Introduction:
Today, we are in Deuteronomy chapter 15, which contains laws about finance and slavery and offerings. It’s the sort of passage that feels slightly awkward for Christians, but I think that this passage is beautiful. It’s not just a section of random laws, but it tells us something about who God is, is. And so I’m excited that we’re going to have a revelation of God’s heart as we read this section of Scripture together. So let’s dive straight in. Deuteronomy, chapter 15. I’m going to read the whole chapter to you.
Reading Passage:
And God’s word says this, at the beginning of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner, you may exact it. But whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. But there will be no poor among you. For the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he promised you. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
If among you, one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ye shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care, lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart. And you say, the seventh year, the year of release is near, and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing. And he cried to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him. Because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land.
If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free you shall not let him go empty handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, I will not go out from you because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, then you shall take an awl and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same. It. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you. For at half the cost of a hired worker, he has served you for six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.
All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock, you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God, year by year, at the place that the Lord will choose. But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has any serious blemish, whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. You shall eat it within your towns. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it as though it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water. These are laws for the nation of Israel.
Sermon Outline:
So we as Christians in 2025 don’t live in a country where after seven years, all debts, all loans are simply released. Therefore, when we read a chapter of scripture like this, we shouldn’t say to ourselves, ah, these are the laws for me to follow in the UK in 2025. Actually, we shouldn’t either say, oh, we ought to fight for these laws to be implemented in in the UK today. That’s not how we ought to read a passage of scripture like this. Instead, I believe we should read a chapter like this and say, what do these laws show me about who God is? Why does he care about these types of things? And when we start to see who God is in a chapter of scripture like this, then we can ask, how does who God is affect my life and the things that I need to say and do? And therefore, I want us to see four things from Deuteronomy, chapter 15 I really believe this chapter shows us something of God’s heart.
I want us to see four things about our God from Deuteronomy chapter 15. Firstly, that our God releases us from debts. Secondly, our God gives freely and ungrudgingly. Thirdly, our God frees the slaves. And fourthly, our God offers his own firstborn without blemish.
Do you see? There’s something in Deuteronomy 15 that looks like a random collection of laws that are slightly uncomfortable for us to read in 2025, but actually, each and every law contained in this section of Scripture shows us something of who God is. It’s a character profile of who God is and the things that he cares about.
Our God Releases Us From Debts:
So firstly, looking particularly at verses one and two, our God who releases us from debt, there is an amazing provision in Israelite law to ensure that the people of God, the Israelites, do not get trapped in debt that they can never repay. By the way, none of these loans that were ever given in the land of Israel had interest attached to them. You couldn’t exact interest from your brother when you loaned them. You lent them money and expected them to pay them back. So there’s no interest involved in these loans.
But actually there’s just something radical about the first two verses of this verse. Every seven years, the creditor, the one who’d given money away, the one who is owed money by a brother and a fellow Israelite, is commanded to show grace to that person. Verse one, it says there’s a release every seven years. And verse two explains precisely what’s happening here. Instead of exacting the money, instead of sending round the heavies to hold someone up by their ankles and empty their pockets and take the money out.
I was thinking this morning about who in the church I would send around if I wanted to exact money. And Jason suggested John Bryant, who I think has just gone out to youth. Has he yet? Oh, wow. And Andy White as the people we would send John and Andy. So this is not what’s meant to happen. I’m not meant to send John and Andy to go and exact the money, take the money instead. I’m supposed to say, even though I’m owed money, it’s the seventh year, there’s a release, I’m going to forgive that debt, forget that debt and not receive anything from the person I’ve lent money to. My neighbour owes me a thousand pounds. But this command of God says I need to forget that. That’s a pretty radical law, isn’t it?
