Are we Ready, or Preparing for the Hard Times?
Hebrews 11:24,25
May 5, 2013 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
I.
Introduction (2 Timothy
2:3; 4:3)
A. “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”
B. Meaning of Endurance: to bear hardship; to put up with something or somebody unpleasant; to survive.
C. Other words for Endure: abide, be patient with, bear the brunt, go through, grin and bear it, hang in, keep up, live through, put up with, ride out, stand, stick it out, submit to, suffer, take it, take patiently, tolerate, undergo, weather, withstand
D. We will look at all of these words this month as we strive to be Ready to Endure
E. Questions (2Timothy 4:3a)
1. Are we ready, or preparing for the hard times, the suffering, the endurance that will be needed to stay faithful to God’s word?
2. Are we ready to live out the way Jesus said?
3. Are we ready to do the will of God instead of our own?
4. Are we ready to suffer for Jesus’ sake, to lose, while we watch the world win and succeed all around us?
F. To be a Church READY to ENDURE means more than just “attending a meeting” for 2 hours on a Sunday morning, and thinking you have all you need to make it through the week AS A CHRISTIAN!
G. Do hard times, troubles, pressures cause you to constantly QUIT and give up?
H. Then GOOD! This message is for you!
II.
Background (Acts 7:17-22)
A. Moses was born at a very dangerous time in Jewish history (7:17-19)
1. The womb was not a safe place for male children way back then either!
2. Every boy baby born had to be drowned – post birth abortion!
B. But Moses’ parents were better than many parents and wicked people today (7:20)! They would NOT allow their third child to be killed!
C. So they hatched a plan – a desperate plan (7:21) – to save their newborn son! They would place him in a small basket (a Moses basket) and pitched it (spread tar all on the outside to waterproof it), and then sent in downriver right in front of Pharaoh’s own unmarried daughter!
D. And by the grace and goodness of God, it worked (7:21)!
E. In a brief moment, their tiny baby boy was (7:21,22)…
1. Adopted into the very home of the man who wanted him dead
2. Going to be cared for by his own mother during the formative years
3. Going to grow up in the lap of luxury and comfort and power
4.
Going to be educated by the
greatest minds and teachers that
5.
Going to be in line to take the
very throne of
F. You would think that Moses would NEVER want to face hard times, or fall on them, like we all do just naturally
G. Yet he did!
H. And HOW Moses endured is our lesson this morning! Because he did NOT endure like a spoiled Egyptian prince, but as a Christian Man’s-man!
III.
What Moses Had to Face IN
the Will of God
A. Pharaoh – THE most powerful man in the world at that time
1. Moses had made an enemy out of Pharaoh 40 years earlier
2.
Now Moses would have to face him,
time after time until Pharaoh finally crumbles and lets the nation of
3. How would you like to have to face YOUR enemy day after day and week after week all as part of God’s will for your life?
B. Failures in his own life
1. In his own home life (Exod 4:20-26)
2. In his own attitudes – got him in trouble a few times
a.
Anger – at
b. Anger again at the Rock when he hit it when God said to just speak to it! It cost him getting into the promised Land himself!
C. Rejection by his own people – the ones he was trying to help
1. They got upset at Moses and told him to leave them alone in their misery
2. Moses had to face his own people not believing in him and his calling
D.
An impossible barrier at
the
1.
Leaving
2.
But when 2 million people arrived
at the
3. Moses HAD to handle that problem too – by looking to God for instructions!
E.
Constant Lack of necessary
things
1. Food - Moses would have needed 1500 tons of food each day to feed the Israelites. To bring that much food each day, two freight trains, each a mile long, would be required.
2. Besides that, you must remember, they were out in the desert, so they would have to have firewood to use in cooking the food. This would take 4000 tons of wood and a few more freight trains, each a mile long, just for one day. And just think, they were forty years in transit.
3. And oh yes! They would have to have water. If they only had enough to drink, cook and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons each day...and a freight train with tank cars, 3 miles long, just to bring water!
