Reading: Hebrews chapter 11 verses 23-28
• Moses, who lived to be 120 years of age,
• His life has three distinct divisions - each lasting 40 years.
• 40 years as Prince of Egypt;
• 40 years as a Shepherd in the Desert.
• 40 years as a Prophet and Deliverer of God’s people.
Question: What was the secret of his greatness?
Answer: His faith!
• Three times in our short reading this morning that truth is emphasised;
• Verse 24: “By faith Moses…”
• Verse 27: “By faith Moses…”
• Verse 28: “By faith Moses…”
Ill:
The statements below are taken from actual insurance accident claims forms.
• I left for work this morning at 7am as usual when I collided straight into a bus.
• The bus was 5 minutes early. (i.e. It was clearly the bus’s fault!).
• The accident happened because I had one eye on the truck in front, one eye on the pedestrian, and the other on the car behind. (i.e. Clearly God’s fault – more eyes needed!)
• No one was to blame for the accident but…
• It would never have happened if the other driver had been alert (i.e. Guess who he is blaming?)
• I pulled away from the side of the road,
• Glanced at my mother in law and headed over the embankment (i.e. M.I.L. fault!).
• The pedestrian had no idea which way to run so I ran over him.
• The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
We live in a culture of blame instead of personal responsibility.
• The bible is different in that it very much supports personal responsibility;
• For the choices and decisions we make.
Quote: Eleanor Roosevelt said,
• “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words.
• It is expressed in the choices one makes.
• In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves.
• The process never ends until we die.
• And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
• In our passage this morning we get a glimpse into the example of Moses and his parents.
• They made certain choices because of faith.
• And those choices would shape the rest of their lives.
(1). Faith chooses courageously (vs 23).
“By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict”.
• The story of Moses parents is found in Exodus chapter 2 verses 1-10.
• The King (the Pharaoh) had issued a decree;
• That all baby boys born to the Hebrew (Jewish) people should be killed at birth.
• He wanted to control the amount of Hebrews in his land.
• If it was not for the faith of his parents, then Moses who alongside Abraham:
• Is the most important figure of the Old Testament would not have survived infancy.
• They managed to hide the Baby Moses for three months;
• Before arranging (use that term loosely);
• Arranged for him to be found by the kings daughter &brought up in the safety of the palace.
Note:
• The writer of this letter is led by the Holy Spirit to draw our attention;
• To their faith of Moses’ parents in contrast to the fear that dominated their community.
• Quote:
• “Biblical faith chooses courageously, makes brave choices, It doesn’t give in to fear!”
• Moses’ parents could have reasoned, as did most other parents at that time;
• That it would be better to play it safe,
• The child would be sacrificed so that the rest of the family would survive.
• They knew to keep the child endangered the whole family.
But they believed that he was a special child:
• A child for whom God had a plan and a purpose;
• And so with sanctified imagination (great phrase I once heard George Verwer use);
• With sanctified imagination
• Their faith led them to make a brave choice concerning their new born baby.
Ill:
• Their was a man who bragged that he had cut off the tail of a man-eating lion;
• Using only his pen-knife.
• Asked why he hadn’t cut off the lion’s head,
• The man replied: "Someone had already done that."
All of us as Christians are required to ‘Walk by faith’:
• When was the last time you stepped out in faith;
• And did something risky, challenging or just different?
• Too many Christians are stuck in their comfort zone?
• Ill: Like unfit people who want to get in shape but can’t manage to get out of their arm-chairs.
Ill:
• If you are waiting for that friend, neighbour or family member;
• To talk to you about Jesus Christ;
• You are going to have a long wait!
• We have to get out of our comfort zones and make the effort to speak to them!
• What a great challenge for us all this week;
• Who am I going to ‘witness to this week’?
• Moses parents did not give into fear;
• And neither should we!
Quote:
• Mark Twain:
• “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear “
• Eddie Rickenbacker,
• “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared”
• Often we are afraid but as some of you parents have no doubt told your children in the past;
• “Being afraid is not a reason not to do something”
• “If it’s the right thing DO IT SCARED!”
• And you discover that the more you do it the less scary it gets - Courage is doing it scared
(2). Faith chooses correctly (vs 24-25)
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter”
Quote:
“The easy roads are crowded
And the level roads are jammed;
The pleasant little rivers
With the drifting folk are crammed.
But off yonder where it’s rocky,
Where you get a better view,
You will find the ranks are thinning
And the travellers are few.”
• Moses chose to be identified with his suffering people rather than as a prince.
• There was an easy path and a much harder one – he chose the road less travelled.
As a principle I would say faith tends to choose the less travelled path:
• i.e. Becoming a Christian. (Jesus spoke about the broad road and the narrow roads.
• i.e. Sometimes that means choosing the path of honesty, of integrity, of faithfulness etc.
• It may be easier to lie, to cheat, and to clamber over other people;
• But it is not right.
• When you have faith in God you seek to do what is right;
• Even if it disadvantages you because you know God is looking on and is pleased.
