But I wanted to speak about change, changes
in the Christian life.
Looking at it from a specific angle, the
Christian life is a life of changing.
And the Christian life should be changing.
We should never stop changing in our Christian
life.
Up till the day we die, up till
the day when we breathe our last breath,
we must be changed and formed more and
more into the likeness of Christ.
And friends, change means risks.
And human nature does not lay like risks.
We don't like to be changing and we
don't like taking risks.
And it can happen so easily in your
Christian life that you start shying away from
changes and risks.
And then to that we start stagnating.
The other day I read about the disease
called Alzheimer's.
We know it's a physical disease that affects
the brain in old people and makes them
confused.
And you find that people with Alzheimer's, when
they get it, they want to do the
same thing every day.
They want to sit in the same chair
every day.
They want to have the same food at
the same time every day.
They don't want to go to unfamiliar areas.
They want to live in the same room,
with the same settings, everything stays the same.
They don't want to go to unfamiliar areas.
But you know, I read something and it
was so interesting to me.
They say if you stimulate a person with
Alzheimer's to think in a new way, the
disease, the progress of the disease actually slows
down.
Of course you must do it in a
gentle way.
But if you can stimulate that person, confront
him with new surroundings and new things, you
stimulate the person to think new again.
This changes the outcome of the disease and
makes the disease less serious.
You know, you get people suffering from spiritual
Alzheimer's.
They want to settle down in life.
They don't want to stop the trials and
temptations of life.
Trials that confront you with something new and
you've got to look for a new way
out of this and you've got to see
God's face and plead with God to save
you out of this situation.
Blessed is the person that allows God to
save him from spiritual Alzheimer's.
So at the beginning of this year, a
new year is a time of change.
I want to look at Israel during a
time of change.
And just get some lessons out of Israel.
And this big time of change was the
change when God, after 400 years in slavery
in Egypt, the change came and God took
them out of Egypt on the way to
the Promised Land.
And let us just look at the dangers
of change.
The positive side of changes and the dangers
of change.
Because brothers and sisters, there's a very good
chance that this year you and me are
going to be confronted with challenges with which
we've never been challenged before ever in our
spiritual lives.
You just reach the point in life where
you think, well, now I've got things sorted
out.
Now I've got my life arranged.
Now I'm ready for everything.
I've experienced, I've learned how to deal with
everything.
And God lifts his little finger and he
makes something happen that throws you totally off
your feet.
God's got to teach us.
He's got to teach us how to live
our lives, how to live our world.
God's got to lift his little finger and
he makes something happen that throws you totally
off your feet.
And God lifts his little finger and he
makes something happen that throws you totally off
your feet.
Israel thought, now that they're out of Egypt,
they're on their way to Canaan, now things
will get along.
Things will settle down and they'll just travel
on to Canaan now.
But friends, on the way to Egypt, they
met up with challenges which they had never
met before.
Some of these challenges hurt them.
Some of the tests they failed.
So let's just look at a small portion
of this time and just look at the
tests and the changes and how they dealt
with it.
We will be reading from Exodus chapter 16.
The 16th chapter of Exodus.
And we will be starting to read from
verse 15.
But before we read, let us just pray
together again.
Lord Jesus, thank you that we have you.
In a life where nothing is certain, there
is virtually nothing we can be sure of.
Even our very existence, we know that tomorrow
some of us might have passed away and
we've got nothing to know it.
Our possessions, our dear ones, our jobs, nothing
is certain.
But Lord, we thank you that there is
one factor that is certain and that is
you.
You are our anchor in life.
And Lord, at the beginning of this year,
we want you to be our anchor for
the rest of this year.
We don't know the storms that lies ahead
with us this year, Lord.
We don't know the size of the waves
that are going to wash over us.
But Lord, as long as we hold on
to this anchor, we do not fear.
Thank you for that.
And Lord, use this morning to increase our
grip on this anchor which is you.
To train us and to instruct us how
to hold on to this anchor.
