back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 2.21.2021
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- All right, welcome to Breen Community Church 00:18:10.060 |
And also starting from next Sunday on March 7th, 00:18:23.060 |
So if you are a parent with a child that age, 00:18:36.060 |
they're gonna start accepting children at that age. 00:18:49.060 |
if you need more information about that, okay? 00:19:05.060 |
or you've been praying for to share the gospel with. 00:19:07.060 |
And so they wanted to make a concerted effort 00:19:11.060 |
So they're gonna be collecting names of people 00:19:16.060 |
And so that's gonna be going out through various channels. 00:19:23.060 |
in various ways, they'll give you opportunity 00:19:26.060 |
Again, it will be confidential for those people 00:19:37.060 |
are gonna be, you're gonna see it coming through. 00:19:48.060 |
is having a outreach gospel night this coming Wednesday. 00:19:52.060 |
So if you guys can keep them in your prayers as well. 00:19:56.060 |
the college ministry started a weekday meeting 00:20:01.060 |
And so it's kind of like the campus ministry of our church. 00:20:06.060 |
and the leadership of that group and the students 00:20:08.060 |
so that they be mindful and invite non-Christians to come 00:20:14.060 |
And then the final thing is, if you were here earlier praying, 00:20:19.060 |
is getting his final surgery this coming Friday. 00:20:21.060 |
So starting from Tuesday, he needs to be isolated, 00:20:25.060 |
and it's gonna take him about two to three weeks 00:20:37.060 |
has been going through all of that, all of last year, 00:20:39.060 |
and then now he's kind of at the tail end of it, 00:20:41.060 |
if you guys can please keep him in your prayers. 00:20:43.060 |
You know, we're very thankful that God's been gracious, 00:20:49.060 |
So even though he went through chemo and all of that stuff, 00:20:56.060 |
And so hopefully that that will continue to be the case 00:21:01.060 |
so please keep him and his family in prayer, okay? 00:21:07.060 |
and then we'll get into our main prayer session. 00:21:20.060 |
You are God truly deserving of all honor and glory and praise. 00:21:28.060 |
whatever it is that we've brought into this room. 00:21:31.060 |
Help us, Lord, to give you worship that you deserve 00:21:39.060 |
We ask, Lord God, that you would protect him, 00:21:47.060 |
I pray the doctors, you would give them wisdom 00:21:51.060 |
Pray for the family members, Lord God, to support him, 00:21:54.060 |
help him to rest, his body to be able to recover from all of it. 00:22:00.060 |
as you've always sustained him, continue to sustain him, 00:22:03.060 |
and to deepen his faith and his love and trust in you. 00:22:15.060 |
that we would pray for them, actively reach out to them, 00:22:18.060 |
and make the gospel clear to those around us, 00:31:14.060 |
You can turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23. 00:31:27.060 |
And we're going to be reading up to verse 26. 00:31:30.060 |
So it's really going to be a two-part sermon about Moses, 00:31:38.060 |
because those are the verses that we'll be dealing with this morning. 00:31:45.060 |
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, 00:31:49.060 |
because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 00:31:54.060 |
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 00:31:59.060 |
choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God 00:32:05.060 |
considering the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, 00:32:13.060 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for continued grace and guidance. 00:32:24.060 |
not only to know, Father God, the historical events, 00:32:31.060 |
Lord, search us and know us, see if there's any hurtful ways in us, 00:32:35.060 |
that our worship that we give to you may truly be acceptable before your eyes. 00:32:41.060 |
All right, so now we're at Moses' example of faith. 00:32:46.060 |
The cloud of witnesses that he has established before us in chapter 11, 00:32:49.060 |
not only to show us what happened in the record of the redemptive history in the Old Testament, 00:32:55.060 |
through the nation of Israel, but specifically in application, 00:32:58.060 |
he says, "Considering the cloud of witnesses that has gone before us, 00:33:01.060 |
that we would also endure and live a life worthy of the calling that he has given us." 00:33:06.060 |
Moses, just to give you a brief introduction, 00:33:09.060 |
is probably somebody that we know better than anybody else in the Old Testament, 00:33:13.060 |
simply because so much was written during his lifetime. 00:33:17.060 |
His lifespan is mentioned in the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 00:33:25.060 |
And so he was the leader and establishment of leadership, giving of the law. 00:33:31.060 |
In fact, he's so prominent in the Old Testament that during the time of Jesus, 00:33:37.060 |
they would call the Old Testament "Moses and the prophets." 00:33:41.060 |
So Moses and the prophets basically summarize all of the Old Testament. 00:33:44.060 |
We call it Old Testament. They called it the laws of Moses and the prophets. 00:33:50.060 |
You know, one of the interesting things is that Moses is credited to be the author of the first five books of the law, 00:33:58.060 |
And within that law, Moses describes himself in Numbers 12.3 as being the humblest of the world on earth. 00:34:07.060 |
And so a lot of people poke fun of him because he wrote that about himself. 00:34:12.060 |
And, you know, it's like, "Oh, he couldn't help it because God dictated that, and so he was just writing it. 00:34:16.060 |
So he didn't really mean it, but God told him to write it." 00:34:18.060 |
And so a lot of people don't know what to do with that, you know, that it was kind of a humble brag. 00:34:23.060 |
You know, like, "I'm the humblest in the world!" 00:34:29.060 |
But I really think that he meant what he said, but the way that we take it is humble, kind of like, 00:34:35.060 |
"Oh, you know, I'm no good at anything, you know. 00:34:40.060 |
