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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/decisions-of-moses/
Let's read together once again now this time in the book of Hebrews, please the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number verse number 23. Hebrews 11 verse 23 by faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child.
And they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect on to the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
By faith they pass through the Red Sea as by dry land. Which the Egyptians a saying to do were drowned. We could read some other Portions pertaining to Moses, but I think that's all we'll read together.
Now as the ministry was being given this morning. My mind went to Moses and it kind of got stuck there. Sometimes I get stuck. So here's where we are and we're going to talk about Moses. This man who was faithful we heard about him being faithful in all of his house.
We heard about Moses when it comes to the period or the season in his life that he came to where where he reached this decision or this crisis if you would that he was presented with and we we were presented today also with the idea of purpose and I see in Moses life a Definite example of a young man.
I'm saying young man because I believe he was young. It was only 40. That's very very young 40 this man had purpose he was Actually focused on an end result and it changed his entire Outlook for his life and we read it together.
Moses when he had come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. My mind immediately goes to two other young people in the Old Testament who showed purpose. They showed purpose so that their potential could be fulfilled.
We heard about one of them already today, didn't we Daniel? Daniel and how he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. Daniel had purpose to keep himself Separated from the religious confusion all around him.
So that he could be used by God. Now I think if I'm correct I Shouldn't even say that I usually am correct, but I'm quite certain that That Daniel was probably 13 or 14. Some people think 16, but we're still talking a very young Man in a situation where there is a lot of pressure on him.
But he understood this if I do not maintain My separation from the religious world around me I will never fulfill the purpose for which I have been redeemed Me purpose. I think there's probably some 13 to 16 year olds here today who are born-again believers.
Who have a desire? To do what God wants you to do. Yeah you have a desire to be what God has designed you to be take a cue from Daniel and Make sure you maintain separation From that which is defiling.
You go back further and you find one of my favorite characters in the scriptures and he'll come up again in my message. But it is Joseph Joseph. This man a young man 17 years old when he is sold down into Egypt and he finds himself going to the lowest place now in Egypt and then he's brought out and I don't think he's much older than 17 at the point in time where he is Tempted he is tempted by a woman and it could have been with nobody else looking and and with the the natural Desire that Joseph might have had that he would give in to that temptation.
Because surely God had in his plan for this man a wife. God would desire that he would have a wife and he would probably have children and and Joseph could have said well This is it. God has brought me to this point and I'm just going to to go with it.
I want you to think with me young people God did have a plan for Joseph. God had a wife for Joseph. But it wasn't that woman and It wasn't that time and I think we need to all be reminded that God has a plan for our life and it may very well be.
That there are young ladies and young men here today and you are wondering does God have a wife for me? Or does God have a husband for me? And you know what? He may well have one. But we need to be careful that we guide our steps by the Word of God.
We need to be careful that our Life is regulated by his words so that we will not be going after the one that he doesn't want us to have. So that we will not be entering into what the Bible calls the unequal yoke.
So that we will not be entering into a partnership. Yeah, a marital partnership with someone who is not in the Lord where I believe it is absolutely Forbidden by the scriptures for a believer on the Lord Jesus to be married to an unbeliever.
That is an express forbidden thing in the scriptures. But it's also I believe something that we are encouraged to do is to look for somebody who is actually Going or living their life in accordance with the Lordship of Christ.
That's why the Bible says only in the Lord now. I want to be careful. Because we always should be careful. I want you to read 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. But I want you to read the whole thing and I want you to find that that Paul says the reason I am telling you these Things is because my heart is enlarged toward you.
You know, what are you saying? He is saying I love you believers so much and I would not want anything to happen In your life that could possibly cause you to stumble in your Christian walk. So out of love to you and faithfulness to God I need to tell you do not marry an unbeliever.
But we also need to be careful because I believe that what our brother was saying today is absolutely true. We make mistakes and there is room for recovery and don't be discouraged, but you see it Joseph.
Joseph knew that there was a purpose for his life and he just stuck with God's plan and then God used him. But now Moses. Moses is similar but different. I Think in order for us to understand really what it is that Moses was Separating from we need to go to Exodus chapter 1 where we find these words.
There arose a new king in Egypt who knew not Joseph. Now, I need you to think with me about those words for with that statement the entire Relationship of the people with God and the land of Egypt has changed.
