A Long Journey of Faith

(To download an mp3 file of this message, click on the title above. To listen online, click on the play button of the audio player.)

This sermon focuses on the theme of New Years and discusses the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt then it makes applications to living our lives in faith each day as we face an uncertain future.

Written Excerpts:

Hebrews 11:29 ^(NKJV) By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. 

Introduction:

Today I want to continue speaking to you on the general theme of facing a brand new year and the journey of life that will continue. It seems as though the start of a new year always inspires more serious thought about the future and what it may hold. Or, we may be thinking about the goals and aspirations we have for the future and how we are going to accomplish them.

Depending on your individual personality style, you may be anticipating the future with fear or with great hope and excitement. In either case, we must all realize that the journey of life is a journey of faith. I think we can all agree also on the fact that this journey of life / faith is not a “sprint,” but it is a “marathon.” For most people the journey is very long – extending for decades before they come to the “finish line” and cross over into eternity.

For the message today I felt led to look at the journey the Israelites took from Egypt to Canaan and see if we can make some applications to our spiritual journey of faith through time to eternity.

I.     Journey is precipitated by misery.

Exodus 1:8-11a, 14 ^(NKJV) Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; ¹⁰come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens…. ¹⁴And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

It is implied that the Israelites were not forced into slave labor until this “Pharaoh who did not know Joseph.” Life must have gotten pretty comfortable for them.

Exodus 5:4-9 ^(NKJV) Then the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor." ⁵And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!" ⁶So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, ⁷"You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' ⁹Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words."

There is a large amount of detail related to this story that we don’t have the time to cover, but simply summarize by saying, The Hebrew people had been languishing under bondage for at least 40+ years (while Moses was hiding out in the wilderness). Then the bondage got even worse right when they began to hear about the possibility of deliverance, liberty and freedom.

There are undoubtedly a number of reasons why God hadn’t decided to deliver them from bondage much earlier. I believe that one possible reason is that the people needed to get “really sick of Egypt.”

When we start our journey of faith, most of us have to reach the point when we are “really sick of ourselves, sick of sin, and sick of all the world has to offer.” (Even if life is going well, we feel that emptiness “is this all there is? What is the meaning of it all anyway?”)

It’s not enough to just simply decide one day, “I’m going to be a better person. I’m going to start going to church. I’m going to quit all the bad habits I have. Etc. etc.” You can certainly do all those things, but you won’t accomplish anything except what Jesus said about the Pharisees – they were “white-washed tombs.” (Cleaned up on the outside, but still spiritually dead and lifeless on the inside.)

Before we begin the journey of faith, we need to get dissatisfied with the way things have been, and sometimes God does that through circumstances, and other times He does it by causing heavy conviction to settle on our hearts. Conviction settles in when we begin to fully realize how lost we really are without Christ. We realize that we’re headed for hell. We realize that our conduct, our conversations and even our thoughts and attitudes have directly violated God’s law.

You’ve heard me say many times, “You have to know the bad news before the good news really seems like good news to you.” I repeat, we need to get so sick of ourselves and sick of the world that we are anxious to turn our lives over to God and let Him lead us on the journey of faith and righteousness that He desires to do.

II.    Journey begins with miraculous deliverance.

Exodus 12:51 ^(NKJV) And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies.

Exodus 14:30-31 ^(NKJV) So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.

Spiritual journey begins with the “new birth” which can be compared to the miracle of deliverance through the Red Sea.

·     Burden of sin lifted; guilt and condemnation gone;

·     Joy and happiness over new-found forgiveness;

·     Excitement over giving life to Christ.

Look what God did! It’s a miracle! God really took care of us!

Exodus 15:1 ^(NKJV) Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying: "I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! 

 (Song by Moses and the Israelites ills. joy and exhilaration.)

III.  Journey continues with human-divine cooperation.

After that great deliverance at the beginning, it might be tempting to think God is going to just remove every obstacle, and provide every need/want, and life’s going to be grand! Then we begin to realize that it isn’t all just as easy as waiting for God to show up and answer all my prayers just as I wish. Sometimes God says, “No” to our prayers.

We begin to realize that there is a journey to take; there are mountains to climb; there are deserts to cross; battles to fight; etc. etc. God doesn’t just automatically whisk us over the desert just like He did through the Red Sea. As soon as some people begin to see that this spiritual journey is going to require some commitment and effort and intentional obedience to God’s will, then they begin to lose courage, and lose faith.

(Ills. – parable of the sower: seed that fell on stony ground; or among thorns.)

Now, thankfully, we don’t have to do it all. We need to cooperate with God’s working in our lives.

Look at all the things God did do for the Israelites:

·     Provided manna

·     Provided meat (quail)

·     Provided water

·     Provided miraculous military victories.

IV.  Journey ends as it began – in faith.

Hebrews 3:12-19 ^(NKJV) Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, ¹⁵while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." ¹⁶For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? ¹⁷Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? ¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. 

The title of the message today is “A Long Journey of Faith.” Our spiritual journey begins with faith, it continues by faith and it ends by faith. In the Scripture I just read, the writer of Hebrews is using the story of the Exodus to illustrate the importance of faith in the Christian life. He explains that the lack of faith kept the initial group of Israelites from entering the Promised Land. He then uses that as an illustration to explain how a lack of faith will keep Christians from experiencing what God has for them.

“Entering that rest” – Some argue that the analogy is referring to heaven, while others argue that it is referring to the grace of sanctification. In either view, the offer is denied or missed out on because of a lack of faith. (According to the illustration used, it is not just a lack of “believing something” but it is a lack of faith demonstrated by obedience.) 

We can trust God and follow Him all through our lives, but it is also important to trust and obey at the end. When I come to the end of my life, I hope someone will keep reminding me that: “Nothing can wash away my sin but the blood of Jesus.” “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

If so, my faith in the blood of Jesus illustrated by obedience to His will, will carry me right through the river of death into the presence of Jesus.

Conclusion:

The journey of faith is a lifetime journey. It has a definite beginning when we surrender our will to God’s and let Him forgive us and take control of our lives. It continues throughout all of life as we face each new situation and obstacle with trust in Him and obedience to His will. Then, it will lead us to the “finish line” when we leave this world and enter into eternity. 

I want us to stand and sing the hymn:

Trust and Obey     # 571

What about your life today? Have you gotten started on the journey of faith by being Born Again and letting Christ come into your heart? 

Have you continued cooperating with the Holy Spirit as God leads you through the various ups and downs of life? Or, have you just given up and said it’s no use; I can’t live up to expectations…

Are you committed to trusting and obeying God right down to the very last step of the journey? Or do you fear you’ll be one of those who “did not enter because of their unbelief?”

As you take inventory of your life right now, do you need to pray about it?