A Boy At The Candy Store...

There was a little boy in a candy story that was staring at the candy.  The owner noticed him and looked at his clothes and realized he was poor and had compassion on him and told him:
"Go ahead and reach your hand in the candy jar and get as much candy as your hand can hold.:"
The boy just kept on staring.
The owner, said "Didn't you hear me?  Go ahead, reach in and get as much candy as your hand can hold and I won't charge you for it."
The boy kept on staring.
Finally, a little exasperated, the owner stuck his hand down in the candy jar and pulled out a great big handful of candy and said "Here!"
The little boy smiled and held out his two cupped hands together and said "Your hand is bigger than mine!"

That is what happened with us!  God reached in with His hand and bestowed upon us riches of grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

His hand is bigger than ours! Follow @ddevonshire

Where Is The Lamb?

***Notes from "Where Is The Lamb?" message.  These are in rough draft form!

Genesis 22:7  And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

Intro:  Do you know where the first time the bible mentions love?  It is in Genesis 22. 

It is when God tells Abraham take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest….

So we see Abraham taking his son to the top of Mt. Moriah, intended to offer him as a sacrifice to his God.

Man that loved God so much he was willing to sacrifice his son for Him.

As they walk up the mountain, Isaac his son doesn’t know what is going on and asks the question “Where is the lamb?”  Abraham utters his prophetic answer “God will provide Himself a Lamb.”

They get to the top and God stops Abraham from going through with the human sacrifice.

From that moment, the search begins. 

We are looking for a Lamb, one that will be sacrificed for us.

We need a Lamb.

2. Passover

In the time that the Israelites are slaves in Egypt.  God prepares them to be rescued and redeemed.  He sends plagues upon the nation of Egypt, always sparing the Israelites and showing that He was their protector and at the same time warning the Egyptians that they had better take heed.

Finally the last plague was to come.

God tells Moses:

Exodus 12:3  Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

Every house needs a lamb

Every man needs a lamb

They were to choose the lamb four days before.

The lamb was to be among them, to make sure it wasn’t sick, diseased, or had any broken bones.  But also so that there would be some sort of relationship built.  The kids would play with it, They would feed it, Some say it was even to be In their home and eat and drink at their table.  All so that when they sacrificed that lamb, there would be a connection to it.  That was our lamb, they would understand that that lamb is being slain for us.

They would prepare the meal

·         No bone broken

·         Every father would slay the lamb, so that means every father was a priest to his home

·         Blood placed on the door posts and the lintel

·         Not on the  threshold (to count the blood an unholy thing)

·         Eat it all, get full

·         No matter how religious or how sinful, the only thing that mattered that night was: “Is the blood on the doorposts and lintel?” if it was, they are safe.  They all hid underneath the blood.

·         Can you imagine being the first born?  Watching dad.  Maybe the dad hesitating…Mom beckoning, Are you going to risk your son’s life by inaction?  Do it! 11:30 11:45 finally they do it.

·         Eat the lamb….all are healed…2 million people and not one feeble (sick) among them. 

·         You talk about a mass healing service!!!

·         How much more now, when we partake of the Lamb, (Jesus) in communion (tonight)

·         All were saved by the blood

·         All were healed by the Lamb

3. David

·         Chosen as a shepherd king

·         Moses also a shepherd

·         Israel called God’s flock

·         Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd

·         Shepherd would sleep at the door, he would become the door, of the sheepfold

·         Develop close relationships with the sheep

·         Held them as they were nursed back to health.

·         They would know the shepherd’s voice and only follow him

·         Now David is different

·         Now he has hired someone else to tend his sheep, his flocks

·         Now he has gotten him a name

·         He is famous

·         Rich

·         Proud

·         Distant from God

·         He has lied, cheated, committed adultery, had a man murdered!

·         ***God didn’t give up on him!

·         Sends Nathan the prophet

·         Nathan tells a story

·         Two men, one rich one poor.

·         Poor man had only one little lamb

o   Ate at the same table

o   Drank of the same cup

o   Slept in his bosom

o   As a daughter to him

o   Didn’t have much, but he had the lamb

§  More than we need to give material things to our children, we need to give them the reality of a relationship with Jesus Christ!

§  Fed the Lamb, the influence of the Lamb grew in their house.

§  This is how Christianity is supposed to be

§  Not just a petting zoo on Sunday and then do your own thing, but He is supposed to live with you.

§  The fragrance of the Lamb fills the home

§  Eats at the table

§  Drinks at your cup

§  Decisions are made in the presence of the Lamb

§  Words are spoken in the presence of the Lamb

·         Not Shut up

·         Not I hate you

·         Rich man took the poor man’s lamb and slew it

·         David was infuriated!

·         He shall be put to death

·         He shall restore four lambs for that one!

o   David Did (Four of his children died for the one he killed)

§  Adonijah

§  Absalom

§  Amnon

§  Baby of Bathsheba

·         Thou art the man

·         Poor man had something that David no longer had.  A relationship with the Lamb!

·         Where is the Lamb? David

4. John the Baptist

John 1:36  And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

5. Revelation

                Revelation 5:5-6

5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Jesus is our Lamb, slain for our sins.  His blood gives us forgiveness of sins and partaking of His body gives us healing!

Conclusion:Amazing how that hundreds of years later we see the same scene played out.

At the beginning we saw the Abraham loved God enough that he was willing to sacrifice his son for God.  

but now...

At Calvary...

We see God loves man enough that He is willing to sacrifice His son for man!

God has provided Himself a Lamb.  Jesus Christ, the lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

Follow @ddevonshire