These were people who were connected with the name of Joseph. These were people who are connected with the reputation of Joseph and the good of Joseph's name and the reputation that he had for the work that he had accomplished and how God had used him was connected to their name and it was a marvelous thing while there were yet people in Egypt who recognized the Authority and the special place that Joseph had in their society.
But there comes a point where this new king rises and it doesn't mean that he had never heard of Joseph. It means that he had didn't recognize Joseph's authority and he was going to persecute the people who were connected with his name they were connected with him by reputation and It really is just a picture of the world at that point.
I believe that we see in the book of Exodus where Egypt takes on a new connotation. Because those people who are connected with the name were now going to be in bondage. Those people who are connected with the name were not going to be a part of the society as a whole they were going to be persecuted and they were going to be ridiculed because the king knew not Joseph and He organized the entire system to be against Joseph and the people connected with him.
It's a picture of our world when we consider that we are connected with the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it is good for us each one of us who are believers on the Lord Jesus to be reading our Bible Consistently not only to be reading our Bible to consistently but to be looking for Christ in the scriptures.
We look for his character we look for the way he behaved. We look for the way that he handled people because we want to know the real Jesus Christ of the Bible because of this much of what we see in popular culture that claims the name of Christ and much of what we see in religious culture that claims the name of Christ are not Acknowledging that Jesus Christ our Lord from the scriptures we were reading and chatting yesterday and and and the the Jesus that many speak of is not a Jesus who would preach repentance and The Jesus who many speak of is not a Jesus who would claim exclusive or exclusivity when it comes to a way to God and The Jesus that many people claim to be connected with is not the Jesus who would demand that his people be separated from the world.
It's a very watered-down and compromised form or if you want to say Contortion of what the Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus. But if you are a believer who lives in accordance with your knowledge of the true Jesus Christ of the Bible there will be an enmity that this world will have toward you.
And you know why? It's because they know not Joseph. They don't know our Savior they don't know our Lord and it gives us a little insight as to the conditions in Egypt at the time. But the first verse that we read is a faith verse by faith.
Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents. He was hid three months of his parents. They saw he was a goodly child. They saw he was a proper child. They saw he was a child who was fair really the context is that he was fair in the eyes of God.
They realized that God had could use this young man in a special way. They realized that even in this babe there was potential to be used by God. God had a purpose for this child and when they realized that they also realized their Responsibility and their responsibility was to protect him.
Their responsibility was to protect him from the dangers of Egypt as long as they could but their responsibility Was also to teach him because I am convinced going back to what our brother was saying about Timothy and his mother and grandmother.
I am convinced also that what formed the basis for Moses life Was the teaching he received from his mother. That teaching was invaluable and I think it's just a principle for for we as the Lord's people.
Here's where I take personal rebuke at times. Now our brother was talking about some people who leave the assembly fellowship and what they know and what they don't know. Can I just make it absolutely clear that the scriptures say it is our responsibility to teach our young people the Bible if we are not fulfilling our Responsibility to teach it is very very difficult to expect people to know if We see and we do now if you were able to stand up here and look out at a crowd like this like I am right now and see faces of people who are young and some of them are pretty and some of them aren't and but they're there they've got energy and they they're here.
They're here Within the four walls of this building for the purpose of hearing the teaching of the Word of God. Because they desire to live for God. I find that to be a marvelous thing. Now it is our responsibility With these young people to teach them.
Teach them the principles of God's Word. From beginning to end and I know that's not easy brethren. The easy thing is to get up here and preach. The difficult thing is to dig in the scriptures and find something to teach the Lord's people.
But teaching is invaluable if they're going to fulfill their potential. There's gospel preachers here today. Maybe 13 and 14 year old ones. There's future overseers here today if the Lord doesn't come first.
There are those who each person of Each Christian has a gift that's going to be expected to function within a local assembly. And if they're going to fulfill their potential for God, it starts with sound teaching.
I didn't mean to spend that much time on it, but it's a little bit of a rebuke to me. I'll tell you why. Sometimes I spend time with young people and I I can laugh, right? They entertain me. I entertain them.
Sometimes I can play. I play the sports against them and I beat them sometimes. Sometimes we eat together, right? And we enjoy that and we enjoy a lot of time that we spend together. And I have seen young people that I have spent time with who have left The local assembly and I have personally before the Lord confessed I Had the time I had the opportunity.
Why didn't I spend more time teaching them? Those are faithful parents. We come to the next Part and now it's not the faith of his parents, but it's the faith of Moses by faith. Moses when he was come to years now if you compare and contrast the book of Acts and The book of Exodus you will find that this point in his life has a 40 year old man.
