Faith Risks

And everyone else, if you could join me by turning in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews as we continue our study of the book of Hebrews chapter 11 Turning your Bible. If you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles underneath the chair near you And if you will turn to page one thousand two eighty four Twelve eighty four you'll find the passage that we're going to look at this morning. It's Hebrews 11 23 through 31 We've been in Hebrews 11 for a few weeks. The first thing we learned a few weeks ago is that faith trusts Next week after that we learned that faith seeks last week Matt talked about how faith is tested and Today the subject is risk This morning we're going to see if if we live by faith it means that we're going to risk From time to time and I'll explain more about what that means shortly Faith risks. Let's look at Hebrews 11 beginning at verse 23 This is God's holy true and powerful word listen 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 By faith Moses when he was grown up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God then to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt For he was looking to the reward By faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them By faith the people crossed the Red Sea on dry land, but the Egyptians when they attempted to do the same were drowned By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days By faith Rayhab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient Because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies the word of the Lord Let's pray Our Father we thank you that you have loved us By sending Jesus you've also loved us by giving us this word this book the Bible We pray today that you will send your spirit and let him be our teacher We pray Lord that you'll use this passage scripture to transform us by the gospel of grace So that being transformed we might learn more and more how to proclaim and demonstrate this gospel So that it will advance throughout the world and we will see gospel multiplication Lord, that's our hope and our prayer and we ask you to do that for your glory in our good this morning in Jesus name. I'm in

So we're going to talk about risk Americans admire risk takers You've seen Star Wars 7. I presume the Force awakens It's a story about risk Ray Finn and Han Solo lead the resistance against the first order to keep them from destroying the new Republic Let's talk about the real world. Did you see the Broncos beat the Patriots last week?

Okay, yes, I was happy about that Peyton Manning though Peyton Manning was a risk, right? Coach benched the other guy brought the old guy in he turns 40 this year, but he's in the Super Bowl That was a risk This past Thursday was the 30th anniversary of an event many of you remember quite well the shuttle challenger disaster Seven crew members died including Christa McCullough a high school social studies teacher. She was one of 11,000 Educators who applied for the privilege of being the first teacher in space But as you well know 73 seconds into the flight the Shuttle broke apart Killing all aboard there's a black granite tombstone in Concord, New Hampshire where Christa was buried Partly it says this S. Christa McCullough wife mother teacher pioneer woman She was a risk taker What about you? Do you like taking risks or are you risk a verse? You know, it seems like the more dangerous our world gets the more risk a verse we become we watch our kids every second of the day We put security systems on our homes and cars we worry about identity theft and predators and Terrorists and cancer causing foods and recessions and computer viruses and all sorts of other evils and Because this growing danger of our world we minimize risk and maximize safety But Hebrews 11 as we've been seeing the last few weeks is a a celebration of risk takers We've called this series by faith because faith is what they exercised and Partly that involved risk as you'll see today We've talked about able and enic and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac Jacob and Joseph and here in this passage this morning that I read There are several more in this role call of faith that we're going to see took risks Moses parents Moses himself the Israelites in general and Rahab the prostitute now We're going to focus on the first two of those for the most part But what I hope that you will see this morning is that if you hope to walk by faith You will have to be willing to take some risks So I'm not talking about going rogue I'm not talking about being daredevils or casting caution to the wind or being foolhardy. That's not How I'm defining risk today instead. I'm talking about taking action because you love God believe God and you love his people Despite the possibility of loss and danger and inconvenience and discomfort and and Yes, maybe even death So what do we learn from our text today? Here's what I'd like to do. I'm going to propose that we look at this text as a process of four things that you see Played out again and again in the lives of the people that are read about a few moments ago Let me give you the outline and then we'll dive in and pick it apart We're going to see that faith is developed by crisis That crisis requires a choice that the choice involves risk and That risk is easy When you know that the gain outweighs the loss Now I think you'll see how these four things happen in the lives of Moses parents and of Moses and very briefly in the others that are listed there So let's start with Moses parents Moses parents, you know, they were named in another part of the Bible their names are Amram and jockebed Those are Moses parents and in verse 23 we find out that their faith started with a crisis Back in Exodus chapter 2 that crisis is described in detail the king of Egypt We usually call him the Pharaoh wanted to reduce The population of Israel in his country Because he saw that the Israelites were growing more and more and more in number and he was worried that the Israelites were going to become so powerful that they would mount a rebellion or something like that And so to control the Israelites the king of Egypt enslaved them He forced them into slavery that didn't work and so he tried something else and it was a horrible plan He ordered the Hebrew midwives