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Introduction: 4 Minute Mile

Well, last week I unintentionally lied to you. It was unintentional, I promise it was. As you were here, I told you we were going to just do two sermons from Hebrews 11. But as I was preparing and studying this week, I just thought to myself, we have got to have a third. There’s too much here. So, next week, Lord willing, we’ll be back in Hebrews 11. Then we’ll move on to Hebrews 12 after that.

Last week, we talked a little bit about Abraham and how he was looking forward to a city to come, a city that has foundations, and how that was profound in his life. This morning I want to look at one other character that is mentioned here in Hebrews. He would be quite sacred to the Jewish people in the first century when this letter was written. We’re going to look quite a bit at Moses. I plan to examine Moses, and then next week, we’ll look at the whole chapter, and we’ll move on.

The Book of Hebrews is, in essence, a transcribed sermon. The writer of Hebrews has preached this sermon. It’s been transcribed, and then it was sent to this church that was under fire. This church was predominantly ethnic Jews living somewhere in the Roman Empire. All of these Jewish people had become Christians.

In this church that he’s writing to, there are three categories of people. Some people have been faithful to the gospel, and they’re joyful; they love Jesus. They’ve been faithful, and they’re excited and they’re sticking with the faith. That seems to be a minority when we’re reading this letter. But that group exists in this church.

There’s also a second group of people who’ve been faithful to the gospel. They’ve not wandered away from the Christian faith, but they’re growing in their apathy. They’re considering whether or not they should stick with Jesus or go back to Judaism. They’re wandering in this moment.

Then there’s this third group of people who were a part of the church that have now abandoned the faith altogether, and they’ve left. The writer of Hebrews is talking mostly to those who are apathetic, which seems to be the bulk of the church. He’s telling them, those that have wandered away from the faith, don’t be like those people. Stick with Jesus.

He’s reminding them, as we’ve already seen in this letter, of some of the moments in their lives where they’ve already been faithful to God. He’s saying, stick with that. Don’t go away from doing what you’ve been doing. Stay faithful. Then he comes to Hebrews chapter 11, where he begins to highlight all of these people in Israel’s history. He is telling them to remember these people who had great faith, do what they did, and live life in light of the faithfulness of God.

He’s highlighting all of these people in Hebrews 11. There are 16 different people either directly mentioned or alluded to in Hebrews 11. In essence, he’s saying, remember these people. Remember the faith they demonstrated. I want you to demonstrate this kind of faith. You’ve already been doing it. Keep on doing it. The writer of Hebrews seems to know that if he lifts up examples of great faith, then the people will know they can do it. Not because of them, but because of the grace of God.

If the grace of God is at work in those people, and they could demonstrate faith, then we know because the grace of God is at work in us, then we too can live out faith. There’s something about the human experience where once we’ve seen someone else do something, we too can do it. We believe.

Let me give you an example. In the sport of track and field, which expanded significantly in the late 1800s, early 1900s, track and field exploded on the scene as a very popular sport amongst Americans. For several decades, people have been running, and they’re getting stronger and faster.

At some point in the 1950s, people thought humans had reached their pinnacle. This is the fastest they’re ever going to be. There was an argument amongst scientists, nutritionists, and biologists in the mid-20th century that it would be impossible for a human to ever run a mile in less than four minutes. It would be physically impossible. They had already reached the fastest humans will ever get, and they were getting close to four minutes, but they would never break the four-minute mark.

Well, there’s a doctor by the name of Roger Bannister. He was convinced that the argument was not true, that humans potentially could break the four-minute barrier. He began to train and train and train. He used all the science that was available, but he still couldn’t break it. People were telling him, It’s not possible.

But eventually, Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier, running a mile in 3 minutes and 59 seconds. It was global news all over the world, newspapers covered it. This feat seemed physically impossible. The very next year, two more people broke the four-minute barrier. The next year, four more people broke the barrier. Within five years, more than 200 people would break the four-minute barrier.

Today, if you run a mile in four minutes, by Olympic standards, that’s pretty slow. Many years ago, when I was In High School, I ran a mile in 4 minutes and 51 seconds. It was the fastest in my high school, the fastest in the city of Philadelphia for that year. Then I went to State, and got blown away by everyone who was there because 4:51 was pretty slow. Two high school students were close to breaking the four-minute mile mark. This is in the year 2000, many decades after Roger Bannister.