Open the eyes of our minds.
Speak to us through your Spirit.
Amen.
So we will be reading from Exodus chapter
16 from verse 15.
So when the children of Israel saw it,
they said to one another, What is it?
For they did not know what it was.
And Moses said to them, This is the
bread which the Lord has given to you
to eat.
This is the bread which the Lord has
given to you to
eat.
This is the thing which the Lord has
commanded.
Let every man gather it according to each
one's need.
One omer for each person according to the
number of persons.
Let every man take for those who are
in his tent.
Then the children of Israel did so and
gathered some more, some less.
So when they measured it by omers, he
who gathered much had nothing left over, and
he who gathered little had no lack.
Every man had gathered according to each one's
need.
And Moses said, Let no one leave any
of it till morning.
Verse 19, Notwithstanding they
did not heed Moses, but some of them
left part of it until morning.
And it bred worms and stank, and Moses
was angry with them.
Verse 20,
So
they gathered it every morning, every man according
to his need, and when the sun became
hot, it melted.
Verse 21,
Then
he said to them, This is what the
Lord has said, Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest,
a holy Sabbath for the Lord.
Bake what you will bake today, and boil
what you will boil, and lay up for
yourselves all that remains to be kept until
morning.
So they laid it up till morning as
Moses commanded, and it did not stink, nor
were there any worms in it.
Then Moses said, Eat that today, for today
is a Sabbath to the Lord.
Today you will not find in the field.
Then Moses said to them, This is what
the Lord has said, Tomorrow is a Sabbath
to the Lord.
Today you will not find in the field.
Verse 27, Now it happened that some of
the people went out on the seventh day
together, but they found none.
Verse 33, And Moses said to Aaron, Take
a pot, and put an omer of manna
in it, and lay it up before the
Lord to be kept for your generations.
As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid
it up before the testimony to be kept.
And then just listen to these amazing words,
And the children of Israel ate the manna
forty years, until they came to an inhabited
land.
And they ate manna until they came to
the border of the land of Canaan.
Verse 35,
We'll
just read thus far, Friends, I said that
life is a changing life, and things in
the world are changing all the time.
And in this changing life, there's only one
stable factor, and that's God.
And there's only one thing to go that's
going to make you and me stable, and
that would be to hold on to this
God and to be obedient to him.
We hold on to God in faith, by
faith, but we also do it by obedience.
Now, I said to you that life
is a life of changes, and it has
risks.
If you look at Israel, you see the
whole time from when they started leaving Egypt
was one test with challenges and risks from
the beginning right to the end.
The first risk was the risk of leaving
Egypt.
Because there was the risk of Pharaoh coming
after them, and killing them, and punishing them,
and taking them back to captivity.
And so friend, if you want to live
the life in sin, the life in slavery
of the devil, and you want to break
away from Satan's control, you are taking a
risk, we can't get away from it, it's
a fact.
Let me guarantee you, Satan is going to
be furious for every soul that he loses,
and that slips out under his control.
There was this time of change when they
left Egypt with many risks involved, but they
reached the point where they were so sick
and tired of the slavery, they just want
to get out.
But they were actually coming out of one
world of slavery, and God was taking them
into a new world.
A new life spiritually, it symbolizes a new
life of being born again.
You know when I thought of this, I
thought of the normal birth of a child.
When a child is close to being born,
this child is quite comfortable and has been
growing quite well there where he is.
If you might ask
that child whether he wants to be born,
most probably, or maybe the child would say,
no, I'm quite happy, it's nice and warm,
I'm happy here.
For that child to be born is in
a sense a process of death before it
gets born into this world.
And so when a person has not been
born again spiritually, you might be quite happy
in the life you're living.
You've grown accustomed to the way things go
in your home.
The way you fight and you bicker with
each other.
If your parents don't treat you the way
you expect them to treat you, they don't
give you the freedom that you think you
deserve.
