We are in the middle of a series called, “A Better Life: The Race of Faith toward the Promise of God,” where we are walking through Hebrews 11 and looking at how heroes and heroines of the Old Testament made the difficult decisions to live out their faith in God. We’ll be in Hebrews 11:23-31. The title of today’s sermon is: “Difficult Decisions”.

Let’s pray.

Father thank you for gathering your family together today. We have lots of distractions to keep us from you, but we gather knowing you called. Keep us focused on the real prize and our ultimate goal. I ask that you help us make difficult decisions well and bless us as we make the right decisions every single day. As we study what you want to teach us today, let your words sink in with each of us and create a desire to choose the life you intended for us—a life filled with love, miracles, and your glory. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

The big idea I want you to take home is this:  

Living by faith requires tough choices

That what faith is, isn’t it? A series of decisions that are between hard and impossible and ultimately choosing to believe without knowing what happens next. That’s how we started this series and in fact, how the author of the Hebrews started this chapter: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…”

If living in faith requires tough choices, then there must be a way we can use our faith as a catalyst to empower us through the difficult decisions in our lives. Today I am going to show you three ways our faith can direct us when we make difficult decisions. But before I do that I want us to understand a behavioral economics concept called “choice architecture.”

Choice architecture is the idea that the decisions we make are a function of the environment we’re in. Meaning our decisions are the culmination of environmental suggestions and reinforcements that influence the decisions we make because choices or decisions are not made in vacuums. Here’s why this is important for us today: we are all architects of shaping the environments we made decisions in. Our decisions today will impact our decisions for tomorrow, and decisions made around us and decisions made in future generations because we are shaping our environment and the environment others experience as they make decisions.

Let me give you an example of how this works in real life: Let’s say you want to make healthy decisions regarding food. That’s great and what I do is, I show up at your office every day for a month and put a fresh box of doughnuts and croissants on your desk. Will you make healthy decisions about food? Absolutely not, your will power isn’t as strong as the decadent smell of fried butter and dough. You’d make great decisions on which donuts taste the best. Now, let’s flip it, I bring you fresh fruit every day and leave them on your desk for a month; what would happen. You may be a few pounds lighter.

Now, let’s apply that to our faith decisions: Sally, through her friends is invited to a church service. And after a series of being invited to church and then deciding to attend, actually declares Jesus as her savior. She makes a decision to follow Jesus because her friends made a decision to follow Jesus and invite her. Then Sally gets married and her husband, who isn’t Christian, is invited to church by Sally, and after a while, he believes. They have children, and from a young age, is instilled with the gospel. They believe. Isn’t that how most of us found ourselves at church? You were the product of somebody’s decision to invite you or drag you and as a result you were able to decide. That’s choice architecture.

The author of the Hebrews is documenting a chain of decisions that shape other decisions in the very framework of choice architecture we just spoke about. And the key driver of those decisions was “faith”. Hebrews 11:23-31.

²³ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. ²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

²⁹ By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹ By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. (Hebrews 11:23-31 ESV)

Here’s the first way we can drive our difficult decisions with faith:

Choose to trust in God and not give way to fear

Choosing to trust in God when fear is present is a difficult decision to make but it always pays off in the long run. We choose to trust in God and choose not to trust fear. We may not understand what God is doing, but what we do know is that any decision driven by fear is worthless in comparison.

Are there decisions that you’ve been procrastinating to make because of fear? If fear has been the motivating factor in your decisions in the past, don’t choose to trust the fear. You don’t have to fear the future, you don’t have to fear failure, you don’t have to fear the unknown because God has a plan. Instead of giving way to fear, choose to trust in God. Place your life, future, family, finances in the hands of God. Choose to trust even when you can’t see past the fear.

You see, even though a bulk of the passage we read was about Moses, it doesn’t start with Moses. Moses’ faith was shaped first by his parents. They started to architect how he would begin to think about things and choose things. Look at verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict (v23).

Moses was born while the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians. The more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied. Pharaoh feared that the Israelites would join forces with another nation and overthrow Egypt. So, Pharaoh ordered that every Hebrew boy born was to be drowned in the Nile River (Exodus 1:22).