The writer of Hebrews seems to understand. If you lift an example of someone who’s done it, we as humans then think, I could do that. Roger Banister is not necessarily doing this with the power and grace of God at work in him. So, how much more as believers can we say, God worked in them, and they were able to do that with God’s help. Then that’s an example for me to emulate.

It’s an example for me to look to and seek to follow after. The writer of Hebrews is saying, You remember these people in Hebrews 11, those who believed in God, you too believe in God. So you too can demonstrate faith the way they demonstrated faith. As he goes through this chapter, he’s highlighting all of these different people in the Old Testament, and he spends significant time on two characters, two whom he gives the most attention to.

Abraham and Moses, which is not by accident, because these are the two characters that would have been most respected by Jewish people in the first century. So he’s writing to a predominantly ethnic Jewish audience, and they would have respected and revered Abraham and Moses. So he has spent a significant time talking about Abraham and Moses. He says, Remember the faith that Moses demonstrated.

At the end of chapter 10, and into chapter 11, he begins to allude to the fact that the faith that you have shown is like the faith that Moses showed. Now, this would have been a huge deal to a Jewish person in the first century. You’re saying, I’ve done something similar to what Moses did. That’s remarkable. This would have been an unbelievable compliment to them. But remember, it’s not you. It’s Christ in you and through you. It is not faith in yourself that causes you to accomplish these things. It’s faith in Christ and his power through you.

He’s saying, that’s how Moses did what he did, and that’s how you can stay and live the Christian life well. What Moses did is what we ought to do. So this morning, I want to take time to examine what the three main things the writer of Hebrews highlights about Moses. Number one is that he made a bold and deliberate decision. Number two, we see that Moses embraced the cost of that decision. Then, third, we’ll see that Moses valued Christ above all. We’re going to look at these three things in Hebrews chapter 11. But first, let’s ask God for his help one more time.

God, we thank you for the examples that are laid out for us in Hebrews 11. I pray that we would be both challenged and convicted this morning, inspired and exhorted this morning. Lord, as we look at these verses, help us to understand them, and Spirit, help us to understand how to apply the truth we see here to our own lives. I pray for your glory, I ask these things. Amen.

 

Moses Made a Bold, Deliberate Decision

Number one, Moses made a bold, deliberate decision. If you have your Bibles, look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 24. It says this:

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

Now, many of you may be familiar with the story of Moses. If you’re not, here is a brief, quick recap. Moses is an Israelite. The Israelites have been enslaved in Egypt for several centuries. Moses is born into slavery. When he is young, there is an oracle that comes to Pharaoh that says there’s going to be a savior who rises up to rescue God’s people from Egyptian slavery. Pharaoh hears and says, You’re telling me that there’s an oracle that there’s going to be a savior born that takes my slaves away. So he is going to deal with this.

Pharaoh says this baby has been born, and we don’t know who he is. So Pharaoh says all of the baby boys under age 2 are to be slaughtered. Across Egypt, Israelite boys are being killed. We don’t know how many, but probably into the thousands. Every baby boy under age 2 was killed by Pharaoh. Moses is one of these baby boys. He’s a young baby.

At this time, his mother, seeking to protect him, takes baby Moses and then through this crafty plan, ends up introducing the baby to Pharaoh’s daughter. Through what seems to be this crazy, unplanned process that unfolds. Pharaoh’s daughter gets hold of Moses and determines she’s gonna raise Moses as her own. She takes Moses into Pharaoh’s court, into Pharaoh’s home. Moses is then raised amongst the wealthiest, most well-educated, and most powerful people in the world.

When he gets to the age of 40, he comes out and declares that he doesn’t identify with Pharaoh’s family, but he knows that he is a Hebrew, he’s an Israelite. There’s this moment where he’s walking and he sees an Egyptian man mistreating one of his fellow Israelites, one of the slaves. Moses intervenes, physically attacks the Egyptian man, and eventually kills the Egyptian man.

Through an interesting set of circumstances, Moses discovers that Pharaoh will likely be out to get him, probably prosecute him for this killing. So Moses flees at age 40. He will spend the next 40 years of his life as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian. We know these as his pre-Exodus Days. Moses didn’t; Moses just figured he would live in the desert, die, and be forgotten. He never thought he’d ever go back to Egypt. But at age 80, God appears to him through a burning bush.