I love the end of verse two that explains what’s happening here. It says the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. Now, I might think in that scenario. Hang on a second. The Lord’s release. This is my release. I’m owed money and I’m having to go. No, thank you very much. Just keep, keep it. Ah, it’s the. It’s Duncan’s release. It’s Duncan’s. No, it’s not. This debt forgiveness according to the word of God is a work of God. It’s the Lord’s release that’s happening every seventh year. So before we get into the detail of how we might apply this law to our own lives, we need to see something about the character and the heart of God. He wants to release people from debt. He doesn’t want a people who are crushed by money trouble. He doesn’t want a people who are trapped in debt.
We see this very truth in the gospel, in the good news of Jesus Christ. You know, we can think of our sin and the things we do wrong as debts, because all sin demands a payment of compensation. In fact, in some places in the Old Testament, there’s a law and it says if you break this, you need to pay the person who you’ve sinned against. So actually, every sin against someone demands a payment. It’s like a debt that is owed. All of us in this room have regularly and consistently sinned against God. Every moment we have not worshipped him, hours without acknowledging him in prayer, thoughts that do not honour him, as well as the lies we’ve told, the moments we’ve shown greed and selfishness, even thoughts of hatred towards other people, even if we haven’t acted upon them, are sins against the living God. Every bad deed we’ve done, every good deed we haven’t done, we’ve racked up a hefty debt with God. And this is a debt that none of us can repay. It’s never as though your good deeds are going to make up for all the debt that you’ve racked up. You know, even our very best deeds sometimes come from bad places, don’t they? Sometimes even when we think we’re doing good, we’re actually creating more debt for ourselves. But God does not want us to be trapped in debt forever. He did not want the Israelites to be trapped in debt forever. Therefore he said, every seven years there’s going to be a release. And God does not want us to be trapped in debt forever. And therefore he sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Colossians 2, verse 14 says of Jesus, he cancels the record of debt that stood against us. He set the debt aside. He nailed the the debt to the cross. If you are a Christian here this morning, you were in heavy debt. But Christ’s death upon the cross was the proclamation of the Lord’s release. It was a public spectacle to say that your debt, your sin have been nailed to the cross and died on the cross with Christ and been wiped clean. It’s the year of the Lord’s release. Your debts have been forgiven and forgotten. Our God releases debt. He opens his hand and says to you and me, you owe me nothing. I’ve covered it with my son.
How ought we to apply this law? How are we to live in light of our debt releasing God? Well, firstly, one application of this is we need to be quick to forgive others. If God has forgiven us our debt, we should be quick to forgive debts against us. The Bible uses this money lending metaphor all the way through in multiple places to talk about sin and forgiving sin. There’s a story of a ruler who forgives one person much debt. He goes, okay, that’s fine, that’s fine. And then the person runs away and finds someone who owes him a bit of money and makes sure that he pays it immediately and gets really angry with him. And actually the lesson here is, if we have been forgiven all our debt, all our sin against the Lord, how can we be slow to forgive others who have sinned against us? If you have received mercy and forgiveness, be quick to forgive those around you. Maybe there’s someone here who has held onto a debt for a long time, perhaps even seven years. You’ve held unforgiveness or bitterness in your heart towards someone who’s wronged you. Let me tell you that by holding onto that sin, by holding onto that unforgiveness, you’re only harming yourself. You’re only harming yourself. And I want to declare to you, it’s time. Time for the Lord’s release to come in your heart. Time for you to forgive that person. And if that’s you at the end, there will be an opportunity to come forward and receive prayer. Because we need the Holy Spirit’s help in forgiving others often. But please declare it now in your heart. It’s time for the Lord’s release. I’m going to forgive that person because I have been forgiven much by my God in heaven.
