Extraordinary Faith Pt. 2

Good Sunday morning to all of you, I pray that as we go to church today we all see the Shekinah glory of God.
Now back to Moses, starting in vs 23, the first thing we notice is that Moses had parents that not only loved and cared about him, but they feared, and loved God more than they feared men. They chanced prison and death in order to protect him from the world, and to set him aside for use by God. If we had more parents today that were willing to do this, then the world could return to the former glory of this country.
In vs 24-25, we see the results of Moses parents work, in that he had grown up and he was willing to suffer the affliction and the "shame" (as far as they were slaves in Egypt at the time) of being called an Israelite, and a child of God. He gave up all the riches of the world, in order to obtain the riches of eternity. This leads us right into vs. 26-27, because of where his treasure was laid up, he followed God into the desert, he was willing to go, and do what and where God wanted him. We are told in vs. 28-29 that he obeyed God through all, and everything in both Egypt and the wilderness. Even down to crossing the Red Sea on dry land, while the waters raged on either side of the Israelites.
Let's go back to vs. 26-27 for just a few moments, there is so much contained in these verse that I wanted to look at them separately.
1. "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt:"
First we need to remember Christ had not yet come. And yet Moses in his faith still considered the service of God to be of greater value than all the riches Egypt had to offer. When we go to work, are we willing to actually live like Christians, are do we "try not to rock the boat", when others start to act like the world? What about when we go to church? Are we real Christians, or do we act the way other people think that Christians are supposed to act?
2. Are we willing to suffer as Moses did? Are we willing to give up the riches of the world, in order to stay true to God? What do we do for entertainment, does it glorify God, or the world? Going to the lake on the weekend is fine, as long as Sunday we are in both church services. Going to the movies, technically is ok, depending on what we are going to watch. (This is getting increasingly more difficult, as even the "childrens" movies have so many innuendo's and references to drugs, alcohol and sex).
3. "for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible". Throughout everything, Moses endured. He endured what? Endured as though he had seen God. Moses faith was so strong, that even through his sin, his exile, and everything else, he kept his eyes on God. He believed God was real so strongly that it was as if he had seen Him in the flesh. I would love to hear someone say my faith was that strong.
I pray that one day, I will hear God tell me that my faith rivaled that of Moses, Paul, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, or any of the other great men and women mentioned in these verses, in the Bible. I pray that I will do as He ask me to do, no matter what it is. What about you, do you want to see miracles like those seen by these men and women? Do you want to see a miracle the size of those mentioned here? We can see miracles this big, and bigger, God is not out of the miracle business. He still has the power, and desire, however He tells us, that first we must have faith in Him, the size of the faith these people had.
I do want to point out that no matter how much faith we have, we are not going to change God's will, or His plan just because we have faith that something is going to happen. For a few years, I had faith I would be healed. I knew I would be healed, not think I might, or hope I might, I knew, I had faith I would be. Then I realized that God's plan was not for me to be healed, but that I have faith that His grace would be sufficient. And it always has been, and always will be. You can have all the faith in the world that your child will get home from school between 3:30-4:00, but that does not mean that they will. They might get home at 3:20, or the might get home at 3:40 or, well let's not go there.
See we have to make sure that what we have faith in is in God's will to be done, for His plan to carried out, and not in what we think should happen. Just like a missionary about to leave on his first deportation must have faith that God will supply his needs, and not that a specific number of churches will give him a specific amount of money each month, we must have faith that God's will, will be done the way He wants it done. Moses prayed that God would rescue them when they were faced with the Red Sea, not that He would supply them with boats.
I know in my life, I have sometimes missed God working in my life, because I was looking for the wrong thing to happen. Instead of looking for whatever He would do, I was looking for what my human mind could come up with. God told me, that I would be changing churches soon, so I took that to mean it was time. So I went looking, trying to make His will happen. When I found what I wanted, I prayed that God would show me if that was where He wanted me, but in my heart I was hoping that it was. So He gave me the desire of my heart. Specifically I was praying, because the church pastor wanted to start a bus ministry, that if God wanted me to join that church and start a ministry that He would show me that is what He wanted. Knowing the whole time that I wanted to do this no matter what. So, after talking with the pastor on Saturday, Monday morning he received a phone call from another church wanting to give away a bus, for free. God gave me the desire of my heart, even though it was not what He had planned for us. I had my faith in the wrong place, in the wrong thing, and for the wrong reason. I wanted to be used by Him in this great big way, so that I could be recognized as a great man of God, instead of being used however He wanted, and being recognized because of my obedience, instead of the type of work I had done.
We are commanded to have faith in Him. He expects us to have faith on the scale of these people. However we are also commanded to make sure the desires of our heart are the same as His desires. The only way to do this is by prayer, and study of His Holy Word. By opening our hearts, and minds, and waiting on Him to tell us what we are too do. Not by telling Him what we want Him to want us to do. We are to discern what His will is. This is done by praying for wisdom, praying that He will clear our hearts and minds of our self, and then filling it with His Spirit.