October 4, 2009

Hebrews 11:20-29

1-10 were the Superior Christ
10ff were SO: endure hardship and live this way.

I. Faith in a Future Promise
II. Affliction For a Future Promise

I. Faith in a Future Promise

We saw last time, the faith of Abraham, a true faith shown by true obedience. It is the same today. Real faith , true saving faith will be evidenced by a changed life. If your faith hasn’t changed you, it hasn’t saved you.

In the tough times of life, Abraham pressed on because he knew God would keep his word. Today, many times, people rewrite God and make him into a little god in their own likeness and subject to their own whims. So then e may live any old way we choose.

James says that true faith is evidenced by caring for the orphans and widows and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.

Now note that the faith is passed on from parent to child. You can drag them to church, but if you do not live the love of Christ at home your dragging and words will fall on deaf ears. Do you want your kids to read the Bible for themselves? Do you? Do you want them to develop a life of prayer? Do you have one? That’s at least a good start. I speak form experience here. I wish I could go back and do a LOT of things differently.
So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob showed real faith in God. And in this section the idea is faith in something future.

Oh, lest ye be discouraged, these guys blew it on a regular basis as well. These guys doubted, stumbled and fell, but God remained faithful.

In verse 20 Isaac blesses Jacob and Esau; note it; concerning things to come. Isaac had confidence in God’s future promise . Not only Isaac, but later on Jacob as noted in verse 21. Jacob had confidence even unto death. It never ran out. He believed God would do as he promised and he blessed his grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh “leaning on his staff”. Even though he was in bad health and feeble he still had confidence in God’s future promises and so he blessed his grandsons.

This that this confident faith was not lost on Joseph. Verse 22
In Genesis 50:24 we find what Joseph said , But why?
Look back with me at Genesis 15:13-14 <turn there > Abraham knew about the whole Egypt gig, he knew what would happen and Joseph probably was told as well passed from Great Grandpa to Grandpa to Daddy to Joseph and company. Joseph believed it enough to make plans and insist his bones be carried out many years hence. He had confidence in a future with God.

Do you have confidence that God will do as he says? Then hang on as we jump into the frying pan with Moses and see his
APPLICATIONS FOR A FUTURE PROMISE.

No this is Moses, the receiver of the law, yet even HE had to have faith in God. And note the fulfillment of Joseph’s faith in a sense.

In verse 23 we see the same trend from earlier: Moses parents had faith and they passed it on to Moses.

I know many people are carefree and do not feel they need God in their younger years. But quite often something happens that makes them start looking to see if maybe there isn’t something there. The have a child. Then they seek and often find a relationship with God and dare stand against the worlds trends to follow Jesus. They want to pass it on to their children and be assured that their children know the way to eternity.

Moses parents faith produced actions. They refused to let murder happen to this tiny baby because they knew he was a proper child and they weren’t afraid to stand against the kings edict (Ex. 1:16). And true to form Moses in vv 24-25 chose to follow the faith of his parents rather than the false gods of Egypt. (Mom raised him )

V.25 “he chose to suffer affliction when he had come to years, become great. He chose suffering rather than sinning and ruling in EGYPT.

V 20 says he esteemed the reproach of Christ better than the treasures of Egypt. That doesn’t mean that Moses knew him as Christ, but Moses met him as the Angel of the Lord JHVH in the burning bush. The writer just wants us to identify God as Christ one more time.

Why did Moses give up fame and wealth for suffering and affliction?
Because he had respect for the payback and reward of God, FAITH in a future promise.v.27 He led then out by faith NOT fearing the King(40 years earlier he ran scared into the desert afraid of the king but he hadn‘t met God then). He endured as if seeing it already accomplished, he was so sure of God’s promises and in his ability to keep his word.

Through Faith he kept the Passover. (Explain 10th plague and Passover God slew firstborn of enemies)

Verse 29 Explained by the crossing of the Red Sea.

We have spent a few Sundays trying to reaffirm this point. “The founder of our faith. Says this writer to his Jewish audience. Had faith in a future event. And because of this faith he endured hardships and gave up worldly wealth and pleasures so as to more effectively serve God.

I love the old hymn

My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed;
I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument, I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.

Enough for me that Jesus saves, This ends my fear and doubt;
A sinful soul I come to Him, He'll never cast me out.

My heart is leaning on the Word, The written Word of God,
Salvation by my Savior's name, Salvation through His blood.

My great Physician heals the sick, The lost He came to save;
For me His precious blood He shed, For me His life He gave.

The following story is from missionary Del Tarr who served fourteen years in West Africa .

“I went to the Sahel, that vast stretch of savanna more than four thousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel, all the moisture comes in a four month period: May, June, July, and August. After that, not a drop of rain falls for eight months. The ground cracks from dryness, and so do your hands and feet. The winds of the Sahara pick up the dust and throw it thousands of feet into the air. It then comes slowly drifting across West Africa as a fine grit. It gets inside your mouth. It gets inside your watch and stops it. The year's food, of course, must all be grown in those four months. People grow sorghum or Milo in small fields.

October and November, these are beautiful months. The granaries are full , the harvest has come. People sing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground between two stones to make flour and then a mush with the consistency of yesterday's Cream of Wheat. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll it into little balls between their fingers, drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it into their mouths. The meal lies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep.

December comes, and the granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal. Certainly by January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day.

By February, the evening meal diminishes.

The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb to sickness. You don't stay well on half a meal a day.

April is the month that haunts my memory. In it you hear the babies crying in the twilight. Most of the days are passed with only an evening cup of gruel.

Then, inevitably, it happens. A six-or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with sudden excitement. "Daddy! Daddy! We've got grain!" he shouts. "Son, you know we haven't had grain for weeks." "Yes, we have!" the boy insists. "Out in the hut where we keep the goats -- there's a leather sack hanging up on the wall -- I reached up and put my hand down in there -- Daddy, there's grain in there! Give it to Mommy so she can make flour, and tonight our tummies can sleep!"

The father stands motionless. "Son, we can't do that," he softly explains. "That's next year's seed grain. It's the only thing between us and starvation. We're waiting for the rains, and then we must use it." The rains finally arrive in May, and when they do the young boy watches as his father takes the sack from the wall and does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of feeding his desperately weakened family, he goes to the field and with tears streaming down his face, he takes the precious seed and throws it away. He scatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes , has faith , in the harvest

* Leadership, 1983.

Sometimes faith does what is right and best even thought it seems to be fool hardy in the short run. Faith endures

You think about that AMEN