I don't think that's what he's talking about. 00:34:42.060 |
I think he really was humbled because he's described as an individual who met God, 00:34:50.060 |
and even though it wasn't face-to-face, as God was passing by, he saw his glory, 00:34:55.060 |
and he got humbled in the presence of something magnificent. 00:34:59.060 |
So there was no other human being that was given that kind of vision, that kind of direct access to God, 00:35:09.060 |
So when he says he was the humblest in the world, that wasn't a humble brag, right? 00:35:16.060 |
It's a testimony, but you're really bragging about yourself. 00:35:19.060 |
He said, "No, I think he was actually humbled," and that's what he means by that, 00:35:24.060 |
that in the presence of God's glory, he realized who he was. 00:35:29.060 |
And that's naturally what happens when people are confronted or in the presence of a God 00:35:38.060 |
They become humble, and that's why a Christian who is filled with pride is an oxymoron 00:35:45.060 |
because naturally, when we are confronted by his glory, we become humble, right? 00:35:50.060 |
Not we humble ourselves, we become humble because there's nothing higher than him. 00:35:55.060 |
In the presence of him, we all tend to shut our mouth, right, just like Isaiah, "Woe is me." 00:36:02.060 |
That's the natural response of a sinner in the presence of God's glory, 00:36:05.060 |
and I think that's what he meant when he said he is the humblest 00:36:09.060 |
because he had access to God that other people did not have. 00:36:12.060 |
Moses lived 120 years, and of the 120 years, his life is divided into distinct three parts, 00:36:19.060 |
40 years in Pharaoh's house, 40 years as a shepherd, 00:36:23.060 |
and 40 years leading the nation of Israel to get into the Promised Land. 00:36:27.060 |
So it's almost like he lived three very distinct lives. 00:36:31.060 |
You know, when I title my sermons, I usually don't put a lot of thought into it. 00:36:35.060 |
I just kind of put, you know, "Faith of Jacob," right? 00:36:40.060 |
And that's usually--I don't really put a lot of thought into it 00:36:43.060 |
because I don't know how many of you look at it, but I actually had a sermon title, 00:36:46.060 |
and I changed it because I think it really captures his life. 00:36:51.060 |
Moses' story is from rags to riches to rags to riches to rags to riches, right? 00:36:58.060 |
And so I think that kind of captures his life because he was born as a slave, the rags, 00:37:03.060 |
and then he was raised in Pharaoh's home to riches, and then because of what happens, 00:37:08.060 |
he ends up going out as a shepherd to rags, and then God calls him 00:37:12.060 |
and raises him to be leader of Israel to riches, 00:37:15.060 |
and then they come out into the desert and they wander because of their sin to rags, 00:37:20.060 |
and then when he dies, God raises him up to his riches. 00:37:23.060 |
So it's rags to riches, rags to riches to rags to riches. 00:37:27.060 |
I mean, you know, most people, like even just one, if you were born really poor 00:37:32.060 |
and then you buy hard work or whatever God did and raised you up, 00:37:38.060 |
Or somebody was really rich and he made some dumb decision and ended up living in poverty. 00:37:44.060 |
But Moses' life is rags to riches to rags to riches to rags to riches. 00:37:52.060 |
And so his life is very interesting, and, you know, as we've been talking about by faith, 00:37:58.060 |
and we know that there are very specific people, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, 00:38:03.060 |
and how God's redemptive plan, God's sovereignty is orchestrating these things, 00:38:12.060 |
And I think not only Moses' life, but our life can be summed up in Romans 8:28. 00:38:17.060 |
It says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, 00:38:21.060 |
to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." 00:38:27.060 |
You might be able to identify when you became a Christian, right? 00:38:31.060 |
And I realize that my testimony is not average, you know, 00:38:35.060 |
because I know specifically what date, what time, right? 00:38:46.060 |
And I just thought that that's kind of how everybody became a Christian, 00:38:49.060 |
but I realize that most people just kind of are in the environment of Christians, 00:38:54.060 |
and at some point something happens, but they can't pinpoint exactly when that happens. 00:38:59.060 |
However you came to Christ, whether you remember the specific date and time 00:39:05.060 |
where you made that decision where God opened your eyes, 00:39:08.060 |
or whether it was a gradual opening and you said, "Yes, God really is real, 00:39:14.060 |
However you came to Christ, there was a ton of other things that was taking place 00:39:21.060 |
You know, when I became a Christian, I thought my spiritual journey happened in 1983, 00:39:27.060 |
So I didn't really connect the dots until years later I realized how much of my family 00:39:35.060 |
and how the gospel came into my family through my grand--not my grandfather, 00:39:39.060 |
my great-grandmother, because I asked my dad, "Who first became a Christian?" 00:39:43.060 |
And then I found out it was my great-grandmother, and then that was the line that it came through, 00:39:47.060 |
and then my grandfather was a pastor, and then my father was a pastor. 00:39:51.060 |
And I didn't see this heritage until years later I realized all of that took place 00:39:57.060 |
in order for me at that particular time, and all the other stuff, 00:40:01.060 |
even the stuff that I was angry about, all of that stuff took place in order to bring me 00:40:05.060 |
to that point where I was hungry, and when I desired God, you know, 00:40:10.060 |
when he put that desire in me, that it was orchestrated to get me to that point. 00:40:14.060 |
Every single one of us, whether you recognize it or not, there's tons of things, 00:40:19.060 |
some things that you think are negative, some things that you think are positive, 00:40:22.060 |
where God divinely orchestrated in order to fulfill his purpose. 00:40:27.060 |
