Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 11:17-40. By faith, we choose to live for God's tomorrow, even when that means suffering today. Lector: Kristin Paine
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 11:17-40. By faith, we choose to live for God's tomorrow, even when that means suffering today.
Lector: Kristin Paine
Perhaps you’ve noticed these recent weeks a theme of suffering and uncertainty
Hebrews focuses on suffering here because pain is one of the great stumbling blocks to our faith.
In two weeks, we will celebrate Mother’s Day and Child Dedication. It’s right to celebrate But there are many in our family who experience infertility, infant or child loss, displacement of a child from our home.
A day of celebration can stir up pain and grief, and we want to make room for that too
If you have experienced this kind of suffering, you are not alone here.
We have promised to be a family that rejoices and weeps together
We have new resources on our app that can be used all throughout the year to help.
They have been gathered from many members through many types of loss and can be used as a tool as you navigate these hardships yourselves or journey with someone else.You can find them under the Member Services tab.
We also want to create physical space to acknowledge our losses and remember those we are missing.
In the lobby you will find a painting by member Matt Requet to help us do that.
All are invited to participate in this memorial project by taking a leaf and bravely adding your child to the painting, so that we can honor those the Lord has removed from our care. This could be your child's or foster child's name, your hope for the future, unmet expectations- whatever means the most to you. We hope you are comforted as you see your brothers and sisters in Christ share their stories as we collectively remember that the Lord holds all things together.
Each of the people in the stories today were tested by suffering.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses’ faith all led them into periods of significant hardship.
The scriptures celebrate their faith, but we must realize their faith was forged in hardship
If you are interested in a life worth living, a life that endures until the end and remains tender hearted, we must learn how to suffer in such a way that our faith is strengthened, not stifled.
Apart from faith, suffering will always be destructive. Through the eyes of faith, however, we can receive suffering as a forge that refines our trust, even if that means by fire.
We’re going to focus specifically on Moses this morning.
His story begins With great pain:
It was by faith that Moses' parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king's command.
-Hebrews 11:23
The preacher commends Moses’ parents' faith under fire.
Pharaoh had ordered the death of all male Hebrew babies.
They acted based on God’s future, not the present pressures of worldly power.
As we said last week, faith is internal confidence expressed through external actions
These parents saw a beautiful future for their special child. They trusted God.
So they defied a king.
They accepted present suffering confident of God’s promised future.
They chose to live for God’s tomorrow even if it meant suffering for today.
And it would seem this is a lesson their son embraced as well.
It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
-Hebrews 11:24
How stunning. Identify with the royal family or the peasant slaves?
Whose name would YOU take?
The name guarantees ease, a position of privilege, incredible power?
Or the name that would mean suffering and marginalization?
Moses chose to live for God's tomorrow even when it meant suffering today.
Remember who the Preacher is saying this to...people who are daily suffering, daily being tested, constantly exposed to the weariness of discouragement and sin.
Can you relate to any of that? this feels so hard...
Have you ever had great suffering, or even just a really bad day, thought about praying and had even the briefest moment where you ask yourself "is this worth it?"
Do we stay in the family of God, or identify with the worldly family around us?
I can't be the only one that wondered if my life would be easier if I wasn't a Christian
That's the temptation of Moses in us. Which family will we choose?
Listen to the choice Moses made:
He chose to share the oppression of God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.
-Hebrews 11:25
He accepted present suffering because he was confident of God’s future.
He chose to live for God’s tomorrow even when it meant suffering for today.
Why did he do this? Stunning words come next:
He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for his great reward.
-Hebrews 11:26
He chose to live for God's tomorrow seven when it meant suffering today.
Inwardly, he was confident of God's promised tomorrow, the riches waiting there
Outwardly, he therefore identified himself with the people of God.
He laid down his royal throne to enter into the suffering of his people.
Does that sound familiar to you at all?
Does this sound at all to you like Jesus, who was born a royal son, yet chose to become a slave, to suffer under death, for the sake of freedom for his beloved?
We have such clearer evidence today than Moses did of what is waiting for us
The same choice Moses faced is facing us daily, if not moment by moment.
It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king's anger.
-Hebrews 11:27
It would be easy to just take this and make a nice church-y sounding point
But there's a lot of controversy to this verse. Let me tell you why. Exodus 2. Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses murders the Egyptian, hides the body, but learns the next day that someone saw him:
Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
-Exodus 2:14-15
We have to see that Moses was a real human
He committed real human sins, horrific sins like murder!
And he felt real human emotions like fear.
When someone wants to kill you, it's appropriate to be scared.
But Moses' fear did not keep him from obeying God's mission for his life
Some years later, Moses would again leave Egypt as a great liberator, unafraid of Pharaoh's anger. By faith, fear did not get the last word in Moses' life.
See, Christian Faith is not a pie-in-the sky blissful ignorance
Faith does not mean we do not pretend there is no pharaoh.
We do not pretend there is no infertility, or there is no spot on the scan
Faith does not say "you don't have scars" or "they didn't actually do that to you."
Faith see all of it. But faith sees something else, too:
Moses kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:27
Isn't that such a delightful picture of faith? Keeping your eyes on someone invisible!
Faith sees all the suffering of the world, it does not hide...but faith sees God in it, too
The preacher has prepared them for this moment. Remember what he said way back in chapter 4:
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for [Jesus] faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
Hebrews 4:14-15
If God has experienced our sufferings and understands it that means he is there in it with us.
We don't just see the pain, we see the invisible one who holds our pain.
If God is present with us at all times and all circumstances, we can choose to live for his tomorrow even when that means suffering today.
And this final glimpse of Moses' life shows us how:
It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.
-hebrews 11:28
In the midst of suffering and fear, Moses commanded the eyes of the people to focus their salvation
Walk under this blood. Trust in God's provision. He will pass-over us
Inward confidence in God's future gave them external strength to endure present suffering
Your suffering is not pointless, and it is not final.
He will pass-over you, he will protect you. But this promise Moses received was incomplete.
Moses observed this passover ritual to ensure God would not touch them
This is a major theme of chapter 12, it will come up again
They needed protection from the divine presence.
God's holiness would have destroyed them...a way would need to be made.
And so a second Moses came. A second liberator.
One who would spend his childhood as a refugee fleeing another another king seeking to kill male Hebrew babies, One who would spend time wandering a wilderness, one who would suffer and be tempted in every way
But he would not offer a lamb to protect God's people from judgment. He was the lamb.
The blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross, not only keeps us safe from the angel of death, it purifies us down to the soul and marrow so that we can be touched by God
Remember the miracles of our Lord?
He can heal with a word to be sure...but so often he chooses instead to heal with a touch
And, ultimately, that's the promise we are holding on to. That's the future we cling to
There is a promise that, one day, God will wipe away all of our tears.
Have you ever tried to imagine that? How does one wipe away the tears of a loved one?
They softly rest their palm against your cheek, you can feel the warmth of their hand, and with their thumb gently wipe the tear away, saying "I love you. all is well, all must be well, and all manner of things will be well."
By faith, we choose to live for God's tomorrow, even when that means suffering today.
Let's pray.