Text: Heb 11:23, Title: Fearless Parenting, Date/Place: 6/10/12, AM
1. Opening illustration: Catholic test of fire video from YouTube
2. Background to passage: the writer is giving us more examples of faith that overcomes. What’s in view here is not saving faith, but triumphant faith in the midst of struggle. This is what the Hebrews were going through. They were ready to apostasize, go back to Judaism. Another note in passing is that this is one of the few passages in this chapter that deals with ordinary people and their faith. Application: ordinary people like us should, can, and must walk by faith. (aside: it wasn’t Moses’ faith in view here, but his parents. This is one of the reasons that we don’t baptize babies. They can’t believe, and the parents’ faith doesn’t count for them.)
3. Main thought: Two main areas of conflict that these fearless parents faced
1. Sanctity of Life
1. So the scenario was that the people of Israel had become numerous for Pharoah to contain. It had been about 400 years since Joseph, and the once refuges had become slaves to do the bidding of the Egyptians. And respect for life wasn’t a value that everyone shared. But the God of the bible has always been, will always be pro-life. He values the young and old, the sick and the well, the unborn and the incapacitated, every tribe and tongue, He loves them all. He puts a premium on any life. He calls children a gift. And when Amram and Jochebed saw the beauty of this child regardless of what they previously thought, they realized life comes from God, and they hid him as long as they could defying the government’s policy. They had been taught well, and they could see it on his face. And they were not about to give their child who is made in the image of God to be slaughtered or drowned.
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration: video from blackoutabortion.com on YouTube, “Abortion, contrary to our president’s pleas during his speech at Notre Dame, is not an issue on which we can agree to disagree. We can no more agree to disagree on the abortion issue than we could have on the slavery issue. There is an ethical right and wrong here... there is no middle ground.” –Voddie Baucham,
4. The main reason that we have 1.5 million abortions in the US each year, and people calling for euthanasia of various sorts is that as a culture we don’t value life. People will put their life on the line to save whales, but will speak of a woman’s right to privacy when speaking of the life of the unborn. We have left Christian values and theology that states that man uniquely bears the image of almighty God. Abortion and euthanasian and sex trafficing and slavery and oppression are crimes against the pinnacle of creation, against the representative of God to the planet. Abortion is murder, just legalized. Physician assisted suicide is murder. And we must work to change the culture. We must change our attitude toward large families. We must put forth our best efforts into groups that are trying to turn the tide. We must be fearless in our proclamation (although it should be in love, remember that many do these things without much thought). And there is much damage that comes with the guilt and aftermath of abortion. And we should be there ministering instead of condemning. If 7 out of 10 really claim to be Christians, we are doing something horribly wrong. We must teach our children that it is wrong to the point that if it were to happen to them (God forbid), they would choose life, no matter what! Wouldn’t it be great if we could end abortion by 2020?
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1. Government Interference
1. The writer says that Amram and Jochabed were not afraid of the kings command. They probably were afraid to a degree (this kind of rebellion could be easily punished by death), but their fear of God and the understanding of the beauty of life were more compelling in dictating their course of action. They loved their child and their God more than they feared the king. And God honored that, and by grace not only delivered Moses, but gave them the opportunity to rear Moses for the first several years of his life. And that paid off long term as Moses knew “his people” enough to protect them when he was an adult.
