Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM - Living by Faith ~ Hebrews 11:17-40 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols
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Transcript
Organized into readable paragraphs from the preserved Whisper transcript. Non-speech markers are removed.
All right. Good morning, church family. I'm so glad you're here. It's good to see everybody. You want to stand with me, pray, and then we'll spend some time worshiping the Lord. How's that sound? Father, we come before you this morning. God, we just come before you with thankful and grateful hearts. Lord, we are grateful to be here. We're thankful to be in your house this morning. I just ask that you bless this time. Lord, move mightily this morning by the
power of your Holy Spirit. Father, we love you, and we praise you, and we thank you in your precious name. Amen. Amen. We've got a new song to try out this morning, so I hope you guys enjoy it.
You guys can go and have a seat if you like, and we'll continue on. Because everyone needs compassion, a love that's never failing, mercy, and everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a Savior. We just want to thank you, Lord, and we just want to praise you, God, how big you are, God, for how amazing and powerful and awesome you are, God. We just give you glory this morning.
Help our spiritual lives this morning to the truth of your Son, Jesus, to the truth of your Word this morning. God, we come before you, God, and we hunger for your Word. We hunger for more of you, Lord, God. Just come this morning and move mightily by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord. Open up our spiritual lives this morning, God. We love you, we praise you,
and we thank you. All God's people said? Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.
Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A hand full of things to take note of. As always, on the left-hand side, things that go on throughout the week. Find yourself a spot to get plugged in. Middle section of your bulletin, just a couple of things to take note of.
We are needing a little extra help in the cleaning ministry right now, so if you are interested in getting involved in that, you can talk to either Lauren Lewis or Leah Abbey. If you don't know who those people are, you can come talk to me afterwards, and I will pass your information along to them. And then the only other thing in here for right now is the Reclaiming Masculinity Conference coming up Saturday, September the 12th. If you are joining this morning, you're ready to get involved in Salm 23.
We're starting right now. We're starting right now. And you can sign up for the event at www.salm23.org. There's a QR code there below. It gives you all the info, as well as where you can sign up. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 23.
Psalm 23. Looking at the New American Standard for the responsive reading. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 23, you'll see that the New American Standard is coming in. And you can sign up for it. And as you are turning to Psalm 23, to psalm 23 if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word i will read
the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 23 a psalm of david the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he restores my soul he guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you have anointed my head with oil my cup overflows surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever and father we do praise you for being our good shepherd and so lord i ask now that as our good shepherd you would lead us and guide us into your truth and so father give us eyes to see give us ears to hear
and a heart that can perceive exactly what you have to speak to us this morning through your word lord in jesus name amen you may be seated if you would open up in your bibles to the book of hebrews chapter 11 hebrews chapter 11 today we come to part two in the series living by faith it turns out there's actually going to be three parts to this i thought there were only going to be two we will not quite make it to the end of the chapter even though your bulletins say that we will um but just to recap uh you know the writer to the hebrews had ended chapter 10 by telling us that the righteous man shall live by his faith and we talked about the fact that not only is faith
what saves us not only is faith what keeps us saved but faith is the energizing source that we have to live our lives as god has called for us to live and so in order to illustrate that the writer to the hebrews does two things first he describes faith for us and we'll recap that in just a moment and then he spends time telling stories of faith stories of men and women in the old testament who have lived their lives by faith and done incredibly difficult things not only believing the promise of god but always having their eyes focused on the real future promise that god has for them having their eyes focused on an eternal perspective and so first of all he described faith for us that
faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for and the second thing he tells us that is that it is the confidence of things not seen it's the assurance of what we hope for and what we're hoping for In other words, faith states that it's true whether we have seen it fulfilled or not. And it's the confidence of things that we do not yet see, but we believe that if God has promised them, we can be confident that he will fulfill that promise. And so he started off by telling us some stories. He told us the story of Abel and how God accepted his sacrifice because it was a sacrifice of faith.
He told us the story of Enoch and how though Enoch walked with God, God took him without death into heaven, and he had this testimony that he pleased God by his faith. We told the story of Noah and how Noah built the ark and saved his entire family through that building of that ark because he believed a promise that God had given to him. And then the last one that we looked at was the very father of faith himself, Abraham. Abraham, who left all of his home and family behind and moved to a land that he didn't know on one promise alone.
That God would make of him a great nation, a nation that would be a blessing to multitudes after him. And that God would ultimately make of him a great nation through his son Isaac, who by the way, physically speaking, should not have been born. But because God is the God of faith, because God is the God of the impossible, because God calls the things which are not as though they are, they had this child of faith, Isaac. Well, we sort of ended with Abraham's story, but interestingly, enough, we now begin halfway through Abraham's story with one more story of Abraham's faith in God.
And so today we'll look at five more stories of faith. And so picking up in verse 17, it says this by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. It was he to whom it was said in Isaac, your descendants shall be called. He considered that God is able to raise people from the dead, from which also he received back Isaac as a type.
Again, we've been chronically where in scripture these stories are found. So next to Abraham's name there again, I just wrote Abraham continued because it's the continuation of his story. You might write Genesis 22 verses one through 18. Genesis 22 verses one through 18. This is sort of what I would call the high point in Abraham's story. Abraham's faith. God asked Abraham to do something very, very difficult,
something that we don't really understand even in our own culture. And for Abraham had to have been a difficult thing. Abraham had had this son of faith, and there was so much celebration about the fact that they had this child. His name is Isaac, which means laughter. He brought so much joy to Abraham and Sarah. And when Abraham or when Isaac was somewhere around the age of,
I believe, around 25 ish, mid 20s, Abraham was about 125 years old. God showed up to Abraham and he told him to do something very, very difficult. He said, Abraham, I want you to take your son. This very beginning of Genesis chapter two verse or 22 verse one. Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac. And I want you to go to Mount Moriah. And I want you to sacrifice him there to me.
