Faith Choosing: Moses

Please be seated and take your Bibles.! We'll be reading two passages this morning.! First of all, in Acts chapter 7.

! And he is giving them a history lesson on what God has done in Israel's past.

So Acts chapter 7, verse 17, and we'll be reading through verse 29. At the time, as the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.

Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.

At that time, Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months, he was cared for in his father's house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.

Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.

He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, and so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them.

But they did not. The next day, Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, Men, you are brothers. Why do you want to hurt each other?

But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? And when Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

Now please turn over to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 24. We'll read through verse 26. Hebrews 11, 24.

My faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Faith is the victory, because it lays hold of the invisible God, who is mighty to save.

And if ever you and I will overcome the temptations that are in this world, it will be by our faith. And our Lord knows how powerful the world is, and he also knows how weak our faith can be.

So he comes to us to strengthen our faith, and he gives us a whole chapter that is about faith. Hebrews chapter 11. Just chuck full of people who by faith overcame the world, performed difficult duties, endured great afflictions.

By faith. They took God at his word. And though they're dead, they still speak. Their example shouts to us to go on believing.

Don't turn back in unbelief and be lost. Go on believing and be saved. And so we're making our way through faith's hall of fame in Hebrews chapter 11.

And we've come to the Moses exhibit. Last week we saw the power of faith in Moses' parents. By faith, they hid their newborn baby for three months, and were not afraid of the king's edict.

Now today we come to Moses himself, that great leader of Israel. And we're asking the question then, how did Moses live by faith?

That's the one thing that's true of all these people. How did they live by faith? What did the power of faith enable him to do and overcome?

How did faith influence his conduct? And how is faith to influence our conduct? Now we've seen faith doing all sorts of things, haven't we?

We've seen faith enabling people to build an ark, to leave home, to live in tents their whole lives, to die well. We've seen faith worshiping God, faith walking with God, faith hiding a baby.

And now today we'll see faith choosing. Faith choosing. Now you know that in making human beings, God gave them a will, a faculty of choice, a way to evaluate things and to choose one and to reject the others.

And in making decisions, our whole being is consulted. When you make a decision, everything about you is consulted. Our minds are consulted, aren't they?

What we think about the alternatives, we consult our mind. Our desires are consulted. What do we like and what do we dislike? But finally it's our will that throws the lever and makes the decision for one over the others.

Now some of the decisions we make are relatively insignificant. What color socks you wore this morning, whether you had honey or jelly on your toast, very insignificant.

But other decisions are far more significant and carry much heavier consequences like who you marry or the church you belong to or the friends you choose.

But no decision will ever even come close to the all-important choice we all must make and that is what will you do with Jesus Christ and his word?

What will you do with Christ? And we get to see Moses making this decision and we get to see the difference that faith makes in the whole decision-making process.

Hebrews 11, 24-26, By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. Now here we find Moses deciding, refusing one and choosing the other.

Now sometimes in making a decision, it's helpful, isn't it, to take a piece of paper and to draw a line right down the middle and to put the pros, for whatever the issue you're deciding, you put the pros on one side and the cons on the other and you kind of add them up and weigh them and you make a decision.

Ever do that? Yes, we perhaps have. Some of you are so good at it that you don't even use the paper anymore. You just do it in your mind, but you're doing that, aren't you?

I suggest that's what we're all doing every day, all day. We're making decisions, big and small. We're weighing our options. We're thinking and considering the consequences of this option and this option.

We're consulting our desires. What do I want? What do I not like? We're then deciding. And sometimes we do it all in a split second, don't we?

I mean, if it took you longer than 15 minutes to decide what color of socks to wear today, we need to talk afterwards. You need help. No, these things happen just like that often, don't they?

But all that calculating is going on inside as we make decisions. So Moses, in this exhibit of the Hall of Faith, we've come to the Moses exhibit and there's this piece of paper and it's divided by a vertical line.

And the critical issue being decided by Moses is where will he put his ultimate loyalty and devotion? With Egypt or with Christ?

