Focused Faith: the faith of Moses’ perception

I. The willing refusal

Moses made a willing choice of God over the world.

A. The responsible coming

Moses had to “come to years.” Moses had to grow up in his responsibility and get to the place where he decided for himself what he was going to do. We talked about the faith that Moses’ parents had and how that ministered in his life. It was necessary for getting him to where he was. People around him could only make decisions for a little while, but there came a time that Moses had to stand up and choose for himself. Here, we find Moses making his own decision. This refusal in v.

Here, we find Moses making his own decision. This refusal in v.24 is not talking about something that someone told Moses to do. It happened when Moses came to years.

Application: There comes a point in your life when things must become yours. You must come to years in maturity and be ready to make your own choices. The faith of someone else can get you started and can have a great ministry in your life, but they will not last forever. You cannot depend on the faith of others for your whole life, and if you want to grow, you must come to a point in your life where you start to make decisions for yourself and choose your path

B. The regular calling

There was a normal here. There was the natural course of Moses’ life that would have resulted in his identification with Egypt and not with the people of God. The norm is worldliness no holiness. If you do not resist the world, you will be identified with the world.

1. Worldly normal

The regular name was not a child of God. If Moses did nothing, people would have identified him as a child of the world, as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, not as a child of God’s chosen people.

Application: If you just let things go, you will not be identified as a Christian. You cannot just go with the flow of the world and expect to be a witness. You are not naturally going to be a perfect Christian. Holiness and Christlikeness do not happen by osmosis.

You can think of this situation as a river that flows toward worldliness, but Christianity is upstream. If you do nothing, you drift to the world, not to God. Holiness is not the norm. The norm is worldliness, and that is what you are going to be if you let things happen just however they want to.

2. Wonderful name

They name was not something undesirable. Moses was refusing a great, enviable position when he lived v.24. There were plenty of people that would have given everything that they had to have what Moses was giving up.

Application: The world will not offer you the worst things that they have. They are going to put things in front of you that are desirable, things that other people are working their hardest to achieve; and you will be left with a choice.

Moses knew that if he did nothing, he would be identified with the world instead of God and His people. What did he do about it?

C. The resolute choosing

Moses had to actively choose the people of God. He had to do something to defy what was natural and choose to go with God. He knew he did not want to live the life of the world and that was what was going to happen on the path he was on, so he made a personal choice to reject all that and go with God.

Application: If you want a real walk with God and want to live the life of a real Christian, you will have to make a choice against the world and make a move toward God.

You are going to have to decide for yourself what you are going to do with God.

Is a relationship with God “for you”? Is this whole church thing “for you”? There is going to come a time where you will find out.

There have been plenty of people who thought they could ride the faith of their parents, grandparents, pastor, church, religious affiliation, or whatever else to keep them right with God; but they found themselves with no real relationship with God and maybe even out of church when the test came.

That is why we see people leave church when they get old enough or quit on God when the test comes. They did not make a choice for themselves that no matter what happens, I am going to stick with God, or they did not keep making that choice. Remember the norm of worldliness comes when we do nothing. This is a choice you must continually make for God.

Sitting on the sidelines and letting life lead you around will not result in a walk with God and identification as a Christian. You will end up at best a worldly saved person who makes little difference in the world. You must choose God. You must take Jesus every time.

Moses made that choice and willingly refused the name and the honor the world wanted to give him so that he could live for God.

What does he get in return?

II. The welcome reproach

Moses’ choice did not come without consequences. He was subject to a reproach.

A. The lost pleasure

There were some things that Moses could not do. There were some things that Moses could not experience because of his choice for God.

Application: You are going to miss out on some things if you choose to serve God. I am not here to tell you that the world has nothing to offer and that everything they are telling you is a lie. Most of it is, but there is enough truth that they can twist things and make them seem right.

Following God, there are going to be sometimes that you will just have to miss out.

B. The low position

There was some affliction and a reproach that came with choosing God. Moses found out that in addition to what he was missing out on, he was getting disrespect from those people that used to be his friends. Pharaoh that probably loved him before was not happy with his choices. He lost that position of power and respect that came with his worldly position.

Application: We already said that a life of faith will not leave the “cool” parent, but a life of faith in choosing God’s way will not leave you the “cool kid” either. You are going to have to let some people disrespect, misunderstand, and even ridicule and persecute your new position. When you choose God, that is what you need to be ready for.

How was Moses able to refuse all this respect and these riches and choose something that left him missing out and misunderstood? THAT is where his faith comes in.

III. The worthy reward

Moses kept his eyes, not on the present and the reproach that he had to endure, but on the future and on the reward that he knew serving God and identifying with His people would yield him.

If Moses would have looked around at all the friends he lost and all the fun he was missing out on, he would not be able to endure, and he would likely give in; but Moses did not live in the flesh. Instead, he used his eyes of faith to look past all of those physical things and look to what he knew lay ahead, to what God had in store for him.

Moses got his eyes off the present and placed them on God’s promises.

Genesis 46:3–4 KJV

And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

God had also promised the land of Canaan to the people of Israel. He knew that God was on the winning side, and though he could succeed for a while with the world, it would all come to naught. He had the perspective of faith and saw God’s promises through all the problems.

Application: In our lives, if we keep our eyes on the reproaches and the pleasures that we are putting aside, we will never make it. We will give in.

We have to get our eyes off the present and look at the promises.

We are not supposed to convince ourselves that going to the world won’t be any fun, we don’t need to convince ourselves to push through the persecution. We need to fix our focus on God and what He wants for us and what He has promised us.

Hebrews 13:5 KJV

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

He will always be with us.

Romans 8:29 KJV

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

He is working in us to make us like Him, the desire that drove us to our decision to follow Him.

John 14:2–3 KJV

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

He is coming again to take us home and to take complete victory over the world. He will judge the wicked and reward the faithful. He wins in the end!

If we are going to make it in this life, if we are going to choose good over evil every time. If we are going to dedicate ourselves to a life of pursuing God, we have to do like Moses and get our eyes off of the persecutions and problems and get them onto the words of God and onto the promises that He has given us! We have to have the Focused Faith that Moses had. We must have the faith of his perspective to overcome evil.

Romans 12:21 KJV

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

This verse is in the context of overcoming the enemies in our lives. We are supposed to use good to overcome evil.

You must keep the right perspective by getting your eyes off yourself and onto the Lord.