Our Western culture mind immediately goes, what kind of a God would call for a human sacrifice? It violates everything that God stands for. It violates everything that, we learn about the character and the nature of God. And yet, as he is told to do this, we're given the next commentary in the next verse that it says, early the next morning, Abraham woke up and he saddled his donkey and he grabbed two of his servants and he grabbed his son, Isaac.
And they, they went on a journey to Mount Moriah. And for three days, they journeyed to this mountain, this mountain of God. And when they got to the base of, the mountain, Abraham made a great statement of faith to the two servants that were there with him. After he had laid the wood on the back of Isaac, and after he had grabbed the knife and the, and the bucket of fire to take up there with him, he looked at his servants and he said, I and the boy are going to go up on the mountain to worship the Lord.
And we will return to you. And so he goes up on the mountain. And in the moment when he's walking up the mountain with, Isaac carrying the wood on his back, I hope you're picking up the, the, the subtle imagery that's given to us here with the father next to the son of promise, walking up the Mount of Moriah with the wood on his back, knowing that he was going to sacrifice his one and only son. Isaac looks at his father and he says, father, I see the wood for the sacrifice and I see the fire.
Where is the sacrifice? And Abraham makes this fantastic prophetic statement when he says, the Lord will provide for himself a sacrifice. And so they go up on this mountain. Unless we think that this is some sort of child abuse moment on the part of Abraham. Let's remember that Abraham's 125 years old and Isaac is 25 years old. And I feel confident that if in any moment Isaac decided he didn't want any part of this,
he could have either a outran his father. Cause trust me at the age of 46, I can't keep up with either of my teenage daughters. He could have either out, run his father or overpowered his father and not allowed himself to be sacrificed. Indicating that Isaac understood what was going on and he was willing to take part in surrender to this sacrifice. So as he placed Isaac on the altar and was ready to strike the death blow,
an angel of God caught his hand and said, no, no, don't harm the boy. I now know that you withhold. Nothing from me. And in that moment, Abraham looked in there caught in the thicket was a Ram that he offered as a sacrifice to the Lord because God had provided for himself a sacrifice. That mountain of Mariah is an interesting place because that mountain of Mariah would later be a place where David would offer a sacrifice to stop a plague that God had put on the nation of Israel.
As he. Purchased the threshing floor on the top of Mount Mariah that would ultimately become the location where he would build Jerusalem and that same chain of mountains to the north would be the very spot where Jesus would be sacrificed in the ultimate fulfillment of what was presented for us there with Abraham. It's an amazing story of faith. It's an amazing story of trust.
It's an amazing story of laying on the altar that which is the most important to you saying, God, you are. More important to me than the most important thing in my life. But we're given more of a commentary in Hebrews eleven here where it says this. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was offering up his only son.
It was he to whom it was said in Isaac, your descendants shall be called this whole time. Abraham's living with the promise that God had said through. Isaac, the nation of Israel will grow. The promised people will grow through Isaac. There will be an entire nation of people. Now we have to understand something. This is his only son, meaning this is the only boy named Isaac that could ultimately bring forth the nation that God had promised.
And so as Abraham is walking for those three days, he's walking with a promise and the promise that he's walking with was this. He considered that God is able to. Raise people from the dead from which he also received him back as a type that word reasoned is a very interesting word there. It's an arithmetic term meaning to calculate or to consider. The idea is this.
He considered that God was was worthy of his confidence because God would keep his promise. He considered God's promise worthy of all of his confidence. And so the entire. Time that he's believing that his son is dead because that's the idea carried with the verbiage there. He was also believing that God was able to raise the dead. What a beautiful story that's given to us of Abraham's faith in God.
He said, I trust God so much with my son that I know that either God is going to stop me or God is going to raise the dead. And of course, he received him back as a type and it's a twofold type. Number one, it's a type of Jesus. It's a type of Jesus who would one day on that almost very same spot just a few miles away give his own very life and then be raised from the dead three days later.
But it's also ultimately a type of all of us because Jesus was the first fruits of those who would be resurrected. And in the same way, we believe that God is able to raise people from the dead, which is why those of us who lose loved ones in the faith have hope because we know that he is able to bring them. The life again, we know that they are more alive than they have ever been before because we believe we consider God faithful to his promise that he is able to raise him from the dead. It's interesting because God sort of built Abraham's faith over the years.
The first step of faith he had to take was to leave everything behind and go to a land of promise. A big step of faith, but not quite offering your son on a, on an altar. Can we all agree with that? The second step of faith that he had to take is will I believe that God is able to protect me in a land full of enemies in a land full of people who don't like that an invader just came in?
Well, I believe that God can protect me and he believed that God would protect him. Of course, the third big step of faith he had to take is will I believe that God is able to provide a son when it's completely humanly, physically impossible for God to do so. And he believed in God, accounted it to him, for righteousness. And now this final step of faith took place in his life.
But I want you to note that when God first called Abraham, he was 75 years old. It was not till 50 years later that God asked him to, uh, to make this great sacrifice of his son. That's why he is able to consider that God would be faithful to his promise is because he had lived a life built on trusting God. He had lived a life, built upon his faith in God. And as he lived his life built on faith in God,
the test got greater, but his faith got stronger. The tests got more intense, but his belief in God continued to grow. And that's the way it is in our lives, brothers and sisters. That's what living by faith is, is learning to take the next step of faith. You see, oftentimes for us, the first step is not leaving our homeland behind. The first step is leaving the world behind and going out to follow Jesus.
That's why I love the way that the baptism creates such a beautiful picture of this because as you take that step and say, I'm going to leave behind the world and I'm going to go out into the water to you to identify myself with Christ in his death and be identified with him in his resurrection. That's the first great step of faith that we take. But listen, that's the first step of faith that you take. It's not the only step of faith that you take.
