Faith of Moses Part I

Living for “right now” feels powerful until it all changes overnight. We sit with Hebrews 11:23–29 and trace the faith of Moses, not as a distant Bible hero, but as a steady example for anyone trying to endure pressure, disappointment, or slow progress without giving up.

We use the tortoise and the hare to expose a trap many of us fall into: sprinting for quick comfort, quick status, and quick fixes. Moses could have taken the treasures and authority of Egypt, yet he chooses “disgrace for the sake of Christ” because he’s looking ahead to a reward that can’t be stolen. That forward-looking mindset runs through Hebrews, from Abraham longing for God’s city to believers pressing on toward what’s ahead, and it’s a direct challenge to the anxious “me, myself, and now” way of life.

From there, the conversation shifts to the centre of Christian salvation: Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, and Jesus’ words that this is revealed by the Father. Seeing Jesus with your eyes is not the same as Christ being revealed in your heart. We talk about justification by faith, the supernatural light of Christ, and the great exchange where our guilt is placed on Jesus and His righteousness is given to us.

We also share a hard, grounding story about wealth disappearing overnight and why everything temporal can change fast, then finish with a simple, practical invitation to step into the prayer closet and sit with God. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find this Christian faith and Hebrews 11 teaching.

Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.

Transcript

Why Hebrews 11 Still Matters

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Now we're continuing with um our faith, the hall of faith, the great faith leaders in the Bible, and I want to make it perfectly clear that this is not everything about these people, and um I'm hoping it's gonna give you some sort of structure, some way of being able to see more clearly all the options that we have available to us, and it doesn't matter who we are, where we come from, what our background is, what our dreams and aspirations are God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek them. He is no respecter of persons. So we're continuing in the faith chapter, which is Hebrews 11, uh, but now we're up to Hebrews 11, 23 through to 29, and I'm not even sure uh whether I'm gonna get through all of this or not. I may have to break it into two parts again, but time will tell. Now, this podcast will show you that there's different ways people use their faith. Now, the faith of Moses was highlighted as he chose to use external spiritual rewards over fleeting worldly power, relying on endurance and the invisible presence of God to guide the Israelites. Now, strange enough, I was talking to someone the other day, and you know, there's things that I'm trying to do as I improve in my health and all this sort of stuff, and I was told to always remember the tortoise and the hare. And in remembering that, I mean, I know there may be the odd person out there that doesn't know about the tortoise and the hare, okay? It's just that uh the tortoise and the hare, they decided

The Tortoise Lesson For Faith

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to have a race, and uh the hare was uh was so sure of himself that he could beat anybody. Uh, and when the the tortoise got there and he said, No, no, I'll race you and I'll win. And what had actually happened, cut a long story short, they took off and the tortoise is walking at his pace, and the the hair just takes off, and he's racing, racing, racing far, far into the distance, and then he stops, and he comes back and he sees that the tortoise is still plodding along, and so he decides to sit down and have a little sleep under a tree because he is so sure of himself that he's got plenty of time. But the hare overslept, and one by one step at a time, the tortoise went past him, and he was just about to cross the finish line, and the hare woke up and realized what had actually happened, so he raced ahead trying to catch the tortoise, but it was too late, and so it just goes to show okay, slow and steady wins the race. Don't always be in a hurry to fly ahead. And this is what Moses did, he was looking at eternal spiritual rewards over the worldly stuff that he could have like then and there at that particular time. This is why most refer to Hebrews as the faith chapter, because time and time again, it is mentioning these different people, different times in their life, and you've got to realize we are under the new covenant at the moment, so we're in Hebrews, but it is a type and a shadow of the Old Testament, and so it shows that the prevalence and the relationship between the old and the new are just as important as when they were written as what they are now. So these faith giants who, for different reasons and circumstances, had their unshakable faith. So don't look at your situation and don't look at your circumstances, just know that we're all given a measure of faith, and that measure of faith that you have been given is yours to use the way that you see fit to use it and to build upon it, and so it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and then you can achieve great and mighty things for the kingdom of God. Now, in saying that, let's take a closer look at Moses, who from all accounts started with all the odds stacked against him. So even if you're born into a family of abuse, alcoholism, drugs, or poverty, there is always a way out. Hope builds faith, and faith builds belief. Do

Moses Against The Odds

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not let your circumstances stop you from achieving what you want to achieve. Now I don't have all the answers, and I never will presume or be presumptuous enough to say that I understand everyone's situation. Only God and a relationship with him is the answer. As they say, don't shoot the messenger, if you've ever heard that expression before. Moses showed his faith in the Old Testament by looking ahead to Christ and heaven, recognizing the invisible God was more powerful than men. When Jesus was with his disciples in Cassassia of Philippi, he was on somewhat of a retreat with them, and spending some time in the midst of his busy, controversial, and difficult ministry, he went on a retreat with them up to the northern cooler regions, and it was up there in the mountains