So the sovereign God is working past, present, and even future. 00:40:33.060 |
So there's a purpose for this pandemic. There's a purpose for persecution. 00:40:37.060 |
There's a purpose for everything that's going on right now. 00:40:40.060 |
Sometimes we understand it, sometimes we don't understand it. 00:40:43.060 |
But God's redemptive plan is in his sovereign hands. 00:40:48.060 |
He is deliberately orchestrating and moving and acting in order to fulfill his purpose. 00:40:53.060 |
That's why he can write the book of Revelations and tell us this is going to happen. 00:40:59.060 |
He's not just guessing and looking down the line and saying, "Well, if these happen," 00:41:02.060 |
and he just happened to be a great, great fortune teller. 00:41:05.060 |
He's looking down the line. If these things can happen, if these people react this way, 00:41:09.060 |
and this country does this, so many missionaries grow up, at this particular time, this might happen. 00:41:15.060 |
No, he's telling us that's what he's going to do. 00:41:18.060 |
He's telling us what he's going to do, what his plan is, right? 00:41:22.060 |
So when we look at his redemptive plan, that's exactly how God's redemptive plan unfolds. 00:41:28.060 |
These are not random events that happen to happen because there are some good Christians 00:41:32.060 |
or good people who reacted to God a certain way, and so therefore it triggered this and triggered that. 00:41:37.060 |
All of that stuff humanly is happening, but behind the scene, God is fully in control 00:41:49.060 |
It says in verse 23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents 00:41:55.060 |
because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's edict." 00:42:00.060 |
First and foremost, he said it wasn't even Moses' faith. 00:42:07.060 |
Moses wasn't born and then he realized, "You know what? God has a special plan for me." 00:42:12.060 |
By faith he told his parents to hide him so that he can be raised in a fairer home. 00:42:17.060 |
His faith journey started way before he was even born. 00:42:33.060 |
The new pharaoh came in who completely forgets about Joseph, and he decides to enslave them. 00:42:40.060 |
But these slaves that just, you know, remember we talked about how Joseph, even in trouble, 00:42:44.060 |
God's blessing was upon him and he was increasing in favor? 00:42:47.060 |
And that's exactly what's happening with the nation of Israel. 00:42:50.060 |
Even as they are enslaved, as it was prophesied and told Abraham hundreds of years before, 00:42:58.060 |
And even in their suffering, God's blessing is upon them and they're increasing in number. 00:43:02.060 |
The new pharaoh becomes paranoid that they're going to be too huge to be able to control. 00:43:07.060 |
So he has this idea. He sends out a knee-dick and says, "You know, these midwives who are going to deliver these babies." 00:43:13.060 |
He orders them to kill all the male Hebrew children that are born. 00:43:18.060 |
The midwives in Exodus chapter 1, 4-5 said because they feared God more than Pharaoh, 00:43:23.060 |
that instead of killing these children, they allowed them to live. 00:43:28.060 |
And so obviously the pharaoh gets angry and calls the midwives and says, "Why are you not carrying out my edict?" 00:43:33.060 |
And they could have been killed by that, but by God's wisdom they said, 00:43:36.060 |
"Well, we can't get there fast enough because these Hebrew women are delivering so quickly." 00:43:42.060 |
And as soon as we hear of it, the baby's out and they're gone. 00:43:46.060 |
Which is probably true, and that's why they were growing in number. 00:43:50.060 |
So it wasn't even the parents' faith, even the midwives. 00:43:58.060 |
So they make an edict, they tell all the soldiers to go find the baby boys and kill them themselves, 00:44:07.060 |
So that's when his parents, by faith, because they feared God more than Pharaoh, more than their own lives, 00:44:12.060 |
they hide him and then eventually they put him down and then they send him out. 00:44:17.060 |
But you know what's interesting is, if you look at verse 23, it says, 00:44:21.060 |
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents." 00:44:26.060 |
Why? Because they saw he was a beautiful child. 00:44:31.060 |
Because he was a beautiful child. And they were not afraid of the king's edict. 00:44:44.060 |
Remember, you know, when we do inductive Bible study, 00:44:47.060 |
if something just doesn't sound right or it doesn't make sense, 00:44:51.060 |
before you jump to the commentaries, look at the different translations. 00:44:57.060 |
We're studying the NISV, and the versions that I look at are usually NIV, ESV, and King James. 00:45:04.060 |
And the reason why I look at those translations is that all three, 00:45:08.060 |
those translations have different philosophies in their interpretation. 00:45:12.060 |
NISV being the literal, NIV just kind of trying to make sense of doing both. 00:45:18.060 |
ESV is kind of somewhere between NIV and the NISV. 00:45:26.060 |
So when you compare the translations, you'll see there's something going on in the Greek 00:45:30.060 |
that couldn't be translated exactly the way we understand it. 00:45:34.060 |
If you look at this verse, the NIV says it this way, 00:45:38.060 |
"By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born 00:45:46.060 |
Now that doesn't sound exactly like beautiful. 00:45:49.060 |
And in the King James it says, "Because they saw he was a proper child." 00:45:53.060 |
So clearly there's something going on in the Greek that doesn't sound the same in the English. 00:46:02.060 |
And the word "asteou" basically means someone who is sophisticated, 00:46:06.060 |
someone who is honorable, someone who may be set apart, different than the others. 00:46:14.060 |
He wasn't like, "Wow, look at this, how symmetrical his eyes and nose are." 00:46:21.060 |
There was something about the child that set him apart from the other children. 00:46:30.060 |
Just as God made it very clear to Abraham what was about to happen. 00:46:36.060 |