Oftentimes people give their testimony, of when they came to know Jesus and people say, that's my testimony. And as I've shared with you before about a year or so ago, I shared one of the testimonies that I had with a group of kids and they said, is that your testimony of faith? And I said, that's one of my testimonies of faith because I don't have just one. I can tell you lots of stories of what God has done in me and each new step that I've taken has been a little bit more intense and has required more sacrifice on my part.
But my belief in God has gotten stronger with every step that I've taken. My belief in God has gotten stronger with every step that I have taken in faith, believing that God is able to do what he says that he's able to do. It started at the age of 17 with me saying, okay, I'm going to decide I'm going to follow Jesus with all of my heart. And then it turned into a trip to Bible college a long ways away from my family and my home.
And then it turned into stepping into faith by getting up in front of people and sharing the word of God when I was absolutely terrified to do so. Somebody asked me one, do you still get nervous? Because I've been doing this for a few years now. All together, I've been in ministry a little over 20 years. And they said, do you still get nervous? I'm like, like it's the first day.
And they're like, really? And I'm like, yeah, if I ever stop getting nervous, I better step down because it means I don't take this seriously enough. Every Sunday is a step of faith. Every Wednesday is a step of faith. But every time the step is taken, the faith gets stronger. And I'm reminded that God is able to do exactly what he says he's able to do. And that's what Abraham,
shares a testimony of here is that, that he believed that God was able to even raise the dead. And so he was willing to offer anything to the Lord because he said, God, your plan is so much greater than mine. Well, now we come to the story of Isaac. It says in verse 20, it says, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. Isaac doesn't get much play in chapter 11.
So let's share just a little bit about Isaac's story. Again, you might write those verses down or those chapters down because that tells the story of Isaac. Interestingly enough, the buildup to Isaac's story is much greater than his story in and of itself. Of course, Isaac, first of all, was willing to be sacrificed. I think we need to put that little check mark on the box for him,
right? He was willing to do that. And Isaac took a long time to find a wife. Matter of fact, his dad sent back to his family, and there's a beautiful story about Isaac's bride. You should read that sometime about how God brought him the right wife at the right time. And so around the age of 40, God provided him a wife and they had two sons. The two sons were named Jacob and Esau.
They were twins. Interestingly enough, when they first got married, Rebecca wasn't able to have kids. And so she, of course, kind of cried about it, which is fair. I totally understand that. And Isaac prayed for her. And she got pregnant. And when she got pregnant, she said, whoa, what's going on? There was this like war going on in her stomach. And listen,
I don't know what it's like when there's one kid in there. I don't actually know what it's like, but I've watched what it's like when there's one kid in there. It's 2026, but we're not that kind of church. I've watched the war go on in there. That's just with one kid. I can't imagine what it's like with two. And so, so Rebecca goes, dude, I got a situation going on here.
So she prayed about it. And God said, there are two nations in your womb. And all you can think is, wow, that's a lot. There's a lot going on in there. So there's two nations in there. They're both going to be great nations, but one will be greater than the other. And the older will serve the younger. Now that doesn't seem like a big deal to us in our culture,
but that was a huge deal in that culture for the, for the younger to be greater than the older was completely counterintuitive to the way that the culture of the East worked at that point in time. The oldest was the one who got the greatest amount of inheritance. He was the one that had the, the authority of the family. He was the man and the younger was just kind of there.
And so these two children are born. And of course they're, uh, uh, even in the birth, there was kind of some issue. Of course, Esau comes out first and he's a, he's a hairy kid, right? Like he came out the womb all covered in hair. That's why his name is Esau. Do you know that the name Esau means hairy, right? I will share that a couple of my friends in Bible college did nickname me that,
but that is neither here nor there. Um, and so he pops out the womb. He's all hairy, but there's holding onto his ankle is his little brother. And so they named him Jacob, which means heel catcher or supplanter. And everybody goes, what does that mean? And I love Gail Irwin's interpretation of it. It means dirty, rotten, sneaky thief, right? Like that's kind of Jacob was,
was, uh, he was an interest. He was a con man. He was one of the original con men, right? And so, and so they're born. And unfortunately what happens with Isaac and Rebecca is even though Isaac's this great man of faith, he's still a man. And he's still, he still has issues. And so they each kind of have their favorite kid. Isaac loved Esau because Esau was a man's man,
right? Like dude loved to hunt. And I don't know if they fished at that, but he loved to fish. He just did everything outdoorsy. The guy smelled like the earth, right? We learned that later on. And then there's Jacob and Jacob. It was kind of a mild man. Now I think that Jacob gets a bad rap sometimes. Like, like Jacob gets considered this like a feminine sort of guy.
Dude was just a Renaissance man, right? Like, he liked to cook as well as some of the other things. And so he was pretty content to chill around the house. So he was Rebecca's favorite. Well, it came time for Isaac to pass down the promise. At least that's what Isaac thought. Isaac thought, this is my promise to give this, this promise of the nation. And so he called Esau and he said,
I want you to go hunting and I want you to get some really good game. And I want you to fix it just the way dad likes it, right? Get the blackstone grill out and just make that thing. Exactly the way that you know, that I like it. And Esau says done well in the background is Rebecca. And she's listening to the whole thing. And she's like, my son's about to get the shaft.
And I know the promise. I know the promise that the older will serve the younger. Jacob needs to be the one that receives the promise. And so she manipulates it. She says, Jacob, here's the thing. Your dad's about to give the promise that rightfully belongs to you, to your brother. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to go and get, a goat and we will kill the goat.
And I will prepare the goat exactly the way your dad likes it. He doesn't have the discerning taste. He thinks he does. And we will take the goat skins and we will put them. Jacob says, this is a problem. Esau is an incredibly hairy man. And I'm a smooth skin man. How are we going to solve that problem? She says, no worries. We'll take the goat skins and we'll put them on your arms.