Peter’s Answer And True Salvation

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there that he was sitting with them and having discussion with them, and he asked them, Who do people say the Son of Man is? Son of man we know is Jesus, and that's the name he had for himself, one of many names. So he's saying, Who do people say I am? And they answered, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you? he asked, Who do you say that I am? I always imagine a dramatic pause at this point as I read the account, and Simon Peter speaks for us all, and he said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And then Jesus said something very important when it comes to understanding salvation. He said, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven. No one is saved from their sins apart from that supernatural revelation of Christ. That's very, very important to remember. It revealed directly to the heart of an individual, centered in the essence of everything apart from that none of us will be saved, having that revelation knowledge, and God has been doing that from the beginning of human history, He has been revealing Christ to sinners, He has been opening up inside their hearts the light, an eternal light of his own glory radiating in Christ and opening up that beautiful eyesight of faith inside their souls to receive that light of Christ and to see it for its beauty and its majestic majesty and the glory. And in seeing Christ, there by faith we are justified. We see the glory of God, our sins are forgiven, and God's been doing that all along. It's always been the same in every generation as time has gone past. And now I want to get back into Hebrews 11 just for a short period of time, and as we unfold this chapter and we understand faith, we're understanding justification by faith. Now it is sinners like us, you and me, who have violated God's law, who have done things we ought not to have done, who have left undone things that we were commanded to do. How can sinners like us be made right in the eyes of such a holy God? And it is by this divine and supernatural light of Christ revealed directly to your heart and mine. If you've been sitting on the mountainside with Peter and the others seeing Jesus' physical body, maybe his feet covered with dust, him looking like an ordinary man, you would not have been saved by that sight. It would not have saved you in any way. But what had to be revealed was Christ in your heart. See, many people saw Jesus physically and were not saved. But if God the Father, who revealed Jesus directly to your hearts, and you will see him, Almighty God, in the flesh, and more than that, that he shed his blood for you, that he died in your place, and you see that a transfer can happen, that your guilt can be put on Jesus and his righteousness given to you, then you'll be saved, and that's all you need to worry about. Now we know that we're talking about these faith giants, so we want to get back to Moses, but this is what God has been doing all along, and he did it in the life of Moses. Now, when it comes to Moses, we come to a key issue here for the author of Hebrews and the first century audience, right? He's writing to Jewish people who had heard the gospel, had made some kind of outward profession of faith in Christ, but now they're under pressure,