At age 80, Moses returns under God’s commands and guidance. He returns to Egypt, performs various miracles, and eventually, God uses him to rescue the Israelites out of Egypt. They go into the wilderness, and they wander there for the next 40 years. Moses dies at 120. Then his protege Joshua is the one that God raises up. Joshua eventually leads the Israelites into the promised land.

There’s a moment at age 40 where Moses is at a fork in the road where he sees this Egyptian mistreating this Hebrew man, his kinsman, one of his countrymen. That’s the moment where Moses makes this deliberate, bold decision: I’m not gonna identify with those people, I’m going to identify with God’s people.

The writer of Hebrews is highlighting this saying, Remember when Moses did this? That’s a good thing to do. We should do this. There will come a moment in your life when you have an opportunity to take a bold and deliberate stand to identify with God’s people. The writer of Hebrews is saying, when that time comes, do it.
Do what Moses did.

For some of you, that may mean that it’s time for you to really put your faith in Jesus Christ for the first time. It’s time to truly believe. It’s time to go, you know what? The Lord’s working in my heart, and the time has come for me to say, yes, I’m with him. I’m with the people of God. The apostle Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 2:

“Behold, today is the day of salvation.”

Paul says, Today is the day. Come on, you’ve heard of Jesus. It’s time for you to take the bold and deliberate step to say, I will give my life to Christ. There’s a poker term called ‘all in’. If you’ve never heard that term, if you’re playing poker with people and you’re gambling, you’re putting money out. You’ve got your chips, and you come to the point where you say, I have no other options. You take everything you have and you put it to the center and you say, I’m all in.

It means, everything that I have, I’m going to sacrifice it and leverage it for this moment. If I lose in this moment, I’m done. I got nothing else. I’m out of the game and I’ve lost everything. That all in idea is what Moses is doing here. He’s saying, listen, the writer of Hebrews is saying Moses went all in. All in means if you fail, there’s no second chance. This is it. The writer of Hebrews is saying, Go all in on Jesus.

With my life, I’ve gone all in on Christ. Everything has been given to Christ. If Christ is not real, I’ve got nothing. But he’s real. I’m quite confident in that. For others of you, you may already be a Christian, you may be following Jesus, but maybe you haven’t taken a deliberate, bold decision to identify with God’s people in any public forum. I’ve seen this a lot in my almost 20 years of pastoral ministry. This is a very common sentiment I’ve seen in Americans.

It is very common for Americans to say things like, I don’t want to offend my co-workers. I don’t want to frustrate anyone. So I’m not going to boldly say stuff at work. I’m just gonna be kind and I’m gonna love people well, and they will eventually figure out that I’m a Christian. Eventually, at some point in the future, there will be an opportunity for me to share the gospel with them.

Eventually, there’s gonna be this moment where they’re sad and the lights from heaven come down and they’re gonna come to me and say, You have been so kind to me for 27 years. What is different about you? What do I not have? What is in you that is so different? You’re gonna say, it is Jesus, the Christ of Nazareth. They’re gonna go, oh, I believe.

Friends, that moment will never come. Let me say this very clearly. In no uncertain terms. That moment will never come. You will die having missed the opportunity to share the gospel, and your friends and coworkers will die and burn in hell. That is not loving. I exhort you. Take the deliberate decision to identify with God’s people. I exhort you. I challenge you. I know it’s hard. It is really hard. I say it like it’s easy. I know.

I’ve got a friend of mine I’ve been friends with for 27 years, and I recently had a conversation with him about stuff that he looked at online. I said, That’s gross. That’s disgusting. He’s told me he thought I was a conservative, libertarian guy. I said, I think that stuff should be outlawed. He was shocked. He’s said, What, you think these videos and images I watch should be against the law? I said yeah, if it were up to me, you’d be in jail. He thought I was kidding.

He didn’t know that about me. It dawned on me I had not been deliberate enough with him. He thought I would be okay with that. It was shocking to him that after 27 years of friendship, I thought those kinds of images and videos should be against the law. If I were the governor of the world, I would make it illegal tomorrow. I thought to myself, after we got off a call, Lord, I’m so sorry. Forgive me that, for some reason, in 27 years of friendship, I have not been deliberate enough to speak in such a way that he would know that’s my stance. Lord, forgive me. So I want to make it clear to you, I’ve been guilty of it.

I was waiting in the moment for him to ask me, well, why would you stake this thing? Why would you believe? But we hung up the phone. You know, he never asked me why. Why would you be against this? The next time I talked to him, a week later, I said, Remember that conversation we had? You never asked me why. Can I tell you why I want to be intentional? I want you to know why I think this should be illegal. He finally asked me why.

