Hope Church LV Sermons
Not by Sight :: A Life of Faith
As we begin this morning, I want to put a verse of scripture up on the screen. And the principle that is in this verse applies to every believer who's in the room. And it's very important that for you and I this morning that we understand this principle. The verse is in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and here's what the Bible says in verse 7. For we, meaning believers, Jesus followers, walk by faith, not by sight. Meaning that the things that we're living for, the God that we're serving, we can't see with our physical eyes. We are called to walk by faith. Meaning it's very important that all of us have a clear understanding of what biblical faith is and what that looks like practically on a daily basis. And when you begin to talk about faith specifically in the New Testament, there's one chapter of scripture that really in any conversation should rise to the surface. One chapter of scripture that is dedicated to explaining what biblical faith is and what it has looked like throughout history in the life of believers. That chapter is Hebrews 11. Some call it the faith chapter, some call it the whole of faith, but it is 40 verses of scripture that paint a picture for us of what walking by faith is all about. And currently as a church we're in a teaching series called not by sight. Ordinary people, extraordinary faith, and we've been studying verse by verse through Hebrews chapter 11. And as we've been studying we've given a statement every weekend in response to what does it mean to live by faith? That's a very important question for all of us to answer. And every weekend we've been looking at the statement in response to that question and I hope by this point for those of you who've been with us that you can say it from memory. And as you talk about faith in your small group or you read the word faith as you spend time with God that this statement comes to mind, but here's the statement. What does it mean to live by faith? It means to live life, not trusting in myself, but resting moment by moment in his very life in me. That statement tells us that the direction of our life, the outcome, the way in which we go about life is totally and completely dependent on God. And you and I can rest in the fact that all of those things are dependent on him. This weekend we continue our study so if you would turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 11, in just a moment I want to read for us verses 23 through 27. And we are going to look again this weekend at another character, another person from the Old Testament who lived by faith. This weekend we come to the example of a man named Moses. Now if you're familiar at all with the scriptures or you've been in church circles, you've more than likely heard some stories about this man named Moses. You may associate him with God giving his people the 10 commandments or maybe the burning bush or God's people crossing over the Red Sea on dry ground. All of those events are associated with Moses. But for Moses' events were not what defined his life. What defined the life of Moses was faith. So look with me, Hebrews 11 verse 23, if you don't have a Bible we're going to put this on the screen for you. We would love for you to follow along with us. Here's what the Bible says. It says, "By faith Moses, when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin." Verse 26, "considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen." What we have this weekend are some snapshots, an overview of the life of Moses. And really we see in this text what it was that contributed to him living a life of faith. Not just a year of faith, or a decade of faith, or a season of faith, but a man who lived a lifetime putting his faith in God. And really in verse 23 and 24 we see two factors that shaped Moses' faith. And I want to start by talking about those because everything else we're going to talk about this morning flows out of those two factors. Here's the first one, if you're taking notes, I would encourage you to write this down to review maybe this week or talk about as you're in your small group this week. Here's the first factor that shaped Moses' faith. His parents influenced his faith. Moses had two parents who lived by faith and their faith influenced his faith. There are really three specific descriptions of the life of Moses in the Bible. One is Hebrews 11, the other is Acts chapter 7, the other is the original account in Exodus chapter 2. And if we were to turn this morning and look through Exodus chapter 2, we would have a much clearer picture about what was happening in the world at the time Moses was born. You see at that point Pharaoh was in authority in the nation of Egypt. Egypt was at its prime. And the Hebrew people, the Israelites, the people of God were actually slaves in the nation of Egypt. And what had happened is there had been extreme population growth for the Hebrew people to the point that Pharaoh feared they may be able to overturn the nation of Egypt, surely because of their number. So Pharaoh gave it to Cree and here's what he said. He said, "I want all of the baby boys to be thrown into the Nile River and killed so that we can control this population." That was the decree that he had given and it was in that scenario a dark nation that Moses is born to his parents, Amram and Jot Ben. And he's born into this circumstance and the Bible says when his parents saw him, they knew there was something significant about Moses. He was a beautiful child and not just an ordinary baby, so by faith, believing that God was going to use their son Moses, they did something. They hid him away, they didn't throw him in the Nile River to die, but they kept him secluded and hidden for three months, which is a very significant feat seeming how children are children. And there was crying, there were issues, there were things that his mother had to do, but somehow some way he was protected for three months. And after three months, his parents realized they need to do something else, still believing God had a plan. By faith, they created a basket for