Will he align himself with the world or with God's people? Now, I say then there's the world and Christ and Moses is weighing his options.

Now, you know that Moses lived 1,500 years before Christ. But the decision was the world or Christ. It always is.

Because it was from God's people Israel that the Christ, the Messiah, was to come. He had the promises of the coming Messiah, the coming Savior. And they were bound up and given to his people Israel.

And so he has this choice. Will I identify with God's people and God's Messiah? Or will I identify with Egypt, with this world?

And the very same choice meets us today. It's a decision of ultimate loyalty that will give direction to the rest of our lives. Is it going to be the world or is it going to be Christ?

So let's pay close attention and be careful how we choose. Moses has these two options and he puts one on each side of the paper and there on the left is the world represented by Egypt.

And there on the other is Christ and his people, the Israelites. And underneath he lists all the consequences. What will it mean if I choose this and what will it mean if I choose that?

So let's see what's on each side of the paper as he weighs his decision. There's Egypt then, the world. And choosing Egypt would mean, first of all, enjoying the status of being known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

The status of being known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You remember how after hiding him for three months, his parents could hide him no longer. And so they put him in a basket, put him out into the Nile River and left him.

And the Lord so directed that Pharaoh's daughter comes to the very spot and as she's bathing she notices the Hebrew baby and has pity on him.

And she says to Moses' sister who's standing nearby, go find one of the Hebrew women to nurse him for me. And of course she runs and gets her mother. And so we have the situation of Moses' mother nursing and bringing up her own son and being paid for it out of the royal treasury of Pharaoh who has made an edict to kill every Hebrew boy.

Aren't God's ways delicious? It's wonderful the way God works. His saving will. Well, when he grew older his mother took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son.

She adopted him and she brought him up as her own son with the best of Egyptian education. And now he's grown up even further and he has this ultimate decision to make whether or not to remain the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

What a temptation to be a somebody to the world. To have VIP status throughout the land with all the prestige and popularity and power and privileges and perks of palace life.

The very thing most people can only dream about. And it's all his. just for staying where he is.

He doesn't have to do anything to get it. It's already his. Just go on identifying yourself with Egypt as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

And in that way declaring your identity. Moses would be saying this defines me. This is who I am. These are my people. This is my home. This is where my heart is.

My loyalty. My devotion. My priorities. My value system. It's all here in Egypt. And that identity would swing open doors that would otherwise be forever closed to him.

It's that way with royalty, isn't it? They get to go right to the front of the line. There's no waiting. You get what you want when you want it.

You get what others can only dream of having just because of who you are, the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Her daddy's the king. You're a royal prince. Maybe even in line to the throne.

Everything is at your fingertips. And we're just getting started with the left side of the paper. Reasons for choosing Egypt. Our text goes on and says that choosing Egypt would mean secondly enjoying the pleasures of sin.

Verse 25. Enjoying the pleasures of sin. There is pleasure in sin and the Bible does not hide that. It talks about it. Sin can be fun.

I mean, it's got to have something going for it, right? If people are going to sell their souls for it. And here is this young man, Moses, and if he chooses Egypt and remains the son of Pharaoh's daughter, then he can have everything his heart desires.

Every sinful urge within could find immediate gratification here. Any number of women his heart desired.

He could get drunk with the best of wine. He could attend the best parties and the entertainments that would feed the lusts of men for gluttony, drunkenness, and sex.

Egypt had it all without the restrictive laws of God to squelch sinful desire. Choosing Egypt would mean enjoying the pleasures of sin.

And then thirdly, it would mean enjoying the treasures of Egypt. Verse 26. The treasures. Not only the pleasures, but the treasures of Egypt. Now Egypt was one of the most prosperous nations in the world at this time.

And strictly speaking, Pharaoh owned all the wealth in Egypt. It was all his. So it's even hard to calculate what all was at Moses' fingertips.

The treasures of Egypt. You heard of King Tut? The Egyptian boy Pharaoh who reigned for 10 years and died around 17 years old.