After Moses dies and Joshua’s about to lead God’s people into the promised land, Joshua is talking to the people, and he’s saying, Remember when Moses was leading us? You kept going back to the old gods. You kept wanting to flirt with the fake gods of Egypt or the gods of Canaan. He says, we’re about to go into the promised land. Joshua says, I want you to make a deliberate choice, Israel. When we go into this promised land, we boldly commit to the one true God. He says this very famous verse, Joshua 24, verse 15, Joshua says to the people of Israel:

“Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites here in Canaan. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Listen, we’re about to go into the promised land, and you have options. You can flirt with the gods of Israel, you can flirt with the gods of Canaan. But here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make a bold, deliberate decision. Me and my house, we’re gonna serve the Lord. We’re going all in on the one true God. Would you go all in with me? The writer of Hebrews is saying, That’s a model for us Christians to emulate. Moses made this bold, deliberate decision.

 

Moses Embraced the Cost

The second thing we see in Moses is that he embraced the cost of going all in. There was a significant cost that Moses would have to pay. There was going to be some suffering, some pain that came along with this right. He embraced it. In Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 25, the writer of Hebrews says:

“Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God.”

Rather than staying in Pharaoh’s palace with the richest, most powerful, opulent, influential people, He says, no. I’m going to identify with God’s people who are being ostracized and persecuted, and abused. I’m going to defend the one who is being persecuted. I’m going to kill the persecutor. It cost him 40 years in the desert. It’s a high price to pay for taking a stance.

Different theologians and Bible scholars, and pastors throughout the centuries have debated whether or not it was right or wrong for Moses to kill the Egyptian. Some faithful believers would disagree with me on this. But I think there’s one passage in the New Testament that gives us some insight that it was the righteous thing to do. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen is giving his famous sermon right before he is killed. He’s recounting things that happened in the Old Testament. In Acts chapter 7, verse 24, Stephen, talking about Moses seeing one of the Israelites being wronged and mistreated, says:

“And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him.”

That’s the language of the New Testament. It says that Moses saw what was going on. He defended and avenged. The language and the sentiment from Acts chapter 7 seem to display that Stephen, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, believed that what Moses did was righteous. If we look through history, you can read through some Egyptian records, it does seem like there were some limits for how Egyptians could treat their slaves.

So it does seem like this Egyptian man was breaking Egyptian law by harming this Israelite. When Moses, who grew up in Pharaoh’s court and knows the law, shows up and sees it, he kills this Egyptian man. That’s the righteous God honoring thing to do in the moment, is what Stephen seems to be outlining for us. Sometimes this is preached when Moses killed someone, it was wrong. It was murder. So then Moses fled because he wanted to escape being arrested for his crime. That’s not the sentiment we get from Acts 7 and Hebrews 11.

It seems to be saying, what he did was righteous, and he knew that he would suffer some consequences for that. So he decided to flee from the King’s anger. Hebrews 11 tells us that, in this moment, Moses is associating himself with the people of God. He’s saying, these are God’s people. I’m with them. It cost him.

It’s a good question for us. Has our association with the people of God cost us? Being an American Christian is way easier than being a Christian in most parts of the world. But it doesn’t mean that there’s no cost. In fact, in Hebrews 12, the writer of Hebrews will tell this church, You’ve suffered some things, but you haven’t bled yet. I think it’s similar. Christians in the room, some of you have suffered things for being Christians, but you haven’t bled yet. So there’s still more to give. There’s still more to sacrifice. Have you leaned into that?

The writer of Hebrews is saying, Have you intentionally, deliberately done things that you know will cost you something? If you haven’t, you’re probably not doing it right. There’s gonna come a moment where you have the opportunity to speak up, and it’s gonna cost you something. The writer of Hebrews would say to you, Do what Moses did. Speak up, do It.

I’ve seen this so many times. So if you feel this is you, you are not alone. I’ve seen so many people who profess to be Christians, who live the Christian life, and yet they never speak up at work about anything because they’re so afraid it’s going to cost them something. I’m not saying you have to be the loud, obnoxious, hostile fundamentalist. But most of us probably need to speak up more. I don’t want to offend anyone. Maybe it’s time to offend some people.

