WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:09.080 By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:14.179 saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 00:00:15.019 --> 00:00:20.160 By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:26.240 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:32.060 of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, 00:00:32.379 --> 00:00:40.019 for he was looking to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, 00:00:40.019 --> 00:00:47.239 for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the 00:00:47.239 --> 00:00:53.480 blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith, the people crossed the 00:00:53.479 --> 00:01:00.359 Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, 00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:06.679 the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab, 00:01:06.679 --> 00:01:13.099 the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:22.579 welcome to the spies. In the fall of 1959, an obscure white journalist, an army veteran from 00:01:22.579 --> 00:01:28.000 Dallas, Texas, went to a dermatologist in New Orleans with a request that no one had ever made 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:35.700 before. He wanted to change his skin color from white to black. He was deeply troubled by the racial 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:41.620 tensions in the American South. He wanted to gain a better understanding of what it was like to be 00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:49.739 an African American. A magazine agreed to fund his treatment in return for an article. He went through a 00:01:49.739 --> 00:01:54.519 series of medical treatments to darken his skin. He shaved his head so that his straight hair would 00:01:54.519 --> 00:02:00.079 not be evident, and for six weeks he traveled by bus and by hitchhiking from New Orleans through 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:06.579 Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Everywhere he went, he experienced difficulties and insults. 00:02:07.299 --> 00:02:12.199 He wrote, an important part of my daily life was spent searching for the basic things that I used to 00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:18.819 take for granted. A place to eat, somewhere to find a drink of water, a restroom, somewhere to wash my 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:25.199 hands. Clerks refused to cash his checks. When he applied for jobs, he was routinely denied. After 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:31.159 only a few weeks, he felt defeated and depressed. And so he stopped taking his skin medications, and for a 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:37.379 little while he alternated back and forth. He would go to the same places, first appearing to be a black 00:02:37.379 --> 00:02:44.879 man and later as a white man, noticing how differently he was treated in each case. Eventually, he concluded his 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:51.039 experiment after six weeks. Well, the next spring, the magazine published his story, and two years later, he 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:57.439 published the book, Black Like Me, which immediately became a bestseller. He was featured in Time Magazine, 00:02:57.659 --> 00:03:03.599 on national TV, and the book was made into a movie. It raised awareness, particularly among white Americans, 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:11.079 of the reality of racial discrimination and of the growing civil rights movement. John Howard Griffin's 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:18.740 six-week experiment had, and continues to have, a wide-ranging impact. But it also had a significant 00:03:18.740 --> 00:03:27.000 personal cost. In his hometown, he was vilified and threatened. An effigy and a representation of himself 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:33.740 painted half black and half white was burned on the main street of his hometown. Out of concern for his 00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:40.860 family's safety, he moved his family to Mexico and only later returned to Texas. John Howard Griffin's 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:47.940 experiment was original, surprising, and controversial. But in some respects, his story reflected an ancient 00:03:47.940 --> 00:03:54.000 biblical pattern, which we see in our passage in Hebrews this morning. This morning, we're considering 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:00.760 the faith of Moses, who identified with God's people when they were oppressed, at a great personal 00:04:00.760 --> 00:04:08.080 cost. Hebrews 11, which we're looking at this month, gives a number of snapshots or examples of faith 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:15.480 in action. This morning's passage is a complete section. It includes seven snapshots, four from the 00:04:15.480 --> 00:04:21.699 life of Moses and three from those who followed him. And they all begin with the phrase, by faith. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:27.879 The last two weeks, verses 8 through 22, that section also includes seven examples, four from the life of 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:34.400 Abraham and three from those who followed him. And this morning's passage shows us that faith means 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:42.199 intentionally identifying with the people of God, whatever the cost. And this intentional identification 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:50.379 with God's people has not only a cost, but also a great reward. So first, we'll look at the cost in 00:04:50.379 --> 00:04:57.560 verses 23 through 27, and then we'll look at the reward in verses 28 through 31. So first, the cost of 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:06.040 identifying with God's people. In these verses, we see three key episodes in the life of Moses. First, 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:13.360 when he was a baby, in verse 23. Second, when he grew up, in verse 24 through 26. And finally, when he led 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:21.240 the people of Israel out of Egypt, in verse 27. And in each case, there is a contrast between a costly 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:30.079 identification with God's people and an easy accommodation to an unfaithful world. And the 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:37.060 writer of Hebrews connects the challenges that Moses faced with the challenges that the people he was 00:05:37.060 --> 00:05:44.220 writing to were facing, and the challenges that we might face today. So let's go through these episodes 00:05:44.220 --> 00:05:49.759 one by one. First, verse 23. When Moses was born, he was hidden for three months by his parents. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:57.800 Moses' parents faced a choice. The Pharaoh at that time had made a law that every Hebrew baby boy was 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:04.379 to be thrown into the Nile River. And so if they were caught raising a Hebrew baby boy, their own lives 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:11.800 could be in danger. And if somehow Moses grew up to be a Hebrew man, he was seemingly destined to a life 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:19.740 of cruel slavery under harsh masters. Humanly speaking, the prospects for baby Moses were not very 00:06:19.740 --> 00:06:27.340 good. But verse 23 says, Moses' parents saw beyond their immediate circumstances. It says, 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:33.560 they saw that the child was beautiful. Now, this doesn't mean that they decided to keep him because 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:40.840 he was particularly cute or well-behaved. No, they recognized Moses was beautiful because he was 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:48.679 created in the image of God. Stephen says in Acts 20, sorry, Acts chapter 7 verse 20, he said, Moses was 00:06:48.679 --> 00:06:57.659 beautiful in God's sight. In other words, Moses' parents saw their child as God saw him and not as 00:06:57.659 --> 00:07:05.620 their society defined him. And so they refused to walk the path of easy accommodation to the king's evil 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:14.399 decree. They refused to be intimidated by Pharaoh. They walked the path of costly identification 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:21.139 with the suffering people of God. They received their child as a gift from the Lord, worthy of being 00:07:21.139 --> 00:07:28.259 cherished. Now, what might this look like today? What might be a contemporary example? Well, it might mean 00:07:28.259 --> 00:07:35.599 if you are pregnant, trusting God and persevering despite a prenatal diagnosis of an abnormality. 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:41.240 Or maybe choosing to opt out of genetic testing in the first trimester screen altogether, 00:07:42.099 --> 00:07:48.339 even if it has become standard medical practice. Because why bother doing a test that won't change 00:07:48.339 --> 00:07:55.879 how you proceed? Or it could mean seeing the image of God in a child who is not highly valued in the eyes 00:07:55.879 --> 00:08:03.259 of this world. A child with perhaps a physical disability or behavior problems or a child with 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:11.319 a low IQ, making costly sacrifices to care for that child, whether it's your own child or whether 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:18.360 it's another child that you mentor or invite into your home. If you're a parent, it does mean loving 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:25.860 your child because they're created in God's image, not because they are especially cute and well-behaved. 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:32.059 If you love your child because they are especially cute and well-behaved, you will not love them for 00:08:32.059 --> 00:08:40.700 very long or very consistently. And you might be inclined to deny and justify and ignore your child's 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:47.120 selfishness. You will promote an anxious, insecure child who is always trying to hide their flaws and 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:55.299 earn your favor. But God calls us as Christian parents to love our children with steadfast and costly 00:08:55.299 --> 00:09:01.799 love that is not a response to our children's behavior, but a reflection of the unchanging 00:09:01.799 --> 00:09:09.219 character of God. So that means we can acknowledge our children's weaknesses and sins without feeling 00:09:09.219 --> 00:09:16.319 personally threatened by them. That