Would you please stand for the reading of God's Word? I did not know that I would rather have Jesus than anything until I lost everything and realized that Jesus was more than enough and so I would rather have Jesus than anything as well. Our scripture reading this morning is found in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. I'll begin reading at verse 24, Hebrews 11, 24. 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 than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, 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 seen 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. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, you may be seated and you did a wonderful job there. Thanks be to God. Now don't say that if you don't mean it. We are not teaching you to be hypocrites. We want to encourage you to be faithful followers of Christ who long long for his grace and he dispenses his grace through his Word and in his kindness he has given us his Word. You know this destroyer in the text is not the devil. This destroyer here in the text is actually God himself. Salvation is always from God by God, for God is the work of God for his people. Now I want you to know that the evil one is always after the people of God. He first of all seeks to distract us with these fleeting pleasures of sin and then in his efforts to distract us he moves on to seek to discourage us. For if he is effective at distracting us then it's very easy to discourage us because we say things like how could I be so foolish? I've walked with the Lord for all these years how in the world did I get distracted with that? We end up discouraged and he just he just sits on us. He just holds us down. He encourages us toward isolation. So the evil one starts with distraction and distraction is very effective. You can have the grandest of intentions. Oh this weekend let's make a meal for one of our friends who's ill or in the hospital and lo and behold your plans are thwarted because Tennessee wins. You have good intentions? You got distracted. It's easy to distract people in this world. Our world is organized to distract us from the glory of God. And then after we're distracted we move to discouragement. And then over the years we'd learn that beautiful verse in Romans that says there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now if you've never heard that verse before you need to go home and take a bath in it this afternoon because it'll change your life. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So for those of us who are saints we learn I've been distracted. I've been discouraged but I have a savior. There's therefore now no condemnation for me and you begin to set your face like flint to Christ's return. You see we live in this gap between Christ's resurrection and Christ's return. These are the days we have. This is how our life has been framed up for us by God. And once you understand that and you begin to set your face like flint to Christ's return and live your life as one of the citizens of heaven then Satan changes his tactics. He moves from seeking to distract you and discourage you. He moves to bring destruction in your life. Think your way through the Bible with me. Remember the fall in Genesis 3? The fall in Genesis 3 was met by a promise by God. I'll never forget it. Wheaton College is the very first time I read Genesis. I was reading through in my Old Testament survey class I was a baby Christian. I couldn't find things in the Bible. I didn't know if you asked me to find the book of Hebrews I think I just would have given up. I would not know how to find the book of Hebrews. I didn't know where any of the books of the Bible. And so our professor asked us to read through Genesis. I started reading through Genesis and here's creation and from creation God makes this man and this woman and then he makes him a promise and this promise is that they are to enjoy all that he's given them except one thing. All these things you can have but this one thing and who shows up Satan. He's always been busy thwarting the people of God. He wants to come between God and his people because he loves to isolate and produce this sense of being inferior and unworthy. I used to have an inferiority complex until I realized I was inferior. I got freed up but what did Satan do in Genesis 3? He lies. He distracts. He discourages because he's trying to destroy the promise and so God meets this failure of Adam and Eve by making a promise. He says I'll send the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. Beautiful promise. Adam and Eve have two sons Kane and Abel. How long did it take for the evil one to once again try to thwart the plan of God? Kane kills Abel. You see this battle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. And so we should not be surprised that we find the people of God in Egypt and the people of God in Egypt need help. They need a redeemer. They need a deliverer and God raises up a man named Moses because Pharaoh, what does Pharaoh do to the baby boys of the people of God? He has them all slaughtered. Remember later in a New Testament what Herod did to the little baby boys of Jerusalem when he thought the promised king was coming? He killed all of those little baby boys. You see the evil one is always seeking the destruction of God's people and whether you realize that or not he's after you and we need a redeemer. We need a champion and God gives us a picture of a champion in Moses. Now some words caught me in this text and they caught me off guard a few weeks ago as I was studying. I want to bring your attention to these words. If you will look at verse 25 of Hebrews 11, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God then to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. So