The second way to apply this law in light of who God is, is to say this, that predatory loans that trap people in debt are not Christian. Extraordinary interest rates given to poor people are evil. And we ought to have nothing to do with loans like that. If you lend money to someone, especially in the church, do it out of love and care genuinely about their financial situation. You know, there are people in this world who give loans in order to make massive amounts of profit. And that’s evil. That is not God’s heart at all. That’s why he puts this law in the land of Israel, because that’s not what he wants. That’s why these loans were interest free between Israelites. And therefore we ought not to be involved in anything like that. And I ought also to say this. If you are receiving a loan, be very, very careful. Don’t trap yourself in debt. It’s not God’s will for you. You know, we live in an environment where I think having a mortgage is reasonable. But make sure your mortgage is reasonable, that you can afford to pay it, that it’s not going to trap you in a downward spiral. Be very, very cautious in taking other debt into your life. And it’s possible that there’s someone in here who is trapped in that spiral of debt and challenge. And if that’s you, can I just say, would you share it with an elder today? Come and speak to me at the end. We want to talk with you. We want to help you. We want to pray for you. We don’t want people in our church to be trapped in debt, completely broken and held down by the financial challenges in their life. I’m making no promises in one sense when I say that, but I desperately want to pray with you, desperately want to have a conversation and see what we can do. Because God does not want you to be trapped in those money woes. Our God releases debts.
Our God Who Gives Freely and Ungrudgingly:
Secondly, I want us to see in verses 7 to 11 that our God gives freely and ungrudgingly. See, the obvious problem in a land where after seven years all the debt is released is that there’s going to be a bunch of people thinking, oh, I don’t want to give any money away. It’s the sixth year. I don’t want to lend that person money. Because next year I’m going to have to say, well, you don’t owe it to me anymore, so I really don’t want to. I’m grudging in my heart. I don’t want to. I don’t want to lend any money. Look at verse nine. It says if you refuse to loan money in year six, you are guilty of sin. That seems a bit harsh, doesn’t it? I Don’t want to lend my money knowing next year the person could just turn around and go, well, it’s the year of release. But God says if I don’t lend that money, then I’m going to be guilty of sin even in the first year. If last year was the year of release and you’ve got seven years and you think maybe they would pay my money back.
There’s a temptation, isn’t there, in every circumstance whenever you see a person in need to think, actually, I don’t have a soft heart towards this person. I have a hard heart. I don’t have an open hand towards this person. I have a closed hand. I have a grudging eye. In verse nine, I think as I say those words and if we read those words, there might be a sting of conviction going around the room. I wonder whether you’ve ever looked at a poor person and gone, I have a grudging eye towards you asking for my money. Yet consider the Lord. Consider God. Did he look at you with a grudging eye? Did he treat you with a hard heart? Did he close his hand to you? Absolutely not. While you were destitute and poor, God himself looked upon you with a compassionate eye. Not a grudging eye, but a willing eye, a compassionate eye to save you. God towards you had a soft heart which was warm with love towards you. Not a hard cold heart, but a soft warm heart. And God towards you has and has had an open hand. He freely gave you all, all you needed. In fact, everything you have in life is a gift from God’s open hand which he has shared with you. And of course, the pinnacle of God’s generosity is that he did not spare his own son. He even gave his son Jesus to come to earth and rescue. He did. How can God, who has given us His Son, not give us all that we need? He has an open hand. God has an open hand towards you and he has had an open hand to towards you. Did we deserve that? Did we deserve that? No. No, we did not. I’ve already talked about how every single one of us have sinned against the Lord. So did we deserve God’s warm heart? Did we deserve his open hand? No way. No way.
