Our reading today from God's Word is in the book of Hebrews. We'll be starting at verse 23, going through verse 29. That's verse 23 to verse 29. Let's hear the words of the King of Grace. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's command. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. Amen. You may be seated. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as this piece of Your scripture that has been read, it is written by the finger of you, O God, and so may we take heed to it and we pray that you would remove any obstacles and barriers that we might better understand the word that has been read and about to be preached. We pray also that you might grant and bless to the one preaching the clarity of your word and the guidance of the spirit of you, O God, in everything that is said from beginning to end, knowing that it is your written word. If there be any of us, O Lord, who do not Understand, we pray, that you might so grant that we would understand your word in a way that is both reverent, humbling, but one that gives growth and grace. And so we pray that it would be so, in Jesus' name, amen. the title of the sermon this morning, From a Timid to a Bold Faith. When we look at chapter 11 of Hebrews, we see the development of what faith looks like. Far too often, people speak of faith or belief or trust merely with regard to that conversion moment. The time when they were awakened by the Spirit of God and from their own sinfulness and under the load of conviction of sin and the fear of the wrath of God that lay upon them. And then, God, by his grace, draws them to himself, having awakened them from death into life. Enabling unto faith, they look at Christ and believe in him and are indeed justified, that is to say, declared by him righteous in Christ forevermore, once and forever. And they realize that they are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has a direct bearing upon us. And in union with him, we died with him, we're buried with him, we're raised with Jesus Christ, we're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. All of these things occur. But the life that we live is a life lived by faith. And so as we look at these various examples, you see, throughout the Old Testament we find the way their faith was lived out and are instructed and shown by way of these examples of how our lives should show the marks of walking by faith as well. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen And so everyone that know Christ's saving call, each one of us, we are also disciples in God's school of faith, and it's lifelong. Look at your life and you consider, you know, when you were a newborn babe in Christ, your faith was there in its infancy. And then look at how God's brought you through various trials and difficulties or joys and blessings. And you look at all of the big picture as well as the particulars. You see how God's caused us to cast ourselves upon him when it turned out that was all that we had to cling to. And that's why he did it. Or times with great blessing and we realize that God is the one, the benefactor. He is the one from his hand that all benevolence flows by his grace. And so forth. Well, we saw that everyone from Abel forward. And here today, I'd like us to back up to verse, the 123 was read for us. I'd like to read 22. And to begin with, think of Joseph. God's promises beyond our lifetime. So here, 1122, it says very briefly, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. So think of this, this is a man who was faithful, he was, remember he had gone through being hated by his brethren, favored by his father, he was sold as a slave, ended up in Egypt. In fact, that's how they ended up there, as he went ahead. And so Joseph was, by God's grace, even though he went through the betrayal of Potiphar's wife's false accusation, ended up in prison, even there being faithful to God, but there also put in proximity to the men who dreamed, won a cupbearer, won a baker, you know the whole story. Till ultimately he was raised by interpretation of the dreams and the stewardship over the whole nation and their stores of grain. that Joseph became, as it were, prime minister under Pharaoh. But he knew that Canaan was the land of promise. He knew that God had covenanted in his great-grandfather Abraham of how that was the land that God had given them. And he, by faith, believed the promises that God gave. And so, he realized that they were not there to be in Egypt permanently, but that they were there as sojourners, and they were to return to the land of Canaan. Even though he had come to fullness of age, a hundred and ten years old, he said, I know that God's going to take you back to the land he promised to give us. Every promise God gives, he keeps. And so when I die, and I'm embalmed, I'm buried, the whole thing, he says, I want you, when you do leave, when you do return, when God does bring that to fulfillment, I want you to take my bones with you and bury them in that land of promise. You see, it was a faith that looked beyond his own lifetime. Realizing in his own life he had come to the end of his age, it wasn't going to happen while he was alive that he would be in the promised land. But because he rested in the promises of God, remember things not seen, he had not seen it occur. But he believed in the word of God so powerfully that he knew they must go. Therefore, he