He reigned about 100 years after Moses. Okay? Just 100. In this Egyptian dynasty of Pharaoh kings. And 100 years after Moses came along this little King Tut.

We've seen pictures of some of the treasures that were found in his tomb, haven't we? Maybe some of you have seen them in person because they took them to museums all over the world so people could see the gold that was buried with King Tut.

even so as the grandson of Pharaoh Moses would have the whole treasury of Egypt at his disposal. He wouldn't have to work a day of his life.

He'd never have to agonize over the price tag on anything that he wanted to buy. If only he will remain the son of Pharaoh's daughter and define himself as one with the world instead of one with Christ.

So he's got status, pleasures, treasures if he'll just stay put. Okay, let's go to the other side of the paper. There's choosing Christ.

What will that bring? And so number one, obviously it means losing all the status and pleasure and treasures of Egypt. Okay? If he chooses Christ he walks away from all that we've just seen.

and in its place he would have number two, being mistreated along with the people of God. He'd seen God's people.

He'd seen what the Egyptians were doing to them, how they hated them, how they mistreated them, subjected them to cruel slavery under harsh taskmasters, making their life bitter, making bricks under the hot desert sun, killing their baby boys.

This was the prospect. If he chose to identify with Christ and his slave nation, miserable mistreatment instead of the ease and affluence of palace life.

But even more, in the third place, choosing Christ would mean suffering disgrace for the sake of Christ. Verse 26 says, suffering disgrace, shame.

You've been ashamed. It's not a feeling we would choose readily. But that's what it will mean.

If I choose Christ, I am choosing to suffer shame and disgrace for his sake. going from a somebody, the son of Pharaoh's daughter, to a nobody.

From being respected to being reproached and mocked, bearing the shame and stigma of Christ. That's what it says in verse 26.

The shame of Christ, the disgrace of Christ is what he was going to suffer if he chose to identify with him. Because Christ suffered shame.

Christ suffered disgrace from this sinful world. And so do all who follow him in every place and every age. Those who identify with him and his people and his word.

Remember how Paul calls them the scum of the earth. Fools for Christ's sake. That odd, out-of-touch bunch of people.

That's what it would mean, choosing Christ. So that's what goes on this side of the balance. Are you getting the picture then? The piece of paper? There it is on the exhibit of Moses. And both sides are filling up.

Egypt, the perks, pleasures, treasures of son of Pharaoh's daughter. Christ, suffering mistreatment, disgrace, persecution, to have nothing, to be nobody in Egypt, to despise slave, and a despised nation of slaves.

So Moses is standing before this spreadsheet, and he's thinking about his decision. He's weighing his options here. He does the calculations, and he chooses Christ hands down.

It's a no-brainer to him. He refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and instead he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God, and to bear the disgrace of Christ.

And he did it with his eyes wide open, counting the cost, willingly, gladly, I'm in with Christ and his people.

And every worldling going through the Moses exhibit and stopping and looking at this is shaking their heads and saying, what a fool. Look what he walked away from.

He had this opportunity, laid at his door, and he just walked away. For what? Oh, what an idiot Moses was.

And as they're muttering about Moses' choice, there's a button on the exhibit labeled, by faith, and somebody pushes it, and immediately the spreadsheet lights up with new information.

New information that Moses saw by faith in God's word. All the things that he believed about the revelation that he had received from God, suddenly that's on the spreadsheet.

The unseen stuff that only faith can see and is certain about. Future things promised that only faith sees and is sure of. You see, you'll never understand Moses' choice, much less make the same choice yourself, unless you see what Moses saw.

By faith, Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. By faith, he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God.

This is faith choosing, this is faith reasoning, faith calculating, faith weighing the pros and cons, faith making all the difference in the decision he made.

Now leave faith out of the decision, and Moses never would have chosen as he did. Plug in faith and his choice makes perfect sense.

Perfect sense. You see, faith sees things differently than unbelief. So let's consider the differences that faith made in his decision.

