What Faithful People Do

Note: This post is provided to you as unedited comments, originally given as a sermon and not intended for publication. They are simply meant to help in the application of the scripture text to one’s daily life.

Main Text: Hebrews 11:23-31  

·         We were made as humans to follow examples from infanthood onwards.
·         That is why it is so important that I live out what I say I believe in front of my kids and that I model what I say I believe. I do this not to put on a show but to serve as a godly example for their good, because we are wired to look for examples and we naturally want to follow examples.
·         The author of Hebrews is giving examples to this little church that was beleaguered by trials, suffering and temptations. They were tempted to turn back and fall away from the faith because of the difficulties and challenges that they faced.
·         In chapter 10, he warns them to hold onto their faith lest they fall away. He is urging them to hold onto their faith lest they become apostate. It is in this context that we find our passage this morning.
·         The main idea that I believe God would have us see is that “faithful people act on their faith and trust that God rewards”.

Main Idea: Faithful people act on their faith and trust that God rewards

·         In these verse of chapter 11, we see examples of what faithful people don’t do and what faithful people do, as they trust that God rewards.
·         Instead of walking through each point on its own, we are just going to walk through the text and unpack the examples we are given by looking at what faithful people don’t do and what faithful people do.

²³ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict

·         Moses is one of the greatest people in the Old Testament. He was born in the midst of tumultuous times, in Egypt. A new king had arisen over Egypt who did not know Joseph and how he rescued Egypt from destitution. The Israelites had multiplied greatly and grown strong and the land was filled with them.
·         So the Pharaoh became worried and said,

Exodus 1:10-12  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."  ¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.  ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

·         The Pharaoh eventually commanded that all of the sons born to the Hebrews were to be thrown into the Nile. But Moses’ parents had faith in God and they defied Pharaoh and kept the boy alive until they couldn’t conceal him any longer.  Then, believing that God would rescue him, in faith they set the baby in a tiny little raft and floated it on the waters of the Nile River.
·         Notice that they feared God and they didn’t fear the king. Faithful people don’t fear man – they do fear God.
·        Fearing God and acting on it is appropriate but fearing the king who opposes God is not a faithful response

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
·         Being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter would have held great reward and renown. But in his identification with the people of Israel, Moses effectively renounced his position as the son of pharaoh’s daughter
·         When Moses identified himself with the down-trodden, oppressed people by defending them and killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was abusing a Hebrew slave, he showed what was going on inside. His actions demonstrated that he refused the right to be the heir of Pharaoh and instead claimed the right to be a part of God’s oppressed people.
·         He chose hardship instead of pleasure for the sake of following God. His decisive action in identifying himself with the Hebrews in choosing hardship was a foreshadowing of Christ, the perfecter of the faith, who chose hardship and accepted suffering in the place of joy
·         Moses is an example of what a faithful follower of God does. Moses turned down reputation. He turned down notoriety. He turned down fame and the esteem of the world. He turned down people liking him.
·         Being the son of Pharaoh’s daughter would have held greater fame and power. But, it says that by faith, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
·         Moses lived by faith. Faith looks to what God says. Faith looks at what God declares to be true. And it takes faith to live like this doesn’t it?
·         In our day, so many strive to be popular and well-known. So many try to be famous in whatever way they can. Some do ridiculous stunts and feats to grab their 15 seconds of fame. Some do outrageous acts and post them on YouTube so that they can be famous. There are so-called reality shows of people living ridiculous lifestyles that so many are addicted to. Today, there are people who are famous for being famous and they don’t have any skill or talent that got them there. That is why we have people like Paris Hilton or the Kardashians or Snookie.
·         Teens try to be popular, young people try to fit in and when they don’t, they get depressed.
·         I remember how driven I was by the approval of other people that I drank and did things I shouldn’t have and knew didn’t please God because I wanted to be accepted by others and seen as great. I desired the respect and approval of people more than wanting the approval of God. I didn’t appropriately fear God and instead, I feared man. I forgot who God is and was and by fearing man, I subtly believed that God wasn’t who He said He was. I subtly replaced believing that God’s rewards are greater than man’s with believing that the acclaim of other people was worth living for.
·         It takes faith in God to live for Him and not live for the approval of others. It takes faith in the fact that He will reward those who fear Him to say no to fearing man. It takes faith to see that God is the One whose opinion matters the most and that the opinion of all of mankind is meaningless in comparison.
·         Moses had the kind of faith that believed that God’s opinion mattered more. He believed that even though he would face rejection and ridicule, God would reward him.
·         The people this letter was written to were tempted to give into what their friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives and the important people in their day thought of them. They were tempted to not believe that God’s opinion matters most. They were tempted to believe that the rewards of living the way that was acceptable in their day would benefit them more than living by faith in God.
·         We are tempted in the same way all the time. Teens, you are tempted to want to be popular. You want to be liked. So you are tempted to compromise, to give in just a little. Adults, let’s face it, we are tempted to fit in too.  We all are tempted to live as if what others think of us matters more than what God says.
·         Let’s be honest.  We are all tempted to live for the acclaim of others. We want the praise of others and at times we do things just to hear the praise of other men and women. But it takes faith to say no and to believe that God really rewards those who trust in Him.
·         It takes faith to stand out and be different; to be noticed for what you don’t do and what you don’t say. It takes faith in God to stand up and be different than the culture around you. It takes faith in God to refuse to live to be called popular, or “cool”, or “hipster”, or “gangsta” or whatever fame you are tempted to pursue.
·         Instead, by faith, we can be called children of the Most High God. Why in the world would we try to be called anything else? Why would we seek approval of anyone or fame, when we are chosen and adopted children of the Great King and Creator of all?
·         Verse 25 tells us that Moses chose,
²⁵ rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
·         Moses would have had access to all the best of everything in the richest nation of the world at the time.
·         Think about it for a moment.  Egypt was perhaps the wealthiest country in the world at the time. The King of Egypt was possibly the most powerful man at the time and so to be called the son of the great King’s daughter would have held fame and fortune and power.  Nothing within the bounds of Egypt’s pleasures would have been withheld from him
·         But it was by faith that he chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
·         He could have eaten the most pleasurable food and drank until he was content. He could have indulged in leisure and sport and freely enjoyed every available form of entertainment in that day.  He had endless pleasures available to him.
·         Notice, that it doesn’t say sin wasn’t pleasurable. But it does say that the pleasures of sin are fleeting. We can be tempted in this life into believing that the pleasures of sin are all that there are. But the reality is that the pleasures of sin are truly fleeting.
·         Sin tempts and sin even tastes good for a little while but it destroys eventually and ultimately sin brings death. What fleeting pleasures of sin are tempting you?