means we will seek to lovingly correct and appropriately discipline 00:09:16.319 --> 00:09:23.079 them, even when it's inconvenient or awkward. That means we won't stop praying for our children, 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:31.420 even if they have walked away from God in their later years or rejected us. Faith means seeing 00:09:31.420 --> 00:09:39.960 our children as God sees them and loving them with steadfast and costly love, as Moses' parents did. 00:09:40.940 --> 00:09:46.660 So when Moses was a baby, his parents made this costly choice to identify with God's people, 00:09:46.780 --> 00:09:51.620 but despite intimidation from the surrounding world. But when Moses grew up, he faced a different 00:09:51.620 --> 00:10:00.080 challenge, not simply intimidation from the surrounding world, but alluring attractions of life in the 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:06.679 Pharaoh's palace. Moses was born to Hebrew parents, but when his parents could no longer take care of him, 00:10:06.740 --> 00:10:13.940 he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. He was raised in the king of Egypt's household. He went from the 00:10:13.940 --> 00:10:21.500 lowest position in society, destined to become a despised slave laborer, to the highest one. 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:29.899 The prince of Egypt. It's sort of like growing up in a housing project in Newhallville or the hill and 00:10:29.899 --> 00:10:36.419 then being accepted to Yale University. You're still in the same city, but they're two almost completely 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:43.679 different worlds. And when Moses grew up, he faced a choice. Which world would he identify with? 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:49.680 Would he identify with the suffering people of God or would he identify with the successful leadership 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:57.579 of Egypt? Now it would have been much easier for Moses to leave behind the suffering people of God and 00:10:57.579 --> 00:11:05.819 simply to embrace his identity as an Egyptian prince. Hey, I made it out. I got lucky. I'll take it. 00:11:07.099 --> 00:11:13.299 As a prince, he was honored. He was powerful. He was in line to receive a royal inheritance. He had his life 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:22.099 made. But it says Moses, when he grew up, made a costly choice to identify with the suffering people 00:11:22.099 --> 00:11:30.240 of God. Back in Exodus chapter 2 verse 11, it says when Moses had grown up, one day he went out. 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:38.579 He left the palace and he went out to where his own people were and he watched them at their hard labor. 00:11:38.580 --> 00:11:46.460 And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own brothers. And this is a very significant moment 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:53.980 in Moses' life story where he chose to leave the comfort and security of the Pharaoh's palace in 00:11:53.980 --> 00:12:01.520 order to see and choose to identify with the suffering people of God. He recognized them as his brothers. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:08.799 And so he couldn't simply observe their suffering from a distance, sort of watch it on the evening news, 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:16.439 make a token contribution, and move on with his life. He became emotionally, personally, physically 00:12:16.439 --> 00:12:23.120 invested in seeking their welfare. And so he intervened to reconcile them with one another when they were 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:28.860 fighting each other and to advocate for them when they were being mistreated. And in the process, he himself 00:12:28.860 --> 00:12:38.800 was mistreated, both by Pharaoh and by his own people. Now, especially for those of us who are privileged 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:48.279 in this world, do we intentionally identify ourselves with the suffering people of God? Not only with the 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:55.779 well-off people of God. You know, many Christian believers throughout the world, here in this city, 00:12:55.779 --> 00:13:05.899 here in this church are sick or poor or lonely or homeless or persecuted. Jesus said, 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:13.879 these are our brothers and sisters. We are brothers and sisters in the same family together. And so if you 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:21.559 are only relating to other Christians who are relatively well-off, you are missing out on part of your family. 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:27.799 Jesus said in Luke 14, he said, when you give a dinner party, when you have people over your house for a 00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:33.359 4th of July barbecue, he said, don't invite your friends, your relatives, and your rich neighbors. 00:13:34.619 --> 00:13:41.500 Instead, he said, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And he said, you will be blessed. 