When Moses Versus Jesus Feels Real

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they're being persecuted, probably by Jewish religious authorities and neighbors and relatives and friends to forsake Christ, to turn back from Christ and go back to the law of Moses. And so, in their minds, it's Moses's versus Jesus. That's the way they saw it, and they were being tempted strongly, and they were pressed by persecution, and other troubles to turn there and all sorts of issues to in the natural force their way to be turned back from Jesus and back to the law of Moses, the old covenant sacrificial system of all of those things. Now, if you I mean, you just need to write this down, don't need to go there, I'm jumping all over Old New Testament, that sort of thing. But in John chapter 9, when Jesus heals the man that was born blind, and then he's hauled up in front of the Jewish religious authorities, and they have some sharp words back and forth. At one point, this man says, I have told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too? And they answered, We are disciples of Moses. As for this fellow, we don't know where he comes from. Wow. They seem very sort, you know, very um, you know, should we say, uh very sure of themselves because they think that they've got the law on their side, so to speak. We know that God does not listen to sinners, he listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening of the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Never in history, to the best of my knowledge, has anyone heard of the eyes of a blind man, the man born blind, having his eyes open, and you don't know where he's from. Isn't it obvious? But there is a look, a dictomatory. I mean, that's the only word I could find to put in here. So basically, it's a it's an endless supply of of information. We are disciples of Moses, as for this man, we don't know who he is, and so these Jewish first century professors of faith in Christ were being tempted to forsake Jesus and to go back to Moses. Now the authors already open up with this topic for us in Hebrews 3. He's shown us that Moses was a faithful man, he was a servant of God in God's house, but Jesus is no mere servant in God's house, but is the son over God's house. Secondly, let's go on a little bit further, we'll go a little bit deeper. We see that by faith Moses also looked ahead to his reward. Look at verse 26. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of a greater value than treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. There are so many key elements in this verse. First of all, the essential aspects of faith is that it's forward looking. We're looking forward, we're looking ahead, the assurance of things hoped for. See, in in verse 10, we're told that Abraham was looking forward to a city with foundations whose architecture and builder was God. Verse 13, we're told all these patriarchic people and people in that era were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised, but they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. It's a sad way to be looking at things. We are so blessed because we have Jesus that dwells within us. And if you're not born again, okay, then you had that opportunity to listen to this and understand that what you have right here and now that is not important. It's it's fleeting. It's we're only here for a very short time, but we'll we're in heaven for eternity. See, looking forward, looking ahead is part of faith. People who say such things like verse 14 shows that they're looking for a country of their own, something they can possess forever and ever. They're looking ahead. Verse 16, they're longing for a better country, a heavenly one. And verse sixteen again, God has prepared a city for them. All of the forward-looking verses twenty to twenty two, our predecessors or patriarchs like Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, they're all looking ahead. Looking ahead even to their deathbeds. And so that is a fundamental issue. The issue of looking forward, and we do the same by faith in Jesus. That's the nature of the race that we're running. Philippians three, forgetting what's behind and straining or pressing on forward and what's ahead. See the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, we're looking ahead, we're looking forward, we press on forward to the goal. This is our foundation. So we we're not there to see and to feel how delightful this is. We don't have that opportunity. Do you not see what an advantage we as believers have over worldly people who have just the now, the moment they're living in? You can also look at it from this perspective, me, myself, and I, and it's all about living in the now. Everything needs to be now. Everything is all about me, myself, and I and now. They dread the future and they fear death. It says uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Why? He's got everything he wants, right? He's the king. Way yay. Gory to be the king. But he might not be the king tomorrow. There might be an assassination plot. Somebody might be poisoning in his food. Someone has to sample his dinner because he's scared of getting poisoned. Somebody might shove a dagger between his rib cages or his shoulder blades. And so every night that he goes to bed, he is worrying. Or maybe some other king is going to come with a more powerful army and he's going to take everything away because he's not strong enough. Wow, what a life. Having everything that you want, being in a position of power, and the only thing that is constantly on your mind is that at any moment I could lose this. So this king, he will or this ruler, he goes to bed anxious and concerned. He's afraid. The same

Everything Temporal And A Hard Story

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thing for ordinary people, they are all worried about the future. What's it gonna bring? Will we lose everything they have worked for so hard? Listen, I say this to all my fellow Christians, brothers and sisters out there. You will not lose everything dear to you. Your best things are stored up in heaven for you, and moth and rust cannot destroy it. The thieves cannot break in and steal it. Your treasures can't be stolen from you. So we have nothing to be afraid of. Nothing to be afraid of at all. Listen, I'm gonna have to cut this short because I gotta have to do the next part of it and everything. But listen, if you don't get anything else out of this, just remember everything is temporal subject to change. Everything in life is temporary. It doesn't matter how much you've got, it can be taken away from you. You know, now the thing is I remember when I worked in community services, and uh just quickly tell you this, and then we'll stop for this week and we'll go on next week. I had this man brought to me one day, and this was well before COVID, right? And uh, and I was told that look, uh, don't uh be mistaken by his appearance. Uh he had very, very expensive clothing. I don't know all the brand names, but it was looked expensive from my perspective. He was driving this really, really flash car. Okay, but he'd come for a food hamper. He'd come for a food hamper because he dabbled in the stocks exchange and he was a very, very wealthy man, and then overnight he lost it all. He literally had nothing but the shirt on his back and his car to live in. Everything was repossessed, his house was taken, his wife left him, the kids were gone, everything. And he was literally rocking up at the church needing help so he could feed himself. Now, judge not yet you be judged, but several years later, this guy got back his wealth and he remembered what we did for him in community services. See, never judge a book by its cover. Everybody's circumstances are different, but if you're living for the now, if you're living in the moment, then that moment is literally all that you're gonna have. Now, I'm no expert on this, but a lot of people that turn to drugs and alcohol is because they're trying to escape the reality of things that are going on in their life, and they just need that little piece of sanctuary or that little piece of joy in their life, and this is what they get from abusing their body with drugs and alcohol. Just imagine what you could do if you could just if you're having a really rough day and things aren't going too well, you go into your prayer closet and you spend a bit of time with the Lord and just sit in his presence, not necessarily asking for anything or desiring anything, but just spending time in his presence. And so we'll

Prayer Closet Focus And Part Two

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leave it there and then we'll do part two of this and then we'll we'll continue on. I mean, it's just a plethora of information, and there's no way I can literally cover this all in just one sermon. I mean, to be quite honest, uh, if I was someone listening to this podcast, I would download all of these and listen to them over and over again, and you'll find that there are lots of gold nuggets in there, things that you can use, put into your faith toolkit to look forward, not backward. God bless you. Talk to you soon. Bye for now.