²⁶ He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

·         Moses identified with the people of God, the Lord’s anointed, because he believed the promises that God had given to His children. Moses even reminded Pharaoh that Israel is God’s son when he was demanding the release of the Israelites.

·         The reproach that was the lot of Israel, foreshadowed the reproach that everyone who looks forward to God’s promises through His anointed one will receive. All who follow Christ, God’s ultimate anointed One, will receive reproach for His name.
·         So in joining God’s people, Moses joins himself to a picture of the future reproach of Christ.
·         Jesus was one with His people and Isaiah 63:9 says that “In all their distress, He too was distressed”. The reproach of all the people of God faced fell on Jesus in a concentrated way. Moses experienced a similar kind of reproach because of his identification with God’s people.
·         Moses himself prophesied to his people that God would send another prophet, one greater than himself, who would come to fulfill God’s promises.
·         Moses turned away from earthly rewards to the lasting reward and so serves as a great example of faith that is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen.
·         Moses is held up as an example since he was looking for a reward; looking for a homeland.

²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

·         When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he didn’t fear the anger of the king. He didn’t look at the things of this world as being greater than God and he didn’t fear what the future held, even when faced with the potential for the armies of Egypt to come down on him. He didn’t give into fearing the consequences for believing in God and stepping out in faith.

·         It doesn’t say that he wasn’t tempted to be afraid of the anger of the king. I’m sure he was. But he wasn’t afraid. He didn’t give into fear and instead, he endured.
·         The scripture tells us how Moses endured even with the threat of the mighty king at his back: he endured because he saw Him who is invisible.
·         The implication for the recipients of this letter was that they shouldn’t fear the Romans and the authorities who imprisoned them or their brothers and sisters. But they should see that the invisible order of things is the real order; the permanent and lasting authority. Like Moses endured without seeing, so they should endure by looking to Jesus who cannot be seen with earthly eyes but can be understood and perceived by faith.

²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

·         By faith Moses kept the commandment of God to slaughter lambs and sprinkle their blood on the doorposts and lentils of all the doors. It might have seemed strange to Moses. He probably didn’t understand exactly why God had them do this. But he believed that what God said would come true and he obeyed and led the people to obey and so their lives were spared.

²⁹ By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

·         One of my favorite kid’s movies is The Prince of Egypt. I remember the scene where the Israelites were walking through the middle of the Red Sea and the water was stacked up in heaps on either side, several stories tall. And in the middle of the water, you could see shadows of fish and sharks and a whale. It must have been loud and frightening to pass through the waters with the wind blowing and the waves piled up to make dry land in the middle. It must have been unnerving and intimidating. What if they walked down onto the sea floor and the water suddenly rushed back on them and their children and their grandparents and their livestock? They would be destroyed. And at first, they were terrified by the Egyptians but Moses encouraged them to not be afraid and that they would see the deliverance of the Lord
·         In response to their faith that was seen in their going forward,  God caused an east wind to blow all night and the sea went back and they were able to cross over on dry land. It took great faith to step out into the way that God had prepared for them. But they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land and when the Egyptians tried to do the same they were drowned because of their lack of faith.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

·         When God told Joshua and the people to march around Jericho, it must have seemed rather strange.
·         Marching in circles didn’t win wars. It might have intimidated the people in the city and it might have made the people in the city scared, but marching in circles wouldn’t have made any walls fall down. If running in circles made walls fall down, then my house would have fallen long ago as much as my kids run around our house. But let’s face it, this was a strange commandment. And it surely wasn’t their marching that made the walls fall down.
·         God tested the people to see if they would trust in Him and obey Him even when they didn’t understand why and it didn’t make sense to them. And God rewarded their faith in Him by making the walls of the city come crashing down when they marched around in faith for seven days.
·         For the Hebrew community, the message here was clear: let them live faithful lives obeying God and trusting in His promises and God would certainly vindicate them, no matter what it looked like.

