Thursday, May 17, 2007, Part 3

IDEA: Faith doesn’t make us comfortable; in fact, it can cause us great pain.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that it’s better to suffer for something than to live for nothing.

When I was young, it was street-smart to say, “I’d rather be a live coward than a dead hero.” What was the philosophy behind that bit of street wisdom?

Do you agree with it?

I. Moses made a choice between two alternatives:

Hebrews 11:24 – He could have been called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 

The tense of the verb refuse points to a specific act of choice. It is faith acting in a crisis.

The “son of Pharaoh’s daughter” was a title that some time in his life Moses turned down.

The second alternative: he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God.

Choosing this alternative presupposes a firm conviction that Moses possessed that God was calling him to a difficult and dangerous task.

There was a deeper choice: if he refused to identify with God’s people and to side with the Egyptians, that would be apostasy from God, Hebrews 10:35-38.

II. Two things we learn from the choice Moses made between the two alternatives.

Faith does not make us comfortable.

Moses chose ill treatment with the people of God compared with the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Moses had much to lose that was attractive as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He turned his back on enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season.

In choosing a solidarity in suffering with God’s people, there was no temporary character to that suffering, compared to the fleeting pleasures of sin. 

Moses suffered for the rest of his life.

We also learn that it can cause us great pain.

Moses decided that it was better to suffer for something than to live for nothing.