Well, this becomes very challenging, I think, because we can say the same of our world. Are there some poor people in this country and in this world who don’t deserve money and generosity? Well, probably the answer is yes. Probably the answer is yes, that there are poor people in this country who don’t deserve our generosity and kindness. Towards them. But God asks the Israelites and asks us to be like him, to be open handed. Anyway, do you know the stats in this country show that fewer and fewer people are giving to charity every year. CAF did a report this year that said since 2017, in 2017, 60% of people gave to charity. And in 2024, 50% of people gave to charity. So half the population of our country didn’t give anything to charity in 2024. The astounding thing is that Christians buck that trend. Let me give you this stat. About 18 to 24 year olds, 18 to 24 year olds of the whole country, 36% of 18 to 24 year olds gave something to charity. Last year. 88% of Christian 18 to 24 year olds gave something to charity. Charity last year. Isn’t that just astonishing? The grace of God in the heart of young people in this country transforms them. 36% in my opinion, is a pretty disgraceful number of people who are giving something away, even just a small gift. But 88% of Christians in that category giving money away, being generous to the poor is a far more encouraging figure. If you have received God’s grace in your life, if he has been open handed towards you, then God says to you, I want you to be open handed, even if it’s just something small that you’re able to give away. It will be good for your relationship with God, good for your heart, and it will show that you have been changed by who God is.
So let’s have compassionate eyes. Let’s have warm, soft hearts. Let us have open hands towards the poor in our country and abroad as well. Let’s donate to food bank at supermarkets. Let’s buy lunch for the homeless and stop and chat with them and get to know them. Let’s donate to charity. We’ve heard already about cry and God’s faithfulness to cry. Well, let’s be part of God’s faithfulness to cry by giving generously towards that amazing charity. Let’s love the poor like God does.
Now, very, very quickly, in verse four, God says there’ll be no poor among you, doesn’t he? In verse 4 and then verse 11, he says, there will never cease to be poor in the land. And as a preacher, you’re going, what is going on? Are you contradicting yourself? How is it that God can say there will be no poor among you in verse four and then they’ll never cease to be poor among you in verse 11? It looks like a contradiction, but here’s what God is saying, God is saying, if you are obedient to me, Israelites in the land of Israel, I will bless the land. So there will always be enough. Collectively, you know, I’m going to shine the sun upon the land, I’m going to bring rain upon the land. There’s always going to be enough food. Collectively, as a nation, you’re never going to collectively, together, you’re always going to have enough as long as you’re obedient to me. There are punishments that come later on, of course, for their disobedience. But if you’re obedient, you’re always going to have enough collectively.
Therefore, says God, if an individual becomes poor, I have given you commands to sort this out and they’ll be cared for. If you obey my commands, Deuteronomy 15, you’ll be open handed towards the poor. So collectively you all have enough that you need. And if you obey these commands, then every individual will be well cared for as well. There won’t be any poor in the land because you’re obeying my commands. Actually what he’s saying is there are always going to be poor individuals in the land, but obey my laws, you generously provide for them, and then there’ll be no poor people. So it’s not a contradiction. It’s like this is what’s going to happen. This is how life is going to work in the land of Israel. Of course, what actually happens is the Israelites are disobedient. They exploit the poor people, and therefore the poor people in the land multiplies and it gets worse and worse as a nation over time.
Now why am I pointing this out? I’m pointing this out because I think something very, very similar happens in the early church in Acts chapter 2. In Acts 2, verse 45, it says of the early church, they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. Therefore, in the early church there was need. There were people in the early church who didn’t have everything they needed. And in Acts chapter six, there’s a story of people going hungry in the church. So there is need in the church. But what is happening is that the church is responding with generosity and those who were better off are selling their possessions and selling their land and distributing. So in one sense there was always poor people in the early church, and in another sense in Acts 2, it feels like there were no poor people in the early church because there was so much generosity that everyone was well looked after. And I think the same is true of the church. Today, collectively, God’s going to keep us in the right place. He’s going to provide for us. I believe now there are some cultures where that might not happen, where Christians get persecuted, but in this culture, I believe collectively, God is going to make sure that we as a church have what we need. But that’s not necessarily true of every individual. In fact, as we spread the gospel and share the good news with people who are not middle class, for example, then there will be more need coming into the church. And we need to respond to that by being generous, looking after one another, collectively sharing what we have, so that God can say, there’s always going to be poor people in Christchurch Fareham. There are no poor people in Christchurch Fareham. That’s how I want us to be as a church, and that’s how God wants the Israelites to be. In Deuteronomy chapter 15, our God releases debt. Our God is freely and ungrudgingly given to us, and we must do the same.