00:13:42.679 --> 00:13:46.479 Now, he wasn't making an absolute prohibition against inviting your friends over for dinner, 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:53.519 but he was making a point. He said, when you invite people who are suffering in this world 00:13:53.519 --> 00:14:01.580 to join, and when you join your lives with theirs, it's worth it. He said, you will be repaid in the 00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:09.240 resurrection. Moses made a costly choice to be mistreated with God's people rather than enjoy 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:15.539 the fleeting pleasures of sin. And verse 26 says he's considered the reproach, which means the stigma 00:14:15.539 --> 00:14:21.939 or the shame or the humiliation or the mocking, the mocking of Christ, greater wealth than the 00:14:21.939 --> 00:14:29.539 treasures of Egypt. And Egypt had a lot of treasures. You can even go to Egypt and see some of them today. 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:36.719 That's how long they've lasted. Now, you might ask, what does that mean? That Moses considered the 00:14:36.719 --> 00:14:42.980 reproach of Christ, and he considered it a greater, of greater value than all the treasures in Egypt. 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:48.460 It's an interesting phrase. We might ask, did God give Moses a vision of the future sufferings of 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:54.840 Jesus? That's possible. I'm not sure we can be certain of that from this text. But what we can 00:14:54.840 --> 00:15:01.440 see clearly in this passage is that the suffering of God's people is connected with the suffering of 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:08.440 God's anointed one. That's what the word Christ means, God's anointed one. Verse 25 and verse 26 are 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:14.360 reinforcing statements that shed light on each other. They're actually parallel clauses in the same 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:22.640 sentence in the Greek. And so the reproach of Christ in verse 26 corresponds to being mistreated with 00:15:22.640 --> 00:15:30.780 the people of God. Now, the point of this is when God's people are mistreated, God himself suffers too. 00:15:30.779 --> 00:15:38.159 Psalm 89 uses the same words. Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants. Your enemies have 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:48.000 reproached the footsteps of your anointed one. Psalm 89, 51. So it connects the shame and humiliation and 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.299 suffering of the people of God with the shame and humiliation and suffering of God's anointed one, 00:15:54.299 --> 00:16:02.819 who ultimately was Jesus Christ. Or Isaiah 63, 9, another Old Testament passage. In all their distress, 00:16:03.419 --> 00:16:11.959 it says, he too, the Lord too, was distressed. You see, there is a cost for us when we choose to 00:16:11.959 --> 00:16:20.379 identify with the suffering people of God. But there was an even greater cost for God when he came to 00:16:20.379 --> 00:16:29.340 identify with us in Jesus Christ. Moses had to give up his honor, his power, his promised inheritance 00:16:29.340 --> 00:16:34.939 as a prince of Egypt to identify with God's suffering people. And so he was falsely accused. 00:16:35.639 --> 00:16:42.759 He exchanged that for being falsely accused, rejected, ignored, disbelieved, and driven out. 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:51.220 You know, Jesus Christ gave up far more than Moses. Because Jesus Christ was the eternal Son of God, 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:56.620 the King of glory, who ruled over the whole universe. He lived in a palace that would make 00:16:56.620 --> 00:17:03.939 the pyramids of Egypt look like a three-year-old's first Lego set. But Jesus chose to identify with us, 00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:10.000 the Son of God, not only to share in our humanity and in our suffering, but even more to bear our sin. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:18.579 Jesus exchanged his glory for being condemned by the world, rejected by his own people, abandoned by his 00:17:18.579 --> 00:17:25.859 disciples, and finally driven out to bear our sin all alone on the cross. Jesus Christ made a far more 00:17:25.859 --> 00:17:33.140 costly choice than Moses made, or even than any of us could ever make, to lay aside his privileges in 00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:39.980 order to identify with us. And he did so because of the great joy that was set before him, the joy of 00:17:39.980 --> 00:17:44.799 calling us his own, the joy of welcoming us into his family, the joy of saying, you are my brother, 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:50.559 you are my sister, and I have redeemed you and called you by name. I have rescued you from darkness 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:59.120 and brought you into my marvelous light. That's why he did it. For the joy of including us in his family, 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:06.440 as his brothers and sisters, and so that we might share in his honor, and in his glory, and in his 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:17.880 eternal inheritance, Jesus is the one even greater than Moses. So when Moses was a baby, his parents 00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:23.220 made a costly choice to identify with God's people despite intimidation. When Moses grew up, 00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:29.059 he made a costly choice to identify with God's people despite the attractions, the allurements 00:18:29.059 --> 00:18:36.419 