First of all, faith sees that the pleasures of sin are only for a short time. all. Yes, he knew about the pleasures of sin being offered to him for the taking.

Yes, those things appealed greatly to his flesh, perhaps as much as to any other young man in Egypt. But as he looked at them by faith, he couldn't get over the fact of how short-lived they were.

They're just temporary. Those pleasures are passing. They're soon to be no more. Oh, it's true.

They could have lasted his entire lifetime, 120 years that he lived. It could have been packed with the pleasures of sin every day for the end of his life.

You say, that's a long time. Yes, it is if you leave faith out of the calculation. But Moses didn't.

And faith brings eternity into view. Oh. And faith puts its entire lifetime on the timeline of eternity.

And it sees it as a dot, a blip on the unending ages of eternity.

And our important decisions will never be right without eternity in view. We'll be cheated every time. That's why so many are choosing sin's pleasures over Christ today.

They don't see how short-lived sin's pleasures are, and they don't see how long and awful sin's consequences are. And at some point, dear ones, we must acknowledge that it is not right nor wise to gain momentary pleasures for eternal torments.

No, the world's pleasures of sin just don't look the same through the eyeglasses of faith that brings eternity into view. Secondly, faith also sees mistreatment with the people of God differently.

Now, outwardly, he saw what everybody else saw. Bloodied backs from hard task masters, fingers worked to the bone, working day and night, baking bricks and making buildings for Pharaoh.

But faith saw the mistreatment with the people of God differently. mistreatment may be severe, but that too only lasts a lifetime.

Faith sees an eternity of bliss with God that he has prepared for his people. And so faith reckons that our present sufferings are not even worth being compared to the glories that will be revealed in us.

And so faith places a high value upon being one of the people of God. Yes, being one of those persecuted people. Faith says, wow, what a privilege to be one of those in covenant with God, wherein God says to them, I will be your God and you will be my people.

one of those people of whom God says, you are mine, you are my treasure, you are the apple of my eye. Faith says, I want that privilege of belonging to the people of God, to be under his unfailing love and everlasting favor, to have God with me and for me every day of my life, and then in the day of my death, and then in the day of judgment, and then throughout all eternity to be a part of that group, the people of God.

What is my greatest comfort in life and in death, that I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, not to myself, but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood is fully paid for all my sins, and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil, and that he protects me so well that apart from the will of my father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head, indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation, therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

It's my greatest privilege, my greatest comfort in life, to belong to him, to be a part of the people of God.

So does being one of God's people bring with it mistreatment from the world? So be it. That does not undo the far greater benefit of being one of his.

Nothing can compare with this. Better to be a persecuted child of God than to be a pampered son of Pharaoh's daughter. better to be an Israelite slave with God than to be an Egyptian prince without him.

The world's worst with Christ is far better than the world's best without him. I see this. I see it by faith. It's a no brainer.

I'm with the people of God. I choose Christ. He sees the value of belonging to Christ and his people.

There is a day coming, folks. When the world, you know, the reason the world does not know you is that it did not know him. But a day is coming when it will see him coming in glory and then it will know who the people of God are and why we're so blessed to have him as our God.

A day is coming when the lost world would trade the whole world in order to be in that group called the people of God. Now despise then the envy of all. When to belong to the people of God will mean heaven forever and to be outside the people of God will mean hell forever.

These are the unseen things of faith that Moses saw and that made a difference in what he chose.

faith has a different value system, doesn't it? A different way of assigning worth to things. We choose based on what we regard as valuable. The world assigns certain values to things.

The world goes through life and puts its own price tags on everything in the world. And you know how they value things. Earthly treasures carry a high value with them.

Some men are willing to give up their health, their families, their honesty and the chase for more of it. More of this world. More treasure. More treasure. Many like godless Esau regard a bowl of soup as worth more than the spiritual blessings of God.

But then faith comes along. Faith's walking through the same world looking at the same things, the same earthly treasures, but it sees right through the deceitfulness of riches.