We don’t want to offend just for the sake of it. That’s not the goal. My goal is not to offend if I can. But I must be willing to say that which is true, even if it may offend. There’s this saying that’s often attributed to St. Francis. The saying is, ‘preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.’ That’s a very common sentiment, and I think a lot of people like it and get behind that statement.

We should be demonstrating the gospel the way we live. I get it, and I agree with that. But here’s the thing. Words are necessary a lot. Like saying, preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words is kind of like saying, stay alive, and when necessary, breathe oxygen. That needs to be done a lot. There are moments where you have an opportunity to make a deliberate, bold decision, and it will cost you something. Make the choice anyway.

We Will Get Pushback When We Take the Stand

I’ve gotten pushback from people on my commentary online about pro-life issues. You guys know I’m an abolitionist. That’s why we give money and we fundraise for Choices Women’s Clinic. I’ve had a few people say to me, as a church plant, you want to be careful what you say online. You don’t want to seem like one of those far-right-wing extremists. You want to be careful that you don’t seem too conservative.

I’m not throwing myself in with MAGA. I’m throwing myself in with Jesus. He is the one who says the unborn are our life made in God’s image from conception. This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue. If it costs me something, then so be it.

Being Prophetic Against the Culture

John the Baptist, whom Jesus praised as the greatest prophet ever, of all the people born of women, there’s none better than John the Baptist, Jesus said. John the Baptist was not arrested and beheaded because he preached the gospel. He dared to tell someone whom they could and could not marry. He says that particular marriage, you can’t do that. If he had just talked about the love of Jesus, he would have never been beheaded.

There’s a very prominent thing in American culture where we just tell people, Jesus loves, Jesus loves, Jesus loves. Jesus is the nice guy, the doormat, you can do whatever you want. If you’re that kind of Christian, nobody is beheading you. You’ll live a perfectly fine, happy life. Jesus says, the ones that I endorse, the ones that I commend, the ones that I praise publicly, are the ones that will say to them, No, you cannot marry that person. That marriage doesn’t count. It’s not real.

But they might behead you when you say it. You may speak up at work when they say you have to use a certain pronoun, you say I’m not going to do that. I don’t think that represents reality. I want to be very kind and loving, but I don’t want to do that. They may say, You’re going to lose your job, and you say, That is terrible. I don’t want to lose this job. But unfortunately, if that’s the cost, are you willing to take that stand? I know it’s easy for me to say it, and it’s really hard to live it. I have had lots of moments of failure. So in large part, I’m preaching to myself.

But we are called to be prophetic to our culture, to tell them what is right and wrong. We do it with kindness, we do it with gentleness, we do it with tenderness. But we must do it decisively, deliberately, with clarity, with boldness. When it comes to issues of the sanctity of life or sexuality or marriage or Marxist ideology, that’s not political, that’s moral. But take a deliberate stand, and if it costs you something, so be it. In Romans, chapter 14, the apostle Paul says this:

“If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord.”

Life in Our New Negative World

I sent out an email yesterday with a link to an interview that Al Mohler did with Aaron Renn. Al Mohler is the president of Southern Seminary in Kentucky. Aaron Renn is a political and cultural commentary guy. He’s a Presbyterian pastor. He came up with this taxonomy that he calls the “negative world” taxonomy. He’s written a book that’s really good about how to live faithfully in a negative world. He says there are these moments in American history where things change dramatically. So you have the pre-colonial era, then the Revolutionary War happens, and things change dramatically.

Then you have the Civil War, and things change dramatically. You have World War I, things change dramatically. And WWII happens, and things change, and then after WWII there’s this thing called the post-War consensus. After World War II, a bunch of Americans organically begin to think about how we ought to live. They recaptured some things from the 1800s, family values and some traditions, and there’s more overt emphasis on religion in some ways.

It was in the 1950s that we added ‘Under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance, and we added ‘In God We Trust’ to the money. So from the 1950s up until the 1980s or so, that’s what we call the positive world, meaning if you were a Christian, that was beneficial to you, if you applied for a job and you were not a Christian, that would be held against you. Being a Christian was good, and to be a part of the Rotary Club.

Every president claimed to be a Christian. Their lifestyles may not have shown it, but they all claimed to be Christian because that was helpful in American society. Up until about the early 1990s. Then, around the early 1990s, up until the early 2010s, Aaron Ren refers to in his book as the neutral world, where being a Christian is not helpful to you in any way, but it’s not harmful to you in any way either. So it’s a neutral world.