To kill every baby boy that one of the Hebrews Had or was born every single baby boy the moment they were born had to be killed He said throw them into the Nile River let them be food for the car the crocodiles Well, Amram and jockebed were members of the tribe of Levi. They were Israelites They had a baby He was a boy What were they going to do They made a choice see that was the crisis that they were in and in verse 23 It says what they chose to do to respond to that crisis they hid their baby boy for the first three months of his life They were not afraid says the text they were not afraid of the king's edict They weren't going to let anybody throw their baby boy into the Nile so they defied the king's decree But that involved risk It involved risk because hiding Moses was an act of civil disobedience It's implied in Exodus chapter 1 that if anybody refused to throw their baby boy into the Nile River he or she would be killed But Amram and jockebed the parents of Moses were willing to take that risk Why Why well verse 23 says because they saw that the child was beautiful now all of us think That our little babies are beautiful, right? But they saw this child is beautiful. They valued the life of their child more than they valued their own lives Loving Moses was better than life you might say But not only that it seemed to them that God had a special plan for this little baby The NIV translation puts it this way. They saw that he was no ordinary child and In fact the the historian Josephus tells us that according to an oral tradition Moses father did have a vision That said that God had a special plan ahead for this little baby boy It's not in the Bible, but it is something that possibly was said and passed down through time They he was no ordinary child and that was correct They knew then you see that the the the the gain Outweigh the loss It was worth the risk to hide that little baby boy Let's talk about Moses Moses three times in this passage the author of Hebrews says Moses did something by faith Look at verse 24 verse 24 says that by faith Moses when he was grown up Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God then to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin See like his mother and father Moses faith was developed by crisis He is immediately thrust into crisis as you know Many of you who know the story in Exodus chapter two when Moses could no longer be hidden Jocke bed his mother placed him in a basket Put him in a basket and put it by the river bank the river Nile where she knew that the daughter of Pharaoh would come and bathe Now just as an aside Think about that mom and dad. What an act of faith that was. I mean she took this little baby three months of age Put him in a river Now she did it because she had forethought the plan. She knew that that's where the daughter of Pharaoh would come and bathe But still it took faith to do that to not know the fate of Their little baby. I remember when my wife and I took our son Michael to universal studios one time He was just six seven years old He wanted to ride that big pirate ship ride, you know that flips over does a 360. I wasn't about to do that And so we stood there and watched as our little boy God on that boat and went upside down I mean, oh my goodness. I said I'd never do that again That was so risky well She told her daughter Miriam and Jacob Ed told her daughter Miriam to go stand by the river and watch and see what would happen and sure enough Just like she knew what happened Pharaoh's daughter found the basket among the reads along the Nile River The daughter found the night the basket. She saw the baby in the basket and instantly fell in love with him Miriam the sister ran over said she knew One of the Hebrew women who would be so glad To nurse the baby and take care of the baby and so get this in the providence of God the daughter of Pharaoh paid Jocke a bed to take care of her own little baby boy and He stayed in his own family for a long time possibly as long as until he was 12 for 13 years of age Because Exodus chapter two verse 10 says when the child grew up Moses mother brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son So Moses spent his boyhood with his own family But after that he lived in the palace of the king of Egypt until he was 40 years old. What was he doing all that time? Well Acts chapter 7 verse 22 says that Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became mighty in word and deed Moses was there learning geography and philosophy and history grammar writing literature and music Moses was thoroughly immersed in the culture of the most highly developed nation on the face of the earth The historian Josephus again wrote that Moses was air to the throne of Egypt and led the armies of Egypt into victorious battle against the Ethiopians But he never forgot he never forgot what his mother and father had taught him about the God of Israel See the good news is that Amram and Jocke a bed had discipled their son They had told him the stories of creation of Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Isaac Jacob and Joseph They told him for example what we heard last week about the Almost sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham They had prayed for Moses. They had led a godly life and set a godly example before Moses They had instilled in him the faith of their fathers and that had a permanent impact Upon the boy Moses so let that be an encouragement to you who are parents Many of you have children at home many of you will have children one day God willing many of you are empty nesters like I am And your kids are out and gone, but let this be an encouragement to all of us at some point Every parent has to face that moment when they have to let their child go Maybe it's when they turn 18 Maybe it's when they go off to college for the first time around their wedding day or something like that you have to let them go to Egypt And when that day arrives Your children will take with them whatever whatever tools whatever training whatever modeling you've given them And those things will guard them as they enter a world that is growing more and more secular and ignorant of the gospel every day Please if you have kids at home take it from this empty nester Don't waste the opportunity that you have to instill the faith of