gave, made them promise, take my bones with you when you go. by the way they did. They took the bones of Joseph back and you have the tomb of Joseph available there even to this day. And so when you consider that he believed the promises and that all of this would happen, it was something that he realized he did not have to, he would not experience firsthand. Why then bother? Well, there's several reasons. First of all, God promised. Secondly, that's the land that's home for them that God had given them. But there's a third reason. In the resurrection, they'll all be raised together in a glorified body. I love the fact that in the old architecture, and we don't see it much anymore, in the old architecture, though, you would see churches, would have the graveyard adjacent to the church. And you say, well, what good does that do? Oh, my. It means that we're all raised together. You say, well, we'll be raised anyway. Yes, I know. But you see, looking at family that stretches beyond the grave, looking at each one of you and you looking at me and saying, we are brothers and sisters in Christ forever. And the great day of the Lord when he returns, when we, if we're gone on to be with him ahead of time, not raptured at that time, but we've already gone, absent from the body, present with the Lord, we're there. That means when he comes again, he'll bring with him those who are his, and that we will be raised, glorified. And so I have that such a firm conviction of that reality of that promise of God. You say, it'd be marvelous if we're raised together, the family together. Well, that's the sort of thing you see on display here. with a faith of Joseph that says, take my bones there. Don't leave them here. I know that's more convenient, but take them there. And secondly, as we consider in verse 23, the parents of Moses, that in order to obey God, defied a king. Now remember, these are slaves. His parents were slaves and they gave birth to, this is Amram and Yocheved that gave birth to Moses. And so the decree of the king, if you were to read the decree of the king, it is that every son who is born to the children of Abraham, excuse me, children of Israel, that they were to take those sons and they were to cast them into the Nile River. The Nile River's Full, even if they didn't drown, the Nile River is full of crocodiles. So in other words, to cast your baby boys into that river to be fed to crocodiles. What cruel, unimaginable hate of a genocide like that. To cast them into the river. If you did not obey the king, the penalties could be severe. But here we read in verse 23 that, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. Recall Peter and John brought before the Sanhedrin. In chapter 4 of Acts, it's repeated again in chapter 5 of Acts. And they're commanded sternly by the Sanhedrin, don't you preach any more in this name. No more the name of Jesus Christ is to be exalted in worship, in prayer, in preaching, in healing in his name. Anything done not to be in the name of Jesus Christ. And how do they respond? Whether it's right to obey God or man, you be the judge. But we cannot but speak in this name. So they took counsel. They said, how are we going to kill these guys? How are we going to do it? And so they said, you know, Gamaliel eventually was the one who spoke up. And he says, look, if these men are from God, you'll be fighting against God. And if they're from God, you can't stop them anyway. But if it's not of God, they'll fizzle out. Leave them alone. So they sternly warned them the second time. They sternly warned them, and they beat them. And so Peter and John went away rejoicing in that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Lord. But that's faith. Faith that does not see the thing that's promised, but trusts in the Lord and says, God has commanded it and no matter what the costs, I must obey him rather than this leader. That's what the parents of Moses did. They hid Moses, I'm sure his cries they were afraid would be heard. And so they nevertheless kept the baby, did not put him, cast him into the river, devised a clever plan to make an ark. It uses the same word as the ark in Genesis chapter 6 through 9. And they built a little ark of bulrushes, you know the story. And they made it there and put it in the papyrus plants on the edge of the river. And there they hid Moses and set Miriam to watch over him, knowing that that's where the king's, excuse me, Pharaoh's daughter would come down. And so as they've had him strategically placed, and as she finds him, Miriam runs up, you know, hearing that she says, this is one of the Hebrew children, and she showed favor upon him by God's grace. He said, do you want me to find a nurse? Sure. Well, it just so happens I've got one all set over here, his mother. And you see the hand of God, the providence of God, the sovereignty of God, the love of God, the covenant keeping of God in every stage of that event. And you see, these are they who did not give the baby to the crocodiles, Moses. But they had faith and believed the Lord and obeyed God's commands rather than Pharaoh's commands. These were slaves under a murderous tyrant. Maybe they would be tempted to say, what can we do? How many today horrifically because of convenience and quote unquote unwanted pregnancy will murder the child, call it abortion, it's still murder. How many millions have died? And so when we look