what's happened? Moses is maturing. Moses is growing. He's saying no to the riches that could capture him. Now he had the finest education known to man growing up in Egypt. Wonderful education. Wonderful riches. A wonderful opportunity to inherit. He was Pharaoh's daughter's son adopted and he turns his back on those. You see he's making this transition from being distracted. He's not going to be distracted by those things. He's turning his face toward God, 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 or he was looking for the reward. He had turned his face for the Lord. Now what struck me about this passage is it says that Moses considered the reproach of Christ. Now how did Moses know anything about the reproach of Christ? Now the sermon title is consider and esteem the reproach of Christ. The word consider is an accounting term that's used in the text. It means to reconcile. It means to settle in your mind. It's like when you balance your checkbook or you sit down at work and you say well here's accounts payable and here's our revenue and let's see if we have enough money to handle our accounts payable that's that word consider. Now I want you to consider the reproach of Christ this morning. I want you to reconcile it in your mind and I not only want you to reconcile it in your mind. Now I want you to move to a steaming of reproach of Christ. The steam means to honor. It means to have the utmost respectful. Now some of you are wondering what does it mean the reproach of Christ? This word reproach is a word that means dishonor. It means shame. The shame of Christ. I want you to consider an esteem the shame of Christ. Why? How did Christ have shame? It doesn't make sense in my mind. But I began to study the word of God in this particular word and I found that this word has its roots from the ancient people of God when they would look at the pagan culture and the pagan culture in which they live for the people of God always live among pagans. It's where we live and they would look on the practices of the pagan and say reproachable. Those are just shameful, reproachable people. Look at how they live their lives and over time it came to take on a meaning that it was a person who was a shameful person according to society standards. If you think about it, what happens in the evolution of this word is it reaches the point where people understand a reproachable person to be someone who willingly and joyfully denies the living God. That's a reproachable person. They knowingly, willingly, joyfully denies a living God. That's a reproachable person. And now your mind is really in a mess, isn't it? Because now you're beginning to consider the reproach of Christ and you're saying what is the reproach of Christ? Christ loved the sinful people who did not love him in return. John 1, he came to his people and his people received him not. Now consider the reproach of Christ with Moses. If you'll turn with me in Exodus, chapter 6, I want you to begin to see how this reproach is manifested and manifests in the life of Moses. Moses has this sense that God is calling him, looking chapter 6, verse 10. So the Lord said to Moses, go in. The Lord is calling Moses and he says go. Do you know one thing that the word go does not mean? It does not mean stay. So when the Lord says go and make disciples, there's one thing for sure you need to know that the word go does not mean. So the Lord said to Moses go in, tell Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How's Pharaoh going to listen to me? Can you see his logic? Can you feel his problem? Just slip your foot in his sandal for a second and see what's going on here. He said, well no, no, no, wait a minute. God, you've sent me to this people and they rejected me. Now you want me to go. This isn't going to work because the people won't receive me and I'm here to rescue them. How in the world is Pharaoh going to receive me? He is an enemy and I want you to recognize at that moment Moses began to understand the reproach of Christ. For Christ told his disciples the world hated me. It will hate you if you're one of mine. And Moses began to process this in his heart. And somewhere in his mind he's beginning to understand what this calling means when he's called to go and he's understanding the reproach of Christ because Moses is rejected by his people. He would walk through the tents of Israel and people will cry, there he goes, Moses, the great deliverer who's brought greater problems on us. Now we have to gather our own straw to make bricks and Moses felt that rejection and that reproach and it would have been easy for him to stop going on. And so he had this sense of being a rejected leader. He began to feel this rejection, the rejection of Christ. Secondly I want you to recognize that he adopted this burden. He not only was a rejected leader he didn't stop. He now adopts the burden that God has given him. Look in numbers chapter 11. My pages are sticking together in this Bible. I have a brand new preaching Bible to preach to the folk at first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. I received it last night at a wedding in Dallas that I was officiating. And this dear young couple that is so meaningful to Laura and I, revering Tim Tinsley, first Presbyterian Chattanooga. They pray that God anoints this word for his people. Numbers chapter 11. This burden adopted. I want you to see it here in verses 12 and 13. Here's Moses lamenting. He's struggling. Oh, he's caught between God and a hard spot. Rebellious people. Verse 12. Hit, listen this. Did I conceive all this people? I'm sure there's many mothers who can identify with this text. Did I conceive that kid? That can't be my child. Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth? That you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to give to their fathers. You see what's happening to Moses? He's feeling it. He's owning it. They rejected me, Lord, but I'm not going to reject them. Lord, I'm going to take them. I'm going to adopt them. And they're going to be my people. And I want you to know that the Lord Jesus Christ does that with us. He gathers us to himself even while we're kicking and screaming. Romans 5. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Moses is beginning to feel the reproach of Christ. He's beginning to understand what the Passover lamb must really need to look like one day. He's beginning to see this image of Christ in his mind as he takes on the burden of being a redeemer for his people. And it's a heavy burden, but he won't stop. And Christ will not stop until he gathers all his people to himself. Thirdly, I want you to recognize another thing about Moses. He gets very frustrated with these people in Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. You know Exodus 17, right? Just think for a minute. You're thinking, well, I know in Exodus 20, they have the 10 commandments. So they must have just been delivered out of Egypt. That's exactly right. I'm glad you're thinking with me this morning. Because they're delivered out of the land of Egypt. They pass through the Red Sea. They get out of the Red Sea. And they actually have a little victory song in Exodus 15. It's a wonderful song that Moses and Miriam, his big sister, wrote together in honor of the Lord. And you would think they've just had this wonderful experience. Things are going great. It couldn't be better. We've been delivered. And you would think they would just walk with God the rest of their life. They might think about sinning and they'd say, oh, remember the Red Sea? Remember looking back, seeing those bodies of those Egyptians floating? Remember that? Remember that? Remember that? Grab that Ebenezer out of your toga. And look at that. Remember that? Look what happens in Exodus 17 verses 3 and following their thirsty. But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Some Moses cries to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They're, they're almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said, pass on before the people. Taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go and go and go. Do you hear what he's calling his Redeemer to do to go before his people? Even though there are grumbling people, even though there are rebellious people, go before them. It reminds me of when Christ went just a little farther in the garden. The disciples fell asleep, but Christ went just a little farther than me. You see Moses is beginning to understand this deep calling on his life. He's a type of Christ. He's identifying with the reproach of Christ and he's understanding what it means to love a people who don't love you in return. He's understanding what it means to lead a people who will not follow. He understands what it means to take care of a people who don't appreciate the provisions that God has provided for them. Man, man, man again. Yes, yes, the Lord has given you mana again. Thank God for his provision in the wilderness. You see, not only did the people leave Egypt and look back, they look back and said, oh, the leaks and the onions. Oh, we had everything we wanted. It's somehow they've forgotten. They were slaves. Somehow they've forgotten that they were beaten every day. There's something about the human soul that's hardwired to good works, works of self-justification. I never forget a Roman Catholic man that I was presenting a gospel to in Florida one day. And when I got to the point of explaining that heaven is not deserved or earned, it's a free gift. I took off my watch and I used a little illustration that Dr. Kennedy taught me in Florida. And I said, you know, if I gave you this watch, it's a very expensive watch. In fact, my daughter who gave this to me is here this morning. If I gave you this watch, it's precious to me. It's an expensive watch. And as you received it, you said, well, that's too nice of a watch. I'm going to give you $20 for it. Well, it stopped being a gift the moment he gave me $20 for it. It was still a pretty dog on good deal on a nice watch, but it wasn't a gift. And that Roman Catholic man looked at me and he connected the dogs and he'd laughed in my face. And he waved his hand in my face and said, you believe that? That salvation is a free gift from God and he walked off. You know, grace is very offensive. It's very offensive to a prideful person to think that that you stand there with nothing but your hands out. Saying, God, I don't have anything to offer you but my sin. You see, Moses was understanding that and he was understanding the reproach of Christ as these people pushed away God's goodness. I want you to recognize three things about Moses in that he's a type of Christ. One, he was sent by God. Moses was sent by God. Secondly, I want you to recognize that Moses is like Christ and that he was used to redeem his people. God used Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. And then lastly, I want you to recognize that Moses is a type of Christ in that he did miraculous signs. Now, I want you to recognize something. And this is very difficult for me. I told this story in the earlier service and I'm going to tell you a very sad story about my little brother Paul David. I want you to see that the evil one is seeking to destroy our lives. My little brother Paul David was 12 years younger than me and he became a crack cocaine addict. And on Christmas Day, 1995, my little brother Paul was shot and killed in the middle of a crack cocaine deal. I was in Dallas serving as pastor there. And I received a phone call