Sidebar. How hairy do you have to be to throw a goat skin up on your arm and your dad go? Yep, that's, that's you. I've never even seen anybody like that. Anyway, neither here nor that. So, so that's what he does. Jacob comes in and he's like, Esau's vision is really bad. And Isaac's vision is really bad. And Isaac says, you smell and feel like Esau, but you sound like Jacob.
He goes, sorry, dad, I've got a cold. My voice is a little different than it used to be. It's okay. It's me. So he blesses Jacob. And as soon as he blesses Jacob and Jacob leaves, Esau comes in. He says, what about me? Are you going to give me a blessing? And Isaac says, oh, hey, I did it wrong. You're Esau. I just blessed your brother. I gave him everything.
But what he forgot was the blessing wasn't really his to give. It was God's to give. And God would take care of that. And yet by faith, Isaac believed that he could bless the future generation with the promise that God had given to him. Because even though Esau, or even though Isaac was an imperfect man, even though Isaac was a man who struggled in his faith and
sometimes tried to do things his own way, he still had a focus on a promise. He still had a focus on a future that God had for the nation of Israel and ultimately a future of faith. And so it says by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau looking forward to their future about things to come. Verse 21, it says by faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff.
Again, you may know the story of Jacob, but I'm going to share it with you because I love the story of Jacob. I didn't use to, but the longer that I live my life, the more I'm just like, thank God for the story of Jacob in the Bible, right? Again, you might write Jacob's story up there, chapters 27 through 25. And then we take a little break from Jacob and focus on Joseph.
And then we see him again in chapter 48, which is, ultimately what this verse talks about is chapter 48. But of course, when last we left Jacob in the story of Isaac, Jacob had tricked his dad and ultimately had angered his brother. And Esau, the hunter with all of the weapons got really angry and said, I will kill my brother when my father dies. And that terrified both Rebecca and Jacob.
She goes, dude, you got to run and you got to run far and you got to run fast. And so Jacob leaves. And as he leaves on his way to his uncle's place, his uncle Laban's place, he stops. And there's this beautiful story in Genesis of, of when Jacob stops, because while Isaac had his eye on the promise, the promise ultimately came from God. And so Jacob goes to sleep one night on his journey to his uncle Laban's house.
My favorite part of the story is the detail that he laid his head on a rock as a pillow. I'm like, wow, it's no wonder he had a weird dream. He lays his head on a rock as a pillow. And God appears to him in a dream. And God tells him, Jacob, I have a promise for you. I will make of you a great nation. Everyone who blesses you, I will bless everyone who curses you.
I will curse. And then he saw this ladder extending into heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, which was the ultimate prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ, who is our link from heaven to earth. And Jacob wakes up the next morning and he builds a little monument. And he says, God, if you bring me back to this place, then I will worship you and follow you.
A conditional promise that he just gave to God. And so Jacob goes to his uncle Laban's house. And as he gets there, he finds the most beautiful woman that he's ever seen in his life. Her name is Rachel. And he's like, I will marry that girl someday. And he realizes that she's a part of the family that he wants to be married into. And so his uncle Laban, who is absolutely his match as a con man,
right? Says, I'll make you a deal, Jacob. You work for me for seven years. And you can marry Rachel. This is a great deal for Laban, right? Seven years of free labor, and he gets to marry his daughter. And so that's what he does. We're given this great little commentary that says, oh, that it seemed like but a few days because of his great love for Rachel. And so finally the time comes for him to,
to marry Rachel and to consummate the marriage. And so they go through this wedding feast. And of course, a bride would have worn a very heavy veil so that he couldn't see her. And so they go in for the wedding night and he wakes up, wakes up the next morning and he goes, ah, she goes, ah, he goes, ah, it wasn't Rachel. There was a different woman. There was her sister,
Leah. He comes out the tent and he goes, Laban, what the heck? This is not Rachel. He's like, here's the thing. Did I forget to tell you something? Did I forget to tell you that we have a policy around here? That the old, that the younger can't get married before the older it's in the contract. I probably forgot to tell you. You work for me seven more years and you can have Rachel.
So he works for him seven more years and he gets Rachel. And there's a whole litany of things that Jacob does wrong. But at the end of the day, his heart is always focused on the promise. So God calls me, he says, I want you to come back to the land. It's time for you to go back to the land of your fathers. And so Jacob returns with a huge flock, a huge family,
all of the patriarchs, the 12 of the 12 tribes of Israel. He comes back to the land and he's fearful of his brother Esau because he knows he's going to run into him again. So he does everything he can to protect himself against Esau. In one night on the way back, he sends his entire family across across this little river, says, you guys wait there. I'm going to stay here and I'll meet you in the morning.
And he goes back. And he lays down on the other side of the river. Only he doesn't get to sleep that night. Instead, what happens is we're told the angel of the Lord, which we know in the Old Testament is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. The angel of the Lord showed up and it says, and he wrestled with Jacob and he wrestled with Jacob all night long.
And finally, as the day was dawning, the angel of the Lord, none other than God himself said, let go. The day is dawning. And Jacob said, I won't let you go. Unless you bless me. He looked at Jacob and he said, what's your name? He says, my name is Jacob. He says, not anymore. Now your name is Israel. It says he touched his hip and he put his hip out of socket.
From that day on, he walked with a limp. You see, for Jacob to get to the place that we're going to talk about here in just a moment, you have to know that story because Jacob struggled with God. Jacob wrestled with, I can't imagine the will that it takes to wrestle against somebody all night long, right? Wrestler in high school. We used to do these iron man practices.
They lasted an hour. We were done. We were dead by the end of that. I can't imagine a match that lasts an entire eight hours, right? He had to have been so wasted by the end of that, but he would not give up. He would not give up until he said, I need you to bless me before you let me go. Okay. And God asked him this one question. He said, what is your name?