at this, they believed. And so the powerless people quietly acted against the powerful evil of Pharaoh. And this brings up another point. It doesn't have to be a lot of fanfare. Many times it's not. It's in many countless quiet ways that faith is exhibited. where one is determined to obey the Lord and to not fulfill the sinful commands, but to obey Him. You know, you remember many of you back in the days when China had a one-child policy. Remember that? And so, if you had another pregnancy, see, they would come and grab the mother, expectant mother, and drag her off and have forced abortions. So you would have all kinds of Christians that would be migrating out of the cities quietly into the farmlands, and they would go into a harsher surroundings, and they would be pulling rice in the fields, or working building things, or clearing off land, or whatever the building project was. These Christians were doing that, hiding in order to save the child. You see, beloved, faith takes on many faces, you might say. And here we see the faith exhibited in these Christians, and you know what's happened. What happened was that the families of the Christians were larger, you see, than the Communist Party types. And so here you have the Christian families growing, you know, over the godless ones. God and his blessings. So we saw Joseph and we see the parents of Moses, but here, thirdly, we see Moses himself. In verses 24 to 26, an extraordinary portion of scripture, it says here, by faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he looked to the reward. Moses, the one who esteemed Christ above worldly treasures, the one who esteemed Christ above worldly treasures. First of all, we see that he renounced all that the world was seeking. It says he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Let's put it another way. He refused to be called Pharaoh's grandson. Now think for a moment of what that would involve. How much deference do you suppose people would show to a grandson of Pharaoh? The man who all the people thought was a god, and that really believed that. And the wealth of Egypt was legendary. and the power and prestige that would be involved to be at court, to be the one who would have, of course, he had all the education and the training of Egypt that we find out. But nevertheless, the one who would be exalted as one who would have that kind of prestige, that kind of power, that kind of wealth, that kind of influence, down the list you may go. And so when you think of that concept, that mindset, how many people live their whole lives striving for that? And here's one that God took as one of the slaves and exalted him like Joseph before him, exalted him to a level where he would be in the royal court itself. The entertainment that was involved, the leisure, the beauty, the servants surrounding him, the inheritance that he would have. All of this to be in Egypt. All you have to do is just stay surrounded by the gods of Egypt. You getting the picture? Stay with all of these pagans, stay with all of these who are against the true and living God. That's all you have to leave out. But look at everything else you'll have instead. It's interesting because we were reading or studying through Hebrews and we came to chapter 3. Do you remember that part? And it talks about the deceitfulness of sin. Now there is something we must watch for. Deceived. To be lured, seduced, deceived by sin. Isn't that the way the devil worked? He didn't just walk up to Eve or Adam and say, alright everybody, let's rebel. Well, they'd have seen that coming a mile away. No, no, he did it bit by bit. And he says, you know, can't you eat of any tree of the garden? Well, we can't eat of one. Oh. He says, why can't you eat that one? This is my simplified version here. He says, well, that's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. that you can't touch it even. He says you can't eat it because you'll die. Then what does he say? You won't die. You see already we're calling God a liar. It's not true. How many have their faith undermined in universities, or in public schools, or in various certain social groups, or whatever the case may be, just to please, to fit in, to be people pleasers. They will compromise, and they will surrender their beliefs. And so bit by bit, It comes in the unbelief, the remaking of their faith, so-called, until finally you find that they've drifted away into deceitfulness of sin and lured by these other things to replace it. They think more valuable than the things of God. God gave Moses the insight that he would see, he would rather choose to suffer affliction with the God's people. Then, to have all the wealth of Egypt, he rejected the sin. In 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 through 17, it says there, love not the world, neither the things of the world. It says that you cannot love the world and love the Lord at the same time. It says that the things of the world, you know, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. He said all of those things are part of this passing world, passing away. The same kind of idea is presented here, did you notice? Here's, as you look at the verses that we read together, it says in verse 26, he esteemed the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He looked for the reward. He was looking beyond it, back to 25. He'd rather suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. How