PENTECOST BAPTIST CHURCH INTERNATIONAL, PORTSMOUTH.

Sunday 6 January 2013

New Year Revolution (Exodus 12:1-20)

New Year Revolution (Exodus 12:1-20)
I am aware that many people make new year resolutions. They always make it. It has become a culture. Did you make one this year? Some even write it down. Example includes: I will stop smoking, I will cut down binge drinking, I will reduce my drug doses, I will love my husband/wife more etc. Some people even listen to sermons on new year resolutions. The sad thing is that majority of those people do not keep their resolutions. This kind of experience made me declared to myself one time that my new year resolution was to make no resolution at all, but I still found myself making one even though I pretended not to be making it. The fact is that even those who do not pronounce their resolutions make at least one quietly.
This year it might be a bit different. Instead of a resolution, it might actually be a revolution. So call it a new year revolution. This is similar to Isaiah’s prophecy so many years back.
Isaiah 1:19
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
What if they are unwilling and disobedient? It will lead to a revolution against them. That was declared in the next verse. Have you read about the Samaritans’ experience in Israel?
2Kings 17:22
For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23
Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. 24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. 25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
When Shalmaneser king of Assyria carried away the Israelites and replaced them with foreigners, Samaria became a mixed multitudes so the Southern Kingdom of Judah abhorred them and labelled them as Samaritans. But something notable happened. The foreigners lived anyhow in the holy land and lions began to devour them in the land. The land revolted against them. Probably what is happening today in our world is that the earth is revolting against humanity. I think this may increase this year. I am not a prophet of doom.
Num 32:23
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
The difference between a resolution and a revolution in this case is this: resolution is the usual lip service we make year in year out while revolution is what will make or unmake us.
This year people have to know how to live in God’s own earth otherwise the earth will revolt against them. May the earth not revolt against you.
The key to Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt was obedience. They obeyed the voice of the Lord to the letter. If you obey the Lord also your deliverance, your blessing, your answer to long awaited prayer will be so simple. But apart from the fact that Israelites were suffering in Egypt, they were able to obey God because they heard his voice. This year you must take time to listen to God more and hear his voice. If you do this you will celebrate the Passover everyday of this year and there shall be no revolution against you. God bless you