Moses and they put him in this basket and they walked him down to the Nile River. Now, when you hear Nile River, don't think white water rapids. That's not the Nile River. The Nile River is a smooth and calm river with lots of plants down the side and reeds coming up out of the water. And what Moses' parents decided to do was to find a set of reeds and place Moses in those reeds so that he would not carry down the water. And the area they chose to put him in was the same area in which Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe on a regular basis. So they placed Moses there and when Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe, she heard the baby crying. And when she saw Moses, she fell in love and decided she was going to adopt this baby as her own. And as she walked out of the water, she had a Hebrew slave named Miriam waiting on her. Miriam was Moses' older sister. And Miriam convinced Pharaoh's daughter that she needed to find a caretaker for Moses. So Pharaoh's daughter asked Miriam to go find a Hebrew lady that could nurture her baby. Well, naturally Miriam went and found Moses' biological mother and she became Moses' caretaker. So for the first few years of Moses' life, yes, she was taking care of him, but she was also instilling in him principles of faith. She talked to him about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the promise God had given them of a place and of a people. She also talked to them about a deliverer that would one day come to deliver God's people from slavery. What we see in verse 23 is a picture of one generation having influence in another generation. Moses' parents laid down for him a foundation of faith that was extremely significant. Last weekend we talked about a phrase generational faith and here's how we define that phrase. We said generational faith is a legacy of faith that impacts multiple generations. We said that it is possible by the way that you and I live our lives that we can paint a clearer picture for the next generation of what resting your whole weight on God actually looks like generational faith. Last weekend we talked about some examples of that. We looked at Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. We also looked at a modern day example on the life of Clyde Cranford. What we have this weekend once again in verse 23 is a picture of generational faith. Parents who wanted to lay down a legacy of faith that would impact multiple generations. Warren Wiersby says it this way. He says though godly parents cannot pass on their faith as they do family traits, they can create an atmosphere of faith at home and be an example to their children. A home should be the first school of faith for a child. Moses' parents were a living demonstration for him of what resting your whole weight on God should look like. And I would imagine as Moses got older and left his parents and went into Pharaoh's kingdom in the palace that he looked back on his parents and he was extremely grateful for the legacy of faith. For the foundation of faith that they lay down when he was just a little child in church. I want that for us. I want the children and the people generations from now to look back on us and say I am so thankful that that generation decided to lay down a foundation of faith. And they painted a clear picture for us of what resting their whole weight on God actually looked like. That's what we see here in verse 23 from Moses' parents. That's exactly what they did for him. That was one factor. His parents influenced his faith. And I hope as you hear that it's challenging. And I hope as we talk about investing in the next generation, parents are thinking about the teenagers or the adult children that you have. Maybe you're thinking about the kids you dropped off at one of our other environments. Just as God uniquely positioned Moses' parents in history to invest in him then, God has uniquely positioned you now to make an investment in the next generation. One of the factors that shaped Moses' faith was the influence of his parents. But there's another factor. Here's the second one. It's where we're going to spend the rest of our time. Another factor that influenced Moses' faith, his circumstances deepened his faith. The circumstances of life that Moses walked through deepened his faith in God. God has a way to use the stuff that we go through to deepen our relationship with him. We've said in this series that if you and I walk through a circumstance, good or bad, and our faith in Christ is not deepened, we've missed God's greater purpose for us during that time. God has a way of using our circumstances to deepen our relationship with him, and there were numerous things that the text outlines that Moses walked through. And because he chose to respond in faith, it deepened his relationship with God. So what I want to do to kind of outline our text is I want to give you four detours. Four detours that Moses avoided because he chose to respond to his circumstances by faith. And I love that descriptive word detour because everybody in Las Vegas knows what a detour is. All of us have been our director out driving home and see more orange cones in the road and a weird path that takes us off what's regular. I think for our city to be in such a difficult economy, we have more road construction happening than anywhere else on the planet. That's just true, but the Webster's Dictionary defines detour as this. It says to cause to deviate from a direct route or course of action. It's something that takes you off your preferred route or the quickest route. And for Moses, he was on a journey of faith. He was walking in the will that God had for him, and there were some detours that were put in front of him that could potentially have taken him off the path God intended for him. Here's the first detour we see in the text. I want to share it with you, unpack it, and then give you a life application statement to go along with it. Here's the first detour we see in these verses. Personal ambition. The first detour that Moses was faced with is the detour of personal ambition. Moses had a bright future in the nation of