of the world. And then verse 27, the third episode in Moses' life, when we see that Moses carried on 00:18:36.419 --> 00:18:45.399 the courageous legacy of his parents. By faith, verse 27 says, he left Egypt once and for all, 00:18:46.259 --> 00:18:53.679 not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. As we've 00:18:53.680 --> 00:19:00.120 looked through this chapter, chapter 11, we've seen that faith enables us to see reality as God defines 00:19:00.120 --> 00:19:06.900 it. And just as Moses' parents saw their child as beautiful and did not fear the king's edict, 00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:14.420 it says Moses saw the invisible God and did not fear the king's anger. When Moses led the people out of 00:19:14.420 --> 00:19:20.299 Egypt, at first Pharaoh wanted them to go. He said, get out of here. But then Pharaoh came charging after 00:19:20.299 --> 00:19:28.019 them, pursuing them with his armies to destroy them or bring them back to Egypt. And so Exodus 14, 00:19:28.299 --> 00:19:33.460 it says, when Pharaoh drew near with his armies, all the people of Israel feared greatly. And they 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:38.960 cried out to Moses, what have you done? Why have you brought us out of Egypt? We're going to die. 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:47.500 Let's just go back and serve the Egyptians. Wouldn't that be so much easier? And Moses stood and he said 00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:54.259 to the people, he said, fear not. Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. He said, the Lord will 00:19:54.259 --> 00:20:02.380 fight for you. You have only to be still. You see, in each of these three cases, the people faced a 00:20:02.380 --> 00:20:11.140 choice. And the better choice, the faithful choice, was always the harder choice. For Moses' parents 00:20:11.140 --> 00:20:18.320 choosing to care for their baby in hiding rather than give in to the king and fear. For grown-up 00:20:18.320 --> 00:20:23.660 Moses choosing to be mistreated with God's people rather than to enjoy the treasures in Pharaoh's 00:20:23.660 --> 00:20:31.020 palace. For Moses, the leader, choosing to endure, trusting the God who he could not see with his eyes 00:20:31.020 --> 00:20:38.960 instead of caving in to very visible and tangible opposition. You see, faith always demonstrates itself 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:46.480 in concrete action. If you notice, almost every description of faith in this chapter is an action. 00:20:47.059 --> 00:20:53.600 It's an action that wouldn't make any sense apart from the belief, the trust in God. 00:20:54.579 --> 00:21:01.660 Leaving Egypt. Verse 28, sprinkling the blood. Verse 29, crossing the sea. Verse 30, encircling the city. 00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:08.660 Verse 31, welcoming the spies. The point of this is faith is not primarily a private, internal 00:21:08.660 --> 00:21:16.740 feeling that no one else can ever see or understand. So, you know, don't get overly hung up on how you're 00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:23.540 feeling from one day to the next. Having faith does not mean that you will never feel anxious or never 00:21:23.540 --> 00:21:30.420 feel fearful or never feel depressed or overwhelmed. But faith does display itself in concrete, physical 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:37.759 actions. Many times, in spite of what we feel, faith displays itself in actions that only make sense 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:46.680 if the one that we believe in is trustworthy and true. Now, when Moses led the people out of Egypt 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:54.839 and they came to the Red Sea, it said, the people feared greatly. There will be moments, even seasons, 00:21:54.839 --> 00:22:04.379 in the journey of faith when the people around you or your flesh inside you will fear greatly. And like the 00:22:04.380 --> 00:22:13.640 Israelites, you will be tempted to go back to Egypt. Maybe the person who first led you to faith in 00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:21.580 Christ has fallen away and renounced their faith. Maybe you're battling a habitual sin, an addictive 00:22:21.580 --> 00:22:29.400 pattern inherited from your pre-Christian life. Maybe you've longed to be free from the temptation, 00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:36.580 from the cycle. But some days it comes after you with a vengeance, like Pharaoh and his armies. And 00:22:36.580 --> 00:22:42.160 it says, look ahead at your future. There's the Red Sea. There's no way that God can get you through 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:48.240 that. Your future is hopeless. And look around you. You're in the middle of the desert. Don't you wish 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:54.440 you could go back to Egypt, where you could see beautiful pyramids at least, and enjoy wonderful crops 00:22:54.440 --> 00:23:00.500 and a whole array of nice restaurants? Don't you wish you could go back to the pleasures of your sin 00:23:00.500 --> 00:23:06.140 when you didn't feel guilty about them? Don't you feel all alone? Why do you keep fighting the battle? 