Redemption

This morning, as we wrap up our series, I want to start with us pondering a simple question. Have you ever noticed how even a little bit of weight can make a big difference? For the parents out there, it is interesting how carrying a small child can make an easy walk seem a lot harder. For those that workout, the difference between too light of weights and too heavy often isn’t a big difference. Yet even the slightest increase in weight can change a task from manageable to unbearable.

Question 1: Can you think of a time when a little weight made a big difference?

The instance that stands out to me is walking to the park with my girls. Getting to the park is a piece of cake; it never fails that when we come back, someone needs to be carried, and those few short blocks seem like miles to walk.

The title of this message is redemption. The literal meaning of redemption is

Redemption - the release of people, animals, or property from the bondage through the payment of a price.

so redemption has to do with slavery, there is a price of redemption, and there is typically someone doing the redeeming.

the original text that talks about redepmtion in this sense is found in Leviticus 25. Now I recognize when we try to read the bible in a year and follow one of those plans, we hit Leviticus and it can be slow moving. There are a lot of laws about things that we really don’t practice anymore. But Leviticus 25 is really interesting.

This chapter starts by talking about a Sabbath year. The same way we are told to work six days and rest one, the land was supposed to be worked for 6 years and allowed to rest for one.

Then Moses tells the people that there was to be a year of jubilee. Every 50 years, the nation was to reset. Land that was sold was supposed to return to the anscestoral family, slaves were to be set free.

Then we get to v.47, and this is what Moses says

Leviticus 25:47–55 ESV

“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker. If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Redeemed by Family

so Moses lays out this scenario. One of your fellow Israelites falls on hard times and sells himself to someone who is not an Israelite, then it is the responsibility of the family to get him out of that situation. Essentially, the closer the relative, the greater priority that relative has to redeem the person

But this is really important to understand. There was going to be time when someone was going to sell themselves into slavery. At that point, in the eyes of their owner, they stopped being a person and became a piece of property to be worked, the same as an ox.

It was the responsibility of a close relative to step into that situation, pull them out of slavery, redeem them by paying whatever price, and thereby, turning them back into famly.

The man, and his family, stopped being something to be possessed, and became someone who was loved and valued as part of the community God had set apart as his own possession.

There was even a clause in that law that talked about a person working hard and being able to free themselves. That would obviously be the ideal, because then they got to keep their dignity.

But what happened in the scenario that someone couldn’t redeem themselves, and there was no one who was able to pay the price and redeem them?

Psalm 72:12–14 ESV

For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.

God Redeems

Scripture tells us that God is always close to the broken hearted, the needy, and the poor. Psalm 72 says that when there is no where else to turn, God is the one to redeems a person.

This is a significant. In the Leviticus passage, it said that the people of Israelites had to be redeemed because they belonged to God, they were his servants alone.

However, if God is stepping in and acting as redeemer, this means we are not simply property that God doesn’t want to share; we are family who are loved an cherished by a loving Father

Question 2: Have you ever been caught in a hopeless situation? How did you get out of it?

I remember a time when I was stuck and needed saving. I was fresh out of bible school and felt the need to find work. I got hired by a company that would drive to a site, and we would stay on site until the job was done. What I wasn’t told was that we’d be putting in 20 hour days, and I’d be stuck on a pole, hanging on for dear life. I felt trapped, I felt like I was in constant danger. My dad called near the end of the second day and I told him what was going on, and drove a lot of hours to pick me up and essentially saved me. I was stuck, I could’ve been hurt, and it was completely out of my control. I’ve never felt more helpless in my life.

The Danger of Sin

What does any of this have to do with finishing strong? Do you know what the first thing most people say when they first surrender their lives to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour? They almost always say it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. 90% of the time, they didn’t even know they were carrying the weight until it was gone.

When we did the Set Free Retreat, after the first session of confession and prayer, I felt like I had dropped some weight, and actually couldn’t wait for more so that I could feel even freer and lighter.

Because here is the scenario. Adam and Eve sinned, broke God’s one rule in the garden of Eden, and after that, every single person has been born with a sin nature. Something within us draws us to act and think contrary to the ways of God our Father.

This means that every single person has a problem with sin, and there is nothing you can do about it on your own. You can try, but often you end up switching one sin for another, or you break one temptation, only to fall into pride, which is a whole other problem. It doesn’t matter what form it takes or what name you give it, everyone of us was at one point a slave to sin. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t get out of the bondage.

The price for your redemption was death. Jesus came and paid the price for you. You have been set free from sin’s influence and slavery because of what Jesus did and who he is. No other name in all creation can really truly set you free the way Jesus’ can.

Now some of you know this, and even at one point confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The problem is that it can be hard to make that clean break. We make excuses like, “I know the bible says I shouldn’t do that, but is it really that bad?” “I remember Pastor Matt saying that I should stay away from that, but just a little bit won’t hurt.”

People don’t become addicts overnight. It starts with a little compromise here, an excuse there, and suddenly sin has snuck back into our life, and without even knowing it, we are once again carrying a weight we were never meant to carry.

When it comes to finishing strong, running the race of life well, it doesn’t matter how much rest you get. It doesn’t matter how much scripture you remember or how often you lean on your brothers and sisters. If you do not regularly take time, get real before God, allow him to search your life, and point out the things that are contrary to his design for you, you will never make it to the finish line.

It doesn’t take much weight to make to a little task exponentially harder. It doesn’t take much sin to completely entangle your mind, your heart, your emotions, and your life.

You can either be a slave to sin, or be in the family of God, but you can’t have it both ways. God doesn’t want you entangled, he doesn’t want you imprisoned by sin, why would allow that to happen to yourself?

Question 3: When was the last time you allowed the Holy Spirit to search your life for things that didn’t belong?

you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t be kind of redeemed with a hint of sin. If you want to run your race with integrity and finish strong, you need to fully step into the redemption that is only found in Jesus Christ.