He says, "He prophesied from the very beginning of this covenant promise 00:46:41.060 |
that you're going to be in captivity for 400 years, and when you come out, 00:46:46.060 |
So this event is the beginning of the nation of Israel, 00:46:53.060 |
And so that covenant promise is being passed down from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph, 00:47:06.060 |
In Amos 3, verse 7, it says, "Surely the Lord God does nothing 00:47:10.060 |
unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servant, the prophets." 00:47:14.060 |
And I believe that's exactly what was going on. 00:47:16.060 |
The prophecy was being passed down that God was going to use Moses 00:47:25.060 |
And eventually Moses will find out about it, and then he will also carry this out. 00:47:29.060 |
John Calvin says of this particular passage, this is what he says, 00:47:32.060 |
"The parents of Moses were not induced by his beauty to be touched with pity 00:47:39.060 |
But there was some sort of mark of excellence to come, 00:47:42.060 |
engraved on the boy which gave promise of something out of ordinary for him." 00:47:48.060 |
Again, it wasn't just because he was aesthetically beautiful. 00:47:52.060 |
God's sovereign hands was upon him and his family, 00:47:55.060 |
because not only was he to save Israel, establish Israel, 00:47:59.060 |
but through that God was going to save mankind. 00:48:05.060 |
that a child of the woman who's going to come crushed the head of the serpent, 00:48:09.060 |
what we're studying is the history of God fulfilling that promise right after the fall. 00:48:15.060 |
He's coming, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming. 00:48:17.060 |
But before that happens, the nation of Israel needs to be established. 00:48:23.060 |
When you see just what happens with Moses, the 40 years, 40 years, 40 years, 00:48:28.060 |
you still see God's sovereign hands, but when you see it collectively, 00:48:32.060 |
that everything that is happening, the good and the bad, 00:48:37.060 |
God works together all things for good, all things for good, 00:48:40.060 |
not some things we understand, some things that we say, "Oh, that's good." 00:48:45.060 |
Even the things that we think are horrible, God is working all things for good 00:48:54.060 |
In fact, you know what's interesting is Exodus chapter 2, 6, 3, 8. 00:48:58.060 |
It describes for us how he ended up in Pharaoh's house. 00:49:02.060 |
So the parents put him in a crib or a little box and pass him down through the river, 00:49:10.060 |
and it goes down, and his older sister Miriam, who was somewhere around 11 or 12 years old, 00:49:14.060 |
no one knows exactly, but they're guessing that that's about how old she is. 00:49:18.060 |
She follows the basket and then sees the Pharaoh's daughter was taking a bath down, 00:49:23.060 |
and then she sees the basket, opens it up, and sees a child. 00:49:26.060 |
And here's the encounter that's recorded in Exodus chapter 2, 6, 3, 8. 00:49:30.060 |
When she opened it, the Pharaoh's daughter, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying, 00:49:35.060 |
and she had pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrew's children." 00:49:39.060 |
Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, his sister meaning Miriam, 00:49:43.060 |
"Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women?" 00:49:48.060 |
I wonder who she was thinking about when she was suggesting this. 00:49:53.060 |
Clearly, you're Pharaoh's daughter. You can't nurse this child. 00:49:57.060 |
You want me as your servant? Get somebody to help you raise this child? 00:50:05.060 |
Obviously, she's thinking about her mother, the mother's sacrifice and let the baby go, 00:50:10.060 |
not in the sovereign hands, right, causes the baby to be raised. 00:50:15.060 |
"As she may nurse the child for you, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Go ahead.' 00:50:18.060 |
So the girl went and called the child's mother. 00:50:21.060 |
Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take this child away and nurse him for me, 00:50:30.060 |
Not only does she get to nurse her own child, she's going to get paid by Pharaoh's daughter 00:50:37.060 |
to raise her own child that she sent down the river probably thinking and worried, 00:50:49.060 |
So the Pharaoh's daughter basically says, "Raise him until I don't have to deal with his snot," 00:50:55.060 |
and then changes diapers. Of course, they didn't have diapers back then. 00:50:58.060 |
But basically, do the hard part, and then bring him back when I can enjoy him. 00:51:02.060 |
So we don't know exactly how old because it doesn't tell us, 00:51:05.060 |
but my guess is anybody who's raised kids around five, they become easier, right? 00:51:12.060 |
And then just skip the teenage years, you know what I mean? 00:51:17.060 |
We don't know exactly how many years, but it was enough, 00:51:19.060 |
and I'm pretty sure Pharaoh's mom was not eager to send him away. 00:51:24.060 |
So she probably held on to him as long as she could. 00:51:27.060 |
But can you imagine the education that he must have gotten from his mom? 00:51:31.060 |
Because his parents already knew that he was special. 00:51:34.060 |
To what degree, we don't know, but to the degree that God made it plain to them 00:51:38.060 |
that he was beautiful, he was set apart, right? 00:51:41.060 |
And we find out a little bit later that he knew a lot more than what we thought, right? 00:51:48.060 |
So God sovereignly—this is not planned by man. 00:51:52.060 |
Like in the midst of the Pharaoh trying to kill this child, 00:51:55.060 |
Pharaoh's daughter ends up bringing him into, right, into the very thing 00:52:00.060 |
that he was trying to eradicate, he ends up bringing the child into his home, 00:52:04.060 |
paying the mother to raise this child, right? 00:52:08.060 |
Only God can orchestrate something like that. 00:52:14.060 |
And it is in this sovereign God that Abraham had faith in. 00:52:25.060 |
it will be reflected in the way that you live. 00:52:30.060 |
You will trust him when he is trustable, when he makes sense, 00:52:34.060 |