that Christmas day and it was my older brother Pat who was a recovering heroin addict. I had the privilege of leading Pat to faith as he was trying to kick heroin years ago. And Pat called me and he was very shaken and upset and he said, Tim, Paul David's dead. I've just left the St. Louis County morgue. They called me to come down to identify our baby brothers by. Now, little Paul David was precious to me. He still is precious to me. And you can imagine on Christmas Day no matter how many presents the grandchildren open or we open. I always have this thought in the back of my mind that my little baby brother, 26 years old, died. I had the privilege of telling Paul about Christ but I didn't know if he was a believer in Christ. And so my brother said, Tim, Dad wants you to come up here and do the funeral. I really don't know that my father understood what he was asking about me. But at that point, I was basically about the only Christian our family had and a pastor to boot. I said, I'll go. And I went up to St. Louis and I remember I remember renting the car and driving over to the funeral home. And I had to see him. I had to see if he was really dead. I just I couldn't believe that my baby, my baby brother was really dead. He was my baby brother and in fact, the Lord used that little Paul David when I was deciding between the Naval Academy and Community College. And I made that wonderful decision of Community College. I stayed because I wanted to help my baby brother. And so I went into the funeral home and I looked at him and he was beautiful. And he was wearing the clothes that my older brother Pat had bought him. My brother Pat became a Christian when he was getting off of heroin. And he leads a humble life. But he's a good man. And he took all the money he had which was $50. And he brought my little brother the clothes that he's buried in. And it broke my heart because most of us spend more money on our shoes than my little baby brother, what he was buried in. And it just broke my heart. And I just went there holding onto his coffin and his dead body. And then I went out to greet the people because that's what pastors do at Units. And I went out into the reception area of the nursing home. And it is filled with homeless people and drug addicts and alcoholics and prostitutes. They were my brother's friends. And so I'd doodifully went from person to person high. I'm Pastor Tim. Paul Davis, my baby brother, and I've come to do a funeral. How did you know Paul? And I met this handsome black man, African-American man who just powered over me and he was chiseled. And he was so strong and so big. He intimidated me because of just his sheer size and the look in his eyes. And I said, hi, I'm Tim. I'm going to do Paul's funeral. Could you tell me how you knew Paul David? And he looked at me and said, I met Paul David in jail. And I said, well, I'm sorry to hear that. I mean, in seminary, they never taught us what to say when somebody says that. And I looked up at him and I said, well, I'm sorry that you met him in jail. And he kind of started to bow up on me a little bit. And he said, I'm not. I'm happy I met him in jail because Paul David led me to Christ in jail. I was there with him for six weeks. And God used him to lead me, to lead me to faith. Immediately, I just came unhinged because I was thinking, first of all, is my baby brother? Does he know the Lord? Well, that little rascal not only knows the Lord, he's in jail, leading his fellow inmates to Christ. And I just breathed the sigh relief and that handsome black man wasn't done with me yet because he reached out and he took my hand. And he started to squeeze it like it was a child's hand. And he got right up in my face and he got his eyes close to my and he put emphasis on the word reverend. He said, Reverend Tinsley, God saves messed up people changed my life. The evil one has sought to distract and to discourage and even to destroy the people of God. But we have a redeemer, we have a redeemer who loved us when we didn't love him and returned, who identified with us when we would not identify with him and who led us and made provision for us, even when we couldn't understand the provision. I stand before you today as a man who believes that God saves messed up people and he does it for his glory and for our good. And so do you know how you're going to understand the reproach of Christ? You're going to be a little Christ in Chattanooga and you're going to meet people and you're going to fall in love with them even though they don't love you and you're going to identify yourself with them and stick to them like glue even though they're going to rebel against you. And as you feel that rejection and as you experience their prideful rebellion you're going to experience the blessing of the reproach of Christ. And you are not only going to consider the reproach of Christ you are going to esteem the reproach of Christ because we're here for his glory to redeem his people and don't you ever think that God is not in the business of saving messed up people because he will snatch them from the hands of the destroyer and bring glory to himself. Let's pray. Father, there is a well in our souls that is that is brimming over. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for touching my little baby brother. Thank you, Lord, for being so kind to your people that you would not only redeem us, but that you would send us to a lost world to love them with your love. That messed up people who were distracted and discouraged and on their road to destruction would be brought to new life in their redeemer. Jesus the Christ, the love of our souls. Amen. Would you please stand for the benediction? And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life everlasting. Amen.