00:23:06.620 --> 00:23:17.580 It's not worth it. It's a combination of intimidation and alluring attractions coming at you at the same 00:23:17.579 --> 00:23:27.279 time. But if that is where you are, stand up like Moses and say to the people around you, say to your own soul, 00:23:27.579 --> 00:23:35.960 say to the tempter and accuser and deceiver, by faith I have left Egypt and I am not going back. Because by 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:43.740 God's grace I belong to King Jesus. And I don't belong to the accuser and the tempter and the deceiver 00:23:43.740 --> 00:23:50.200 anymore. King Jesus has rescued me from the kingdom of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:56.799 light, into the family of God. I am on my way to the promised land, to the eternal city of joy and 00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:04.559 delight. And in the meantime, God will make a way where there seems to be no way. So fear not. Stand firm 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:12.220 and see the salvation of the Lord. You see, there's a cost to identifying with God's people, 00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:20.839 of making hard choices. But the reward is even greater. And that's what motivated Moses to endure. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:28.759 And that's what can motivate us to endure. Verse 26 says he was looking ahead to the reward. 00:24:29.620 --> 00:24:34.380 And the reward, as we see in verse 28 through 31, is receiving the salvation of God. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:39.120 You see, the cost is temporary, but the reward is eternal. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:45.299 Verse 28, when Moses kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood of the Lamb on the doors of the houses, 00:24:45.439 --> 00:24:52.019 the people of Israel were saved. They were saved from destruction. And when the blood of Jesus Christ, 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:58.699 who died on the cross for us, is applied to us by faith in him, it cleanses us from all sin, 00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:07.119 once and for all. Jesus said, the new covenant is sealed in my blood, which means it is secure and 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:13.739 certain, and it won't be changed. It can never be taken away from you. Verse 29, when the people 00:25:13.739 --> 00:25:18.919 crossed the Red Sea, the Egyptians who were pursuing them were defeated once and for all. 00:25:20.419 --> 00:25:27.399 And in the new covenant, baptism is intended to be that once for all sign that we have died and 00:25:27.399 --> 00:25:33.519 risen with Jesus. We have passed over from death to life. We have been saved through the waters of 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:40.900 judgment and into the glorious future that God has prepared for us. And finally, verse 30 and 31. 00:25:42.259 --> 00:25:45.740 You see, God's people who entered by faith into the promised land, 00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:56.779 that the walls, which seemed so secure, fell down. Because on that day there was only one refuge, 00:25:56.779 --> 00:26:05.940 the Lord himself. Now our passage today begins with Moses, who was called to renounce his privilege 00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:11.759 and some of the pleasures that he enjoyed in this world for the sake of identifying with the suffering 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:20.599 people of God for because of a greater reward to come. But our passage ends with Rahab. Rahab was in 00:26:20.599 --> 00:26:28.919 almost the exact opposite situation as Moses. Rahab was an outsider. She was a prostitute. The book of 00:26:28.919 --> 00:26:35.879 Hebrews points that out deliberately. She was a desperate woman living in a city that was destined 00:26:35.879 --> 00:26:44.259 for destruction. She had no status, no honor, no wealth. She was the last person that anyone would 00:26:44.259 --> 00:26:52.140 have expected to be saved. But when she heard about the true and living God, she knew. She knew that she 00:26:52.140 --> 00:27:00.619 had nothing in herself that would make her right before God. But she heard about God's power in saving 00:27:00.619 --> 00:27:07.799 his people, saving his suffering people, and defeating their enemies. And she said, that's the truth. 00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:15.700 I need that. I need that. I want that. And one day the spy showed up at her house. And at a great cost to 00:27:15.700 --> 00:27:21.940 herself, she welcomed them in. She put her life on the line to save them because she had come to trust 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:28.779 in the true and living God. And she said, please, when you come into the land, as God has commanded you, 00:27:29.500 --> 00:27:37.779 would you save me and my family? I want to join in to the people of God. And by faith, Rahab was 00:27:37.779 --> 00:27:42.759 not only spared, but she was included in the people of God. She's included even in the genealogy of 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:51.259 Jesus Christ himself. I began with the story of a man who, in some respects, made a choice like Moses. 00:27:52.579 --> 00:27:58.940 I want to conclude with the story of a woman who was not a prostitute, but in many ways was like Rahab. 