Our God Who Frees Slaves:
Thirdly, our God frees slaves. Verses 12 to 15 is all about freeing a slave after seven years of service. And verses 16 to 18, which says something about the type of slavery that God is anticipating in Israel, is about a slave who loves his owners so much that he chooses to stay forever. He’s been so well off that he goes, actually, I’m going to stay with you forever because you’re looking after me well. But of course, the real question that all of us are asking is, why is God allowing slaves at all? Why is there provision for slavery in Deuteronomy 15?
Well, notice that in verse 12, this is about Hebrew men and women, so this is about Israelites. The question about foreign slaves in the Old Testament is far more complex and I’ve decided not to answer it in this sermon. So you can come and ask me afterwards about foreign slaves, but I am going to talk about Israelite slaves. Why might there be Israelite slaves? And actually, there’s only one way for a Jewish person, a Hebrew or an Israelite, to become a slave in the land of Israel in the Old Testament. And it’s by their own choice. It’s by their own choice. Everyone, every tribe, every family is given a piece of land in the land of Israel. So everyone owns their own property. Everyone owns a piece of land. According to God’s law, everyone has the ability to grow their own food. The only way to become a slave in Israel was actually if you’re trying to grow food on your land and it’s not working and you’re struggling to feed your family and look after your family. And you’re going, what am I going to do? I can’t. I just cannot get the food out of this ground and we’re going hungry. What can I do? Well, one option was to go to your neighbor and, and say, can I serve you for six years in return for me boarding with you and being fed food in your place? And actually you can use my land. If you can get something out of the land, that would be great. So it’s actually the only way an Israelite would become a slave according to the Old Testament law is willingly. They would say, I need help, I’m hungry. Can I come and serve you? Because you’re doing well out of your land and I’m going to serve you for six years. In other words, slavery for the Israelites was a merciful provision to help struggling families, a merciful provision to help struggling families. And of course, in Deuteronomy 15, it’s for a limited period and then they get the option to walk free and go back to their land and be amply supplied with all these different things. Hopefully they’ve learned something about what this person was doing really well and they can both go back to their land and be free again and grow their own food and be successful and feed themselves and perhaps even help others in the future who are struggling to have their own food. So why is there provision for slaves? Well, I think it was actually a merciful provision of God to help out the people who were really, really struggling.
Notice in verse 15 that when the slave is freed, they do not let him go empty handed. That’s in verse 13. And you might have noticed this hand theme throughout Deuteronomy chapter 15. You must let go and open your hand so that the credit or debt that you’re owed is released. You must be open handed. You must be open handed to the poor when they need stuff for you. You must have open hands and give to them. And the poor and the slaves go away with full hands. Not empty hands, but full hands. I think the Christian life is often like this. It’s about having open hands and even empty hands while the needy and others go away from you with full hands. Does that make sense as an idea? I think that’s what it is to be a Christian in terms of possessions. I wonder whether you would describe yourself as a person who has open hands and when people hang out with you, they go away with full hands. Well, I think that’s what the Christian life should often be like anyway. The slave Leaves, goes back to his land, he gets his land back. He’s been liberally supplied with sheep and grain and wine, according to verse 14.