Or if your children don't treat you the
way you want them to treat you, or
your husband the way you want him to
treat you, or your wife doesn't treat you
the way you expect her to treat you,
it's amazing how a person can get used
to life in captivity.
And you think that's how it's supposed to
be in a home.
We must just fight with each other every
now and then.
We must just slam the doors every now
and then.
Or maybe you're just used to the life
of drinking, of smoking.
And so you're not interested in being born
again.
And you know, you could ask this child
and this child could say, Well, I don't
know how I'm going to breathe out there.
I've never breathed in my life.
So the devil can come and make you
afraid of the change that you are about
to go through spiritually.
And he'll tell you you're never going to
make it.
Without your drugs, without having something to drink
maybe once or twice a week, especially over
the weekends, I cannot handle life.
I cannot breathe out there.
I'm going to die if I do that.
But friends, unless we are willing to die,
we will never, never be born again.
You
will remain in the
womb spiritually for the rest of your life.
And you know, in medical terms they speak
about a mummified fetus.
You get something like a mummified fetus.
A child that dies in the womb.
And it turns into a very hard tissue
like a mummy.
He doesn't decay, he just stays stiff in
the same position.
I tell you, in the church of Christ
there are many mummified fetuses.
They were in the process of being born
anew.
But they didn't have the courage to go
right through and they stopped halfway with the
growth.
Maybe you say, well you know, I can't
go and confess this mistake of mine.
I can't go and apologize.
Because they will never again trust me.
They are going to tell me, you see
we always thought you were not reliable.
And now that you've confessed that you've done
it, that's exactly what we knew.
We knew you were not reliable.
It's the most difficult to do that to
your family members who live close to you.
Because once you've acknowledged your mistake and apologized
to them, the devil sees that you are
going to get free now.
And he'll tell you, don't go and do
it, just keep quiet.
Because they are going to tag you.
They are going to see what's your weak
spot.
You won't be able to do it again.
They'll pick it up quickly because they will
know now what's your weak spot.
Just try and deal with it yourself.
You don't have to go outside and apologize
and confess.
You know what you like?
You like that little boy who came running
into the house.
He'd been playing outside in the mud.
It was time for supper.
And his dad called him for supper.
And so as he ran into the house,
his dad said, no, your hands are dirty.
And he did this.
This is what some people do when they
realize that they are spiritually dirty.
They do this, and what they do is
they rub the dirt all over them or
even against the people around them.
You go and speak to your friend.
Because you think it's easier to speak to
my friend.
My friend will understand it better, you know,
rather to go and speak to a child
of God.
Actually, when you do it, you rub some
of the dirt onto your friend and you
defile your friend as well.
Some people just decide to keep quiet with
the filth in their lives.
But you know sin is like nuclear waste.
When they use nuclear uranium to produce electricity,
radioactive uranium.
After they've used it for some years, it's
not strong enough to use anymore.
But it's still active and it can still
cause cancer if people are exposed to it.
So they load it in trains, and the
Europeans cart it somewhere off the coast of
Germany.
And of course the Greens are all very
unhappy about it.
And they dump it in the sea, deep
in the sea, and there it lies with
its radioactivity there down in the sea.
But it doesn't matter how deep you throw
it, it remains radioactive there at the bottom
of the sea.
It lies there radiating this dangerous extra rays
out.
Friends, it doesn't matter how deep you try
to hide the sin, how deep in your
heart you put it.
You don't talk about it, you don't even
try not to think about it anymore.
But there at the bottom of your heart
where it's lying, I tell you it is
radioactive.
It's affecting your soul, it's harming your soul,
it's radiating your soul.
There's only one way.
You must get to Christ, the Son of
God with His filth in your heart and
in your soul.
Don't worry how you're going to breathe once
you've done it.
You can't imagine how you're going to live
once you've been born again.
Yes, once you've been born again, you will
live a totally different life.
You can't imagine what it's going to be
like.
And don't want to understand it first, how
am I going to still live if I'm
going through this?
If I obey God, don't worry, it will
be a new life.