Egypt. Some scholars believe that he was being groomed and prepped to become the next Pharaoh. He was being prepared to become the next ruler in the nation of Egypt. And over the course of his 40 years in Egypt, he had received the highest level of education. He had had military success. He'd been given a platform of leadership that was rivaled by very, very few people. Moses had a good life. But at the age of 40, he came to a place where he had to make a decision. John MacArthur says it this way. When Moses reached the age of 40, he faced a crucial decision. He had to decide between becoming a full-fledged Egyptian with absolute loyalty and no reservations and joining his own people, Israel. The deciding factor was his faith in God. Now this was a big decision because on one hand you have Egypt. With all the power, all the prestige, all the comfort, all of the luxury that a person could ever ask for. Moses was on the path to success in the nation of Egypt. But on the other hand, you had what God had put inside of him. In aligning and identifying with his people, who at that point were in slavery. And the text uses a great phrase. The text says that Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here's the picture of that phrase. That picture is, "I'm not just going to stand by and let this happen." That phrase means, "I'm going to deny this from happening." There was an unsettledness in Moses' heart that anybody would ever identify him with the culture and the people of Egypt over identifying him with the culture and the people of God, the nation of Israel. Moses came to a place where he had to declare his allegiance. And it was a very significant decision. One of his options was power and prestige. The other option was slavery and the unknown. And I'll be honest with you as I read that this week and was just preparing to teach this weekend. I kind of had this thought and it was an incorrect thought, but it just kind of passed through my mind. I thought, "I'm so glad that when I declared my allegiance to Jesus, that it wasn't that intense." You know, you think about Moses as a situation, but here's the reality. As we understand the gospel, all of us who are believers did make a decision that was that intense. Because you see, for Moses, for him to deny the culture and the life in Egypt and choose the people of God was a major decision. Aligning with one meant rejecting the other. Identifying with one meant giving up or pushing away or abandoning the other. And here's the reality of the gospel. When we made a decision to choose Jesus, to choose to follow after Jesus, we in essence said, "I am denying everything that the world has to offer." I am abandoning what the world has to offer. You see, you and I live in a world of two callings. One of those callings is our will for our life, which is to live for us. The other calling is God's will for our life, which is to live by faith. And the reality of the gospel is, when we choose Jesus, we are denying all those other things. And that's exactly the decision that Moses made. He says, "I am abandoning all that could be in the culture and in the nation of Egypt to make the decision to align my life with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." I believe in the heart of every believer should be a desire to live day by day by day with a clear declaration that our allegiance is to Christ, his teachings, and his kingdom. But here's what happens. Ever so slightly, you and I forget that. And we begin to operate in a mentality where we think we can have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the world. Listen, that's not the gospel. The gospel is, "I am denying everything the world has to offer and abandoning my allegiance to the world to solely surrender my life to what Jesus has called me to." That's important to understand, and that's an intense decision, but for some of us, ever so slightly, we have lost sight of the teaching where Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Look at this reality. I wrote this in my notes, "The longer I follow Jesus, the more my life should demonstrate his life to those around me." Let me ask you a question. When people think about you, what do they associate you with? What are the things that come to mind when people think about you? Based on your thoughts, your resources, and time, where is your allegiance? What are you choosing to identify your life with? Moses came to a place where he said, "I don't want my life to be identified with anything except for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." I would challenge you this morning, Church. You and I have an obligation. If we are serious about following him, it is a daily decision that we all make to deny what is offered in the culture and in the world for the sake of taking up our cross and following Jesus. For some people, you've been following God for a long time. But your life is no more demonstrating his life than it was 20 years ago. I hope for me I moved to Las Vegas in 2005, and I hope that today standing in front of you, my life demonstrates and identifies with Jesus more now than it did in 2005. What happens to so many people is we begin to operate out of routine rather than purpose. And ever so slightly, our allegiance and our passion and our desire to be identified with Christ, his teachings and his kingdom shrinks back for the sake of convenience. Look at this life application on the screen. Apart from Christ, I will choose convenience over obedience. If I am not pressing my life into him, you and I will choose convenience rather than obedience for Moses. It would have been easy to choose Egypt. It was convenient. It was luxurious. It was the easy way to go, but God had put something in his heart that said, "I'm not going to settle for convenience. I want to be obedient to what God has called me into." And through that, by responding in faith, he avoided the detour of personal ambition. Here's the second detour that we see in the text. The second detour is worldly pleasure. Another detour that Moses ran into that we're going to run into is worldly pleasure. Look at verse 25. Choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Verse 25 gives us some indicators about sin. First of all, it says our flesh is going to enjoy it, but it also says it is fleeting. The pleasures of sin are temporary. And Moses, having been raised in Egypt, he was exposed to a lot of different forms of sin. The Bible says he had the option of experiencing the pleasure of sin. But exactly what is that? What are the pleasures that are being referred to here in the Scriptures? Well, the pleasures he had were the same ones that we face. And 1 John 2 gives a great overview of what those are. Look at this verse on the screen. For all that is in the world, here they are, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. For Moses, they may have been sexual sin, that may have been building an empire unto himself, that may have been feeling superior. All those things were in front of him, and then the Bible uses another great phrase. It says choosing rather. Moses made a decision that went against everything the culture in Egypt was saying. Here's the picture. Moses is in a room with a bunch of people, and he's got two options in front of him. One of those is the pleasure of sin. The other option is being ill-treated but identifying with the people of God. And everybody in the room is saying Moses is absolutely going to choose the pleasures of sin. There's no way Moses isn't going to choose to engage in the sin and in the pleasure and to enjoy that. And then Moses steps up to make his decision, and Moses did the unthinkable. Moses said I'm not choosing the pleasure of sin. I'm choosing the people of God even though that means being ill-treated. He did what nobody else thought he was going to do. That's the picture of this phrase choosing rather. And here's the reality. Our flesh and our culture is much like the culture in Egypt. Everyone around us is assuming that because we live in the city we live in, because we live in 2011, we're going to choose the passing pleasures of sin. I mean it's the obvious choice for everybody. Here's the challenge this morning. In the midst of everybody else saying that, choose rather the things of God. Choose rather even though everybody else around you, even though your flesh is screaming. The obvious choice, the natural choice, the most fun choice is to choose the pleasure of sin. Choose rather the things of God. Everyone who chooses to walk by faith will make decisions that are in opposition to our flesh. That's a reality. Everyone who chooses to walk by faith means making a decision that goes against our flesh. And our city puts it on a platter for us and says here's what it's supposed to look like. Here's the natural choice for you living in Las Vegas in 2011, but here's the reality. We are the people of God. We've been saved, we've been rescued, we've been given a purpose. We've been declared as the light of the world. And with all that in mind, I'm challenging you this weekend when you've got both options on the table. Choose rather the things of God and lift up the principle of personal purity and don't take the detour of worldly pleasure. Galatians chapter 5 says this, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets itself against or in opposition to the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. The enemy is the greatest liar of all time. And he will position things and he will tempt you and distract you in certain ways trying to get you to think that the passing pleasures of sin are exactly what your soul needs. They're exactly what's going to make you happy, what's going to make you be fulfilled and bring you eternal enjoyment. But once again, he is the greatest liar in history. And every need that you have, God can fulfill and God can satisfy. Look at this statement, my Raymond Edmond on the screen. "The Almighty creates no desires deep in the human soul that he himself cannot satisfy." That's powerful. The God who made you knows what you need. And everything you need, he has the ability and the desire to fulfill. So as the enemy comes to us and puts in front of us this detour of worldly pleasure, we can operate with assurance that God knows what we need. He created us and he desires to put in us abundant life. And with that in mind, I'm challenging you to choose rather the things of God as it relates to what you allow in your heart, as it relates to what you allow your eyes to see or your ears to hear, where you allow yourself to go, I pray is a reflection of you and I choosing rather to live blameless with integrity before a holy God who wants to fill us with so much more than just passing pleasures. And the lie the enemy comes to us with is a double-edged sword. Look at this statement on the screen. "The pleasures of sin are temporary and the consequences of sin can last a lifetime." What he's offering, what he's giving out, it's empty. What he wants us to engage in only lasts for a minute but could have consequences that affect you for the rest of your life. One of the questions so many people wrestle with is, really, what does sin do to me? If I'm a believer in my relationship and my attorney with God is sealed, what does sin do to me? Well, here's the reality. The goal of the Christian life is to know God. That's the goal, that's the aim, that's the whole thing. The way we get to know God is by walking with him in a personal and intimate love relationship. And the way that our intimate love relationship is deepened is through personal daily fellowship with God. Here's what sin does. Sin breaks our fellowship. Sin destroys our fellowship with God. You see, it goes way far beyond just you feeling guilty or feeling bad when we choose to engage in worldly pleasure. It affects our fellowship with God. Look at this statement by Warren Wearsby. Learn to distinguish between trials and temptations. Temptations come from our desires within us, while trials come from the Lord who has a special purpose to fulfill. Temptations are used by the devil to bring out the worst in us, but trials are used by the Holy Spirit to bring out the best in us. Your flesh is powerful. Your flesh craves worldly pleasure. But we