Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Hebrews 11:24–26 (ESV)

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Introduction

One thing I think we all have in common is that we all want a peaceful and rewarding life. Nevertheless, I think that a lot of people feel that in some way life is not cooperating with their desires.

We have an idea of how we want our life to go, what direction we want our life to take, but life keeps setting up barriers. Just as you set out to go a certain direction, something comes along and prevents you from going that way.

When I was younger, I decided I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to fly for the military. Not transports, not cargo planes, I wanted to fly fighter jets. And more than that, once I was established as a hot-shot pilot, I wanted to transition to become an astronaut. Well, I soon learned that you could not fly jets for the military unless you have a college degree.

I joined the Marine Corps as a plain old private, but after I got in I started applying for college programs were the military would pay for me to get a college degree. Just about the time it looked like I was going to be accepted, I learned that my eyesight was not 20/20. 20/20 vision is a requirement to be a military pilot.

Okay, so that’s out. Then while I was still in the I learned a new program had started called the Space Shuttle program. They were looking for Mission Specialist to fly on a new spacecraft which had been designed called the Space Shuttle. Suddenly, you didn’t have to be a pilot to be an astronaut. I quickly obtained the paperwork to apply for the program and I discovered that to be a Mission Specialist on the Space Shuttle, you had to have a master’s degree, or a PhD, in a hard science to qualify. Another plan shot down.

You know all through that process, I don’t think I ever once went to the Lord and asked Him what would be His will in these decisions I was making. I was making lots of plans and lots of decisions about what I wanted to do, but was I making the right decisions?

The only way to get peace and fulfillment in your life is to make the right decisions about how you are going to conduct your life.

We can’t control what happens to us. We can’t control those external factors that suddenly arise to have an effect on our lives, but we can determine how we are going to respond, informed by the principles we live by.

The fact is our life is the sum total of our decisions. Some decisions are momentous, and some are trivial. Some are easy and some are hard. Every day of our life is filled with decisions.

Some people avoid making decisions at all. I heard of a man who was filling out a job application. One of the questions on the applications was, “Do you have trouble making decisions?” The man replied, “yes and no.”

Some people drift along in life making as few decisions as possible. They drift whichever way the wind is blowing.

I’m sure if you take a minute to think about it, you can come up with innumerable situations you have faced in your life where you had to make a decision. Possibly a decision that would affect the pathway your life would take from now on. I know I can look back and clearly see those cross-roads where I had to make a decision on which way to go.

I made a decision once to ask Audrey McConnell to marry me. My life took a radical turn and changed in ways I would not have imagined.

We all make those kinds of decisions, but how do we know we are making the right decision?

In this passage in Hebrews, we will be looking at the life of life of Moses. Here we will discover that fundamental decisions we make will determine the trajectory of our life.

Like Moses, we must choose God’s plan over our own.

It is hard for us to choose God’s plan over our own plan. We decide what we want and then we make our own plan. It makes sense to us to do it that way.

Just like when you decide you have a taste for pizza, you are not really interested in ordering up salad.

Even Moses has some difficulty with choosing God’s plan. A few weeks ago, I preached a sermon on The Reluctant Moses, drawn mainly for Exodus, Chapter 3 and 4. You will recall that when God approached Moses with God’s plan for Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses was not quickly on-board with that plan. Instead, Moses made a lot of excuses.

First Moses said, “Who am I to be approaching Pharaoh,” God said “I will be with you.” Then Moses said, “They won’t believe me,” so God gave Moses a couple of signs to prove to Pharaoh that Moses was sent by God. Then Moses said he was slow of tongue and could not speak eloquently. God told Moses that Aaron could be his voice.

Of course, we all know that, in the end, Moses did go with God’s plan and delivered his people from bondage, but it was not an easy decision even for Moses.

Sometimes we may have a sense of what God wants us to do, but we substitute our slightly modified plan for God’s plan.