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:05.920 About 10 years ago, not long after we started the Nightrunners ministry, I met a woman named Olga 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:11.759 Olga at the Columbus house. Olga had one of the roughest life stories of anyone I have ever met. 00:28:12.500 --> 00:28:18.380 Her parents were killed when she was 14 in a homicide suicide. Her older siblings immediately 00:28:18.380 --> 00:28:22.300 took off with all the parents' money and left her alone to care for her little brother. 00:28:23.220 --> 00:28:28.320 The two of them became homeless, living in abandoned buildings, cardboard boxes, on the streets and in 00:28:28.320 --> 00:28:34.660 the subways of New York City. She earned money from drug running and drug dealing and shady business. 00:28:34.660 --> 00:28:41.100 She said, once I sold a car seven times. Each time I told the buyers to pay me and then come back for 00:28:41.100 --> 00:28:48.080 the car next week. I always took the money and did drugs. She used heroin for 25 years and crack for 00:28:48.080 --> 00:28:54.600 seven. And finally, it all caught up with her. She lost her home. She lost her kids. Her brothers 00:28:54.600 --> 00:29:00.040 wanted nothing to do with her. And so she ended up at the Columbus house, depressed, alone, and sick. 00:29:00.039 --> 00:29:06.659 And she said in her testimony, which she gave later on, she said, so this Monday night, 00:29:06.879 --> 00:29:12.740 I went to Columbus house. The next day I met the night runners, Rob and Rob. I still don't know who 00:29:12.740 --> 00:29:19.339 the second Rob was, but she seems to remember two Rob's. She said, I was amazed. These young men were 00:29:19.339 --> 00:29:24.920 so sincere. I knew that they were from a good family. I asked him, I said to myself, what are they doing 00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:32.120 here? I wanted to find out what they were about. I broke down and told them I am messed up. They were 00:29:32.120 --> 00:29:38.640 ready to listen. I trusted the Lord that night with Rob and Rob and came here to church. Over the next 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:44.240 several months, God did a marvelous work in Olga's life. Instead of being hopeless and depressed, she was 00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:51.019 full of joy and peace and gratitude. After 30 years of drug addiction, she was almost completely drug-free 00:29:51.019 --> 00:29:57.359 for the last four years of her life. It wasn't easy. One night she called her accountability partner, 00:29:57.480 --> 00:30:02.420 another woman in the church, seven times because the cravings were so strong, but she just kept on 00:30:02.420 --> 00:30:08.940 talking until she got through it. She got baptized here in this church and became a member of the 00:30:08.940 --> 00:30:13.420 church and joined a Bible study. She started caring for her kids, pursuing better relationships with her 00:30:13.420 --> 00:30:19.000 family. She brought her family and friends and people she used to do drugs with to church. She became, 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:24.839 I would call her, a runner for Jesus. She got her own apartment, but she would come back with us to 00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:29.680 the Columbus house because she loved to tell other people about Jesus and the joy that she had found. 00:30:30.420 --> 00:30:35.619 She said, I was always hiding and running away, but I'm grateful to God that I'm out of bondage 00:30:35.619 --> 00:30:42.279 because Jesus set me free. Maybe you're like Moses and God is calling you to make costly sacrifices, 00:30:42.460 --> 00:30:47.720 to identify with the suffering people of God and trust that the reward that he has promised you 00:30:47.720 --> 00:30:52.980 is much greater than what you will lose in this world. And maybe you're like Rahab. You have a 00:30:52.980 --> 00:30:59.319 shameful, painful, sinful past and not much of a future to hope for in this world. But whoever you 00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:06.079 are, there is a place in the people of God for you. And there is a calling for you to live by faith, 00:31:06.579 --> 00:31:10.360 to embrace the cost of identifying with the people of God because the reward 00:31:10.359 --> 00:31:14.359 in Jesus Christ is so much greater. Let us pray. 00:31:14.359 --> 00:31:37.839 Our Father, we thank you for your mercy in sending your Son that we might be called his brothers and 00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:51.179 sisters, that we might be called your beloved children, that we might be redeemed from our past, that we might have a new 00:31:51.179 --> 00:32:00.220 identity in you that will last forever, that we might praise your name for your great deliverance. 00:32:00.220 --> 00:32:08.380 Lord, we pray that as you endured the cross for the joy set before you, that you would enable us 00:32:08.380 --> 00:32:17.200 to take up our cross that you have called us to take for the sake of the joy that you have set before us. 00:32:18.140 --> 00:32:21.920 We pray that you would give us the joy of knowing that we are part of your family, 00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:34.140 that we would gladly leave behind whatever you might call us to leave behind for the sake of knowing you. 00:32:35.300 --> 00:32:37.220 We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:32:38.580 --> 00:32:45.840 As the music team comes forward, we're going to respond with a song called Gladly Would I Leave Behind Me, 00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:54.139 a song reflecting the posture of Moses and of Rahab as they walked forward in faith. Let's stand as we sing.