EXTRAORDINARY FAITH – HOW TO WALK WITH GOD

Hebrews 11:24-28 

Even the most skilled pilot can experience spatial disorientation in certain situations if they rely on their subjective feelings rather than the objective facts displayed on instruments in the cockpit. Because gravity is not your friend when you’re flying by the seat of your pants, knowing which way is up and which direction you’re headed is a matter of life and death. Faith in feelings rather than facts can be fatal.

In the same way, even longtime Christians can experience spiritual disorientation if they put their faith in someone or something other than the Lord. Every day offers multiple opportunities to either trust your fickle feelings or trust the facts in faith. In life as in flight, the key element is not so much the strength of your faith but the Object of your faith.

The life of Moses tells both sides of this story, but as we see in Hebrews 11:24-28, his faltering start culminated in a faithful finish. If we follow his example, we can do the same.

1. Leave your comfort zone. (vv. 24-25)

“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.” (vv. 24-25)

Life is a series of choices you make to either follow God’s way or go your own way. Moses gave up the good life in Egypt, where he could have lived a life of luxury as an heir to the Egyptian throne (Acts 7:20-22), and obeyed God to accomplish a greater mission instead. Why? Because he had faith in God and lived by way of an eternal perspective.

God took Joseph from his family in the wilderness, placed him in the courts of Egypt by way of hardship, and left Joseph to accomplish God’s purposes there (Gen 37-50). But God took Moses from his family, placed him in the courts of Egypt by way of hardship, and then took Moses to the wilderness to begin accomplishing God’s purposes out there. The important question in both cases was whether or not they would have enough faith in God to obey God for His glory and others’ good.

“At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. When he was placed outside, Pharoah’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:20-22).

After 40 years in the wilderness, God called Moses by way of a burning bush to leave his comfort zone once again, this time to lead God’s people out of slavery into freedom.

“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’” (Acts 7:30-35)

Moses was not an early adopter. Even though he ultimately made the right choice, he tried everything he could think of to convince God that He had picked the wrong guy for this mission (Ex 3-4). He doubted God more than he doubted himself.

–When Moses questioned God’s authority (Ex 3:13), God said “Tell them I AM has sent you” (Ex 3:14).

–When Moses questioned God’s sufficiency (Ex 4:1), God gave him a series of miraculous signs (staff, hand, water-to-blood) to persuade him (Ex 4:2-9).

–When Moses questioned his own ability (Ex 4:10), God asked Moses, “Who gave man his mouth? … Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Ex 4:11-12).

–But when Moses revealed his lack of propensity [“O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Ex 4:13)], “then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses” (Ex 4:14).

Most of us probably think we would do exactly what God wanted if He would only speak to us through a burning bush. But God knows us better than we know ourselves. If Moses back-talked a burning bush he knew for sure was revealing the very voice of God in real time, even having the nerve to say, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Ex 4:13), it’s no wonder that we do the same.

Here’s the bottom line: You can make a difference, or you can make excuses, but you can’t do both at the same time.

“[Christ] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again….Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:15, 17)

What sinful pleasures are you nursing because your love for and dependence on those things is greater than your love for God? Some besetting sin you really don’t want to shake? A lack of confidence in your ability that is really a lack of confidence in God’s ability to use you? An unwillingness to give up something you enjoy even though you know it’s standing between you and God? If God calls you to leave your comfort zone for His glory and others’ good, just do it.

2. Look to your reward. (v.26)

“He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (v. 26)

This approach provides clear evidence that Moses lived by faith, even if it took him a while to get there.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Heb 11:1)

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb 11:6)

We see in Moses’ example patterns of our own. Henry Blackaby’s landmark book Experiencing God points out 7 Realities that allow us to exercise the kind of faith God wants us to have in Him:

1. God is always at work around you.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.

Moses weighed “disgrace for the sake of Christ” on one side of the scales and “the treasures of Egypt” on the other side and correctly decided that going God’s way wins every time. Following Christ might lead to temporary inconvenience as the world understands it, the treasures of Egypt can’t hold a candle to the eternal reward God has promised to provide.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet lose his own soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34-36).

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” (Henry Ford)

Which is a lesson the Rich Young Ruler learned the hard way. When Jesus said he had to be willing to forfeit the things of this world and allow Jesus to be Lord of his life, “he went away sad because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’” (Matt 19:22-24).

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…. No one can serve two masters. Either he will  hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matt 6:19-21, 24)

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14)

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. … we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. (2 Cor 4:7-9)

What earthly treasures are you holding onto with a death grip because your faith in those things is stronger than your faith in God? Your money? Your job? Your house? Your routine? Your popularity? Your complacency? When God calls you to trade the temporal for the eternal, just do it, because the joy you can have in Him is far superior to the “enjoy” you have in lesser things.