Who is coming to years you could call it maturity, but he's at least coming to himself. He's old enough now to take Responsibility for his own actions and he came to years now presented with a crisis in his life.
He has to make a decision. I have been taught that I am a child of God. It has been established From the teaching that I have received that God has chosen us For a purpose we are a unique people. We are a unique people not because now this is something that I enjoy from the Teaching in the trip from Egypt to Canaan.
They were a unique people not because they were great. But because God loved them. Right, that was the reason why they were unique and Moses now comes to understand I am a child of God unique in character and unique in purpose.
But there's the world on this side and I it's not just a world that that I'm going to be able to see but with my Standing in this world and the opportunity and the privilege that I have I can be anything.
I want to be. There was no limit to what Moses could be in Egypt right to the very top. He could have gone and you think of everything that comes with that. There is the the the opportunity for money.
There is the opportunity for fame. There is the opportunity for popularity. There is the opportunity for to have anyone in the kingdom that he wanted for his wife. There's an opportunity to never have to work a day in his life and still be all of that or there's an opportunity to fulfill the purpose for which God had chosen him and Some of us stand back and we see that big set of scales and we say that's a tough choice.
And there are people who come to this conference today young people and You know that you're a child of God born again by the Spirit of God and you have been saved for a purpose. You are quite aware that it's not anything in yourself.
But it is all because of God's love and God's grace and you understand that uniquely. You are part of that people that has been purchased for a possession. Someone with a purpose in God's plan, but you could also be something else, right?
There are young men and women here today who are very very good in school and You're very hard-working and you have a good personality. You can become something great in the business world. You can become something great perhaps in the political world.
You can devote your entire life and your entire energy to playing that sport that you love. You want to be a football player? You better get bigger. You want to be a basketball player? You better grow taller.
You want to be a hockey player? You better get faster. So you're going to have to devote all of your time and your energy Into that particular thing, but the world says they'll tell you it's a lie. You can be anything you want to be.
I Am vertically challenged. I am overweight. I can't jump. I Can't be anything I want to be but there's that lure out there to be something in the world, isn't there and You're at a point in your life now where you're thinking do I want the world?
Or do I want to fulfill my purpose for which God has saved me. And maybe you're here today and you have bought into the lie of the devil and The lie of the devil is this. I can have both now. I understand young brethren and sisters.
This may be a little bit controversial in your mind, but you can't have both. You cannot be Everything that God has for you and fulfill his purpose and be the best football player in high school. The two don't go together.
You cannot be the man or woman of God Fulfilling his purpose in the local assembly and be the mayor of New Hartford and you have to make a choice. I'm gonna make it easy for you. I'm gonna make it easier for you.
Moses was not just looking at what can I be in the backside of the desert? Moses is also not simply just looking at what can I be when we cross the Red Sea and and cross the wilderness? Moses was looking beyond that and that's where I want to take your mind.
Please with me for a second drop your eye in the in the same passage to verse number 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches and the treasures in Egypt for He Had respect unto the recompense of the war reward.
Remember that line by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Moses view was taken now from the here and now and the potential that he could have in this life for Enjoyment and it was taken and it was projected to the future.
It was projected to eternity. And Moses approached this decision the same way we should be approaching our life. We should be making decisions with eternity in view not just here and now. We should be making decisions with forever in view.
For what we do on this earth now for God will affect our reward in eternity. It will affect many things, but let's not forget Eternity is the key to this decision-making process and and there's where we become.
I call it ground bound, isn't it? We're so focused on what's going on here. We lose sight of the one who's coming from there. We are so keyed in On whatever it is brethren. We all have different likes and dislikes.
We all have different hobbies and Time-wasters, we're all different. But for a second with me young people. Are you willing to give up? The lure of the world. For the reward in eternity. That's where it was for him and he made a decision.
He knew he was going to suffer affliction with the people of God. He knew that. But he also knew that the pleasure of sin was only for a season. He knew that the reproach of Christ was far greater than all the riches in Egypt and Having weighed it up.
He makes his decision and again when we were told this morning when he gets there to Mount Nebel and he's about to be buried by God. He would look back and he would say that's the right choice. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
The shame is when you see any person at whatever season in their life Who decides to go after what pleases them? Pleases us. Rather than what pleases God. But the possibility is that there's someone here today and you're at that crisis where you have to make this decision.
And it's not too late. You can consider Moses when he had come to years he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.