And why does all of this happen? Why does God command this? Well, the answer is because God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt and made sure they were liberally supplied as they left. The story of the nation of Israel is that they were slaves in Egypt. And when they went, God gave them everything they needed through the wilderness and into the problem, promised land. And so the reason that the Israelites were to release their slaves is because they’re telling a story of what God has already done for them in the land of Egypt. And therefore it is the same for us. Why should we liberally supply others because of what God has done for us again before? This is about what we must do, though. This is about who God is. He’s the liberator of slaves and the liberal supplier to free people. Once again, this law in Deuteronomy 15 is a picture of the gospel. Romans 6, 6 says, Our old self was crucified with Jesus Christ in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. This is a hard truth, but it is true that every non Christian is enslaved, enslaved to sin. They can’t help themselves from giving in to sin’s temptations. But Christ died carrying our sins so that sin might be defeated. Our slave master might be overthrown. So Christians are free from slavery to sin. We are no longer. If you’re a Christian, you’re no longer enslaved to sin. You were once enslaved to sin, unable to not to overcome temptation. But, but now sin has been defeated. Your slave master has been overthrown and you are no longer a slave to sin. But you are free. If you’re a non Christian in this room, you’re so welcome. But there’s an invitation to have real freedom, real freedom this morning. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And God wants to bring freedom to you today. So God is the one who sets the slave free and he set us free from the slavery to sin.
Well, how do we apply this in our lives? Well, firstly, do not let sin reign over you, but by the Holy Spirit, present yourselves as servants of righteousness. You see, it’d be crazy. It’d be crazy if you’re released from slavery. And then you say, I’m just going to go back and find out what my old master would tell me to do in this situation. I’m just going to. Let me just go Back, tell me what to do. I need to be told what to do. Sometimes Christians do that, right? They are freed from sin and they go into freedom and they live for Christ. And then they go, oh, I just wonder. I’m just sorry, sin. Can you just instruct me again and tell me what to do? Sometimes our Christian lives are like that. We go back to our old Master and we submit again to temptation’s voice. But the Bible says, don’t let sin reign over you. You have been freed by the Holy Spirit. Present yourselves as servants of righteousness, servants of Jesus. Jesus, you are my master now. I know that everything you say to me will be good and right, so I’ll follow you. When tempted by sin, Christians are empowered to say, it’s the seventh year, I’ve been released. It’s the Lord’s release. I have been released from slavery. I will not submit again to that slave master, but I will give myself to Christ. So don’t let sin reign over you.
That’s one application of this teaching. I think there’s also some application here for employers, bosses, managers. Not quite the same, but certainly if you work and you’re a manager and you look after people, I want to say this to you. Unless someone wants to, you shouldn’t try to hold an employee down. You know, sometimes you get a really good employee and you want to keep them where they are because they’re really good. But actually, I think this application, this idea that the slave will be released to go back to their land, to thrive and to learn and to go and be free again implies that employers, their goal should be to release others and to gift them liberally so they can go on and thrive in the future. So I think if you’re an employer, that’s worth thinking about. How can you release the people working for you so that they can be great in the future? God is the one who forgives debt. He’s the one who gives freely and ungrudgingly. He’s the one who frees the slaves.
Our God Who Dedicates His Firstborn Without Blemish:
And finally, our God is the one who offers his own firstborn son without blemish. Verses 19 to 23 are about dedicating the firstborn male sheep to God. So when your sheep scare, sheep give birth at the start of the year, springtime, presumably the firstborn shouldn’t do any work, but should be taken to the temple and sacrificed and eaten in a kind of first fruit celebration and offering to the Lord. That was all to happen unless the sheep had a blemish or a defect and something wrong with it. If it was lame or blind or it had a serious mark on it, that was a blemish. Then. Then instead of eating it at the temple, you could just eat it at home. That’s what verses 19 to 23 about. Don’t take it to the temple, don’t offer it to the Lord, eat it at home. There’s something unworthy about taking the imperfect lamb to the temple in those verses.