God will sustain you.
And friends, once this child is born, he
finds himself in the arms of his mother.
He looks up at her warm, smiling face.
He's the hero of the house.
Everybody comes and they want to see him.
The devil don't want you to experience that.
That's why he's making you afraid to be
born again and to leave the world of
sin.
There's another change going to come, another birth.
As this child grows up, he learns to
love his family.
Maybe he gets a wife and children.
Yes, life is difficult at times, but he
goes through with it.
It makes him strong.
And slowly but surely, he becomes comfortable in
this life.
And just when we think we're comfortable in
this life, if we've met with God, the
time comes for us to be born again.
And again, it looks like death to us.
I don't want to leave my loved ones.
I don't want to leave.
I'm living comfortably now.
And yet, if we go through this with
Christ, when death comes, we will open our
eyes on the other side in heaven.
We look at the smiling face of our
heavenly host.
Our Lord and Master, that's just the first
change.
I'll have to go quickly through the rest.
There was another risk for Israel.
Where were they going to get food?
There was another risk for Israel.
What about the enemies out there, the Moabites
and the Ammonites?
They were going to be hunger and drought.
Friends, it was a life of continuous risks
that they were exposed for.
And yet, it was all, if they stayed
close to God, it was going to be
better than the life in Egypt.
And when I thought of these risks in
the spiritual life, I thought of a portion
that somebody had given me.
Let me warn you that it's written by
a worldly person.
And because of time, I'm just going to
scan through them.
Because it is written by a worldly person,
not everything applies to Christians.
The title of the piece is called Risks.
He says, to laugh is to risk appearing
a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
They listen to this.
He says, to reach out for another is
to risk getting involved.
Tell me, brother and sister, are you still
involved?
Or have you stopped being involved?
Being involved in the Lord's work.
Being involved in saving the souls of others.
He says, to expose feelings is to risk
exposing your true self.
Listen to this one.
He says, to love is to risk not
being loved in return.
Tell me, are you still loving?
Or maybe somebody hurt you in the process
of loving.
And now you walk around with a grudge
in your heart.
You go around and tell people once bitten,
twice shy.
Once bitten, twice shy.
If you've once been hurt, you're very afraid
to go close to the person again.
Then he says, to live is to risk
dying.
Yes, friends, if you start living for God,
there is the danger, the risk of you
dying spiritually, that you can fall away spiritually,
that you can fall from grace spiritually.
To live spiritually.
Some people are so afraid that they will
die, that they don't want to come to
the Lord, to be born again and to
start living.
He says, to hope is to risk despair.
That's what Israel did.
As they moved into the desert, they had
to hope on God.
They had to trust God that God would
keep them alive.
They had to trust God to daily give
them their manna.
Friends, the Christian life is a life of
risks.
Every day you're exposed to risks.
When Israel moved out of Egypt, there was
the danger that they could die in the
desert.
If you leave the old life in sin,
if you turn your back on the devil,
if you turn your back on your old
friends, worldly friends, you're starting to live a
high risk life.
It is true.
Because there'll be temptations and trials in the
desert.
Listen to the next point.
He said, to try is to risk failure.
Then he says the following, he says, but
risks must be taken.
He says, because the greatest hazard in life
is to risk nothing.
Tell me friend, have you taken that first
risk?
Was there a time in your life when
you turned your back on Pharaoh?
When you left the old life in sin?
And are you still taking those risks?
Are you daily depending on God?
Are you still living that life where you
daily need God to supply your manna for
you?
Some Christians get tired of this life.
Trusting the Lord.
Depending on the Lord every day.
Because daily God must sustain me and you.
Daily God must give us, as he gave
the Israelites the manna, he must give us
new grace.
Daily he must give us new patience.
Daily he must give us new love to
the people around us.
It's a life where you are daily totally
dependent on God.
And you must stay close to God, otherwise
you miss these blessings from him.
Are you still living this life of risking
for God?
Refusing to tell a lie.