have a God who knows that, and we have a God who's given us something stronger than our flesh and that of his spirit. Here's a life application statement for this. Apart from Christ, I will be controlled by my flesh. Apart from you and I pressing into our relationship with Jesus, we will be a slave to sin. We will be a slave to our flesh, but as you and I choose to press into our relationship with God through daily fellowship with him, that deepens our intimate love relationship with him so that we can know him. It's different. Pray will be a church that is passionate about purity, about living lives that are blameless and missing the detour as we respond in faith of worldly pleasure. Here's a third detour that the text gives us that Moses was able to avoid because of his response, the detour of abundance, the detour of abundance. This is found in verse 26, and in verse 26 we really see a picture of why Moses is making the decisions that he's making. Verse 26 lays out that he once again looked at the options. He could suffer on behalf of Christ, on behalf of the Messiah, or he could experience the treasures that were found in Egypt. And the Bible says he considered the reproach, he considered suffering on behalf of Christ as a greater value than all of the treasures that could be offered in the nation of Egypt. He had the option. The Apostle Paul indicates the same mentality in Philippians 3. Here's what he says. It's going to be on the screen. Every advantage that I've gained, I consider loss for Christ's sake. Yes, and I look up upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. For his sake, I did in actual fact suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless rubbish compared with being able to win Christ. For now my place is in him, and I am not dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness of the law. God has given me that genuine righteousness, which comes from faith in Christ. Those who walk by faith see such a greater value in knowing Christ and making him known than any earthly or temporary treasure that we can touch on earth. That's significant. That's the way Moses chose to respond to this detour. You see, Egypt was filled with abundance, and he knew he could have access to it, but he chose rather to consider suffering for the sake of Christ, even though it was difficult of greater worth than experiencing all the treasures that were needed. You see, Egypt, the nation had gotten to a place where they were obsessed with their possessions. They had gotten to a place where they felt like they should take all the credit for all of the riches that they had because they were that good. They had reached a place of having an arrogant mentality because of their abundance. I want to challenge you with something. Just like Egypt was in this day, in America we have abundance. Honestly, we have more than we need. We're rich according to the world's standards. Not everywhere in the world has the status quo like we do, and as we evaluate our homes and our cars and our resources and our food and our clothing and our lifestyle, we are rich from a global standpoint. The world looks at us and thinks we are all extremely, extremely wealthy that we live in abundance, and we have to be careful not to let our abundance produce arrogance. We have to be careful that we don't get so wrapped up in our possessions that we think it's all for us. Listen, the issue in Egypt wasn't their resources. The issue was their priorities. You see, they thought just because we have it all, we should spend it on us, and we are walking a dangerous line in America when we think because we have all these resources, absolutely we should spend it on us. That's wrong. The issue in America is not resources. Nothing wrong with having resources. The issue is priority. Let me give you an application statement. Apart from Christ, abundance will produce arrogance. Apart from us pressing into our relationship with God, all of the riches that God has given us to use for His sake will produce arrogance in us because we will begin to think we are to spend it all on ourselves. That's wrong. One more detour that Moses was able to avoid is the detour of pressure. Pressure. Look at verse 27. The Bible says, "By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen." You see, Moses knew the best thing he could do was to leave Egypt and figure out how to lead the people of God in a more effective way. God had put that in his heart, and there was a way he could have chosen to respond by his flesh to say, "I'm terrified that the kings coming after me. I'm terrified that the armies are coming, and it's going to be a bad day for me, but he chose to live by faith knowing that even if Pharaoh did come, God was in control." He had succumbed to the pressure. He lived by faith that God was going to take care of him, and as you and I navigate through life, there's going to be some circumstances, and honestly, they're overwhelming. But as we choose to understand God's in control, he sees the first day, just like he sees the last day. We can respond in faith and not be weighted down with the idea that it's all up to us to figure it out. Listen, God has a plan, and it's a good plan. Here's a life application statement, "Apart from Christ, I will be overwhelmed by the circumstances of life." Without you and I walking and intimacy with Jesus, without us pressing into our relationship with God, absolutely the things we walk through, they're going to overwhelm us. They're all we can think about because we don't know what to do, but we can find rest this morning as we live by faith that our Heavenly Father is in control and that he knows what we need. Moses by faith was faced with the decision for personal ambition. He chose to respond with faith in God, the same thing for worldly pleasure, the same thing for abundance, the same thing for pressure. And the things he walked through, we walk through, and I hope this morning we can get a picture from his life that as we walk by faith, God will honor that and that God will use us as we press forward. He has called us not to walk by sight, but to walk by faith.