many have traded off a faith that is anchored in God, anchored in the truth of God, anchored in the reward, the promises of God, even though we may not see them in this life, but know everlastingly, we shall enjoy the promises of God. They say, no, I'm going to, a burden, have you ever heard this saying? A burden hand is worth two in the bush. Any of you ever heard that? How many of the youth have heard that one? Oh, what a pity. You know what it means. I'd rather have what I can put my hand on and I can enjoy right now than to have the potential of having double that later on. Now does it make sense? See, many can look at life, that's not faith. The passing blessings, that which is temporary, that which is not eternal, you see, that is not what we invest our lives in, not what we trust in, not where we see our security, not where we see our true value, not where we invest all that we are and have in. Moses, by God's grace, was able to see and even to suffer the affliction. And by the way, did you notice it says of Christ? Now, how is he sharing in the affliction of Christ? When you think of affliction, you think of trial, you think of difficulty. In other words, identifying with Jesus Christ. who is the ultimate covenant son, isn't he? You see, all the hopes were anchored in one son, the seed of Abraham, or the son of Abraham, the one who had descended from, well, the seed of the woman, but also the seed of Abraham. There's where all the promises were in Messiah. They were looking for Messiah. And so to suffer for belief in him, trusting in him, You know, it talks about faith in the end of the age in 2 Peter 3, or perhaps I should say lack of it. It says in 2 Peter 3, there will come in the last days scoffers. And this is what they say, where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues as it always has since the creation. At least they mention creation. But since the beginning. In other words, they're going by observation, they're going by that which is, you know, investigatable and testable and everything else. He hasn't come, so he's not going to come. They draw, they infer from that that he's not going to come back at all like he promised. You see, instead, the promise from Messiah, even though it was from generation to generation and it went through all those thousands of years, God fulfilled his promise. And so even here in trusting and believing, Moses was, as it were, trusting in Jesus Christ. And he found that the highest honor is to identify with him. And so finally, faith was looking to the reward. We've talked about hope before, the assurance of things hoped for, We've said that hope has a future element to it, that hope is the opposite of hopeless, the opposite of despair. There's more to hope than that, and maybe here we can see it. That Moses realized there was hope, and that is a trust with a desire that has the expectation of fulfillment. It's not, I have a desire, I just dreamed up myself. But it's rooted in the promises of God. And so when we see here that we learn that faith is something that's in the future, yes, but it's a desire that's for the fulfillment of it. But we know this most certainly shall be fulfilled because God is the one who bound himself by promise, by covenant to perform. And so Moses chose to identify with the slaves. Think in context of history and life. and saying, do I believe the promises of God enough to give up everything that the world had to offer at his fingertips? It's like winning multiple lotteries. To give it all away for, to identify with slaves. But they're God's people. They're God's bondservants. They're Christ's people. You see, and that's the dichotomy, the contrasts, the choices that were here before him. And by faith he chose to identify with God's people. There's faith. So we've seen three aspects of faith, haven't we? And there we see faith being lived out. And our lives are to be lived out in this like manner. But let's look at a fourth way. We find that here in verse 27. In verse 27 it says, by faith he, that is Moses, forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Now this is a little bit of a tough one. So wait a minute, I seem to remember scratching my head as I read over back in Exodus chapter three that he was fleeing Egypt. Remember, there were two slaves. Remember this? There were two slaves, Jewish men, who were being mistreated by, or Jewish were being mistreated by a taskmaster, an Egyptian taskmaster. And so Moses, it says, even says, he looks this way and that, and he goes over and he kills the taskmaster. buries him in the sand, and goes on. The next day, two Hebrews are fighting. You remember this, right? The two Hebrew men are fighting, and Moses gets in between them, and he says, come on, you're brethren. You shouldn't be doing this to one another. And they said, who made you a ruler over us? Are you going to kill us the way you killed the Egyptian? Moses says, oh, no. Secret's out. And so he fled. So it seems like that's the opposite of what this is describing. doesn't it? I don't think so. First of all, remember who he was. Remember he was Pharaoh's grandson legally. Remember furthermore that Egypt wasn't exactly known for its being down the line fair. And so he could have used his influence, especially his mother, if it were Hatshepsut. We don't know if it was she who was the mother in question. But the whole