Even if you know if I tell a
lie I'll keep my job, if I don't
tell the lie I might lose my job.
Are you still willing to risk for God
and to refuse to tell the lie and
trust the Lord to take care of you,
even if you lose your job?
A person who risks nothing is lukewarm.
Because he doesn't take sides.
He's everybody's friend.
He's the friend of the world and he's
the friend of God.
And he lives a comfortable life without any
risks.
Everybody's happy with me.
Nobody's complaining about me.
I've cut out all the risks and I'm
living a nice peaceful life.
And you don't realize you've taken the biggest
risk of all.
Because God says, because you're lukewarm I'm going
to spit you out of my mouth.
I'm rushing to get through this.
The person who risks nothing does nothing.
Do you realize that?
You can be in church every Sunday.
You can be active in God's work.
But in God's eyes you're doing nothing.
You've stopped making progress.
You've stopped conquering new grounds spiritually.
You've stopped risking and so you've stopped doing
something.
He says, a person who risks nothing does
nothing.
Has nothing.
And is nothing.
Friends, have you stopped going closer to God?
Growing more holy.
Stop risking to go more humble.
Grow more humble.
Stop risking to grow more humble.
Then he says, they may avoid suffering and
sorrow.
But they cannot learn.
Some people are like that.
They are so afraid of making mistakes.
That they rather just stay in one place
spiritually.
No, friends.
If we make mistakes, then we remain enough
to apologize and say, I've made a mistake.
Forgive me.
I've made a mistake.
I've sinned.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they
cannot learn.
They cannot feel.
They cannot change.
That's what God said to the One Nation.
He said to them, you like wine that
hasn't changed its taste.
Such a person cannot change.
He cannot grow.
He cannot love.
If you stop changing, you cannot grow in
the love of God.
And you know what?
You are even going to lose the love
that you have in your heart.
And he says, you cannot love.
In trying to avoid suffering and sorrow.
He says, chained by their certitudes, they are
a slave.
They have forfeited their freedom.
And then he ends
with a
sentence.
Only a person who risks is free.
So let's just look in closing at Israel
in the desert.
We read about all the risks they were
exposed to.
How they had to be obedient.
Sometimes God said to them, don't keep the
manna for tomorrow, eat everything.
When they tried to keep it, it started
stinking and the worms came into it.
Sometimes it is like that.
God gives us something.
Like he gave them the manna.
He gives us money.
He gives us children.
He gives us a job.
But may we never start holding on to
these gifts of God.
Because if we hold on to them, they
will start stinking in our hands.
God was afraid of that with Abraham.
He gave Abraham his son Isaac.
But then after some time he said, well,
is Abraham not too attached to his son
Isaac maybe?
He said, Abraham, go and sacrifice Isaac.
Because if Abraham started holding on to Isaac,
that beautiful relationship would have started stinking.
Friends, the gifts of God must never be
more important to us than God himself.
Even if it is the very manna that
is supposed to keep me alive.
Even though it is God's work.
Maybe God has given to you a ministry.
Maybe there is a calling on your life.
It must remain on the altar.
If God's work becomes too important for you,
you will find worms getting in there.
You will start becoming proud.
You will start becoming selfish.
If your children become too important to you,
or your wife, or your husband, the worms
will start getting into them.
God must remain the first in our lives.
Tell me, are you willing to keep taking
that risk?
To keep God first in your life.
At other times, God said to them, leave
to the Sabbath.
Don't go and pick up on the Sabbath.
And sure enough, the manna didn't rot.
Do you see the secret, friend?
The secret is to hear God's voice.
And to obey God.
Sometimes God may expect you to do the
opposite things.
Sometimes He might have told you, don't leave
the manna for tomorrow.
And then suddenly one day He says to
you, now leave it.
And the devil is going to try and
make you anxious.
And say, no man, I must go and
pick up the next day.
I must say something now.
I mustn't keep quiet now.
Or maybe you're tempted to just lose your
temper to your child.