Wealth. Riches. We brought nothing into this world and it's certain we can take nothing out. Faith sees that. Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath.

Faith sees that. Wealth is so uncertain that it can take wings and fly away. Wealth can detract us from the far more valuable things of Christ and eternity.

Sometimes we hear of paintings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars being bought at a garage sale for only a few bucks. Somebody did not rightly value the painting.

They did not understand its worth, did they? That's the world's valuation system. It's all messed up because it lacks faith. It highly values cheap things and puts a low valuation on the most precious things.

And Jesus is made to say in the prophet Zechariah, they valued me for the handsome price of 30 pieces of silver.

The price of a slave. And the world is still valuing Christ far less than earthly treasures as seen by the choice that they make day by day.

But faith walks through and sees the true value and sees right through the overvalued things and the undervalued things. And by faith, he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value.

He put a higher price tag on suffering disgrace with Christ than all the treasures of Egypt. It's an accounting term. He regarded, he's calculating, he's accounting, and he says, this has got it hands down.

Put it on the scales. Disgrace with Christ. The world sees the decision before them, treasures of Egypt, disgrace with Christ, and says, it's a no-brainer. Give me the treasures, you can have the disgrace.

Faith says, no-brainer. Give me the disgrace with Christ, you can have all of Egypt's treasures. And so what others shun like the plague, Moses chooses as a prize.

Christ and suffering with him. So faith sees what the world does not see, the fleeting nature of earth's treasures, the emptiness of earth's treasures.

They don't make you truly happy, do they? Robin Williams made a lot of money making people laugh. But he was not happy himself because, you see, man is not such a low creature as to be satisfied with things.

We were made for God, and nothing will satisfy the soul but God himself. No, faith sees the emptiness of earth's treasures.

Faith sees the high value of suffering disgrace for Christ. What a privilege. Remember the apostles? Preaching Christ and they get flogged for it, threatened for it and let go and they go away rejoicing.

Why? That they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the name. What a privilege to suffer some disgrace for him who took all of my disgrace to the cross and was damned for me.

I choose Christ. What a privilege. I'd rather have Jesus and his shame than all the world's honors and riches. Why would Moses say that? The last point, because he was looking forward.

He was looking ahead to his reward. And this too is the activity of faith to look ahead to those promised rewards that are not seen yet. And so faith looks ahead to the reward.

You never have a true estimate of things without faith factoring in the unseen rewards promised by God. So blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult and persecute and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice! Be glad! Because great is your reward in heaven.

And faith sees what God has promised. Moses chose as he did because he was looking ahead to his reward.

What are men's frowns now compared to God's favor forever? And so the Hebrew Christians to whom this letter was first written, they had chose Christ and now they were suffering for it.

Imprisoned, confiscated their property, hated, persecuted, and they're being tempted and they're wondering, is it worth it or should we go back to the world as it was without Christ?

All we'd have to do is just forsake Christ for the world and suddenly we wouldn't have the disgrace, the shame, the mistreatment. We'd have the world's pleasure and smiles and they're in this weighing process it seems again.

They're being tempted at least to consider and this letter is written to them. Stand in front of the Moses exhibit a while and look at the decision Moses had to make.

When the world could not have offered more than what it had to offer to a man and standing with Christ had such a high cost and he chose Christ.

It was by faith, people, by faith. You need faith in the word of God to choose rightly. as you're being tempted to choose this world over Christ.

And you know that choice is ever before us. You say, I made that decision 20 years ago, two months ago, 60 years ago. It's before us every day though, isn't it?

Forsake Christ, choose the world. We need faith every day, the first day of our Christian life, every day sins, and we'll need it the last step of the way.

Faith, by faith he chose, by faith he chose. That's the message. And we've stood here before Moses' exhibit today and we've seen a man make the ultimate decision. And Moses shouts to us by his very life, faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Fix your eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. Set your heart not on earthly things but on Christ and the things that are found within.

