Object Lesson – Whirlpool in the Sanctuary. Have all the youth run a circle and then pick the smallest youth and have him or her run in the opposite direction.
I think this is the same way that we, as Christians, find our selves feeling towards the world and culture around us. As we read God’s Word, as we pray and talk with God, as we listen to messages at youth group or church, it doesn’t take long to understand that God wants us to be different from the rest of the world. In the New Testament we are called aliens and strangers in this world. We talked last week about Joseph’s knowledge that Egypt and this world was not his home but only the Promised Land and the paradise that God had promised was his home. We have higher standards of living and morality. We are asked to be holy and to be set apart.
Hearing God’s Word and understanding what it says isn’t the hardest part though. The tough part is living the lives that God has called us to live. We leave church and suddenly it seems like we step into a giant whirlpool and we are being asked to swim against the current. You want to follow God’s Word but it seems impossible because everyone around you is swearing, or messing around, or doing things they shouldn’t, or lying or cheating. And then, if being around it isn’t bad enough, they all want you to do it too. Usually we try at first but then we are eventually so overwhelmed and become so tired that we give in and just give up trying. How many of you have ever felt that way at school? Or at home?
You guys are not alone in this challenge. Every Christian on the face of the earth has felt this same way at some point in their life. The next two weeks we are going to be looking at some stories from the life of Moses. And Moses was one guy who, from his very birth until the day he died, seemed to be constantly going against the current of the world. Tonight I want to look at the amazing act of faith that Moses’ parents went through in order to save Moses’ life.
If you remember from last week, we talked about Joseph and how he and his family lived out the rest of their lives in the nation of Egypt. Joseph’s family numbered from 70 to 75 people originally but over time their family grew so much that they were starting to outnumber the Egyptian people. Eventually a pharaoh took over in Egypt who really hated the Israelite people and decided that something had to be done about the number of them in Egypt. First, the pharaoh tried to work the Israelite people so hard that they would be too tired to try to reproduce. That didn’t work so then he ordered the women who would deliver the Israelites babies to kill all the boys that were born. That again didn’t work, so finally pharaoh took the problem into his own hands and ordered the Egyptian people that every boy that was born to the Israelites was to be thrown into the Nile River. It is soon after this decree was made that a young Israelite women was due to give birth to a son. Let’s pick up the story from here by reading Exodus 2:1-10.
***Read Exodus 2:1-10***
In Hebrews 11:23, Moses’ parents were commended for this act of faith. Moses’ parents in this chapter went against the culture they were living in. They noticed something special about Moses and they took an act of faith by placing the baby in the Nile. There are two big lessons that I think we can learn about faith from this story.
The first thing that I think we can learn from this is that Moses’ parents trusted God completely and were not afraid of what Pharaoh had ordered. As we saw in both Exodus and Hebrews, Moses’ parents knew there was something different about Moses. Exodus says that they saw he was a fine child and Hebrews says that they saw he was no ordinary child. This most likely went deeper than the fact that Moses was a beautiful baby. I mean what parent wouldn’t say their child was beautiful and what parent wouldn’t try to save their child from being killed. Moses’ parents knew that God had plans for their little boy and decided that following God was better than following Pharaoh.
Disobeying the orders of Pharaoh surely would have had harsh consequences but they didn’t matter. I’m sure there were other families who gave in to Pharaohs orders and had their children killed in order to save their own lives and the rest of their families. Moses’ parents took a major risk with their actions.
In our world today it seems that there are harsh consequences for disobeying the rules of the world. It is a major risk to be different and to live for God. I remember when I was in high school it was a sport to try and make Jake swear. My friends gave me a really hard time just because I wouldn’t swear. I used to wear a shirt in school that said Abortion is Homicide and every time I wore that shirt this one guy threatened to beat me up and would shove me into lockers when he walked by. Some of my friends would make really crude jokes about the shirt. Guys in the locker room for gym or baseball would give me a hard time because I said I wasn’t going to have sex until I was married. Those are only three of many things that happened because I expressed my faith in school. It is hard to go against the current of the world.
What is more important in the long run though, to obey the rules of the world or to obey the Word of God? Jesus answers this question in a very interesting way in Matthew 10:28. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Think about what Jesus said right there? Jesus says, “If you live for me, what’s the worst that can happen? You could die! But then you can come and be with me in paradise.” Jesus is saying to live your life with so much faith that nothing in this world matters to you, that no matter what happens one day you will go home to paradise! This is exactly what we learned last week, Joseph had his focus on the paradise that God had promised and now Jesus is agreeing with that mind set. Jesus goes on to say, “Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.” Woah! Think about that for a second. What is more important in the long run? Who should we live for?
The second thing that I think we can learn from this passage is that it is easier to go against the current when you do it together. As you look at the leap of faith that Moses’ parents made, it was a joint decision. They even involved Moses’ sister Miriam in the decision. How much harder would it have been if only Moses’ Mom wanted to try and save him? It wouldn’t have worked very well and it would have been insanely difficult. I’m not saying she couldn’t have done it but it was definitely easier having the whole family involved.
Just as it would have been difficult for Moses’ Mom do go it alone it is difficult for us to go it alone. We too though have a family that we can work with. It’s called the family of Christ. All of us in this room who have a relationship with Christ are part of God’s family. Therefore we are all brothers and sisters. And we aren’t limited just to the people in this room. There are Christians in your school who go to different churches as well as teachers or staff. If we learned to work as one big family it would make following God SOOOO much easier because we wouldn’t be alone.
Let’s do the object lesson again just so we fully understand what we’re talking about!
When living in this world we need to be living for God. We need to understand that God is more important and just plain better than anything else in this world. We need to put our full and complete trust in God and live to please Him with our lives. We need to have faith that there is a home in heaven waiting for us when we die.
We need to do this together!!! We are a family!! It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you look like, or where you are from; if you have a relationship with God you are part of the family. We need to learn to work together with one another, we need to learn to pray for one another, and we need to learn to go against the current together. When we are all doing it together, then you won’t feel like a weirdo, and you won’t be the only one, but instead you will be surrounded by a number of other people who care for you and love God the same way you do. When we are all living for God the best we can, when we are going against the grain, and when we are doing it together as a family we will have is a tiny glimpse of heaven here on earth. Just that glimpse of heaven is going to give you a bigger sense of purpose and a deeper sense of belonging than you could find anywhere in this world.