2. “...and he did what was right before the Lord,” over and over in 1-2 Kings,
3. Illustration: "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."-- Thomas Jefferson, blog about their daughter not dating,
4. We could come up with a list of things that we think are problems that the government has not handled rightly. Some laws have been passed or are threatening to be passed that we may think are beyond the scope of government. We would probably disagree with each other on some of them, unite on some others. And we have a duty to resist governmental policies that are immoral or unethical in a biblically sound way, otherwise we are called to submit (had a great discussion on this couple of Wed nights back, Voddie Baucham has a great 3 part series on it, if you are interested). But that is really not the point in this passage. The point is that “by faith” they hid Moses and refused the king’s command. Their faith was the guiding principle, the plumb line, the north star, the final authority in their lives. They were willing to take the risk to save their child and to do what’s right before the Lord. You and I should be willing to stand firm upon the principles of our faith against the government or against the culture or against our families when it could cost us greatly. That is when you find out how far your commitment to Christ really goes—when it costs you dearly. Sometimes it’s direct opposition, sometimes it is subtle. So when/if the government outlaws evangelism in public; when foreign governments say “no missionaries;” when the company says you have to sell the “morning after” pill or help them cut unethical corners; when a family member wants you to bend the law or affirm their lifestyle; or when the culture wants you to embrace it’s language, it’s attire, it’s education, it’s materialism, it’s sexual morals; when your friend wants you to cheat on a test; when your bank account is in the red; when your marriage is on the rocks; when you get the opportunity to advance yourself or view pornography or stay at your boyfriend’s house overnight; or a million other things, some big and some small, that will cost you—who is your true master? Are you totally sold out to Jesus? Does He really have authority in your life? Sure you “believe” the bible, but do you do the bible? When it costs you, do you still choose Him? If there is a conflict, do you bow the knee to Christ and His Word or to the TEA party or US Gov or Gov Deal or power people at work or to your mother or your best friend or to the culture in which we live?
1. Back to the Gospel – Two final comments
1. The sanctity of life is a reason for the beauty of the gospel of Christ. God valued human beings and their eternity (and His glory) enough to send Christ to die on a cruel cross for you. Regardless where you stood or stand on abortion or the sanctity of life, regardless if you have had an abortion or committed murder of a 35 year old, Christ died for you because you have value to God. Have you embraced Him?
2. The gospel is not only a testimony to your value, but a testimony to God’s value. We have spurned the most glorious Being in the universe. We have trampled on His glory. We have loved things most that are not the most loveable. God is the most beautiful, most valuable, most excellent Being in the universe, and Christ death demonstrates that. God killed His Son to vindicate His own righteousness in not sending all sinners to hell. If you put your faith in Christ, God will rescue you even though you have treated Him with contempt, and the only way this is OK is because of Christ. The reason that Christ can be your treasure is because He IS the treasure. This is the reason you can choose suffering (which btw Moses did in the next couple of verses that we will look at next week), choose loss, choose shame, choose prison, choose rejection, and even death—because He is worth it! But you must embrace this Treasure as your treasure. Have you done that? Christ is the greatest! Receive Him, believe on Him, follow Him!
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1. Closing illustration: Solomon Rosenberg, his wife and their 2 sons were arrested, together with Rosenburg’s mother and father for the crime of being Jews. They were placed in a Nazi concentration camp. It was a labour camp, and the rules were simple."As long as you can do your work, you are permitted to live. When you become too weak to do your work, then you will be exterminated." Rosenberg watched as his mother and father were marched off to their deaths. He knew that the next would be his youngest son, David - because David had always been a frail child. Every evening, Rosenberg came back into the barracks after each day of hard labour and searched for the faces of his family. When he found them they would huddle together, embrace one another and thank God for another day of life. One day Rosenberg came back and didn’t see those familiar faces. He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner, huddled, weeping and praying. He said, "Josh, tell me it’s not true." Joshua turned and said, "It is true, Dad. Today David was not strong enough to do his work. So they came for him." "But where is your mother?" asked Mr. Rosenberg. "Oh Dad," he said, "When they came for David, he was afraid and he cried. So Mum said, ’There is nothing to be afraid of, David,’ and she took his hand and went with him."
2. Recap
3. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
1. Person given a ticket for not buckling up the dog
2. A man who was arrested and convicted for public nudity because he walked around the house naked in the mornings
3. Kids taken from parents because of obesity
4. New York mayor banning over 16oz drinks at resturants
5. Tifton’s saggy pants law
6. Can’t discipline kids in public cause someone might report you
7. CA demanding mandatory public education
8. State governments redefining marriage
9. Obamacare requiring everyone to buy insurance that covers abortion
10.
