09-27-15 The Law-Giver: Passing Over

What a busy day we had here at FCC this week!

First off, we rushed through a lot of information in Sunday School, so we’ll have to start next week off right with talking about those pirates.

Secondly, we had the great privilege of being able to dedicate little Felicity Cadence Doremus into our in the service this Sunday.  As I’ve said before, baby dedications end up being one of my favorite things to do as a pastor.  But the funny part is that it’s not ultimately just dedicating the baby--it’s more of a parent and church dedication.  Yes, we’re dedicating the children to the Lord, but more pointedly, the parents and the church family are dedicating themselves to consistently consider their offspring to be more God’s children than their own, and are dedicating themselves to share their lives with the children in order to raise them up in the Lord.

Of course, that doesn’t just go for children.  After the service this week, we hosted a Connections ministry lunch, where we were able to sit down and fellowship with one another, but also where we were able to look at God’s Word together and discuss the nature of discipleship.  All of us--every single one of us in the family of Christ--are called to be part of that “growing and being grown” process that we call “discipleship” and want to encourage.  It’s not just going to Sunday School, or imparting information.  It’s not just adults acting as mentors for children.  It’s walking alongside one another and sharing life together in meaningful ways.  We should all commit ourselves--dedicate ourselves--to consciously, actively growing and being grown by one another within God’s family.

In our message this week, we continued looking at the life and ministry of Moses--this time, concentrating on that tenth plague.

But, much like we talked about last week with the first nine plagues, this section wasn’t really so much about the plague as it was about the people involved.  God spent the vast majority of His time in this section telling everyone how He wanted them to actively remember how He’d saved them, rather than on the plague itself.  From our perspective, the plague should’ve been the climax of the story--the special-effects-laden “big finish” to the narrative.  But to God, the climax wasn’t the event--the climax was the remembrance, and how that was going to change us.

See, over and over again, God has been telling and showing people that He’s not looking for 75% obedience, or 83% obedience, or 98% obedience--which, when you think about it, aren’t really obedience at all (they’re actually just coincidence that your willingness to do what God wanted happened to line up with 83% of what you wanted to do in the first place).  Moses’ 75% obedience in raising his son, Pharaoh’s 83% obedience in his deals with God, our own 98% obedience too often today--these aren’t going to cut it.

God isn’t just looking for your rituals, but for your heart.  He doesn’t just want you to sacrifice for Him, but to sacrifice what you’d ordinarily treasure.  He doesn’t just ask for us to live out our faith through obedience on Sunday mornings, but all day every day. 

So how can you make an active remembrance of God’s salvation a continual act of worship today?