3. Live by faith not by sight. (v. 27)

“By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.” (v. 27)

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

“…we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)

“We live by faith, not by sight….So we make it our goal to please him…for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ….” (2 Corinthians 5:7-10)

Most people won’t believe it until they see it. But God’s people won’t see it until they believe it.

Faith may be expressed in different forms, but the Object of biblical faith is always the same: The God of the Bible. If you trust your feelings in your situation, you will eventually falter. But if you trust by faith in your Sovereign Savior, ultimately you will not fail.

Different expressions of faith in God, always leading to the question of whether or not we truly believe (1) God is who He says He is, and (2) God keeps His promises:

SAVING Faith – trusting God to save you from your sins.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

SANCTIFYING Faith – trusting God to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

“And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor 10:13)

“[I am] confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

SUFFERING Faith – trusting God to grow you through every trial.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

Paul said, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take [my suffering] away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:8-10)

“…those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” (1 Pet 4:19)

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.” (1 Pet 5:10)

SERVING Faith – trusting God to empower you for every good work.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:8-10)

SATISFYING Faith – trusting God to satisfy every hope we have in Him.

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:11-13)

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore … that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!” (Phil 3:20 – 4:1)

“God is faithful… For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians 1:18, 20-22)

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9)

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Rev 21:3-5)

We tend to hold fast to the Lord and His promises when it comes to Saving Faith (the beginning) and Satisfying Faith (the end), but there’s plenty of doubt between the two. Yet living by faith requires us to believe just as fervently in the God Who sanctifies us, sustains us through suffering, and calls us to serve as we do the God who saves and will one day satisfy our every longing in eternity.

Are you holding so tightly to what you can see that you’re holding too loosely to the God of heaven you can’t yet see with your physical eyes? God has called you to persevere regardless of your circumstances, so do it because one day your faith will become sight.

4. Let God be the Hero of your story. (v. 28)

“By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.”  (v. 28)

“This is how you are to eat [the Passover lamb]: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.” (Ex 12:11)

“Remove the evil from among you, so that you can stay pure. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us feast upon him and grow strong in the Christian life, leaving our old ways behind.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

Moses kept the Passover by faith. He followed God’s plan, not his own, simply because (1) it was God’s plan and (2) He had already seen what God could do.

Trevin Wax recently reframed a series of questions posed by Christopher Wright in the second edition of Wright’s book, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. The gist of Wright’s book is that God “is the originator of the story, the teller of the story, the prime actor in the story, the planner and guide of the story’s plot, the meaning of the story and its ultimate completion. He is its beginning, end, and center.” Or, as I once heard a preacher say: God is sum and substance of the Bible. He is its theme and text, its center and circumference.

In other words, this is God’s world, and we’re just living in it. There is a God, and we’re not Him. But if we’re not careful, we put ourselves at the center and give God a bit part in our story.

Reflecting on this all-too-common reality, Trevin Wax reframed Christopher Wright’s questions like this:

We often ask: Where does God fit into the story of my life?
Better to ask: Where does my little life fit into the great story of God’s mission?

We often ask: What is God’s purpose for my life?
Better to ask: What purpose does my life have within God’s purpose for all life, wrapped up in his mission for the whole of creation?

We often ask: How can I apply the Bible to my life?
Better to ask: How can I apply my life to the Bible?

We often ask: How can we make the gospel relevant to the world?
Better to ask: How does God intend to transform the world to fit the shape of the gospel?

We often ask: What activities and priorities make up the mission God expects from his church?
Better to ask: What kind of church does God desire for his mission?

We often ask: What kind of mission does God have for me?
Better to ask: What kind of me does God want for his mission?

When all is said and done, the answers we get are a function of the questions we ask. If you want to walk with God in the life of faith, ask the right questions. The answers you receive will lead you straight to the God of the Bible.

One of the most powerful sermons I’ve ever heard was preached by a college campus pastor named Jon Davis two days before surgery to remove a massive tumor from his brain. Not long after praying over his Christian brain surgeon who made a point to attend that service on that day for that purpose, my friend Pastor Jon preached a message from Mark 9 about the faith of a father concerned about the healing of his demon-possessed son. Jon landed on these words in verses 21-24:

“Jesus asked the boy’s father, ‘How long has he been like this?’ ‘From childhood,’ he answered. ‘It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’ ‘If you can?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘Lord, I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’”

There’s something special about that semi-colon, which separates our belief from our unbelief. As we fight the good fight of faith, may God allow us to spend more time on the left side of that semi-colon (“Lord, I believe”) than the right side, knowing all the while that He knows our tendency to straddle the semi-colon as we walk with God. “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Pastor Jon was in town last week dropping off his youngest son for his first semester at Liberty. After 4 years of fighting this fight, I thank God he’s still praying that prayer.

Every second of our lives presents an opportunity to choose God’s plan by faith or choose our own plan by foolishness. To which plan are you committed in this season of your life? God has called you to faith in Himself and His plan, so do it God’s way rather than your own. Then you will truly walk with God.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb 12:1-3)