the fathers in your child Because the good news is that will stick with them as they age and as they leave Into this very sometimes hostile world well one day when Moses was 40 years of old of age He went out to look at the Israelites You know here he is the heir to the throne He goes out to to just observe the Israelites as they are enslaved and as they're working Maybe it was out in the field maybe it was Amongst the mine or whatever it is. I don't know But he was looking at the as fellow Israelites working and he saw an Egyptian soldier beating up mercilessly beating one of the Hebrews All right, there's the crisis There's the crisis where faith is going to be developed in Moses and Moses had a choice to make He could okay, here's the choice he could look the other way He could look the other way like he hadn't seen what happened He could side with the Egyptian soldier no one would know the difference He could walk away He could return to the palace He could still inherit the riches and splendor that went along with being the king of Egypt But instead Verse 24 says Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter He identified in other words with the suffering of his people If I could borrow words that are really applied to the Messiah in the book of Isaiah chapter 63 In all their affliction he too was afflicted He felt the wounds himself he felt the sorrow and the pain and grief of his own people and he identified with it And so what did Moses choose to do he looked around he didn't see anybody watching He walked over and killed the Egyptian who had been beating the Israelites and hid the man's body in the sand Now that was a risky choice It was risky because someone actually saw what he had done Exodus 213 says that the next day Moses went out there again and he saw two Israelites Struggling and arguing and fighting with each other and he tried to intervene But what happened was one of the two men who was fighting said to him Who made you a judge over us? Are you gonna kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday? Eventually the king of Egypt found out What Moses had done to the Egyptian soldier and he planned to kill Moses So Moses was afraid the scriptures say and he fled from Pharaoh Went out to the desert of a land called Midian and spent the next 40 years of his life in lonely exile Eventually raising a family but shepherding sheep in obscurity That was the choice Moses made Why did he do it? Why did he choose mistreatment with the people of God when he could have everything the world had to offer if he had just walked away If he had just done nothing verse 26 is the answer verse 26 says that Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking for the reward Now we're gonna stop there and come back to that verse later because it's so key So for now just make a note that Moses believed That what he would gain Was better than what he would lose that's why he was willing to take the risk Let's look at the next crisis that Moses encountered it's in verse 27 Says in verse 27 that by faith Moses left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king Now many commentators say that this refers to Moses flight to Midian that we were just talking about But I don't think so I believe that it's referring to the later flight from Egypt the Exodus when Moses led the Israelites Just because it says he was not afraid and before I said that he was afraid That's why I went out to Midian But it really doesn't matter that much because the point is the same here was another defining moment for Moses And that's what I want you to get This was the crisis and to understand this crisis you have to go back to the desert of Midian and remember what happened when God met Moses in the burning bush Many of you know the story is in Exodus 3 God appeared to Moses in the desert of Midian in this burning bush And he told Moses to go back to Egypt and lead the people of Israel out of there To lead them out of Egypt so Moses did that He returned to Egypt. He was 80 years old by now And he went to the court of the king and demanded to the Pharaoh that he let the Israelites go what did Pharaoh do He dug his heels in and he refused to do that in fact What the Pharaoh did was he made the Israelites work harder than he had ever made them work before and so This made the Israelites more resentful than ever of their fearless leader Moses So Moses had a choice to make He could refuse to obey God If the king of Egypt is going to dig his heels in and refuse to let them go Moses could have said sorry mission impossible You've seen the mission impossible movies right? You remember the the recording that says your mission if you should choose to accept it Well, Moses could have not accepted it He could have said sorry God. I'm not going to do that But Moses didn't do that. He chose to obey by faith He kept going back to Pharaoh time after time demanding that he let the Israelites go God sent nine plagues down upon Egypt and again and again the king of Egypt hardened his heart But as verse 27 says in our text Moses endured he kept on keeping on he endured as seeing him who is invisible But there would be one more plague The plague of death to every firstborn male both human and animal Before that 10th plague came God told Moses to tell the people to take a lamb One per household kill that lamb and put some of the blood of that lamb upon the door frame of their house So that when the angel of death Past over Egypt he would not kill the firstborn son of those houses where he saw the blood That's why it's called Passover Again Moses had to exercise faith here This was a bizarre command Think about that nobody had ever heard of something so absurd As killing a lamb and putting blood on the door frame of a house It was a costly thing to do it was a weird thing to do you might say But verse 28 says that Moses had faith he trusted God By faith Moses kept the Passover it says and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them Now folks these were risky choices for Moses to make They were risky because verse 27 says the king was angry about all this The king was angry the king of the largest most powerful nation on earth was angry at Moses But this time the text says Moses was not afraid of the anger of the king Says in verse 27 by faith he left Egypt he endured as seeing him who is invisible Why did Moses make this risky choice? Because once again the gain of experiencing the promise of God Far outweighed in Moses mind the loss of the king's favor