Why did he make Jacob tell him his name? Is it because he didn't know his name? No, it's because his name was his character. And in order for him to become governed by God, he had to realize that he was a dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. And so in the moment when he said, my name is Jacob, it was a whole lot more than just saying his name. It was declaring his character.
He said, this is who I've been before. And God said, not anymore. Now, your name is going to be, he is real governed by God. And then he put his hip out of socket and he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Can I tell you a wise man once said it was not me, even though sometimes I do like to quote myself. It was not me. A wise man once said, don't trust anyone that doesn't have a limp because those of us whom God
likes to use, he first has to hurt. A.W. Tozer, one of his famous quotes is, those whom God would use greatly. He must first hurt deeply. And I had somebody challenged me on that. They're like, why? Why does God have to do that? I said, because if God doesn't hurt us deeply, then we'll never give up and truly trust him. We will never give up and truly trust him.
And so some people walk with a limp physically. Most of us walk with a limp spiritually, but it's what brings us to the place of going, Lord, not my will, but your will be done.
And from there, from that time on, he still wasn't perfect. But from that time on, Jacob walked with that limp and he walked with God. And I have a question for you. I didn't intend to ask this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. I have a question for you. Has God put your hip out of socket yet? Has God done in your life what he had to do? Has he made you own up to who you are so that he can say,
that's not your name anymore? Has he made you own up to who you are so that then he says, but that's not who you are anymore, because who you are now is brand new in Christ. And then that limp causes you to remember every single time that you take a step, that this is who I am because of what God has done in and through me. What God has done to me has now created who I am because that place of surrender should be a, an intentional mark in your life.
And because of that story, we can read this verse. It says, by faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped, leaning on his staff. We'll deal with Joseph's story in just a minute, but just know that Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And these two sons, right before Jacob died, Joseph brought them to his father to bless them.
And he brought them the way that he was supposed to. He put the oldest son on Jacob's right, hand, the hand of blessing. And he put the youngest son at Jacob's left hand so that Jacob could bless them. And as they showed up, Jacob's vision dimming, they show up and Jacob does this. And Joseph says, no, no, no, you did that wrong. And Jacob says, no, I didn't because God doesn't look like man does.
Yes, they'll both be blessed, but the younger will ultimately be blessed greater. Then the older. And as he did so, it says, and he worshiped. How, how did it say that he worshiped leaning on his staff? Why did Jacob have to worship by faith leaning on his staff? Because Jacob had a hip that had been put out of socket and he had to learn to worship leaning on a staff because the very thing that put his hip,
the very thing that put his hip out of socket was the very one that he worshiped with all of his heart by faith. Jacob, when he was old, blessed Joseph's two sons and worshiped while leaning on his staff. Well, now we come to the life of Joseph. We're told in verse 22 by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the Exodus of the sons of Israel, and he gave orders concerning his bones.
Joseph's a fantastic story as well. The second to the youngest of the 12 sons of, of Jacob. And, and Joseph was the favored one. Joseph was the favorite. So there were two things that made Joseph's brothers hate him. Number one, he was given a robe of many colors, right? We all know a little bit about the story of Joseph. Perhaps you've even heard of Joseph and his amazing technicolor dream coat.
And oftentimes we go, what's the big deal with the fact that he gave him a multicolored robe? That doesn't seem like a big thing to me. It's because the, the Hebrew word that's used, that is oftentimes translated a coat of many colors could actually also mean a long robe. Now that doesn't mean much to us because we don't live in that culture. But if we were to translate this in today,
we would say that Joseph was given a brand new silk three piece suit. Now, have you ever seen anyone out taking care of sheep in a silk three piece suit? No, you have not. Where do people in suits work? In offices, telling other people what to do, right? That's essentially what his dad gave to Joseph. He gave him the coat of the supervisor. And Joseph was where in line?
Second to youngest. And so, so his brothers are like, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You mean to tell me he's our supervisor? This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. Well, add that to the fact that Joseph was this very spiritually sensitive young man. And he started having these dreams. Right? He's like, I had a dream. I had a dream. And as he's having this dream,
these dreams, all of his brothers are bowing down to worship him. Matter of fact, his brothers and his mother and father are all bowing down to worship him. And he makes the really big mistake of, of going, guys, you're never going to guess what happened. Let me guess. You had a dream. You nailed it. You want me to tell you about it? No. Good. I'm glad you asked.
And they go on to, he goes on to tell them that they're all going to bow down and worship. And they're like, dude, you mean to tell me, that we are all going to bow down and worship you? We have other plans for you. And so one day, Joseph goes out to check on his brothers. And when he goes out to check on his brothers, they're like, let's deal with this guy forever.
And one brother is like, let's not kill him. That feels like the wrong thing to do. Let's sell him into slavery. That'll be way better. Right? I don't know how, I don't know about you, but if that's your compassionate brother, that's a really bad place to be. So, so Joseph shows up. They catch him. They throw him in a well. They strip him of his coat. And they're like,
what do we do with him now? Well, they see a band of traders come by, and they're like, let's make a little cash off of him. So they sell him, if I remember correctly, for 30 pieces of silver, which is kind of interesting, because that's what Jesus was sold for. They sell him, and they take his coat, and they cut it up, and they throw a bunch of goat's blood all over it.
And they're like, dad, we're so sorry. He died. I cannot imagine. We blow by this story like nothing happened, and we're like, yep, that's the story in Genesis. I cannot imagine being Joseph's dad. In that moment. And there Joseph goes into slavery. First place he lands is a pretty good gig. He's in the house of Potiphar. And Potiphar is basically the head of the secret service for Pharaoh.
That's essentially what his job was. And so Joseph rises to the ranks as a young, probably 16, 17, maybe 18-year-old boy, rises to the ranks of the head of the secret service's house. In other words, he's in charge of all of the servants in this home. There was one problem. Potiphar, Potiphar's wife thought Joseph was hot. She was a cougar, okay? So she's constantly coming after Joseph.