when your future is laid out, when everything makes sense, 00:52:38.060 |
the bills are paid and everything is done that I can take care of, 00:52:41.060 |
and only the things that I have no control over, it's like, "God, I trust you." 00:52:46.060 |
Because you don't have ability to trust yourself because everything is done. 00:52:50.060 |
That's why when we get sick, we lose our job, when desperate things happen, 00:52:56.060 |
God is like, "God, we need you, but every other time I can take care of myself." 00:53:02.060 |
It's because we have a very small view of God. 00:53:08.060 |
God is far beyond what you and I could possibly imagine. 00:53:12.060 |
And God has orchestrated all of this, and it is this God that Moses knew. 00:53:18.060 |
And that's why it says in Psalm 24, "By faith Moses, when he grew up, 00:53:22.060 |
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." 00:53:26.060 |
Now think about what that means. His parents were slaves. 00:53:31.060 |
They're not just low middle class or lower class, they're slaves. 00:53:35.060 |
They don't own anything. There is no future for a slave. 00:53:39.060 |
You can work hard as you can, and you might be given some responsibility, 00:53:43.060 |
but as a slave, there is no future for you, for your children, your grandchildren, 00:53:47.060 |
as long as you're a slave, the harder you work, you just work, that's it. 00:53:51.060 |
But he says, "Because he believed in this sovereign God, 00:53:56.060 |
he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." 00:53:59.060 |
Imagine what the Pharaoh's daughter, what it would have meant to be raised in Pharaoh's home. 00:54:04.060 |
That means everything that you and I can possibly imagine he had. 00:54:08.060 |
I would think his position is better than Pharaoh, 00:54:15.060 |
Pharaoh has to take out the laws. He has to worry about people trying to overthrow him. 00:54:20.060 |
If you're a child in a Pharaoh's home, you get to enjoy everything that the Pharaoh has 00:54:25.060 |
without the responsibility. So I think that's a better position than the Pharaoh. 00:54:29.060 |
He had everything that a human being could possibly imagine, and he says, 00:54:33.060 |
he refused to be called the Pharaoh's daughter, 00:54:36.060 |
"Choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God 00:54:44.060 |
You can look at that and say, "Oh, he was very nationalistic. He was so proud of being a Hebrew 00:54:49.060 |
that he was willing to identify with the slaves rather than with Pharaoh." 00:54:54.060 |
If you look at it on the surface, we may think that that's what's going on. 00:54:57.060 |
He was just a very proud Jew. No wonder the Jews see him as the highest among the Jews. 00:55:04.060 |
It says, "Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, 00:55:13.060 |
Clearly, it wasn't just nationalism. He saw beyond. He saw beyond nationalism. 00:55:19.060 |
He said his reproach of Christ was greater than the treasures of Egypt. 00:55:26.060 |
Now, we're going to get to this in a bit about what he means by the treasures of Christ, 00:55:29.060 |
or reproach of Christ, and he was looking forward to the reward. 00:55:34.060 |
But Acts chapter 7, 22 to 25, actually explains a little bit more in detail 00:55:43.060 |
It describes the background behind why he was able to trust in this God 00:55:48.060 |
and forsake the riches and identify with these slaves. 00:55:53.060 |
This is Stephen. Right before he gets stoned, he basically gives redemptive history. 00:56:00.060 |
This is what's going on, and he basically is preaching the gospel. 00:56:03.060 |
In the gospel preaching, he mentions Moses, and this is what he says in verse 22. 00:56:08.060 |
"Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and in deeds. 00:56:14.060 |
But when he was approaching the age of 40, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. 00:56:20.060 |
And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed 00:56:26.060 |
by striking down the Egyptians." And look at verse 25. 00:56:30.060 |
"And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance from him, 00:56:54.060 |
But Stephen describes and says, "When he stood, and he stood with the Hebrews, 00:57:00.060 |
he said he thought, he thought that the Hebrews would have understood 00:57:11.060 |
But what surprised him was, instead of thanking him, 00:57:15.060 |
next time he comes out and says, 'Well, you're going to kill us too?' 00:57:19.060 |
And he realized that they did not know, and they weren't embracing him as a leader. 00:57:24.060 |
And that's what discourages him and causes him to run out to the desert." 00:57:30.060 |
Doesn't that cause you to see the burning bush incident very differently? 00:57:34.060 |
Because, you know, when he's at the burning bush and God says, 00:57:37.060 |
"I want you to go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go." 00:57:40.060 |
And Moses says, "No, no, no, not me. My brother is the one who can talk. 00:57:46.060 |
You don't want to use me." And they says, "God became angry." 00:57:50.060 |
Right? He got angry because Moses was humble. 00:57:57.060 |
Moses was not simply saying, "No, I'm humble. I'm not good at this." 00:58:01.060 |
Because Moses knew that there was a calling in his life. 00:58:05.060 |
So by the time he gets the burning bush, God was calling him back. 00:58:11.060 |
You thought it was going to happen 40 years ago, but now is the time. 00:58:14.060 |
So when Moses said, "No," he was, in a sense, "I don't want that responsibility." 00:58:22.060 |
Because that's the reason why his parents did what they did. 00:58:27.060 |
That's the reason why he was raised at Pharaoh's house. 00:58:32.060 |
But he was discouraged because his countrymen didn't embrace him. 00:58:37.060 |
But obviously God had different plans and he raised him. 00:58:42.060 |
And because he believed in the sovereign God, he did what was completely unnatural. 00:58:51.060 |
It's unnatural for a man, humanly speaking, who grew up in Pharaoh's house, 00:58:55.060 |