point here is that he could have easily gotten out of it, but there's more. What was Moses doing? Moses thought that he was being a deliverer that he was born to be, and that he was starting this in deliverance of his people. He was trained in all the military arts. He was trained to be one that would be a perfect soldier. He would have to, as a prince, go out and actually exercise or apply these things in battle. So when he left, was he leaving purely in fear? Or was he leaving as a failure? Now my plans are thwarted. My plans are thwarted early. And so as he departs, he leaves as one who is leaving everything behind, everything that is behind him. And we see he forsook Egypt, their ways and their weapons. for God's power. How did Moses think that he would deliver the people of Israel? He evidently had a thought that was his calling. By weaponry, by war, by an insurrection, by raising up the people against the Egyptians or something of that nature. For it was certainly in this individual case where he stretched out and murdered the man. But when he fled, he forsook all the strength of Egypt, the extravagant palace for a harsh desert. He left the servants and those that would show honor and deference to him for a bunch of bleating sheep that are calling for his attention. And so he became a shepherd instead. What had happened? Had God missed it? Had God's plan failed? Had Moses missed his calling or what was taking place? What was taking place was the providence of God, the invisible hand of God, that he was the one working in all of these circumstances to move Moses out of Egypt. Because you see, that was first 40 years, phase one. Remember I said, we're in God's school of faith. So God's still working with him. We don't say God's given up. We don't say that God's missed it, made a mistake. We say God, by his infinite wisdom and grace, is still working on me. I don't know exactly what he's doing, but I believe he is changing me. That's faith also, believing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus in our present day. And so, you know where he ended up. He ended up in Midian. He ended up there in a place that was the backwater of the desert. He ended up marrying Zipporah, and they had children together. And there he was, he made a life for himself, and there forty years he was tending to sheep. Forty! That brings us to the next stage. Here he is dealing with this sheep, you know, and did he look back at Egypt? Remember what happened to Lot's wife? When the Lord had the angels deliver Lot and his wife and daughters out of Sodom. Remember Lot's wife, as the angel said, don't look back. And Lot's wife couldn't stand it. She was about to lose all that she treasured. She was to leave behind everything she had collected over the years. She was to become a pauper because she left all her wealth to be destroyed behind her. And she turned around one last time to look and God turned her into a pillar of salt. It says here, Moses forsook. He turned his back on it. And this was the life God had led him to. For all he knew, this is what he would do to the day he died. Until finally, it says he kept the Passover. Now, I won't get to go through it in detail, but let me just at least start here. The Passover is the crescendo of the event, at least, of what God had in store for Moses. For we see in Exodus chapter 3 that God met Moses at a burning bush. He had a bush that was not consumed with fire, just like God is everlasting and is never depleted. Moses goes forth to the bush and he says, take off your shoes. The ground you're standing on is holy ground. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, I'm the God who's a covenant promiser. I'm the one who gave these promises, I'm the one who called you, you are mine." And it says, God says these things, I have seen the affliction of my people Israel, I have heard their cry unto me, and I have remembered my covenant unto them, and I have acknowledged them. and I will deliver them." Now, up to this point, you're ready to applaud, right? Moses was certainly excited until God said, so I'm sending you. And that's when Moses started to backpedal. Remember, I said here that from a timid to a bold faith, this is where the faith of Moses was timid. This man who had boldness to strike out and to fight and to kill could wield the weapons of Egypt. It was the weapons of God. They're very different than it is being called to wield. You see, God was sending him, and he said, my power, my outstretched arm, I am the one who will deliver them, and I'm sending you as the one to declare this. And what did Moses say to God? They'll want to know what your name is. And he says, you tell them the I Am has sent you. The one who is the self-existent one, the one who is from everlasting to everlasting God, I Am, the one who exists by his own power and all other existence, no matter how far away, how close, visible or invisible, depends upon me for its existence. So in other words, there's nothing beyond my ability. I Am has sent you. And he says, this is my covenant memorial name. In other words, when you hear Yahweh, or today you might hear it pronounced sometimes Jehovah, when you hear that name, remember I have promised. I have bound myself to sovereignly fulfill what I have promised. That's amazing, just think of that. And what was Moses' response? You think, man, he's probably jumping up and down and