And she's like, hey, big boy. And he's like, get away from me. And every day she's like, you know, it's desperate housewives all over again. And that's what's going on with Joseph. And finally one day, he's the only one with her in the house. And she's like, today's the day. Hey, fella. And he's like, no. And he runs away. And she grabs his robe as he runs away,
which by the way, you men, let's take note. Joseph did not stay in and fight the battle. He ran like, you know what, to get out of there because he would rather run away than fall into temptation. And so she grabs his coat and he's willing to run out of his coat. He's got nothing but his skivvies on and he's running. And she's like, he tried to rape me. And so Potiphar puts him into prison.
So Joseph went from a slave to now a prisoner only because he's so faithful. And we're given the commentary that God was with him. Eventually the head of the prison put him in charge of all the other prisoners. And two guys show up and they both had, you guessed it, dreams. One was, uh, was Pharaoh's cupbearer. One was Pharaoh's chief baker. And they both have these dreams,
right? And so in these dreams, uh, one, uh, the, a bunch of loaves are taken off of his head. And, uh, the other one, uh, he ends up giving the, the cup to the king and the cupbearer. He says, you are going to be restored to your job. And to the baker, he said, your head is going to get lifted off of your body. Both of those things. Came true. And so the chief cupbearer goes back to the king and he looks at him.
He says, listen, I just need you to do me really one big favor. I've been falsely accused, falsely imprisoned. Could you just let Pharaoh know about me? Maybe he can review my case. And the guy goes, yeah. And then he goes and completely forgets about him for two whole years, two years. Do you know Joseph's going, think he's going to call? And the other guys are going,
he ain't calling. I don't think he's calling. Maybe today, you know, year and a half in, he's like, I don't think he's calling either. I'm going to give up now. But finally, you can imagine a cupbearer. Pharaoh has a dream, right? And so, so no one can interpret the dream for Pharaoh. And the cupbearer goes, oh man, oh, I'm such a terrible human being. Okay.
So there's this guy, right? There's this guy. He's in prison right now. I was supposed to talk to you about him two years ago. Shh, let's keep that with us. He can interpret your dream. So they bring Joseph out. He interprets the dream. Pharaoh says, you are the man. He makes him second in charge of all of the nation. Second, only to Pharaoh himself because he ultimately solves the hunger problem in
the nation and saves them from famine. Meanwhile, back in Israel, Jacob and his sons are being plagued with a famine. And Jacob says, I've heard that there's grain in Egypt. Go get the grain. And so his brothers go down to, to buy some grain down in Egypt. And Joseph sees that it's his brother. But of course, he's all like Pharaoh it up, right? He's got the whole Egyptian thing going on.
Plus they think surely he's dead by now. And, and he's just, he's like, you got any brothers? They're like, yeah, all of us. We got one back at home and ones. Well, he's gone now. And Joseph's like, you know, he is. And, and so he says, I'll tell you what, one of you guys stay here. The rest of you go home, get your little brother, bring him back here. And then you can deal with me again.
Otherwise, no. So he works them through this whole big thing where he absolutely, absolutely cons them, gives them the opportunity to put Benjamin, the youngest brother, the now favorite one to death. And when, when Judah stands up and says, don't kill Benjamin, take me, take me and make me your slave. Joseph says, I can't take it anymore. And he reveals himself to his brothers.
He says, it's me. It's your brother, Joseph. And they're like, Oh shoot. And he's like, it's okay. I forgive you. I forgive you. What you intended for evil, God intended for, good. I tell you that because all of the things that Joseph went through led him to this place of such great faith that it says in verse 22, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the Exodus of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning
his bones. You see, eventually the whole nation of Israel, 70 people moves down to Egypt. And while they're in Egypt, they live there for several hundred years and turn into a nation of millions. And Pharaoh enslaves them. And ultimately they are set free through the working of God by Moses. But when Joseph dies hundreds of years before they leave Egypt, Joseph looks at them and before his death,
and he says, listen, God is going to visit you and he's going to take you back to the promised land. Don't bury me in Egypt. Take me back with you because I want my bones to be, to be buried in the land of promise, where I know God, will take you back. Why? Why did Joseph have that faith? Because he believed the promise of God. And though his body was in Egypt,
his heart was not, his heart was still in the promised land. And so he said, don't leave me in Egypt. Take me home. Do you know what Egypt always represents in scripture? Egypt always represents the world. And so what did Joseph say? He said, this, this world is not my home. I know that God is going to visit us and take us back. So don't leave me in the world because that's not where my heart is.
Take me where my heart is, which is home. It's a beautiful picture of him having an eternal perspective that he believed. And so you can imagine this, this coffin, this, uh, this non entombed coffin sitting there and everybody going, what's that all about? Well, that's Joseph and he knows he's going to go home someday. And it was a reminder by faith. And it's interesting because if you jump all the way to about the middle to end of the book of Joshua,
you will find that they bury the bones of Joseph in the promised land because God was faithful to his promise. Well, now we come to one more character that we'll cover today. And his name is Moses. Starting in verse 23, it says this by faith, Moses, when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents. Because they saw that he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's edict by faith.
Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Considering the reproaches of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward by faith. He left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is unseen by faith. He kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them by faith.
They passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land and the Egyptians when they attempted it were drowned. Joseph had established a great place for the children of Israel there in Egypt, but we're told at the beginning of Exodus that a Pharaoh arose who didn't know, who Joseph was and he saw a threat in the nation of Israel. And so he began to enslave them and what he couldn't do through enslaving them. He attempted to do through genocide.