Most of you have heard me speak on the fact that I felt God calling me into His service at an early age. I had a better plan. God wanted me be a servant, but I thought that flying jets for the government was a good way to be a servant. After my discharge from the military, I went in to public service being a servant, in my own way, on the municipal, state, and federal level.

I was slow to learn that, however difficult it is for us, our plans must yield to His plans.

My second point is that:

Like Moses, we must choose authenticity over prestige

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

From a worldly perspective, Moses’ decision does not make any sense at all. Moses is giving up a position in the royal family. It is something on the order of getting elected to be mayor of the city and then deciding that you wanted to be the dog catcher instead. Giving up a position of importance and prestige for something common and ordinary is not something that we will naturally do.

The world has its opinion of things of great importance. We value actors, and singers, and star athletes. We admire the movers and shakers of the world, CEOs, and great leaders. But all of these things that mean so much to us are of little concern to God.

Ultimately, it is a question of your own identity. You often hear people speak of “finding themselves,” trying to discover who they are. The answer is simple, we we are God’s.

The third point is:

Like Moses, we must choose self-denial over pleasure

25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin

Self-denial is not fun. You know what is fun, pleasure is fun, sin is fun. That may sound shocking, but it is true. If were not true, there would not be so much sin in the world. But that fun is only for a season, and the price to be paid later on is not fun at all.

Sin is usually the easy choice, the path of least resistance, but it is often a deadly road.

In a lot of states, it is legal to hunt over a bait pile. I saw this in Michigan when I lived up there. Bear hunters will set out bait for the bear. Usually rotten fruit, old cooking oil, rotten cheese, things such as that. Things that cast off a strong scent. It smells bad to us, but to the bear it is a golden diner bell, an enticing aroma that he can hardly resist.

Now, Mr, Bear, he can hunt his own food, he can rummage in the forest for termites or berries or stand in the stream and try to catch a fish, but how much easier is it to go that great pile of goodies and tank up on a meal that is free for the taking. Of course, in the end, the bear loses, and ends up on the hunter’s wall.

If we sit down and think about it, each of us could recall examples of many lives which have been ruined by the inability to say no to that which is dishonorable.

My last point is:

Like Moses, we must choose heavenly rewards over earthly riches

26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

“The reproach of Christ” is the reproach particular to Christ, such as He endured. The writer of Hebrews uses it as a current form of expression, coloring the story of Moses with a Christian tone. The phrase is applied to Moses as enduring at the hands of the Egyptians and of the rebellious Israelites the reproach which a faithful servant of God will likely endure, and which was endured in a most notable way by Christ.

Imagine the wealth of Egypt, the great palaces, a golden clad throne, a life of exhaled adoration. All of this could have belonged to Moses. He could have been buried in a great pyramid, a monument to him for all time. Instead, he was buried in an unmarked grave, in a valley in the Moab desert, a location still unknown today. Still, he made the right choice. God presided at his funeral.

Conclusion

All of us are faced with choices. Jesus told us that

Matthew 10:39

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

You can be fulfilled. Remember, the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your decisions. Yes, fulfillment is yours for the taking. The problem is, the choice is up to you.

Let me give you a few suggestions to help you in making these decisions:

1) Be in prayer. Spend some time in prayer each day. Find a place where you can be alone in your communication with God. Prayer will leave you open the leading of the Holy Spirit. The only way to know that you are following God's plan for your life is by being in prayer.

2) Be actively reading in the Word. It is a fine thing to come to church and listen to the scripture reading, and follow along with scriptures from Sunday School, the morning message, or Wednesday Bible Study, but you need more. You need to have the scripture before you everyday. Your car needs fuel everyday you drive it, just as your life needs God’s word every day you live it.

3) Follow the commands God puts on your heart. If you make yourself receptive through prayer and scripture, God will place the knowledge of His will in your heart. It is then your responsibility to follow where He leads.

4) Seek a godly community. This means your church. This means the fellowship of other believers. We need that support and that accountability that comes from spending time with other believers.

As we come to make those decisions in our life, let us remember to look to God, the one who created us, the one who wants us to have a peaceful and fulfilling life.