Don't trade the eternal for the temporal. Don't trade true treasure for fleeting treasure. Don't trade pleasures of sin that last for a moment for those pleasures that are found at his right hand forever and ever.

Look to your reward. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus and it will keep you from piddling at life with trifling things that will never make it past the day of your death and it will urge you to live for the things of Christ.

Lost friend upon meeting Christ in the gospel you have that very same choice but before you Christ and the world choose well. The Bible says I have set before you life and death choose life choose Christ because this is the record that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son he who has the son has life everlasting.

You can't be decisive here. You heard the gospel you can't be indecisive for to not choose Christ is to choose the world. To not choose salvation is to choose damnation.

You're just like Moses to remain where you are is to choose the world over Christ. You can't even put off this decision till tomorrow or till later because to not choose Christ today right now is to choose the world for this day.

And to not choose Christ today is to reject him for another day. But why would you why would you reject him when he will have you come to him and trust in him for whoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life.

I close with a true story of a visit to modern day Egypt made by Christian author Randy Alcorn. The streets of Cairo were hot and dusty.

Our missionary friends took us down an alley. We came to a gate that opened to a plot of overgrown grass. It was a graveyard for American missionaries. One of the tombstones read William Borden 1887 to 1913.

Borden was a Yale graduate and an heir to the great wealth of Borden dairy farms. But he rejected a life of ease in order to bring the gospel to Muslims.

Refusing even to buy himself a car, Borden gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. And after only four months of zealous ministry in Egypt, he contracted spiral meningitis and died at the age of 25.

I dusted off the epitaph on Borden's grave and after describing his love and sacrifice for the kingdom of God and for the Muslim people, the inscription ended with a phrase I've never forgotten, apart from faith in Christ, there's no explanation for such a life.

You know, the same was true of that young man Moses, wasn't it? Apart from faith, there was no explanation for the decision he made or the rest of his life.

I wonder if that's true of you. Could it be said of, you know, he, she lives in such a way that apart from faith, it's nonsense, it's foolery? Well, that's the way Borden lived.

And our missionary friends took us straight from Borden's grave to the Egyptian National Museum. The King Tut exhibit was mind-boggling. The boy king was only 817 when he died. He was buried with solid gold chariots, plural, and thousands of golden artifacts.

His gold coffin was found within gold tombs, within gold tombs, within gold tombs. The burial site was filled with tons of gold. The Egyptians believed in an afterlife, one where they could take earthly treasures.

But all the treasures intended for King Tut's eternal enjoyment stayed right where they were until Howard Carter discovered the burial chamber in 1922. They hadn't been touched for more than 3,000 years.

And I was struck between the contrast of these two graves. Borden's was obscure, dusty, and hidden off the back alley of a street littered with garbage.

King Tut's tomb glittered with unimaginable wealth. Yet where are these two young men now? One who lived in opulence and called himself a king is in the misery of a Christless eternity.

The other who lived a modest life on earth in service of the one true king is enjoying life everlasting, enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of his Lord.

Tut's life was tragic because of an awful truth discovered too late. He couldn't take his treasures with him. Borden's life was triumphant. Why? Because instead of leaving his treasures behind, he sent them on ahead.

The difference? Faith. We don't choose well without faith. But faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, you have known us. We can't read a passage like this without knowing that you know the pull of prestige and status and power and pleasures and wealth.

but you also know far better than we how powerful the realities of faith are and how much we need to fix our eyes on those things that are unseen and be certain of them.

So thank you for coming alongside us with your truth this day. It has judged us. We confess our sins that we see far too much treasure in things below and far too little in Christ.

all that he has promised. Help us to see with the eye of faith and to decide and to make our decisions day by day with faith.

Faith in Christ. What a gift you've given us when you've given us faith to lay hold of Christ and you as the pearl of great price. Come and help us and thank you for faith and thank you for your word that reveals things we otherwise could never know.

Thank you for salvation in Jesus. Thank you for everlasting treasures in him. We praise you in his name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.