He said, I would like for all of the midwives to put to death all of the newborn Hebrew sons. And in the middle of that genocide, there was a couple who had a baby and they named him Moses. And it says that they saw that he was a beautiful child. It's interesting, because that word, the word, beautiful is translated by the Amplified Bible as divinely favored.
In other words, they saw that that there was something special about this child. And so they hid him. It says, first of all, they hid him in their home for for three months. But but when they could no longer hide him in their home, they made the very difficult decision of doing the best that they could to protect him because they couldn't spare the thought of seeing anyone kill him.
So they built a they built a little basket and they covered it on the inside with pitch to waterproof. And they took him down to the Nile River and they simply floated him down the Nile River, simply hoping for the best. And his sister followed him kind of in the bull rushes, seeing what was going on. And she watched. And as he floated down the river, there was Pharaoh's daughter,
along with some of her attendants bathing in the river and along floats this little basket that had a little cry coming out of it. And she picks it up and she says, Oh, what a beautiful baby. I'm going to take this baby and keep it. Keep it as my own. And of course, because God is gracious, his sister Miriam was right there. And his sister said, Would you like me to find a wet nurse from among the daughters of the Hebrews to nurse him for you?
And she said, That would be wonderful. And so she went and got Moses, his mother and Moses. His mother was able to help raise him for the first few years of his life. But of course, he was living in the home of Pharaoh, so he was raised in all of the ways of the king and all of the ways of of Pharaoh. But it says it says he. He chose rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God.
It says when he had grown verse 24, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. We don't totally know the whole story of how it happened because things jumped very quickly in the book of Exodus. But we find that around the age of 40, Moses went out to visit his brethren, probably raised by his mother, was taught the truth of the promise, was taught the truth of God's word, probably about Joseph and his bones lying there and how God was one day going to. Rescue them and take them back to the promised land, taught him all of those promises.
And so faith began to be instilled in him as a very young man. And as he grew, he saw what was happening to his brother and it made him very angry. And he tried to first of all take matters into his own hands and he killed one of the guards. And and when that was found out, he fled for his life and he lived for 40 years on the backside of the wilderness, being raised by a man who is ultimately a descendant also of Abraham through a second wife.
And also taught the truth of the word of God. And while he lived on the backside of the desert for 40 years, he learned all about being a shepherd. And while he learned about being a shepherd, God appeared to him in a burning bush. He said, I want you to go back and I want you to declare to Pharaoh, let my people go. And so Moses comes back and as he comes back,
he comes back in and he chose to endure the ill treatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy it. I love this phrase. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure.
The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. The passing pleasure. At any point in time, Moses could have decided it's really sad what's going on. And I know that there's a promise, but it would be a lot easier if I just live like Egypt. It would be a lot easier if I just live like the people around me. After all, my entire future is set up for me.
I'm living in Pharaoh's house. I'm going to have some sort of a ruling job here. I've been educated in all the ways of Egypt. I can have the best life on this side of eternity that anyone could imagine, as a son of royalty in Egypt. And instead, he chose to endure ill treatment rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. And can I just tell us that right now in the culture that we're living in, we have got
to gain a heart like Moses. Because too many of us are way too interested in the passing pleasures of sin and are not interested enough in enduring the ill treatment of the people of God. Too many of us want to have enough of God that we feel good about ourselves and enough of the world that we still enjoy our lives, forgetting that God hates that. He wants us to choose one or the other.
And ultimately, He wants us to choose Him. And that's exactly what Moses did. Moses made the very hard choice to say, I won't enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Instead, I will endure the ill treatment that goes oftentimes with being a follower of God. He goes on to say this. . . . . . . . Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,
considering the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. That's an amazing thought, isn't it? To think that that's what you would enjoy more than the treasures that are in front of you? Why? Why was he able to do that? Well, we're given the rest of the commentary right here in verse 26. For he was looking to the reward. It says, . . . . . . by faith He left Egypt, not fearing the
wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is unseen did you take note of these phrases that are used the passing pleasures of sins looking forward to the reward seeing him who is unseen this is language of faith and it says and by faith he kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them there was a series of plagues that were unleashed upon the nation of egypt in order to let the people go and and every time that plague would happen pharaoh would go okay i'm gonna let you go on this one and then when they would get ready to pack up and leave pharaoh would say never mind you got to stay until the last plague came along god said this one's going to change everything but you need
to know something this one will affect the nation of israel too this one will affect everyone every firstborn in the home will die unless you do one thing unless you take the blood of a spotless lamb you have to slay the lamb and you have to apply the blood to the doorpost of your home and if you apply the blood to the doorpost of your home then the angel of judgment will pass over and the firstborn will survive and that's exactly what the children of israel did is they found spotless lambs they killed those spotless lambs and they took that blood and they applied it to the doorpost of their home and it says that they were protected from the angel who destroyed they would continue
to celebrate this as a feast it's called passover and on this very feast of passover about two thousand years ago the ultimate spotless lamb jesus was put to death not to protect the firstborn but to solve the sin of humanity and now each of us has to make a decision of what we will do with the blood of jesus we don't have to apply it to the doorpost of our home instead we have to apply it to the doorpost of our heart and if you have applied the blood of jesus christ to the doorpost of your heart then when faced with judgment you will be able to do the same thing you will be set free because god has ultimately dealt with your sin says by faith he kept the
passover and then the last one verse 29 says and by faith they passed through the red sea as though they were passing through dry land and the egyptians when they attempted it were drowned after the passover feast they were set free and everybody's so excited everybody's moving everything's great pharaoh's broken he's like you guys just get out of here i don't want to deal with you anymore and god it says led them to the edge of the red sea and they're at the edge of the red sea and there's nothing that they can do it's a giant body of water that they can't go over it they can't go around it they can't go under it they'll just have to go through it kind of like