³¹ By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

·         This verse gives us a picture of an unlikely person who believed in God. You see, Rahab wasn’t a Jewish woman and didn’t belong to the people of Israel. She wasn’t acceptable as a Jew to begin with. In fact, she was one of the people destined for destruction in Jericho. Besides Sarah, the wife of the great Abraham, she is the only other woman mentioned by name in this list of Old Testament heroes.
·         She is an unlikely hero for many reasons. Not only is she a heathen, she is a woman and women were not highly esteemed in that day. But more than all of this, she was a prostitute. She sold her body for money or favors to countless men so that she was known in the whole city as a prostitute. But she believed in God – even before she had seen any proof of God
·         Later, Joshua 6 tells us that she was indeed rescued and then she went to live in Israel and her family continued to live there to this day.
·         Rahab gave a friendly welcome to the spies. As far as she should have known, humanly speaking, it would have seemed better for her to give up the spies and perhaps be paid handsomely for it. She likely would have been favored by the ruler of Jericho. But instead, she had heard of the reports of how great God was and she knew that even though their city walls were strong, that God would give them the land.
·         She declared who God is, saying “for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.  Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign”
·         She placed her faith in the Lord God and made them swear by the Lord, because she had faith that God was going to do what He said He would do. And Rahab was spared because of her faith. Her faith was what made her treat the spies kindly and her faith was what God honored.
·         For whatever reason, this well-known prostitute believed in God and God not only accepted her but God has given her a special place in redemptive history. Not only is she recorded as a hero of the faith in Joshua and Hebrews, she went on to settle down among the Israelites and marry a man. And here is what Matthew writes of her in the genealogy of Jesus:

Matthew 1:5-6  Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,  ⁶ and Jesse the father of David the king.

·         You see, God so honored this prostitute who had simple faith in Him and acted in response, that He made her the grandmother of King David, who was the forerunner of Christ. And not only that, the Messiah Himself is in the lineage of Rahab.
·         God brought redemption through Rahab, even though she was someone who seemed irredeemable in the eyes of society. She seemed tainted and stained, dirty and defiled; unworthy of honor and worthy of dishonor.
·         But God rescued Rahab and then God brought many others to redemption through her as well. All because Rahab had faith in God and took a risk to act on her faith.
·         God takes all who come to Him in faith. It doesn’t matter what your past it or how dirty you are or how dirty you feel. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or who you’ve done it with.
·         What was significant, is that Rahab turned away from her world and trusted in God and she placed her faith in God and God changed her.
·         Ultimately, it wasn’t Moses’ faith that saved him. It wasn’t the people’s faith that saved them. It wasn’t Joshua’s faith that saved him. And it wasn’t faith that brought the walls of Jericho down. It wasn’t even Rahab’s faith that saved her. But, what we see, is that God saved all of them in response to their faith in Him. They weren’t saved by faith – they were all saved by the grace of God through faith.
·         They had faith in the faithful God who rewards all those who have faith in Him.
·         Perhaps God is calling you to step out in faith and trust that He really is and that He rewards those who seek Him. Maybe he is calling you to respond to Him for the first time. Or maybe God is calling you to say no to the fear of man and have faith in Him instead.
·         Maybe God is calling you to say no to earthly rewards and trust in Him instead. Or maybe God is encouraging you to not be afraid of consequences and trust in Him instead. Or perhaps like the people of Israel, God is calling you to step out and obey even when you can’t see and don’t understand and when it seems a little scary.
·         Or maybe like Rahab, God is calling you to take risks and live boldly for Him.
·         Whatever the case, we can step out in faith, acting on faith in God and trusting that God will reward.

Potential Application Questions:

1. How have the examples of the “heroes of the faith” listed in Hebrews 11 so far affected you or been beneficial to you?
2.  Are there any areas where you subtly fear the opinion of others or crave their approval, attention or respect? If so, how is this related to a lack of faith in God in your life?
3. How can remembering that God sees you as completely righteous in His sight and accepts you because of the righteousness of Jesus help you stop fearing man?
4.  Whose opinion matters most to you at work/school, at home and in the church?   How can you cultivate the fear of the Lord instead?
5. Are there any areas where you are tempted to believe that the pleasures of sin are truly rewarding? What areas of sin tempt you to think that their pleasure is not fleeting?
6.  How can you grow in considering your heavenly inheritance in Christ as more significant?
7. What areas in your life tempt you to look at circumstances as greater than God’s ability to overcome them or sustain you through them?
8.  How does thinking of the examples of Moses and the Israelites help you see God’s greater ability?
9. In the example of Rahab, we see God honor the faith of someone who was “unacceptable” and blatantly sinful. How does God’s saving and redeeming Rahab encourage you?
10. What act of faith is God calling you to take in your life now?
11. Pray that the Lord would increase your faith in Him to do great things.