rejoicing and saying, all right, like Isaiah, here I am, send me. And what does he say? I'm not good at speaking. And he comes up with all the excuses. I can't speak. I'm slow of speech. I'm not eloquent. I'm not really a good speaker. You should probably send my brother. Send him. What happened to this bold warrior? This is a different category. And God says, look, I'm the one who created your mouth. I'll be with your mouth. I'll be with your mouth. And he says, furthermore, I'll be with you. Now go. What does Moses do? He says, Lord, they won't listen to me. Who am I to deliver the people from Pharaoh? And the Lord says, you're not listening. That's kind of what the gist of it is. You're not listening. I will be with you. Well, God says, okay, I'll give you three signs. His staff will be turned into a serpent. Throw down your staff, it turns into a serpent. Now pick it up. He picks it up and it turns back into a staff. Get your hand, put it in your cloak. He puts it in his cloak. It's leprous. Can you imagine leprosy instantaneously? Put it back in your cloak, pull it out, healed. Even today, with all the medicines we have, of the three or four strains of leprosy that exists, none of them can just be healed outright. They take a long time of treatment, and I think there's only one that can ultimately be treated successfully. The others, it's just to kind of keep it from advancing so fast. But then, no way to heal it. Incurable. Put it in your cloak. Heal. And thirdly, pour out water. Pour out the water on the ground and it becomes blood. Show this to them, they'll believe you. Okay, pack up and go. So what does Moses do? Again, a third time, Lord, I'm just not the man you need. You need to send somebody else. You need someone who can speak better. The faith of Moses isn't looking too great, is it? No self-confidence, not believing God can do it. But what did God do? We'll save this for next time. But look in the text what He did. The exodus. Now the exodus didn't just plop down onto the page, or onto like one single event. There was lots of confrontation. There were a lot of threats. There were 10 plagues that brought low the whole land of Egypt and bringing Pharaoh down in it as well. And all the firstborn of Egypt died. and all the firstborn of Israel under the blood of the Lamb were saved alive. And God even draws them, as it says here, He parts an ocean or a sea for them, the Red Sea. They go across some dry ground, and it destroys an army in the process. You see, beloved, there are lessons to learn here, too. Has your faith ever been in that timid, weak category? Maybe you read these things and you say, maybe that's what took place way back then. But God's changed. Or God isn't able to do that. Or there's a different situation. Or it's just not the case anymore. Well, God is the one who's sovereign over it all. I'll grant you that. May we never believe or in unbelief think that God is not able. You see, the whole thing that God was showing here in all of the cosmic destruction that was wrought and the division of a sea is that he's the God of the impossible. You see, for the one who is sovereign and omnipotent, the I am, nothing is impossible. Nothing impossible for God. That's the faith we need to have. That's the kind of attitude we need to say, if God has said it, I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know if I'll ever see it firsthand, but I do know this much. He has bound himself by promise, so it shall be. Faith, living by faith. These examples teach us much. We skated over the surface so we could cover those few to return to Moses and the Exodus. But God was not satisfied to leave Moses in that pathetic condition. But God led Moses so he could lead Israel through him. And God is leading you and me in this school of faith too. Stretching our faith. Building our faith. Instructing our faith. And causing us to grow in faith. That's what's going on in your life and in mine. Many times it will use hardship or trial or difficulty. Do not despair. Look in hope. and know that he who began that good work in you and me will perfect it. Trust and learn from the faith of those who have gone before. Amen. Let's pray together. Holy Father, we pray and bow before you now that as we have heard the word of you, O God, preached, that it would be that we would count all things as rubbish for their surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Not having righteousness of our own through the law, which is absolutely impossible as we know, but it is through on the basis of faith in Christ. And so we pray that we would have eyes to see by faith the one who is unseen in all the things that we can't see. knowing that you, the unseen God, guides and directs every life from Abel to the last one you've brought into your kingdom before you return. You guide and direct every detail of their life. So may we trust in you as Moses did. May we not be overcome by the world and fall into its trap. But rest peacefully in the arms of you, O God, that we would be at peace, knowing that where we have come from and where we are going, to the city of you, O God, that you've prepared, we pray that we would keep our eyes set on the things above, not on the things on the earth. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now receive the benediction of the Lord. Now peace be unto the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.