Now, I’m not sure I’ve got my head around all the Old Testament sacrifices, which are complex and multifaceted, but one thing keeps cropping up over and over again when you read the Old Testament. It’s that male lambs are often offered to God, that they need to be without blemish, they need to be perfect, and they are dedicated to the Lord. And you’ll see this over and over again. Make a sacrifice, may it be a firstborn lamb, and it needs to be without blemish. And the reason that those things are repeated is once again because this is a picture of the gospel, a foreshadowing of God’s Son, who would in every respect be dedicated to the Lord. In Luke 2, verses 22 to 23, Jesus as a baby is taken to the temple, and he’s dedicated to the Lord there they gave. Mary and Joseph dedicated their firstborn son to the Lord in the temple in Luke chapter two. And all of Jesus life is a life of complete obedience, complete dedication to his Father. He was perfectly righteous. He. He was without any blemish on his record at all. No one else in history was worthy really to be dedicated to the Lord in this sense, because every single one of us have blemishes in our life, imperfections and ways in which we have not obeyed God perfectly. But the true firstborn son, Jesus Christ, God the Son, the real blemishless lamb, the one to whom all the sacrifices in the Old Testament really point to. He was perfectly righteous, perfectly dedicated to the Lord, and brought as an offering to satisfy the demands of God the Father. He died on the cross as a perfect offering to God. And by his offering, our lives become acceptable to God by faith in Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 15 looks like it’s about people dedicating something to God, but I think it’s really about God giving, giving something himself, His Son, whom he offered as our offering on our behalf.
Conclusion:
So as I draw to a close, I want to call us to celebrate what a magnificent God we have in the Lord, what a glorious savior we have in Jesus Christ. He is the God who has released us from debt. We are debt free because of what Jesus has done for us. He is the God who, who frees the slaves. We are freed from sin’s slavery because of what Christ has done for us on the cross. He’s the God who gives freely and ungrudgingly. You know when you pray, you’re not coming to a God who’s like, oh, I don’t want to give you anything. I’m going to look at you with a grudging eye. No, he’s the God who loves to freely and ungrudgingly give us what we need in life. We worship a God who loves us so much he did not spare his own son. He gave Jesus Christ the blemishless firstborn lamb who was an offering of dedication on our behalf so that we might be acceptable in God’s sight. We have an amazing God who even in the law that he was giving to the nation of Israel, was drawing pictures of the gospel that would come many years later in the person of Jesus Christ. He is worthy of our worship, isn’t He? May our hearts be warmed to worship him and to live in light of who our God is. Let’s be generous Christians to the poor, even when they don’t deserve it. Let’s be open handed with warm open hearts. Let’s celebrate the freedom that Christ has won for us on the cross and not submit again to the yoke of slavery and go back and let sin reign over us. But let’s be free. Let’s live in the freedom that Christ has won for us. Let’s use our finances to honour the Lord because he’s freed us from debt. Let us be quick to forgive others because we’ve been forgiven quickly by God. And let’s worship and follow the Lamb who was slain on our behalf, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. If you are not a Christian here this morning, there is a God who can radically transform your life right now. There is a God who can change your life. And it’s like the person who’s been in debt their entire life and and suddenly everything’s wiped out. There is a God who can freely and ungrudgingly give you everything you need in life. Believe in Christ today. There is a God who is like he’s released a slave, been released from slavery and they leap for joy because they’re free. God can do that in your life right now if you put your faith in Jesus Christ because Jesus died for you on the cross and rose again. So believe in him, be freed and become debt free in the name of Jesus Christ.
Closing Prayer:
Lets pray. Thank you God for who you are. Thank you that you are the God who has released us from the debt of our sin and forgiven us freely. Make us people who forgive quickly. Thank you Lord God, that you are the God who is freely and ungrudgingly given to us. May we freely and ungrudgingly, with warm hearts and open hands, give freely to those who need it around us. I pray there would always be poor amongst us and never be poor people amongst us because of how generous we are as a church. Lord God, Lord God, thank you for the freedom that you have won for us. You’re the one who frees the slaves and you have freed us from slavery to sin. May we walk in that freedom and not let sin reign in our bodies anymore. And thank you for Christ. Lord Jesus, you are the blemishless lamb. You are the one who never sinned. You are the righteous one. One who died for us that we might be forgiven and free. Lord God, you are the one who provides the offering that we always needed to give to you. Thank you Lord Jesus. We give you glory and praise in Jesus name, Amen.
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