The Decisions Of Faith -Part 2 Series

Title: The Decisions of Faith -Part 2

Text: Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. - NIV

Intro: We’ve determined that decisions indeed determine destiny! Moses has some difficult choices to make that determined the spiritual and eternal effectiveness of his life!

Proposition: As we consider Moses’s decisions, let us compare ours to his! Do we think along the lines of eternal effectiveness and rewards, or do we seek the temporary creature comforts? Moses in fact modeled the former!

Let’s consider first of all:

I. The Preference of Moses:

A) Preference?

1. It was far from a convenient decision it was a faith decision!

a) By that I mean he:

2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

b) Our passage states:

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

c) That is a big decision!

d) Consider his story:

II. The Privileges of Moses:

A) Became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter:

Exodus 2: 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Exodus 2: 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

1. She was compassionate toward him!

Exodus 2: 7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

2. She financed his care!

Exodus 2:10a When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.

3. She adopted him!

Exodus 2:10b She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

4. She names him!

Acts 7:22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

5. She educates him – in the finest schools Egypt had to offer.

6. Some say that Moses was the heir apparent to the throne!

7. He was powerful in speech and action before the Egyptians, he had “a future” in Egypt!

III. The Possibilities before Moses?

A) Possibility #1?

1. Wealth, prominence, prestige, ease, power?

B) Possibility #2?

Hebrews 11:25a He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God

1. Mistreatment, suffering, hardship, why?

Acts 7: 23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

a) He had a concern for them

Exodus 2: 11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

b) STEPHEN IN HIS MESSAGE ABOUT MOSES IN ACTS MAKES AN INTERESTING POINT:

Acts 7:25a Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them,

c) He would be called to deliver them.

Acts 7:25b but they did not.

d) Just like Jesus!

"the stone which the builders refused is made the head of the corner" (Ps 118:22).

Exodus 2: 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”