleave. We desecrate, but we don’t consecrate. We melt down, but we don’t solidify into something else” (Pete Davis, Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing, Avid Reader Press, 2021, p. 47-48; www.PreachingToday.com).
In other words, free people must commit themselves to a cause to find fulfillment in life. It’s not enough just to be free. You must also dedicate yourself to making this world a better place.
Galatians 5:13 says, “You were called to freedom… Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
God set you free for a purpose, and that purpose begins with you giving yourself fully and completely to Him.
How do you respond to God’s mercy? 1st, remember that GOD set you free. 2nd, celebrate your deliverance. And 3rd, consecrate yourself to the Lord.
Chuck Colson, when he was alive, talked about visiting Mississippi's Parchman Prison. He said:
Most of the death row inmates were in their bunks wrapped in blankets, staring blankly at little black-and-white TV screens, killing time. But in one cell a man was sitting on his bunk, reading. As Colson approached, the man looked up and showed Colson his book—an instruction manual on Episcopal liturgy.
John Irving, on death row for more than 15 years, was studying for the priesthood. John told Colson he was allowed out of his cell one hour each day. The rest of the time, he studies.
Seeing that John had nothing in his cell but a few books, Colson thought, God's blessed me so much, the least I can do is provide something for this brother. “Would you like a TV if I could arrange it?" he asked.
John smiled gratefully. “Thanks,” he said, “but no thanks. You can waste an awful lot of time with those things.” For the 15 years since a judge placed a number on his days, John has determined not to waste the one commodity he had to give to the Lord—his time (Charles Colson, A Dangerous Grace, Word, 1994; www. PreachingToday.com).
What are you doing with your time? To be sure, God does not want every believer to study for the priesthood, but He does want every believer to use the time they have left to honor Him. So what are you doing with your time to bring honor and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ? Please, don’t waste your time. Instead, use every moment of your time to serve Him in some way.
