July 29, 2007

"The Faith to Be Part of God's People"

Exodus 2: 11- 15, Exodus 4: 24- 26; Hebrews 11: 24- 28

A man, sobering up from the night before, came to church, but fell asleep during the sermon. His pastor, who could see what was going on, was disgusted by this man's behavior. And so at the end of his sermon he decided to teach him a lesson.

He clearly but quietly said to his congregation, "All who believe in Jesus and have a place in heaven, please remain seated."

Then the preacher said even more loudly, "And he who does not believe and is thereby going to hell please, STAND UP!"

And just as the preacher thought, the weary man, catching only the last command, groggily rose to his feet, to find that he was the only one standing.

Confused and embarrassed he said, "I don't know what we're voting on here, reverend, but it sure seems like me and you are the only ones standing for it!"

I realize that this was just a made up story, but sometimes when we think of having faith and being saved, we have a picture in our mind that is not too dissimilar. We think of it as making a decision one point in our lives and saying, "I believe in Jesus as my Savior and I believe he's forgiven all my sins." And after we've done that, as long as we try to follow the rules- as long as we try to obey God's law, we're saved.

Although making a decision to trust in Christ as our Savior and following up that decision by trying to live a life of obedience is an important part of what it means to have true faith, it is not a complete picture of what faith really is. True faith also includes what the author Hebrews says about Moses in our scripture for this morning,

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. ²⁵He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. ²⁶He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt,

As this verse points out Moses faith is shown in two ways: First, by his decision to belong to the Lord and his people. Second by his decision to do this in spite of the suffering that came from this.

Do any of you children remember the story of Moses? He was born during the time when God's people, the Israelites were slaves of what nation? [Egypt] The king of Egypt or Pharaoh was afraid that the Israelites were becoming too powerful, so what did he decree? [That all the baby boys of Israel be drowned in Red Sea] What did Moses parents Amram and Jochebed to protect their son? {They hid him among in a basket which they floated in Nile River.] Who found him? [Pharaoh's daughter] And what did she do? [She adopted him as her son] So Moses became an Egyptian-more than just any Egyptian-he became the king's grandson.

But in our scripture we find that Moses turned his back on all that and would rather be part of God's people. That's shown so clearly in Exodus 2. Granted he did in a rather ham-handed way-- by killing an Egyptian slave master. But that's the decision he made. He wanted to be identified with God's people, even if it meant losing everything he had.

Today nine people stood before us and declared that they believed in Jesus as their Savior. But, they declared more than that. If you have your order of worship handy, look at the third promise they made: "Do you accept the gracious of promise of God sealed to you in your baptism AND (especially these words) do you affirm your union with Christ and his church, which your baptism signifies."

Believing in Jesus means belonging to Christ and his people.

But, it also means belonging on God's terms. Moses sought to belong on his own terms and ended up being separated. He needed to belong on God's terms. Well, what were God's terms? That's where that story in Exodus 4: 24- 26 comes in. Let's read it.

²⁴At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. ²⁵But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. ²⁶So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)

Now, doesn't that story seem weird to you? And it's especially weird when you figure that it comes after the story of burning bush when God commanded Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and Moses very reluctantly agreed. According to these verses, shortly after that, God was ready to kill Moses. What's going on here?

To understand this story we must understand two things 1. God's command to Abraham 2. the significance of circumcision.

In Genesis 17 God appeared to Abraham and told him that he will have a special relationship (or covenant) with Abraham and his children. But as part of that relationship Abraham and his children must carry out a special act, Listen Genesis 17: 10- 13,

¹⁰This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹²For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner-those who are not your offspring. ¹³Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

Now Moses had followed this command of God by circumcising his older son Gershom, but under pressure from his wife Zipporah, he did not circumcise his younger song Eliezer. To keep his wife happy he broke God's covenant, thereby incurring God's wrath and curse. And this had to be fixed. To be part of God's people he had to do it on God's terms.

And what are God's terms? To understand that we must understand a little about circumcision. Circumcision reminded God's Old Testament people of the impurity and sin that was passed on from parent to child-from generation to generation. That impurity could only be removed by blood.

