Camp Joy - Wednesday Night

Introduction

How many minutes a day do you think it would take for you to read all of the Bible in 1 year?

Roughly 10 minutes each day!

For some of us that’s the amount of time that we spend riding the bus to school every day! It is easy to find 10 extra minutes each day in our lives to read the Bible, but sometimes we don’t make the time because we don’t realize how important it really is. Did you know that people who read their Bible daily, go to church regularly, and spend time in prayer with God consistently are more satisfied, more optimistic, more joyful, and more healthy than those who don’t? Survey after survey shows us that spending time reading our Bible and following God’s plan for our lives is not only a good thing, but the best thing that we can do! However, sometimes we forget how important it is. We forget how powerful God is. We forget what Jesus has done for us. We take things for granted.

There are lots of distractions in life that try and get us off course. Relationships, sports, school, hobbies, trips, lots of good things - but things that can take our eyes off of God’s plan. Tonight we’re going to keep working through Hebrews 11 and we’re going to see a few more examples of people who have faith in God and choose to keep their eyes on Him instead of the distractions around them

Hebrews 11:20–31 (CSB)

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

22 By faith Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones.

23 By faith Moses, after he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they didn’t fear the king’s edict.

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter

25 and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin.

26 For he considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead to the reward.

27 By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for Moses persevered as one who sees him who is invisible.

28 By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites.

29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being marched around by the Israelites for seven days.

31 By faith Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies in peace and didn’t perish with those who disobeyed.

We’ve seen several things about faith in this chapter. How the only way to become a friend of God is to first have faith in God. How faith isn’t just a feeling or hoping that something happens but that faith is confidence in the promises that God makes in His Word. We’ve seen how people with faith trust in God, wait for God, and follow God even when that is difficult. Tonight we’ll see a few more things about how we live a life of faith and how sometimes that is hard to do.

Biblical Faith Chooses Christ Over Comfort (20-28)

One of the pictures that we see in the Bible is that our life is kind of like a race. Who here likes to win things? In a race, everyone is trying to win and this is how life is too. Everyone wants to win in life! They want to succeed. But a lot of people don’t know how to win the race because they’re looking the wrong way. Do you remember what God told Abraham to do last night? To leave his homeland and travel a long ways away to a new place that he had never been before. Do you think that was hard? Do you think that there were people in his family who didn’t want him to go and wanted him to stay? Do you think there was a part of him that wanted to look back and wondered what life would have been like if he had just stayed home where things were comfortable? These are probably safe assumptions because it’s human nature to be comfortable and to stay with what we know. Let me ask you guys this - whenever your parent drives you in a car, most of the time do they look at the rear view mirror to look backwards, or do they look out the windshield at what is in front of you? They look forward most of the time because that’s the direction you’re going. This is how it goes in our lives, guys. God calls us to follow after Him and this means that we keep looking forward. In the Old Testament we see that God made a promise that one day the Messiah would come and save God’s people from their sins. This took a long time if you read about Jesus’ family tree in Luke’s Gospel - but eventually this did happen because God said that it would. All of the people that came before continued to look forward, not backward. This is how we are supposed to live as well - with our eyes looking forward at what God has in store for us, not backward at how things used to be or to the side at all the distractions that life throws our way.

The example we have in this Bible passage is of Moses. Do you remember the problem that Moses had whenever he was born?

The Pharaoh of Egypt wanted all the Israelite boys to be killed, so he was put in a basket (literally an Ark) and into the Nile River.

Do you think this was a difficult situation for his parents to be in? They could either give their son to the Pharaoh and he would die or they could put him in the River and pray that God saves him. There are times in life where we are left with a hard choice to make. Like whenever you’re at school and there’s a new kid and everyone in your class is picking on the new kid and not welcoming them - you’re left with a choice. Either you choose comfort and don’t do anything or you join in making fun of the new person. Or you can choose Christ and you welcome the new kid. If you do this, then you might be made fun of as well, though. Moses’ family was left with a tough choice, and they trusted in God and did what they believed was the best thing to do. This is how we must be as well. We must do what is right, not necessarily what is easy!

Think of Moses’ story. He was saved from the river and raised in the Pharaoh’s household. He had the best clothes, the best education, the best food - everything was great! But there was a little problem. His family members and friends were still suffering. There came a point in his life where he had to make a choice - would he continue to enjoy his comforts or would he stand up for his family members and friends who were suffering? He couldn’t play both sides, he had to make a choice. See, it’s the same way for us today. If you’re a Christian, you can’t say on Sunday that you love Jesus and then the very next day at school be cussing people out with the same mouth you just used to praise Jesus the day before at church. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t be on team Jesus on Sunday or Wednesday and team world on Monday-Saturday. So many people do this. They’ll take Jesus when its convenient or when it’s popular… but the minute that there’s another option or people don’t care about Jesus, then they’ll put Jesus back on the counter. You can’t pick and choose - Jesus is either Lord of all, or He’s not Lord at all!

We must choose either Christ or earthly comforts.

What are some comforts that people choose in life?