to reject all of that and identify with these slaves. 00:59:00.060 |
If I was to drop this key, what do you think is going to happen? 00:59:16.060 |
Maybe if I keep doing it, something else is going to happen. 00:59:23.060 |
Maybe if I do it 100 times, maybe one of the times, at least one time, 1%, right? 00:59:28.060 |
I'm going to keep doing this until -- oh, did it again. 00:59:33.060 |
I can do this 1,000 times, and 1,000 times we expect this to drop. 00:59:39.060 |
But if this doesn't drop and it goes up, how will you react? 00:59:49.060 |
Because you're going to think something is going on. 01:00:06.060 |
Nothing is going to cause you to examine what happened. 01:00:12.060 |
All of redemptive history is the key going up instead of down. 01:00:19.060 |
All of redemptive history is going against the natural events and to look and say, 01:00:32.060 |
Whether he did it supernaturally or whether he orchestrated certain things and why 01:00:37.060 |
certain people responded in a way that was unnatural, all of redemptive history is the revelation of God's glory 01:00:42.060 |
that causes mankind to look at that and say, why did that go up? 01:00:47.060 |
Why did Moses forsake everything he had to identify with these Jews and live a difficult life? 01:00:58.060 |
The only answer that was given, he considered reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. 01:01:08.060 |
He knew this sovereign God, and he believed that the promises that he made was much greater than anything that he already had in Pharaoh. 01:01:19.060 |
Because whatever he had in Pharaoh was temporary. 01:01:22.060 |
Whatever treasure that he had with him is temporary. 01:01:25.060 |
But what God was going to give him is eternal. 01:01:28.060 |
And that's why he says he was looking forward. 01:01:30.060 |
It wasn't simply because he was nationalistic. 01:01:38.060 |
He believed that the treasures that were coming was much greater than whatever he had in Christ. 01:01:46.060 |
You know, even as believers, sometimes our lives don't look any different than natural law. 01:01:56.060 |
Because we do things that just come naturally. 01:01:59.060 |
You know, after being a pastor for so many years, I can watch the cycle, and it's predictable, people's behavior. 01:02:07.060 |
What happens when you first come into college, right? 01:02:10.060 |
Eager to get out, enjoy life, enjoy freedom, and then you regret it your second year, right? 01:02:18.060 |
Then you become a sophomore, sophomore, sophos moranos, wise fool. 01:02:23.060 |
You just have just enough information to make you a fool, right? 01:02:28.060 |
And then by the time you get to third year, you start to gain knowledge. 01:02:31.060 |
You're a junior, but you're not a senior yet. 01:02:33.060 |
You don't quite know, but you're starting to know, and you're realizing, like, oh, shoot, I better get my act together. 01:02:39.060 |
And then by senior year, you take 20, 30 units to get out, right? 01:02:47.060 |
You get out, you become a BAM member, and you're struggling, and real life hits you. 01:02:54.060 |
And then you look fondly to your college life, only if I was back then. 01:02:59.060 |
And then so I'm guessing if you are a baby BAM, that your advice, whenever you see college students, is like, you wait and see. 01:03:08.060 |
And you can't stomach college students' complaints, and you got it easy, because life has hit you, right? 01:03:15.060 |
Nine to five, it's nine to five every day, all day, all week, all year, all decade, all life, and you're just starting. 01:03:36.060 |
And then after that, you start, you know, really, if you're a single adult making money, you have more money than you'll ever have, right, unless you become filthy rich, 01:03:46.060 |
but most people, that's because you don't have a lot of responsibilities during that period, and you have all the freedom that you want, because you're not married, you don't have kids yet. 01:03:55.060 |
And everybody envies you, right, worldly speaking, right? 01:04:01.060 |
But there's no other groups of people in life that is eagerly waiting to get out of that than the singles. 01:04:14.060 |
Lord willing, you get to the next stage, you get married and have kids, right? 01:04:19.060 |
And so if you don't have kids, it's like, when do we get kids? 01:04:22.060 |
And then that's what you live for, and then when you do have kids, it's like, oh, my gosh, when are they going to grow up, right? 01:04:29.060 |
And then when they grow up, it's like, I wish there were kids again. 01:04:33.060 |
This cycle of life, it's like, that's natural. 01:04:36.060 |
You observe year after year after year, it's just a matter of you transitioning to the next stage, and another person comes, they go through the same thing, another person comes. 01:04:44.060 |
And that's why Solomon says there's nothing new under the sun. 01:04:49.060 |
Even sometimes the way we live our Christian life is predictable. 01:05:05.060 |
And so some find it in politics, some find it in religion, some find it in Hinduism, some find it in Buddhism, some find it in Christianity. 01:05:16.060 |
But the root reason is because they want to belong somewhere. 01:05:23.060 |
Year after year, you observe, you know, you get certain kind of personalities gravitate toward this, and certain people are like that, and certain people are like this, and it's so predictable. 01:05:34.060 |
But what is beyond reason is what Christ did. 01:05:39.060 |
Because he didn't just tell us to love, because everybody, by natural law, a mother loves a child. 01:05:53.060 |
Everybody, even people who hate Christ, practices some kind of law, some kind of love. 01:05:59.060 |
But the love that he showed us is while we were yet sinners. 01:06:14.060 |
So when he revealed his glory, it causes people to say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, why did he do that? 01:06:23.060 |
And then he called us to live a life against the natural law. 01:06:29.060 |
When he says to pick up your cross and follow me, a child who was born into this world, from day one, he wants to live. 01:06:50.060 |