Now this pattern we're talking about crisis choice risk reward You also see it in the Israelites in general and Rahab in particular, but because of time we don't have time to go into detail with those Uh those examples, but crisis led to choice and risk was motivated by reward Look at verse 29 by faith the people crossed the red sea as on dry land But the Egyptians when they attempted to do the same were drowned not just to comment about that because I know if you're thinking about it uh You're wondering How could we say that the Israelites were people of faith When everybody who was an adult at that time died in the wilderness because they were not people of faith It seems for a couple of I'll mention a couple of things number one It did take faith to step into that water and believe that it would actually part That was an act of faith But secondly you see the influence of one man of faith upon the whole multitude Moses was a man of faith I think that's another encouragement to you You may be in a setting in which there are not people of faith around you One person of faith one boy girl man or woman of faith Can have a tremendous sanctifying effect Upon a crowd around you so hold on to God's truth be a person of faith live out your faith be bold be risky And believe that God might use you to change the hearts of the people Around you verse 30 then goes on to talk about the Jericho battle by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they'd been in circle for seven days Verse 31 by faith Rayhab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome To the spies now you'll have to go back in your bibles to exodus 14 Joshua 2 and Joshua 6 to read those stories But I think it'd be really good today if you could at least scan those chapters and be reminded of what the stories were But don't forget why the writer of Hebrews put these stories in this chapter You must remember the context of this letter the letter of Hebrews was written at a time when it was hard to be a Christian A time not terribly unlike our own These were ethnic Jews to whom he was writing this letter who had forsaken their Jewish roots and embraced Christianity For many of them this meant persecution For many of them it meant that their families shunned them They were being tempted you see to compromise their commitment to Jesus So that they could play it safe and turn back and return From their radical faith in Jesus Christ to a safe accepted form of Judaism So in chapter 11 the writer of Hebrews gives them illustrations stories of people who also were tempted to compromise but who didn't Who in the face of crisis made a risky choice and were willing to live with the consequences? That's why these stories are here You know there are stories right here in this room today that could be told of risky faith There are people at UPC who have faced crises in their lives And they've had to make some hard choices I'm thinking of a couple of people who come to church alone because their spouse does not share their faith in Jesus Yet they keep loving them because they're looking forward to their reward That's risky I'm thinking of several young widows who endure days of intense sorrow Yet they're still here serving engaging God engaging his people I'm thinking of a young married couple. I know who made a commitment not to move in together Before marriage but to abstain from sex until marriage In spite of how stupid and crazy and countercultural that is in our day and time that's risky I'm thinking of a drug addict who's been coming to our church who's in rehab right now Because he wants to get clean. He wants to be free That's risky. I'm thinking of a woman who wakes up every day with depression that won't let go But she endures As seeing him who is invisible. I'm thinking of people who have chosen a life of danger and separation from their families Because they want to see the gospel Reaching the unreached peoples of the world You know risk can take many different forms For you it might mean giving away your last hundred dollar bill Or inviting your neighbor over for dinner or welcoming somebody new into your life group or Serving in the nursery or teaching Sunday school or walking over to one of the windows after our worship service and letting someone pray for you risk might mean going to seminary or becoming a missionary or a pastor or a counselor It might mean going back to school and learning Spanish or Becoming a nurse or a real estate agent and using your career and skills to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel No telling What it might look for look like for you as many people are is as are in the room today It's going to look different it's going to be unique But it's risky and I believe God is speaking to you from Hebrews 11 to say to you take steps of faith that are risky That costs something find out if the game Is actually greater than the loss like these people found out Why would you want to do that though is a question we should ask why would you want to take that challenge and do something risky do something Eleanor Roosevelt said do something scary every day

That could be applicable to this chapter do something scary every day, but why would you want to do that? I'll tell you why for the same reason Moses gave up the treasures of Egypt He believed in a better treasure Let's go back to verse 26 now you remember I said we'd come back to it Verse 26 is really the key verse here in this text Moses chose it says in verse 26 to be mistreated with the people of God Why because he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking to the reward Now that word considered is sort of an accounting term It means that Moses weighed the options in his mind On one hand on one hand where the pomp and circumstance of Egyptian royalty intellectual political social and economic power and prestige the promise of fame and glory Like winning the lottery or something like that On the other hand Was an opportunity to identify with the people of God in their suffering and experience the reproach of Christ Hmm, let's see Well, if you had those options before you which would you choose?