Air Conditioning

Nice clothes

Nice house

Vacations

Do you know what happens with all of those things? They end. We go to a concert, we go on vacation, we get something new… but eventually it’s no longer new. Eventually we come back home. Eventually those things don’t satisfy and we have to have something else and this happens over and over and over. Look at what the Bible tells us about Moses, He considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be even greater than the treasure and wealth of Egypt. What does this mean? It means that he knew that it was better to live for heaven than to live for earth. People with faith live with that mindset! They know that even though things might not always be easy or feel good in this world, we know what is waiting for us at the end of the race - Jesus!

Acts 5:29 CSB

29 Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people.

This is how we live. This is what we have to do. We keep our eyes on Jesus and we choose to live for Him instead of living for ourselves and the comforts of this world like popularity, fame, likes, money, and possessions. Jesus comes first.

Biblical Faith Commits to Walk, Not Waver (29-31)

Even if we do choose Christ and to live for Him, we know that there will be times in life where we will be tempted to waver in that walk. How many of you know the disciple named Peter? Do you know what Peter did whenever Jesus was captured by the Jewish leaders? He denied Jesus 3 separate times. His faith wavered. This is encouraging news for us today because we know that just like Peter and many others in the Bible, we won’t be perfect. We will sin and stumble and make mistakes. But we must commit to continue walking towards the goal and do what Christ calls us to do. Let’s look at a few examples in our passage tonight of walking by faith.

The Israelites finally were allowed to leave Egypt and God guided them as they walked towards the promised land… but there was a little problem along the way. The Pharaoh changed his mind and wanted them to come back, so he sent his army to capture them. On one side there was the Egyptian army and on the other side was the Red Sea - God had provided for them over and over in this story, but now they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Have you ever been in between a rock and a hard place? It’s like there’s no way out and whatever you choose to do will be difficult! This is where they are at here and the people are upset at Moses. The people wanted to over rule Moses and go back to being slaves in Egypt. The Israelites looked at the situation based on what their eyes could see. They saw an army over here and a massive sea on the other side. In other words, their eyes told them there was no hope. Look at what Moses told the people in Exodus 14:13-14

Exodus 14:13–14 CSB

13 But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation that he will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.”

Moses had faith in God’s plan and trusted in God’s power. He lifted up his staff and the water of the sea parted and the Israelites crossed the sea on dry land. That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?! One person who walked by faith encouraged thousands of others to do the same. As you choose to walk by faith, you have the ability to influence and encourage other people around you as well. God has placed people in your sphere of influence that you can reach that adults like me can’t reach. I can’t go to your school and tell someone about Jesus… but you can! I can’t go to your sports practice and invite another player to church… but you can! If you have faith in Jesus, you commit to walk in faith - not to waver in your faith. Don’t let anyone despise you for your age - God has a plan and a task just for you. Whenever I was in 5th grade, I was in a program called Leaders in Training and I learned for the first time that I had a spiritual gift. Did you know if you’re saved, you have a spiritual gift? You are given that gift by God and you’re supposed to use that gift that He has given you. It doesn’t matter if you’re 7 or 77, if you are a Christian you are supposed to use the gift that God has given you. One of my friends had the gift of teaching and after going on a mission trip to Dallas Texas, she had the idea as a 6th grader to start doing what we called “Good News Club” every Monday after school at one of the elementary schools in Ozark. She was using her gift and walking in faith. Our pastors got in touch with the school, we had volunteers in place, and that year we were able to basically have VBS every Monday at one school. The next year, it turned into 2 schools. The year after that we were in all 4 elementary schools in Ozark having VBS every Monday and so many people came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior just because a young girl believed that what she had done on a mission trip was something that she was supposed to do in her hometown. She committed to walk by faith, not by sight - and lives were changed forever because of that.

The next part that we see in Hebrews 11 is that the Israelites not only cross the Red Sea safely but they eventually come to a city called Jericho and there’s a problem - Jericho has tall walls and the Israelites can’t conquer the city because they don’t have the equipment to capture the city because of the walls. So they send in a few spies who meet a woman named Rahab. Rahab had heard of the Israelites and the victories that they had won over other cities… but what does Hebrews 11 tell us about Rahab? She had faith in God and welcomed the spies into her home. God uses her obedience not only to help the Israelites bring the walls of Jericho down, but Rahab finds herself in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew 1. Rahab, who appears here in a negative light is the great grandmother to king David in the Bible. Because she walked by faith, lives were changed for generations. As you look at your life and the choices before you, it is always worth it to walk by faith. Even if it is costly. Even if people make fun of you. Even if it’s hard! Jesus is always worth it.

My question for you tonight is this

Which Way Are You Walking?

By faith or by sight?

Is Your Faith Convenient or Courageous?

Are you the person who only talks about Jesus at camp or church, or do you follow Jesus every day of your life?

Remember this: The only way to become a friend of God is to have faith in Jesus Christ. Have you repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus to save you? Is your faith in Him or in yourself? If you haven’t placed your faith in Jesus, there is no better time to do that than tonight because Jesus is either Lord of all, or He’s not Lord at all. Let’s spend a few minutes tonight in prayer and ask God to reveal to us how to faithfully respond to Him.