Because you're afraid the worms might get into
this child.
You're afraid the manna might rot.
And God says, no, just keep quiet.
Leave it.
Don't speak to the child now.
Test the child.
See whether this child's conscience won't prick him.
It is so beautiful for me to see
how God trained the Israelites to stay close
to Him and to remain obedient to Him.
Have you experienced that?
When the devil says, now you've got to
do something, say something now.
You feel anxious.
Everything in you screams out that you've got
to go and pick up the manna.
It's going to rot.
And deep in your heart, it's a still
small voice that says to you, no, just
leave it.
You see, a Christian that is legalistic and
that lives according to laws will never be
prosperous in this life.
And you will think that God is not
keeping His promise.
Some people want to be busy all the
time.
They want to pick up manna every day.
They want to always be busy with God's
work.
I don't know whether you've met some people
like that.
I've met them.
They are forever busy with a new project.
They think if they are not busy with
a project, then things are going to go
wrong.
But the person who stays close to Christ
will hear it when God says, my child,
now is a time of rest.
Don't be afraid to rest.
I'll take care of the manna.
It won't rot.
It happened to the ten virgins.
Well, to the five of them.
Those whose lambs were full of oil.
They didn't lose their oil while they were
asleep.
Some people are so afraid to sleep.
They are so afraid to rest that they
work themselves into a state where they become
all anxious, they lose their peace, and they
become irritated.
But the one who is living close to
God will hear God's voice when He says,
now you can rest.
Don't worry.
I'll take care that no worms get in.
You know who is the bread?
We celebrate at His birth these days.
Christ is the bread of life.
The bread that came from heaven.
You know what's interesting for me?
The manna lasted only for a certain time.
The Bible says, later in the day it
melted.
And so the time of grace is only
for a short period.
There is only a short period for us
to eat the bread of life.
It won't be there forever.
Today, today He is there.
Today you can eat from Him.
Today if you come to Him, your soul
can be saved.
Today if you come to Him, your sins
can be forgiven.
But remember, the bread of heaven won't always
be there.
There is a time coming when people will
run to the door, and they will knock
on the door and say, let us in,
let us in.
And Christ will say to them, who are
you?
I never knew you.
Why?
Because the time when the manna was there,
they didn't eat of the manna.
Friends, we don't know how long will be
the time of grace.
For each one of us, it's different.
Maybe for some of us, the manna is
only there for another month.
Or another week.
Or another day.
Let's make use and eat the manna.
If God speaks to your soul today and
says, go and eat that manna before you
go from this place, make sure that you've
eaten the manna.
Don't be afraid to take the risk.
Yes, it's a life of risks.
But as long as we stay close to
Christ, like Israel is here to.
Every day we will receive our manna.
That's my closing remark.
In 40 years, not one day did God
not send them their manna.
Oh friends, what a God we serve.
Not one day was the manna not there.
God has never in the history of the
world failed anybody ever.
Yes, it's a life of risks.
Yes, but if we stay close to Him,
it's a life of surety.
We can be confident.
He will take us to the promised land.
Even if at the beginning of the month
you don't know where the food at the
end of the month is going to come
from.
Don't worry.
We serve a faithful God.
So what year do you want?
Do you want a year where you want
to gather for yourself security?
Get the things of this world to give
you security and peace.
Or are you willing to step out in
faith and start living a life where you
are following Christ in faith from day to
day?
That life is a mystery.
We won't understand it with our human brains.
It's a supernatural life where God keeps us
supernaturally alive every day.
Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, thank you that you are more
than sufficient to be our bread today and
for the rest of this year.
Lord, help us to take the right risks
so that we might live with you.
Thank you Lord for your faithfulness every day.
Lord, we pray that we would turn away
from and avoid everything that causes us to
suffer loss and to see our manner go
rotten.
Lord, rouse within us a new faith and
a new hope and a new obedience as
we do what you have said to us.
Please part us now with your blessing.
Amen.