Quote:
• Charles Swindoll in his book ‘Living Above the Level of Mediocrity’;
• ‘The World Needs Men & Women …’
• Who cannot be bought;
• Whose word is their bond;
• Who put character above wealth;
• Who possess opinions and a will;
• Who are larger than their vocations;
• Who do not hesitate to take chances;
• Who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
• Who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
• Who will make no compromise with wrong;
• Whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
• Who will not say they do it” because everybody else does it”;
• Who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity;
• Who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hard-headedness;
• Are the best qualities for winning success;
• Who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
• Who can say “no” with emphasis, although all the rest of the world says “yes.”
Note: Verse 24 tells us, "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused... "
• Visualize this strong young man,
• Hebrew within but fully Egyptian without.
• He would easily pass for the up-and-coming Pharaoh.
• But when Moses reached adulthood, a seismic change took place.
• The phrase translated "when he had grown up";
• Literally means "having become great."
• That makes the verse even more vivid and dramatic!
• "Moses, having become great, made a decision ..."
Moses came to a fork in the road of life’s journey when he had become great.
• And at that fork he was forced to make a choice.
• He had to decide between the seen and the unseen.
• To carry on being called by the Egyptians ‘the Pharaoh-elect’.
• Or to lose his title, his name and his reputation!
• Moses made that choice.
• The Scripture says he "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter."
• Literally, it says he "denied it to be said the son of Pharaoh's daughter."
Ill:
What an astonishing event that was!
• ill: Perhaps it took place one day when Moses stood up in court.
• ill: Maybe he said it to the soft-footed servants who waited on his every whim.
• ill: Perhaps he announced it to his adoptive grand-father, who ruled as the all-powerful Pharaoh.
• ill: Or maybe he spoke his decision to his adopted mother, the daughter of Pharaoh.
• We are not told how but we are told what:
• One day Moses declared publicly,
• I refuse to be called Pharaoh-elect any longer."
• "I yield my right to the throne. I no longer will be called Pharaoh’s son”.
Verse 25 says he made a choice.
• The word translated "choice" comes from a Greek term that means;
• "To take for oneself a position."
• In other words, Moses came to that highly significant fork in the road;
• And had to "take for himself" a position before he could go to the right or the left.
• The point being:
• Without taking a position, he would have remained paralysed by neutrality.
Part of the reason many Christians do not make right choices in life:
• Is because they have not taken a position for themselves;
• Regarding the priority principles of life.
• Too many Christians have not decided where they stand on matters of;
• Character, morality, values, godliness, and commitment to Christ.
• And so they teeter. They drift. They slide this way and that way.
• Or they make a choice on the basis of our feelings alone,
• Or a choice based on the response of others!
Ill:
• Joshua, Moses' successor, must have imbibed his mentor's decisiveness.
• He had taken a position regarding the priority principles of life.
• Prior to his death, he stood before the elders of Israel in the land;
• And challenged them to make up their minds about the most crucial issue of life.
• Quote: Joshua chapter 24 verse 15.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Ill:
• Elijah, He had taken a position regarding the priority principles of life.
• Standing alone on the peak of Mount Carmel,
• He said pretty much the same thing to the assembled Israelites:
• Quote: 1 Kings 18:21
"How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him;
but if Baal is God, follow him"
• Moses did not waver between two opinions.
• He thought through his position, came to a conclusion, and made his choice.
Question: What did he choose?
Answer:
• He chose "rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God”;
• Than “the pleasures of sin for a season."
• Moses pulled off the headgear of the Pharaoh, walked away from the palace of the queen,
• Ignored all of the prerogatives that were his to enjoy for the rest of his life,
• And chose to live with the people of God.
Note:
• Don't think for a moment that the Bible is simply embellishing the text;
• When it talks about "enjoying the pleasures of sin."
• Listen carefully to my next statement:
• The pleasures of sin are always more enjoyable than a walk of righteousness…
• Wait, now you are listening, I will complete my sentence:
• The pleasures of sin are always more enjoyable than a walk of righteousness…at first.
• Sin is always pleasurable at first (“for a season”):
• It is voluptuous and seductive, it feeds the flesh, and it makes you feel good.
• Ill: Just ask John Terry & Tiger Woods why they had their much publicised affairs.
• Because sin is pleasurable, it is voluptuous and seductive, it feeds the flesh, and it feels good.
Notice:
• One thing about sensual pleasures:
• The Bible insists they're "passing" They are “for a season”, they don't last!
• And when they vanish, as they surely will,
• They leave behind an ocean of pain, heartache, and regret;
• ill: Just ask John Terry & Tiger Woods (or their wives and families).
• Moses chose the path of godliness rather than the "passing pleasures of sin."
• How could he do that?
• What was it inside Moses that caused him to make such a choice?
• The answer is found in his next choice.
(3). Faith chooses consequently (vs 27-28)
• In other words;
• Faith takes a long term view of things and chooses accordingly.
“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. 27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible”.
