The Life of Faith IV
Hebrews 11: 24-28
God speaks to Amram in a dream
Thermuthis –Pharaoh’s Daughter
Nothing is more important that making the right choices in life
The life of faith involves making choices, hard choices
Faith Makes Difficult Choices
In the life of Moses we see that faith enabled Him to make hard choices
Moses’ life begins another chapter in the history of the faithful
Moses had the opportunity in the lap of luxury
He had the opportunity to have it all; he was adopted into the kings family, which is implied by the name Pharaoh
But the writer says very plainly that He chose Christ, interesting- Christ? V 26
He like all of the other faithful looked beyond the natural, earthly to the spiritual by faith
He made a choice in the now based on the not yet
He looked beyond the present reality to a future reality
Faith is the substance of things not seen the evidence of things hoped for.
Eugene Peterson translates this verse in the Message;
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.
Faith’s Choice Begins with Choosing not to Choose
He chose not to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter
He rejected the comforts and pleasures associated with that life
He chooses pain and progress rather than pleasure and regress
The language implies that Moses was so adamant about this that he wouldn’t allow himself to be called that in private conversation
It seems to make sense that he could have done more for his people in the house of Pharaoh
But if he had done that his people would have never been free
Always a slave
Always slave mentality
Always the conversation of a slave
In order for Gods people to be free they had to move to a place of promise and freedom
That would have never happened if Moses hadn’t chose not to choose
He had to make the same choice over and over again
There was a constant pull, a constant call to come over to the pleasant life
The life of little pressure
The life of least resistance
The life of placating
But that life is a call to the mediocre, the mundane, and in effect it is a call to nothing
Once you choose not to choose you must keep on choosing
Faith’s Choice Continues With Identification
Whatever choice you are led to make by faith that choice will always identify you with the people of God
Al of us have to make choices in life
The choices must be made by faith for the people of God no matter what they are
The life of faith dictates the choices
Whether it is a career
Whether it is related to education
Whether it is who to marry
Whether is how to raise your children
Whether it is where to invest your money
Faith must dictate and when it does you will be identified with the people of God
If the choices you make do not identify you closely with the people of God, you did not choose by faith
Faith Enables Us to Suffer With the People of God
He saw the Hebrews as the despised desperate people of God
To the Egyptians it didn’t make sense for slaves to be the people of God
Once he recognized who they were he had to own them, for to disown them would be to disown his heritage
The choice was clear he could enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season in Egypt or suffer with or be identified with the people of God
Faith always identifies with the people of God
Faith Enables us to bear the Stigma of Gods People
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.
He considered disgrace for the sake of Christ to be of greater value than the treasures of Egypt
It is believed that this means that exodus was a type of coming out of the slavery of sin into the freedom that redemption of Christ offers
Perhaps Moses suffered from the Egyptians as Christ did from the Jews
How does he do this he fixed his focus on the reward of the invisible world
Remember faith can only operate when the faithful is certain that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him
Faith Enables Us to Live with Patient Courage
The first time Moses tried to liberate the people of Egypt he failed
The first time it was his idea the second time it was Gods idea
Sometimes you can have the right idea at the wrong time and the wrong way
He was the right with the right mission but doing it the wrong eay
He had to flee to Midian to the backside of the desert for forty years
The hardest choice for the faithful it to patiently wait on God
Faith will help you to wait until the appropriate time
Faiths Choice Will Give Demonstration v.28
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood,
The celebration of the Passover in Egypt was a great demonstration of Moses’ faith
To shut the people in their houses with blood on the door post was a demonstration of faith
If God acted at all was won, but if God did not move all was lost
It was an act of faith on the part of Moses
It was a new move it had never happened before
The faith that chooses not to choose and the faith that identifies is the faith that will risk everything on the intervention of God at the crucial moment