But then he says it changes. Right around the 2010s, things began to shift. By the time we get to 2014, 2015, if you’re a Christian, it’s held against you. The demarcation moment that he highlights in his book is the Obergefell decision. It’s the Supreme Court decision that legalized so called same sex marriage across the nation. He says that was a moment that clearly shows that we are now in a different world than what we were before. Because how people would have responded to that just 10 years earlier, 20 years earlier would have been very different.

So the world is different. He’s not saying that is good or bad, he’s just saying this is the world we live in. He’s saying a lot of the Christian books that have been written in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s about how to church plant properly, how to preach, how to do stateside missions, all of these books assume a positive or neutral world. He says those ideas don’t work in a negative world.

We need a new way of thinking about ministry and how we do some things. It’s a really helpful book, really insightful. There’s an interview that Mohler did with Aaron Wren. He talked about this. I think this is helpful to understand the world in which we live, what we don’t want to be. What I don’t want to be is someone who’s known as hating culture. There are a lot of pastors who think Disney is of the devil. Everyone’s bad.

I don’t look at culture as if all of culture is bad. I think culture is an opportunity for redemption. I can engage with elements of our culture, and I can redeem them for the glory of God. But how I do that in a positive world is different than how I do that in a negative world. In a negative world, being a Christian and taking a stance is not going to get you any social benefits. You’re not going to be invited to any clubs.

Recently, I had someone who was in my youth ministry when I was a youth pastor. They now live in Jacksonville, and they’re going through the process of adoption. An adoption agency told them, You’re going to have to tone down a lot of the Christian stuff you’re posting on Facebook. You might want to tone that down a little bit because some agencies don’t want to place people with overtly Christian families.

If you’re the kind of Christian who is a good Christian on Sunday morning, that’s fine. But if you’re the kind of person who’s going to bring that into your work, they may not want to place a kid with you. An adoption agency rep told him that two weeks ago, in a supposedly red state, Florida. We tend to want to think we should be careful, but being a Christian in the world in which we live today is not gonna get you any benefit. It’s gonna be held against you in some ways.

Now, what we don’t do is run for the hills and become Amish and run away from culture. That’s not what we’re gonna do. I’m going to engage in culture. In the book of Jeremiah, when the Jews are going into Babylon, they’re going to be there for 70 years. God tells them, You’re going to live in a hostile culture. You know what I want you to do? Put down roots. Buy a house, plant a tree. Get married. Give your kids away in marriage. It’s okay. You live in Babylon. Don’t freak out and run away. Don’t cuss everyone out in the name of Jesus. Just relax. But you live in Babylon for a while, you’re not in Israel anymore. Things are going to be different.

In 1965, if you got up and said, This person cannot marry this person, everyone would agree with you. Today, when you say that you’re a bigot. The writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 11, he’s saying, You’ve already experienced some of this stuff. In chapter 10, he told them that there was a moment when the Christians in this church, some of them, were arrested. The Christians were afraid to identify themselves as Christians. So they go to jail to visit some of their Christian friends.

While they’re gone, all their neighbors realize that they’re Christians. So they plunder their house. We see this in chapter 10. The writer of Hebrew says, You’ve been plundered, publicly exposed, and mistreated. You’ve already experienced some of these things, Church, just know you’re going to experience more of it. When that comes, you know what you ought to do. Do what Moses did. Embrace the cost of your deliberate decision. It’s going to cost us something.

 

Moses Had a Proper Evaluation of Jesus

Number three, why did Moses make this good decision? Because he had a proper evaluation of Jesus Christ. Jesus is greater than all. In Hebrews 11:26, he says this, speaking of Moses:

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

The reproach of Christ was the humiliation he would experience for believing in the Messiah.
He says, If you throw yourself in with Jesus, if you identify with God’s people, it’s going to cost you something. One of the things that may cost you is reproach. You’re gonna be humiliated, mocked. People are going to look down upon you. People are gonna think you’re stupid. That is more valuable than all the treasures this world can offer you. Being humiliated for Jesus is more valuable than anything the world has to offer. Moses believed that, and he lived in light of that.

When people ask me, You believe the Bible is completely true? Yes, I do. You don’t believe that every creature on planet Earth today all came from a single-celled organism? No, I don’t believe that. In fact, science doesn’t corroborate that. You shouldn’t believe it either. Something I struggle with is, I want to be respected. A lot of us probably do. Here’s my wickedness that I have to repent of pretty much daily: I want to be seen as smart. So I’ve read a lot of books, I’ve done a lot of studies, and I almost did a PhD. I’ve got multiple degrees. I’ve worked hard because I want people to look at me and say, He’s intellectual.