Hmm The fleeting pleasures of sin like I was talking with the kids about Just like little bubbles that disappear in a moment Or eternal reward in the presence of God ah now that's that looks at it differently doesn't it then it's a no-brainer Then it's an easy call because the risk Uh rather the gain far outweighs the loss when looked at that way Moses was quite willing you see to sacrifice an inferior pleasure for a superior one By faith he looked far out into the future to that day when God would send Jesus to bear our sins in his own body on the tree He looked forward to the day when he would see God face to face The same God that part of the Red Sea the same God that threw down the walls around Jericho and one day get this one day Moses would see not a Passover lamb But the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world That's what Moses saw he believed that he believed that was the eternal reward that Made the other pale into insignificance You've got to look at life that way And and in a very real sense in Moses we see Jesus Christ Moses was a type of Christ Like Moses Jesus had a choice to make He could have stayed in heaven theoretically and enjoyed all the glories of deity He could have said mission impossible These human beings no way But instead he chose to be mistreated with the people of God He chose the incarnation. He chose the manger and Bethlehem. He chose life here on planet earth He chose to reach out to sinful people like you and me Philippians 2.6 says that Jesus did not county quality with God a thing to be grasped But made himself nothing taking the very form of a servant He chose reproach the verses That's the word reproach. You know what that word means it means scorn contempt hatred He chose that He chose the trumped-up charges against him by religious Pharisees He chose the crown of thorns the mocking the scourging the nails in his hands and feet the spear in his side He chose to be the lamb slain whose blood would pay for the sins of man he chose in other words the cross And let go of the treasures the glories you might say of heaven Why well according to this text just like Moses he was looking to the reward What reward You You you and me the church the people of God the gathered Sons and daughters of God throughout all of time being with him and glory forever. That's his reward He brews 12 to says for the joy that was set before him Jesus endured the cross despising the shame and seated at the right hand of the father. What was that joy the joy of seeing many sons and daughters brought to glory So somehow through the eyes of faith Moses believed this Moses saw this He believed that the Messiah would come to set his captive people free And he figured there could be no greater treasure No greater joy than knowing that Messiah that God who would leave heaven and come to earth He knew there would be no greater joy than knowing that Messiah serving that Messiah and laying down his life for the people of that Messiah I said at the beginning that if you're gonna walk by faith You must be willing to take some risks Taking risks is easy When you know That knowing Christ is more valuable to you than all the treasures this world has to offer

It really boils down to a series of daily choices though, doesn't it? Daily choices made in the crucible of a crisis of faith So I want you to think about these questions take these questions home talk about them over lunch Men talk about them with your life group. Will you will you opt For comfort for safety the status quo Or will you venture on God? Because you know that he loves you You know him to be for you and you know that he will be with you And that to know and serve Jesus Christ is better than life itself What risky step of faith what risky step of faith are you going to take this week because you want the treasure That only Jesus can provide Let's pray Father It's heavy stuff This is no easy question to answer and I sense that you are asking it through Hebrews 11 You're asking us to consider what Risky step of faith are we willing to take in order to treasure Christ above this world You've said in your word that the sufferings of this present time aren't worth comparing with the glory That is to be revealed to us lord Forgive us that we often don't live in light of that promise Forgive us that we often choose the fleeting Bubbles of sin over our relationship with you Forgive us that we we stop believing in invisible realities and we focus on earthly things So lord my prayer our prayer today is that you'll help you'll help us to serve and to suffer Not because if we think it's the right thing to do not because it's what religious people do not because Serving and suffering make you love us, but because you already do love us Thank you that nothing we do can separate us from your love Remind us please lord that at your right hand or pleasures Forever more better pleasures than anything we could find in this world Remind us that you're our greatest treasure and that we can therefore let go of earthly glory Because we have a greater glory awaiting us and I pray lord that you'll show us specific practical ways that we can take risks this week for the one who is our reward Do that lord for your glory won't you and for our good and we pray in Jesus name. Amen