Have you ever noticed how easy it is to forget the most important things in life? "I've made a commitment that I try to get over to Sterling once a month to the cemetery and I'll have my little 5 minute check with my parents, you know, who are deceased. Their bodies are there or their remains are there, I should say. And that's about it. But you know, it becomes so easy, easy for us to forget." Life gets busy, doesn't it? We move on with things and it becomes easy to forget even the people who shaped us most.

That's exactly why God established the Passover tradition for the Israelites. "God started this for one simple reason. He didn't want them to forget. He did not want them to forget." And there are some things in our relationship with God that we absolutely should never forget.

The Story Behind the Passover

Let me take you back to one of the most pivotal moments in Israel's history. "You remember the story, we looked at it last week with Joseph and, and how his brothers who hated his guts, decided to trade him, sell him to a bunch of people who were going to end up selling him as a slave." Joseph ended up in Egypt, and eventually his entire family joined him there during a time of famine.

"They were there for about 430 years. That's a long time. It really, really, really is. But God was in control of that long time from the very beginning." Everything was going fine until there was a change of leadership. "That happens in life, doesn't it? Sometimes, you know, you get a new boss at work, a job that you'd love forever and ever and ever. And then a new boss comes by and all of a sudden you're counting the days that you get out of there."

The new Pharaoh got frightened when he started counting the Israelites. "It's like, whoa, these people have grown a lot in 430 years. There's just about more of them than there are of us. And if we're not going to, if we're not careful, they're going to overpower and overtake us." So he made their lives miserable, turning them into slaves.

God's Plan for Deliverance

While the Israelites suffered in bondage, God was preparing a deliverer - Moses. After Moses confronted Pharaoh multiple times, "God had to send a bunch of plagues. I mean, these were bad. River turned into blood. All these frogs all over the place. Gnats. I hate gnats. All over the place. There were about nine plagues. Okay? Pharaoh still wasn't letting the Israelites go."

So God planned a tenth and final plague - one that would finally break Pharaoh's stubborn heart. "On the 10th time around, that 10th thing that God did, it was bad. It was bad because human beings, little babies were being killed. Firstborn males, they. People and animals, they're being killed."

The Blood on the Doorpost

But God provided a way of escape. As recorded in Exodus 12, God gave specific instructions: "Here's what I want you to do. You're gonna take a lamb, or lamb, unblemished, spotless. In other words, it's going to be good. It's not going to be a leftover. And you're going to offer that lamb as a sacrifice."

The instructions were precise: "You need to take it, and you need to wipe it on the frame of the door, and you need to get ready, all right? You need to get ready to leave town." They had to be fully prepared - sandals on, walking stick in hand, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"And so they put that blood up there, and this death angel sent from God went through. And if that angel did not see blood on the post, the trim of the door frame, there was going to be death there." The blood of that spotless lamb was the only thing standing between life and death.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

"But let's just back up for a minute. Okay. And try to move that into our world." Fast forward a few thousand years from that night in Egypt. "Seems to me like I remember another story in the Bible. Only in this story, it wasn't a lamb that was killed. It was a man that was killed. But he came into this world as a little baby."

That baby grew up to be Jesus - "This guy was so good that you couldn't say anything bad about him and be telling the truth. The people who didn't like him, what they have to do the same thing people do today. They make up stuff. They lie."

"And that little boy who was named Jesus ended up dying on the cross as a sacrificial lamb for your sins and for mine. You see, just like every family, every Israelite family was told to do this. The Bible also says that every one of us has sinned. Every single one of us in this room."

As First Peter tells us: "You are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your fathers. But you were redeemed with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ."

The Reality of Sin's Consequences

"Our sin brings with it consequences, right? Some of those consequences are temporal." If you speed down the highway, you might get a ticket. "But there's also eternal consequences to our sin. And these eternal consequences are eternal separation from God, eternally separated from God."

Jesus illustrated this reality in Luke 16 with the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man found himself "in torment" and "in anguish in these flames," separated from God by "a great chasm" that no one could cross. "You see, there are consequences to sin. There are temporal consequences. And we see those all the time... but there are also eternal consequences."

Living in Freedom

Here's the amazing truth: "God paid for your freedom so that you'd be free from the trap of sin. Being enslaved to sin, he paid for that." As First Corinthians 6:20 says, "God bought you with a high price, so you must honor God with your body."

But here's what happens to some of us: "We're free, we're enjoying it, and all of a sudden something catches our eye. It's like that nice shiny little... fishing lure, you know, it catches. Whoa, what was that? What was that? And we start chasing it. Before you know it, we've been caught."

"Whatever chains are on you, whatever bondage is there, it's because you've gone backward in life." Paul wrote to the Galatians: "Christ has truly set us free. Make sure you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law."

Putting It Into Practice

Remember Your Deliverance "Sometimes I think we have the tendency to forget what our life was like before we met Christ." Just like God didn't want the Israelites to forget their slavery in Egypt, "God does not want you. He does not want me to ever forget that we have been purchased with a price."

Accept the Sacrifice "The sacrifice was made. They were claiming to trust the sacrifice, but they still had to do something." Jesus said in Luke 9:23, "If you wish to come after me, you have to deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me."

Live Like You're Free "You've been bought with a price. You are free." When you find yourself struggling with sin or bondage, remember: "I couldn't give myself eternal life no matter how much I wanted to. I can't get out of this bondage to sin, no matter how much I want God without your help. I've got to have some help here."

"And you know what? You're going to find that he will be right there. He's going to give you some direction. He may give you some direction through other believers, but he wants you to do well. He paid for you, he bought you. You're his. Of course he's going to want you to do well in this life."

The blood is on the doorpost. The sacrifice has been made. The question is: will you live like the free person God has made you to be?