And so he's already learned to survive from the get-go. 01:06:56.060 |
But Jesus said if you want to live, you have to die. 01:07:03.060 |
And Jesus, instead of walking to live better, he walked deliberately into Jerusalem to be hung on that cross. 01:07:10.060 |
And he told his followers, "You follow me, too." 01:07:14.060 |
And so what he did was completely against the natural law. 01:07:18.060 |
And then he told his disciples to do the same. 01:07:21.060 |
"You pick up your cross, you deny yourself, and you follow me, and the world is going to look at you and say, 'Why are you doing that? 01:07:38.060 |
If you do this, you're going to make so much more money. 01:07:42.060 |
Why would you pack up your bags and go to places that are uncomfortable? 01:07:47.060 |
And so the world is constantly looking at the Christian community, trying to figure out what the Christians are doing. 01:07:54.060 |
For the majority of the Christians in the church, they can explain it, because it's a security blanket. 01:08:03.060 |
"You're doing that because you have a sense of belonging." 01:08:05.060 |
"You're doing that because that's your purpose." 01:08:07.060 |
"You're doing that because you were raised in a Christian home." 01:08:10.060 |
"You're doing that because of a certain nationality." 01:08:13.060 |
And so they explain it off, and you say, "Oh, that's why." 01:08:16.060 |
They just are looking for the natural law that you are functioning under. 01:08:22.060 |
But what God called us to do is to do something completely unnatural. 01:08:28.060 |
What the world does not understand and will not understand until we meet this Christ who went outside the gate and forsook everything. 01:08:38.060 |
Being God himself, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, became nothing. 01:08:44.060 |
And he tells us to have the same mindset, that our witness is to be supernatural. 01:08:51.060 |
If we love those who are lovable, yeah, of course. 01:08:58.060 |
If you look for safety and comfort, yeah, that's natural. 01:09:16.060 |
You just happen to find it in this particular circle. 01:09:21.060 |
But everything that God calls us to do is unnatural. 01:09:29.060 |
So what Moses did, the only explanation for what Moses did was because he met a supernatural God who was sovereign and he believed him. 01:09:46.060 |
And that's why so many Christians live contrary to what the world understands. 01:09:53.060 |
Because what we value is far greater than whatever this world can offer. 01:10:00.060 |
First John 2, 16-17 says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but from the world. 01:10:09.060 |
The world is passing away, and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever." 01:10:14.060 |
You notice here, whenever we talk about this passage, we have a tendency to focus on the lust. 01:10:20.060 |
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and boastful pride of life. 01:10:23.060 |
Because we can easily say, "I'm not lusting." 01:10:28.060 |
Because with lust, we have an image of somebody who's just out of control. 01:10:34.060 |
It's an out of control passion they can't control. 01:10:41.060 |
But the part that you and I should all pay attention to is the "all." 01:10:51.060 |
We have a tendency to think that there's a part of things that we need to avoid, like pornography. 01:11:00.060 |
And so these are things that we know are no good. 01:11:03.060 |
And then we have the godly stuff. Reading the Bible, making disciples, sharing the gospel. 01:11:09.060 |
But where you and I get into trouble is this whole part in the middle where we think God doesn't really have anything to say. 01:11:18.060 |
Most of us don't get tripped up because of that. 01:11:21.060 |
Even though that is, you know, that trips us up too. 01:11:27.060 |
We get tripped up on all this other stuff in the middle that really have nothing to do with God. 01:11:34.060 |
But we get so entangled pursuing the natural law. 01:11:40.060 |
Take care of our kids. What's wrong with taking care of our kids? 01:11:43.060 |
What's wrong with, you know, like all this stuff? 01:11:48.060 |
And so we pour all our energy toward the neutral stuff that really has nothing to do with God. 01:11:53.060 |
And so by the time we get to this side of pursuing God, what we know to be godly, there's very little energy that we give to this. 01:12:01.060 |
The call to a Christian is to follow the unnatural law of Christ. 01:12:08.060 |
To pick up our cross and follow him as he went to the cross. 01:12:12.060 |
He's not simply telling us to sacrifice and live hard lives and suffer for the name of Jesus. 01:12:18.060 |
He's simply telling us until you let go, until you let go, you will not understand what's coming. 01:12:31.060 |
Moses did what he did because he saw a greater reward in Christ than he did with Pharaoh. 01:12:37.060 |
And why any Christian will follow Christ is for the same reason. 01:12:42.060 |
You can go to church, you can participate, you can do some good stuff. 01:12:48.060 |
But again, if we're not careful, we're just following the natural law. 01:12:54.060 |
Of course, I want my kids to have good morals and have friends and community, you know, and to do things together and have a purpose. 01:13:01.060 |
And all of that stuff is good, but it's natural. 01:13:25.060 |
Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. 01:13:48.060 |
He said the joy that he's referring to is us, our salvation, our praise of his name, our loyalty to him, our love for him. 01:13:56.060 |
That joy, that joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the same, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, and consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 01:14:13.060 |
He endured the reproach of Christ because he saw the reward that's coming was greater. 01:14:19.060 |
And that's the question that you and I wrestle with. 01:14:30.060 |
Do you remember when Peter fell and Jesus was restoring him? 01:14:55.060 |
But I think the meaning behind the these is much more broader than that. 01:15:02.060 |