But whose blood? The blood of Jesus Christ: the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins on the cross. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 4: 11 says about Abraham and circumcision. ¹And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised

We become part of God's people, not because we are so good, but because we trust in God's promise of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. That was also true for God's Old Testament people. No, they didn't know about Jesus yet; but they trusted in the signs that pointed ahead to Jesus and to his sacrifice. Similarly the signs God gives us today point back to Jesus and what he did on the cross. And they call us to believe. That's what Beth's baptism was all about. It was God's way of picturing how she and all of us can be part of his people-only by faith in Jesus Christ. By trusting not in our own good deeds, but in God's forgiveness that comes through him. That's kind of what that preacher in my joke forgot. And it's what we forget as well.

. The only way to be part of God's people is to trust his promises. That's what Moses had to learn. In the story we read from Exodus 2, Moses was trying to be a part of God's people in his own way-- by defending them against their Egyptian masters, by trying to solve their squabbles. But, it didn't work. He was forced into exile. After that he totally lost confidence in his abilities and was content to live on his own, separated from the people of God. But, God didn't leave him alone. We don't have time this morning. But when you get home read Genesis 3. It's the story of God calling Moses from the burning bush. He wanted Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. And Moses, knowing how badly things had gone before, kept making excuses. But, God promised I will be with you. And Moses had to learn to lean fully on the Lord and trust his promises. That was only way Moses could be a part of God's people and to carry-out the important task God had for him to do.

But trusting the Lord did not mean that things always went well. In fact, things became for difficult for him. Moses became part of God's people in spite of the suffering that came from that decision.

²⁵He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. ²⁶He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

There are some preacher today that will try to tell you that if you have enough faith, you can have it all: not only heaven when you die, but earth treasure as well. That certainly wasn't true for Moses. Because he trusted God's promises and wanted to be part of his people Moses gave up everything this world has to offer: wealth, position, power.

In that way his life reminds of our Lord Jesus, who as Paul writes,

⁶ Who, being in very nature^ God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

⁷ but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature^ of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death-

even death on a cross!

Think about what Jesus gave up to be one of us and to save us. Then hear his words,

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

Being one with Jesus and his people invites opposition. It certainly did for Moses. Sometime it means that other people will oppose us. Think of brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted for their faith. I've often spoken of them in my sermons. Sometimes the devil himself will attack us, just as he did Job, in an effort to destroy our faith. Sometimes, we may not even know why a certain grief or problem has come into our life. But, God allowed it to happen and it's trying our faith.

In a recent issue of Christianity there is the story Nancy Guthrie. Her second child, Hope, was born with a disease called Zellweger Syndrome. This rare metabolic disorder is characterized by an absence of peroxisomes (cell structures that rid the body of toxic substances). There is no treatment or cure. Most babies with the disease live less than six months. And in spite of all her prayers Hope died. Because this disease is caused by having a certain recessive gene from both parents, she and her husband David decided that he would have vasectomy. Only 1 in 2000 vasectomies fail. But theirs did. And Nancy became pregnant with Gabriel and testing showed that he too had Zellweger Syndrome. He died 183 days later.

"I've experienced one of the worst things that can happen," says Nancy, "and I haven't found I'm strong and I can handle it. But I have found out God's promise is true, His grace is sufficient. Now when I read 'My grace is sufficient' (2 Cor. 12:9), I believe it not only because Jesus said it in the Bible-I believe it because I've experienced it."

Moses gave up everything to be a part of God's people. And he did because he was looking ahead to his reward. Yet, Moses never received his reward in this life. He died before the people entered into the promised . In the end all God permitted him to do was to look at the promised land from the top of Mount Nebo. And then he died.

Recently Nancy Guthrie completed a book about her experience Holding On to Hope. In it she writes,

Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there is only darkness-this is the kind of faith God values perhaps most of all.

The writer to Hebrews ends his discussion of heroes of faith like Moses with these words,

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them receive what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us they would be made perfect.

God planned something better for us. We know about Jesus. We know that his death and resurrection means eternal life for us We know about the new heaven and earth.

Yet, in the end, the question for us is the same as it was for Moses: Do you believe it? Let us pray for the grace and strength we need to say, "yes," to that question.

O Lord, as your people, we know that we are especially targets of attacks by the evil one. He wants to destroy our faith. In the face of his attacks, help us not only to believe, but help of our faith to become stronger. For it is only by your grace that we can be the people you save us to be and that we can accomplish all that you have put us here to do. For Jesus sake. Amen.