F. Constant murmuring and complaining by the people – to the point of them even wanting to stone him several times
G.
The Desire to Quit!
1. Moses was wearing out carrying all those people on his mind
2. He was pretty low a couple of times
3. Just like we ALL get!
H.
The lack of godly,
consistent and faithful people around him to lean on for support
1. Aaron failed Moses
2. His own wife stayed away from him for lengthy periods of time instead of strengthening him
3.
Most of the elders and leaders
were spoiled wimps who constantly wanted to quit and go back to
4. Moses had to a load of things alone – it was the way things were, but it shouldn’t have been!
I. Not to mention all the surrounding nations constantly attacking this indefensible group of 2 million people (the Amalekites, Amorites, Midianites, Moabites, Amonites, termites and especially the flashlights)!
J. Worse than all that was the DELAY – 40 long years of delay, putting up with these people, and their complaining before they were allowed to arrive at the Promised land
K. But the worst thing that Moses had to deal with and endure was the DENIAL by God of Moses being allowed to finish his course and enter into that land that he had so worked so hard to
L.
HOW Could ANYONE ENDURE
all that?
IV.
Message (Hebrews 11:24,25)
A.
Moses Made a Serious
Choice To Endure
1. Way back when he was 40 years old
2. It was then that Moses saw how HIS people were living, and being treated, and he made a choice – a serious choice – to STAND with them!
a. To no longer be an Egyptian
b. But a God fearing, Bible loving Jew!
c. No matter the cost
3. He had NO idea what that would mean, but he made the choice anyway! By FAITH!
4. Jesus called for men to choose to follow Him – without knowing what lays ahead!
5. He is still calling!
6. It is a serious choice! MORE SERIOUS than…
a. Who you are going to marry
b. What career you will do
c. Where you will move to
d. Who will be your friends
7. I made the choice to follow the JESUS of this Book almost 33 years ago!
8. It all starts with a CHOICE!
B.
Moses Made Some Stupid
Mistakes Along the Way Too
1. Tried to take matters into his own hands at the first
2. Tried to get ahead of God and free all those people from their slavery
3. Thought God would appreciate the help
4. Thought the people, HIS people would look up to him and follow him now
5. Went away from God (backslid) and got bitter at God, and ended up marrying out of the will of God
6. But NONE of that mattered! All those wrong choices were not enough to keep Moses from being used of God, IF Moses would just humble himself and start over!
7. Through it all, Moses learned NOT to quit on God anymore!
C.
But then, Moses Saw Him
Who is Invisible
1. It took 40 years before he was willing to look
2. But when Moses stepped onto that mountain to see why a bush burned and burned but did not burn up…
3. It was THEN that Moses met God! THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!
4. And do you know what is great? GOD spoke to HIM. Called him by name!
5. Moses bowed his head in fear and reverence, and for the first time in his life, with his eyes firmly shut, he SAW the invisible God, by simple, child-like trusting faith!
6. THAT kind of encounter with God will make a difference in your life
7. But, WITHOUT that kind of relationship with God, YOUR ENTIRE LIFE WILL BE A WASTE! A bitter, backslidden, empty waste!
D.
Moses Renewed His
Decision, but this time doing things God’s Way and in God’s Power!
1. Yes, Moses wrestled with the will of God that day on Mt Sinai
2. He threw up reason after reason why he could NOT do what God was asking him to do
3. But in the end, Moses RENEWED the decision he had made 40 years earlier
4. He didn’t have to make a new decision; he just needed to get back to keeping the first one!
5. Oh how we need a REVIVAL of renewing our decisions we made when we first were born again
a. That we WILL do whatever God asks us to – no matter what
b. That we will NOT mess around with the sins that nearly killed us before we were saved
c. That we will put and keep Jesus FIRST in our lives – not last, or when we feel like worshipping Him
d. That we would make reading this Book THE main source of our life and home
e. That the things of God will always be more important than the things of this world
E.
Moses Refused Four Things
– With high choices come high costs!
1. Refused The Easy Way (24)
a.