Note: that little expression: “He left Egypt”.
Ill:
• A friend who is a pastor of a Church;
• Took over from a man who held forth in that church's pulpit for thirty-seven years.
He says, "That former pastors voice is in the woodwork. His handprint's on the pulpit. They're mashed all over it."
• Remember Egypt was like that to Moses.
• He knew nothing but the land of the Nile.
• He had never been to Canaan; he knew only Egypt.
• But…he was willing to leave it!
• Moses left Egypt. He burned the bridges. He left the safe and familiar for the unknown;
• He didn't look back. He simply took off.
• I love the way one man put it: Quote:
• "We live by faith or we do not live at all. Either we venture or we vegetate. We risk or we rust."
• According to these two verses Moses realised that:
• Faith takes a long term view of things and chooses accordingly.
Ill:
• During World War II, Winston Churchill was forced to make a painful choice.
• The British secret service had broken the Nazi code;
• And informed Churchill that the Germans were going to bomb Coventry.
• Churchill had two alternatives:
• evacuate the citizens and save hundreds of lives;
• At the expense of indicating to the Germans that the code was broken;
• Or (2) take no action, which would kill hundreds;
• But keep the information flowing and possibly save many more lives.
• Churchill had to choose and followed the second course.
• He took a long-term view of things.
Faith means when choosing looking at the long-term implications.
• There is in our culture today an attitude of just live for the moment;
• And whilst there is wisdom in living one day at a time;
• Only living for today is a big mistake.
Ill:
• Two dads were having a drink together;
• And conversation turned to their children and their children’s school-work.
• The first dad said; “I helped my daughter today with her religious homework”.
• “You did what?” replied the astonished second dad.
• “But you don’t know anything about religion;
• In fact, I bet you don't even know the Lord's Prayer,"
• The first dad angrily replied; "Why everybody knows that,"
• The second dad said; “Well, what is it then?”
• So the first dad paused for a moment;
• And after racking his brains for several minutes replied:
"It's, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."
• His friend looked at him astonished! And said,
• "You win! I didn't know you knew so much about the Bible."
• I am assuming this morning;
• That your knowledge of the Bible is better than those two dads:
• Faith means we believe what this book says regarding the future - that there is a future,
• That God has a plan, that heaven is real & that knowledge should affect our choices in life
• As Christians we will all one day stand before God;
• That knowledge ought to affect our choices.
Moses choices was affected by two things:
• Verse 27: His intimacy of God – “He saw him who is invisible”.
• Verse 26: His knowledge of God – “He was looking ahead to his reward”.
• The original text suggests that Moses looked away from everything else;
• And fixed his full attention on one thing - the reward God offers to people of faith.
Ill:
• If you're a football fan, you know something of what this is like.
• In the final seconds of a close game between fierce rivals,
• You don't get up, stroll over to the fridge or put the kettle on,
• Rather, you look away from everything else and focus on the guy with the ball.
• Is the opponent going to score?
• Or is your team going to win?
• Moses looked away from everything else and fixed his eyes on his God!
• That's how he made the right decision.
(4). Faith chooses compliantly (vs 28)
“By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel”.
• The final mention of Moses choice in this section;
• Is the choice that faced Moses and all the Israelites at the Passover.
Ill:
• The final judgement on Pharaoh who refused to let God’s people go;
• Would be the death of every first born son in the land.
• The Hebrews could escape this judgement;
• If they would put blood on the door posts and lintels of their homes.
• Then as they entered through the blood into their homes;
• They would experience God’s protection.
• When angel of death passed over the land;
• The Egyptian firstborn sons were killed but the Hebrews sons were spared.
By faith Moses obeyed, he complied with this instruction:
• Remember all God asked Moses to do was new and unusual;
• i.e. Slay a lamb. i.e. Put it’s blood on the doorposts.
• i.e. Eat your meal eaten in a hurry,
• i.e. Keep your sandals strapped on your feet with your staff in hand.
• These were all brand new directions for Moses and the Israelites.
• They had never been done before.
And remember, Moses had no tradition to fall back on (this was the first Passover):
• How could Moses do it?
• How could he keep that first Passover exactly as God instructed him to?
Ill:
• He did it in the same way Noah could pound pegs into the ark;
• When there had never been rain.
Ill:
• He could do it in the same way Abraham and Sarah could look for a city;
• With a foundation whose builder and maker was God;
• When they had never been to the land of Canaan.
• Moses could do it simply because God said, "Do it."
• And by faith he did it!
Notice:
• This final choice;
• Is the same choice that faces people today!
• The Bible instructs and teaches us to put our trust in “Christ our Passover Lamb”
• (1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7).
• In other words Jesus was and is the sacrificial lamb;
• He died so that we do not need to face God’s judgement.
Ill:
D.L. Moody & the miners lift.
Conclusion:
• We all make choices every day; we live and die by them.
• Let faith in God inform and guide yours,
• So that we choose courageously, rightly, for the long term;
• And ultimately in Jesus who died for us.