Because that's what it says in the other parts of the Bible. 01:15:05.060 |
To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 01:15:08.060 |
He says he has this against the church of Ephesus because they have forsaken their first love, their priority love. 01:15:15.060 |
So when he says these, I don't think he was just referring to fish or his disciples, meaning everything else, even your own life. 01:15:28.060 |
Because if we say yes to that, we will live our lives unnaturally. 01:15:40.060 |
We don't make decisions because that will make us richer tomorrow. 01:15:44.060 |
We live lives against the flow that everybody else is going. 01:15:49.060 |
Because we believe the reward is coming in Christ. 01:15:56.060 |
Some people got elevated and then they die elevated. 01:16:02.060 |
But all of them were looking beyond this life for greater reward. 01:16:13.060 |
If you grew up in the church, you know, maybe you grew up in a church that spoke different language. 01:16:20.060 |
Every church you go to in other countries, you'll hear this song and they know this song. 01:16:25.060 |
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, No Turning Back, No Turning Back. 01:16:34.060 |
Years ago, American Baptist missionaries ended up going to a very hostile village in India and started to share the gospel. 01:16:47.060 |
And then because the village that they were at was so hostile to the gospel, the village leader came out and basically threatened the father. 01:17:00.060 |
And he said, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. 01:17:04.060 |
He said, if you don't denounce your faith, we're going to murder your children. 01:17:11.060 |
And so the chief ordered the people to shoot arrows into his two boys. 01:17:17.060 |
And so right in front of his eyes, the two boys died. 01:17:20.060 |
And he says, if you don't denounce your faith now, even your wife we're going to take. 01:17:24.060 |
He says, the cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back. 01:17:30.060 |
Though none will follow, I will continue to go, no turning back, no turning back. 01:17:34.060 |
So he shot his wife and killed her and then also killed the husband. 01:17:44.060 |
But the story goes that in his resolve to remain faithful to his Lord, and again, completely unnatural. 01:17:53.060 |
With his life, his children's life, his wife's life about to be extinguished, he stood firm in his faith. 01:18:01.060 |
And so the village people, including the chief, couldn't understand why this key went up. 01:18:09.060 |
And so he wanted to examine what was it about this Jesus that he was willing to give his life and his family's life. 01:18:19.060 |
And because of his influence, the village became a Christian village. 01:18:24.060 |
That's the story behind this song, "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus." 01:18:34.060 |
My prayer is that you and I would know this Jesus. 01:18:42.060 |
You don't have to tell me, I know you are, because I know I am. 01:18:59.060 |
I don't have the ability, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it this time, I'm really going to do it. 01:19:03.060 |
You know how many times I've done that and failed miserably? 01:19:14.060 |
It wasn't because I wasn't passionate enough. 01:19:28.060 |
And I'm waiting to be delivered when Christ comes. 01:19:33.060 |
All the more why, if we don't abide in Christ, we can't bear fruit. 01:19:38.060 |
If we don't keep our eyes on Jesus, and our faith is not being renewed for the promise that's coming, 01:19:45.060 |
your resolve isn't going to cause you to make it. 01:19:59.060 |
Do you believe in the unnatural work that Jesus did on the cross? 01:20:04.060 |
Now do you choose to follow this Jesus who went outside the gate? 01:20:10.060 |
So again, as we look at Moses' life, and how he followed him, 01:20:15.060 |
and how all the patriarchs and the ladies who loved God more than this world, 01:20:22.060 |
the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, 01:20:25.060 |
let us choose to go outside the gate with him as well. 01:20:28.060 |
Let's sing this song together. If I can ask the team to come up. 01:20:35.060 |
We're going to sing this song, and as we sing this song, again, think of the story behind it, 01:20:43.060 |
and that this would be our prayer as well, that we would have the courage, 01:20:47.060 |
and we would have the faith to say these things. 01:20:51.060 |
Even though our life is not threatened, that even in comfort, that this would be our testimony. 01:20:57.060 |
So why don't we all stand up together, and let's sing this song together. 01:23:47.060 |
Heavenly Father, we pray that you would help us, Lord God, 01:23:53.060 |
to comprehend and understand what it is that Christ has done, 01:23:57.060 |
that we may approach the throne of grace with confidence 01:24:03.060 |
Help us, Lord God, this week to recognize that we are desperate without you, 01:24:11.060 |
that we would strive after you to know you, to love you, Father God. 01:24:16.060 |
And we pray that you would teach us what it means to abide in you, 01:24:19.060 |
that we may pray according to your will and your word. 01:24:23.060 |
We ask, Lord, that you would help us to be watchful so that we can pray. 01:24:27.060 |
Help us, Lord God, to see the world through your lens 01:24:30.060 |
and the promise that you've given us in eternity, 01:24:33.060 |
that your promises, Lord God, that whether we understand or not, 01:24:40.060 |
that we ourselves would pick up the cross as Christ did, 01:24:44.060 |
that we would deny our flesh and all that is in the world, 01:24:47.060 |
that we may have the treasure that can only be found in Christ. 01:24:52.060 |
So we pray, Lord, as you send us, renew us, revive us. 01:24:57.060 |
May your word that has been implanted in us bear fruit wherever we go. 01:25:39.060 |
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives 01:26:22.060 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives 01:26:35.060 |
All right, if I can again ask this side to go out that way and then this side to go out this way. Thank you.