If I’m honest, I esteem that. It hurts my feelings when I’m told that I’m not smart. I told someone who I think is smart that I don’t think the evidence is that all creatures living on the planet today came from a single-celled organism. The narrative is that there’s a single-cell microscopic organism that, over the last 4 billion years, through multi-generational evolution and adaptations, is what forms every living thing on Earth today. I do not believe that.

I told my friend, I’ve examined the data on that multiple times. No, I don’t think that. I don’t think the evidence corroborates that. I don’t believe that. I think the Bible gives us a better narrative to believe in verses what other people are trying to tell us to believe. My friend did not think I was smart because I don’t believe in Darwinian Evolutionary theories. It hurt my feelings to hear him say that.

At the moment, what I wanted to do was to try to backpedal a bit. I try to give the intellectual, smart answer. I thought I found myself doing that pretty regularly in my life. In this one moment, I felt myself doing it. I remember thinking, Lord, just give me faith to trust what you say. I said, I’m bummed that you think I’m not smart because of that. He’s told me he was going to have to rethink what he thinks of me. It hurt my feelings. I said, Lord, help me. Help me to trust you. Give me the faith.

My flesh will fail. But, Lord, your spirit is strong in me. Lord, give me the boldness to stand for what I believe in. Help me, God. I’m gonna be humiliated, Lord. But you were humiliated. I’m in good company. I want to follow in your footsteps, Jesus. I want to throw myself in with God’s people. I want to show solidarity with them. I’m in with them. I’m making a deliberate, bold decision. I’m one of those people who believe in the Bible, and it may cost me something. That’s okay because I value being humiliated for Christ more than I value the respect of the intellectual community. God, would you help me to live that out well?

 

Closing: God Give Us Faith

The last point of application for us, in light of these three observations from Moses. We are naturally weak, and so we need God to help us. That’s why we sang Give Me Faith. That song is like singing a prayer to God, because to live this out, it takes faith. I need to believe that God is going to come through. Right now in the Ortiz home, we’re doing a little bit of retirement planning, and I’ve been doing some research on annuities. So an annuity, you pay a certain amount of money and you get a certain money back.

You only put money in if you’re confident that you’re going to get something back in return in the long term. It takes a certain amount of faith and confidence in the annuity provider to put money in. It’s costing me something now, but I’m confident I’m going to get something back that’s greater in the long term.

Similarly, it takes confidence in Christ. I’m willing to pay the cost now in the negative world because I know there’s a grander reward coming for me in the long term. There’s a spiritual annuity coming to me in the long term, in the next life, in the city to come, that I will stand before him and hear, Well done. That inspires me in this life. But I have to be honest, I don’t always have that faith. Sometimes my faith is lacking. Sometimes my faith is weak.

I need to beg God, Lord, would you give me the faith? It may cost us credibility or donors or respect. Lord, would you give me the faith? Give me faith to trust what you say, that you are good, that your love is great. I may be weak, but your spirit is strong in me. Give me the faith to believe that you are good, that you are in me. That you will be strong in me. That you will be faithful to me. That there is a reward coming. That the humiliation of Christ truly is more valuable than the treasures of this world.

Help me to believe that, God. Some days I don’t believe it. Would you help me? Help me to believe. You’re not going to leave me out to dry. You’re not going to leave me hanging, Lord. That’s why we sing. Oh, God, please give me faith. Give me the faith to be like Moses, to value the reproach of Christ more than the treasures of this world. Church, I implore you, I exhort you. Make the deliberate, bold decision. It may cost you something, but do it anyway. You do it because we value Christ above all. The moments when you struggle to believe it. Ask him to give you faith, and he will do it. Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for your kindness to us. Would you give us the faith that we need? Give us faith, Lord, that we need to be the people you want us to be. Lord, I feel like I struggle with this so often. It’s easy to say it, so hard to live it. God, would you forgive me? I confess that I often don’t live this as well as I ought to. But I know that you are strong in me.

My flesh is weak, but you are strong. Lord, I pray that you would give us the faith to live this out. May we emulate what we see in Hebrews 11. May we follow in the footsteps of Moses. May we value Christ above all, and may that shape how we live in this life until we see you face to face.

May that be true of us. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.