a bear hunt only they have one problem pharaoh had decided i want my slaves back and pharaoh had gathered his army who all was left and they were pursuing the nation of israel and so in front of them was the impossibility of the red sea that they could not cross and behind them was the army so that they could not go back and they could not go back and they could not go back and they could not go back and they could not go back and they found themselves in this place where they're going we don't know what to do we're gonna die here and god says stop the egyptians that you see before you you will see no more forever moses take your rod and i want you to raise it up and
the moment that you do so the red sea will part and you will pass through on dry land so that's when the red sea opens up wide open i have a couple of questions about the red sea in this moment i can't help it i just do a was it muddy b could they see fish those are my two questions could they see that oh look there it is i think god did it perfectly and it was perfectly dry ground it was almost like asphalt but that's just me that's my face and they passed through only the egyptians decided they were going to follow them so when the last of the children of israel stepped out of the red sea and the army of the egyptians was in the midst of the red sea god said let her go and moses dropped
his staff and the red sea collapsed on them and the egyptian soldiers that they saw before them that day they saw again no more forever why because they lived by faith because they lived their lives by faith i want to close out this morning with two thoughts we've heard we've heard amazing stories this morning we've heard amazing stories this morning we've heard amazing stories this morning and we'll hear more of them next week i just i get so excited about these old testament stories because they have such beautiful new testament application but there's two thoughts that i want to close with and i think i hadn't put them up here number one they all had an eternal
perspective all of these guys had a look to the future they were looking beyond the here and now and they were always looking to what god had in the future they were always looking to the finish line they were always looking to the fact that there is a finish there is an end to what they're doing because they had this eternal perspective abraham had the eternal perspective that god was able to raise the dead because he had made a promise joseph had the eternal perspective of knowing that that place was not his home god had something greater for him jacob had the eternal perspective that even though he was a man who was plagued by the failures in his life god had made a promise and god would keep his promise isaac had the perspective that
even though he didn't do things perfectly there was a promise that god had made and if god had made the promise he would keep the promise moses had the perspective of knowing that egypt was not their home and god was greater than all of the things of egypt and so he had this eternal perspective he always had his eyes on the finish line and for us we have to have the same thing we have to have that perspective we are told throughout the new testament not the least of which is in colossians that we are to take our eyes off the things that are temporary and put them on the things that are eternal if you have been raised with christ then set your mind on heavenly things if you talk to anybody that's
ever run either a half marathon or a marathon they'll tell you one thing you got to be focused on the finish line that's your goal it doesn't always matter how fast you do it it doesn't always matter uh how you do it the most important thing is that you finish um i think i've shared with you before i talked to a guy that ran the boston marathon one time i was young at that point in time and had thoughts of maybe running a marathon i've given that up now uh but i thought that maybe running a marathon and i said tell me a little bit about your experience and he told me about his experience and he said it's interesting because when you talk to people that haven't uh been around the boston marathon they either ask you if you want
or what your time was because they don't know enough about it he said if you talk to people in boston that have been around the boston marathon they don't ask you those questions they ask you if you finished because they know that that's the goal the goal is not how fast you get there the goal is what your time was the goal is do you finish and he said you have to have a focus on the finish line because if you don't in the middle you'll get bogged down you have to focus on the fact that there is an end to this because it's a grueling race and brothers and sisters that's the eternal perspective that we have to have we have to have the perspective on the finish line and i've been telling us this and i don't know why god has brought this to to me
throughout the book of hebrews but but we have to have this focus i think it's because the world is hard right now can we all agree with that can we all agree with every day we wake up and there's a new difficult thing we got to deal with and if we don't have our eyes focused on the finish line that we will get bogged down in the race all of these had an eternal perspective but the second thing that i want to point out to you is this faith sees the future hope over the present difficulty faith sees the future hope over the present difficulty it is so easy to get our eyes focused on the future hope over the present difficulty and we have to have a focus on the
wind and the waves that are around us it is so easy to get laser focused on the ground that's right in front of us forgetting that there is a future hope i i used the word hope and i thought should i call it a future faith but but you know what the word hope actually means if you look at it in its truest definition hope is not well i hope one day i get to do these things the word hope in scripture actually carries with the definition of a confident expectation a confident expectation why was abraham able to take the step of faith of sacrificing his son because he had the confident expectation that god would raise him from the dead why was isaac able to bless his
sons even though he couldn't see what god was going to do with them because he had a confident expectation why was moses able to do some of the most difficult things we can imagine in the face of the greatest power on earth at that point in time because he had a confident expectation he didn't get bogged down in the face of the greatest power on earth at that point in time because he didn't get bogged down in the face of the greatest power on earth at that point in time because he didn't get bogged down in the face of the greatest power on earth at that point in time because he didn't get bogged down in the face of the greatest power on earth at that point in time because he
didn't get bogged down with the present difficulty. He held on to the future hope. And I don't know what all present difficulties you're going through right now, but I know we're all going through something. Some of you are going through present difficulties with your kids. Some of you are going through present difficulties with finances. Some of you are going through present difficulties of
just the fact that life isn't easy. It's grief, whatever it is. And it's easy to get bogged down in the process of all of the difficulties in front of us. And we get our eyes on the wind and the waves and we start to think. And in the moment when we start to think, we got to put our eyes back on Jesus. We got to put our eyes back on the future hope. Because greater is He that's in you
than he that's in the world. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. Thank you, Lord, for how good you are to us. Lord, I thank you for these examples in your word. And God, I just ask that you would move as you see fit. And I just ask that you would move as you see fit. And I just ask that you would move as you see fit. And I just ask that you would move as you see fit.
In our lives, through what your word has to say, I thank you that you have blessed us with wonderful examples throughout Scripture. And I pray, God, that you would give us the perspective that we need. Father, that we would turn our eyes on Jesus. Lord, that we would keep our hearts focused on the future hope. God, that we would grow in who we are in you. And so, Lord, we thank
you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. In Jesus' name. Amen. In Jesus' name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Love you guys.