The easy way was the way that
made MOST sense – he had been prepared to be Prince of all
b. But he refused that path!
2. Refused The Pleasures of Sin (25)
a. We were constantly told that sinful things were WRONG
b. And we got the idea that sinful things would not be fun, or pleasant
c. But they are!
1) Pro 20:17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
2) Pro 9:13-18 A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
d. Pornography, Adultery, thrill of Gambling, drugs
e. All have a thrill, and pleasure, but they bite like a deadly snake
1) Pro 23:31,32 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
f. There is nothing wrong with having fun, and pleasures
g. But the pleasures of sin are the problem
3.
Refused The Treasures of
a. Think about what Moses was refusing
b. Wealth beyond our wildest dreams
c. A mark of a Christian is the desire to work, to give, to love people, not to just HAVE money and wealth, and power
d.
Will your boss offering you a pay
raise if you work on Sundays be enough to get you to
e. Is it possible that if you came into a load of money that you would change churches and hang around with more posh people and
f. What if you meet a girl who is a knock out, and yet is lost and uninterested in God’s word? Will you refuse her?
g. Hmmm. I wonder!
h. Moses did!
4. Refused Fear (27)
a.
Moses learned to refuse to worry
about the wrath of the king of
b. He had been afraid before, but not anymore
c. Moses had found someone bigger to worry about! God!
d. If a man fears God, he has nothing left to fear!
e. How many of you did things and maybe STILL do things that you are ashamed of simply because you fear your friends, or being made fun of or being “left behind” by the world?
f. It’s time God’s people refuse to let the fear of this world enslave them anymore!
F.
Moses Replaced them with
Four Better Things
1. It is NOT enough to refuse and reject wrong things in your life – you have to replace all of them with right and godly things!
2. Replaced The easy Way with The Hard Way – Suffer Affliction
a. This is why there aren’t many missionaries going to the farthest reaches of mankind these days – it is hard!
b. This is why so many marriages break up – afflictions! Very, very few marriages are “perfect”
c. The will of God is almost always HARDER than doing your own will – at least at first!
3. Replaced the Pleasures of Sin with The People of God!
a. Praise God! Moses swapped the pleasures of sin for the people of God!
b. Just how important THIS group of people is to you will be revealed by how little or how much you are willing to trade in your Sports, TV, Movies, friends, family, sleep
c. For…
1) Preaching
2) Hymn singing
3) Soul-winning
4) Cork Bible Institute
5) Discipleship
6) Teaching in Sunday School
7) Fellowship – even with some boring people who are the PEOPLE of GOD!
4. Replaced the Treasures of Egypt for The Reproaches of Christ – embarrassment, humiliation
5. Replaced the Fear of Pharaoh with a Future Reward!
a. If ONLY You and I believed that heaven will be so worth it all
b. That the rewards of Christ and of heaven will be oh so much greater than anything we may have to face down here!
G.
Moses Never Looked back –
forsook, abandoned
1. Will YOU do the same this day?
V.
Conclusion
A. Are you ready to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”? READY to ENDURE means more than just “attending a meeting” for 2 hours on a Sunday morning, and thinking you have all you need to make it through the week AS A CHRISTIAN!
B. Moses was given to us in the word of God as an example of how to endure
1.
By Making a Serious Choice
To Endure
2.
By Working Through all the
Stupid Mistakes Along the Way
3.
By Seeing “Him Who is
Invisible”
4.
By Renewing Your Decision,
but this time doing things God’s Way and in God’s Power!
5.
By Refusing Four Things –
With high choices come high costs!
a. Refused The Easy Way
b. Refused The Pleasures of Sin
c.
Refused The Treasures of
d. Refused Fear
6.
Then Replacing them with
Four Better Things
a. Replaced The easy Way with The Hard Way – Suffer Affliction
b. Replaced the Pleasures of Sin with The People of God!
c. Replaced the Treasures of Egypt for The Reproaches of Christ – embarrassment, humiliation
d. Replaced the Fear of Pharaoh with a Future Reward!
7.
By Never Looking back –
forsook, abandoned