By Faith Moses

Introduction

Olympics

Who plays sports

Who is competitive

A lot of competitive people I saw

Turn to Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith

What does Hebrew mean?

Book of hebrews written to Jewish people with Jewish people to help them understand that The old testament is about faith in the coming messiah, and not about keeping the law of moses.

Judaism=what do you practice

Christianity= what do you believe? What do you have faith in.

In a lot of way, this book is to show the Jewish people that it is about faith.

If you are raised in America today, you dont have a problem with the question “What do you believe” you understand the question but you may get 50 different answers.

Here are some examples to some answers you may have heard or on some level believe.

I believe in myself (Secular humanism)

I believe my feelings are truth (Brocks class)

I believe I am a good person

I believe that there is more than one God, Many Gods (Polytheistic)

I believe in one God but he’s not trinitarian (Monotheistic, Muslim)

I believe in Karma (Good put into the universe good back to you)

I believe I can be whatever I want to can accomplish anything I set my mind to

What is faith; Commitment, Trust, Belief,

While faith isnt what saves us it is how we receive Christ and the Gospel is through faith

Its like the Straw

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

By Faith Moses Refused, Chose, Considered (V24-26)

(V24) Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughters son

Disown, refuse, deny what you used to be, or what the world is trying to tell you to be (Brocks Identity class)

Who does your faith require you to reject in order to be identified with God’s people?

V25 By faith Moses makes a decision

You make decisions according to what you believe. By faith you make choices.

Is the choice true? is it consistent with what you believe? is what you believe true?

What will you miss out on if you make this choice? the enjoyment of the pleasures of sin

(V26) By Faith Moses Considered

Moses thought about this. contemplated, observed,

You ever just see something and then its burned into your brain and you think about it later.

Consider Hebrews 3:1

Hebrews 3:1 (ESV)

1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

Hebrews 12:3 (ESV)

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

In other words, you are going to have to wrestle with this concept that it is better to be rejected because of your faith in Jesus, than it is to be accepted by the world for being successful and having a lot of money, being good at sports, being popular etc.

For he was looking to the reward

Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV)

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

By Faith Moses Left, Did not fear, Saw (V27)

Left Egypt in the rear view. What do you need to leave behind, or what have you left behind?

will you leave your friend group? will you leave a conversation? will you leave your relationship? will your faith cause you to consider Christ, reject the world in your heart and mind, and then will you actually physically leave something that dishonors Christ? will you?

Lets say that you won’t, lets say you totally chicken out, you’re big fat phony right? maybe? but maybe not, maybe you’ve got to BY FAITH consider Christ again, which may cause you BY FAITH to reject the world again, Which may cause you to BY FAITH leave the world and fix your eyes on Jesus.

Moses had no fear

Isnt thats what is great about sports, or training for anything? you find out… you’re loser. Wrestling taught me this. I know this is hard to imagine, but at first, I lost a lot. Wrestling is different than say a team sport because if I lose, I cannot point the finger at a teammate, I am forced to face may failures, and my character. Wrestling taught me that I am scared, I am lazy, I am undisciplined, I have a lot of flaws. So while there was a wrestling match that everyone was watching with their eyes, their was another wrestling match going on inside of me that was not seen. One time when I had just started wrestling, I wrestled so much that I threw up. I am not talking about an actually wrestling match, I was just so nervous about losing and exposing to the world that I suck at wrestling that I threw up. I was afraid.

Genesis 32 Jacob wrestles with God. My other favorite in the hall of faith

I never threw up again because of fear, but I have been that afraid before. Yet, the scariest wrestling matches Ive had in my life have not been on a wrestling mat with another wrestler that you would have seen with your eyes, they’ve been in my faith with God that nobody has ever seen. You know how many times I considered a wrestling match in my heart, considered my opponent, rejected that they could beat me in my head, and then at the last minute I got scared and couldn’t leave? I couldnt leave my old life, I couldnt leave my old friends, I couldnt leave the lies I once believed, I couldnt leave the sin, becasuse it was pleasurable, I liked it, but I wasn’t brave, I wasn’t strong.

Moses’ faith had no fear though, In Exodus 5 he tells Pharoah let my people go.

Jude 3 (ESV)

3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Contend= Epagonizomai = Struggle, fight, strive.

Hebrews 11:27 ESV

27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

He saw what is unseen

Who was hungry at any point today?

How did you know you were hungry?

Could you see it?

Consider the Jesus that you cannot see, and where can Jesus be seen where he cannot be seen?

Baptism?

Communion?

Preaching?

Worship? Boy asked me if I cry? why do I cry if it doesnt mean anything

We see what is ordinary, but what is ordinary signifies what is extraordinary

Do these ordinary things mean anything?

By Faith Moses Kept (V28)

The best way to contend for the faith is by keeping what God has commanded to us.

Just like wrestling, after that match that I threw up at, I kept going to practice, I kept wrestling, In fact little known fact about me, I never went to church camp, But I did go to wrestling camp, the more I wrestled the less afraid I became, and the less afraid I became, the more matches I won. In other words, as the unseen wrestling that went on within myself continued, the wrestling that everyone could see started to match up, whether I actually won or lost on the mat, I wrestled without fear, which gave me the best chance to win.

I think Moses had this type of faith, he was not afraid, he did not make decisions with fear, he made them in faith that God’s promises are true, and he kept those promises in his heart and mind, and Im sure he wrestled with them.

Exodus 4:8–12 ESV

8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” 10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

By Faith Moses Passed Through (V29)

By faith Moses entered into a new life

Not afraid any longer

Death is on either side of you, and its supposed to kill you

God makes a way, a path that is impossible with man, but possible with God.

Conclusion

Moses is a great example of this faith

So is By Faith Abel (V4), Enoch (V5), Noah (V7), Abraham (V8), Sarah (V11), Isaac (V20), Jacob (V21), Joseph (V22), Rahab (V31), Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the Prophets,

By Faith you come up to camp, by faith you leave camp, by faith you have questions, by faith you contend, by faith you believe in Jesus the author and perfecter of Faith. He is the object of everything that we do