And when Moses was born, his parents were faced with the difficult decision to trust God or fear Pharaoh. By choosing to disobey Pharaoh they were risking their own lives to follow God. We don’t know exactly how much they knew of God’s plan for Moses. But their faith prompted them to not allow fear drive their actions.

So they hid him for three months. When they could no longer hide Moses, his mom places him in a basket, and puts him in the river.  She has no idea what will happen… but faith is what moved her to action. Listen to how God honors the faith of Jochebed (yo-ke-bed), Moses’ mom in Exodus 2:5-10.

⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷ Then his sister (Moses’) asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸ “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she (Moses’ mom) took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 2:5-10 ESV)

Moses’ mom was a slave, and birthed a slave child, but now because of her faith, was given the opportunity to get paid to raise and care for her own slave child, Moses. That blows my mind. I mean, how many parents do you know get paid to raise their own children?

You don’t think she was telling him stories about the promises of God through their forefathers’ Abraham? She may have not fully understood what God was doing, but she chose to trust in Him instead of allowing fear to drive her decisions. And that began a chain reaction of impossible things only God could do, as a result of her faith.

Here’s the second way difficult decisions can be made through faith:

Choose the reward of Christ and not fleeting pleasures

So between verse 23 and 24 there is a 40 years gap. In those 40 years, Moses lived as a prince of Egypt. Egypt was the wealthiest, most advanced society of the day. Because of Moses’ mom’s faith, Moses had every advantage as a prince. The Bible says he was educated in “all the wisdom of the Egyptians” and was “mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). Let’s go to Hebrews 11:24.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  (Hebrews 11:24-25 ESV)

At 40 years old, he was already a big deal, and then he decided to give up great wealth, power, prestige, as well as access to any pleasure he desired… for the rest of his life. Who picks suffering over luxury? Moses. He did. The WHY is in verse 26. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Instead of choosing a life of temporary pleasure, Moses chose a to identify himself with the people of God. Living as an Egyptian Prince would bring him great pleasure. But this pleasure would be short-lived, temporary, and sinful. At the end of all of the disgrace and shame, he saw the eternal reward of salvation.

Let’s pick this back up again in verse 27. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Because the eternal reward is the driving force of Moses’ faith, he was able to act BEFORE the reward could be seen or experienced!

Verse 27 is talking about 40 year period in Moses’ life. While Moses made the right decision to be with his people, he made the decision to be their liberator. Unfortunately, it didn’t go so well for him the first time. So he chose fear and ran away to Midian. However, God redeems bad decisions too and Moses endured in Midian while God prepared him to be a leader. Moses hears God’s voice and decides to go back and lead his people the way God directs him out of Egypt and out of the bondage of slavery.

When God starts the process of rescuing Israel by sending a series of plagues upon Egypt and Pharaoh, life got harder for the Israelites. Just think about the situation here. 9 plagues in and life keeps getting harder, instead of easier as he would imagine following God would be. But that didn’t deter Moses. He decided to stay firm in his faith. That was a decision he made.

Moses is told that for the 10^th plague, God would “pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:12).

In verse 28 we see that Moses “by faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”

Moses saw the rewards of faith, and that drove his decisions. He painted the doorposts with the blood of a sacrificial lamb so his people would be protected.

In a similar way, when we look to the rewards of faith in Jesus, we will see that our decisions reflect a faith that looks beyond ourselves and toward the lost world that Jesus loves so much he had sacrifice himself to redeem it. Our eyes of faith must focus on the future as we hold onto the promise of the reward to come as we make decisions in life. 

This is why for centuries the followers of Jesus were able to bravely step up against injustice, tyranny, and be martyred for their faith. They were emboldened by faith to step into the forefront of societal change because they saw the reward of salvation and being with our Lord Jesus as far better than anything we can experience in this life. And they didn’t want to experience it alone. They wanted to bring as many people into that eternal reality as possible.

We need to be leaders that boldly and unapologetically makes disciples by making brave decision of faith that change the fabric of all nations because we don’t want something that’s temporary, we want something that is everlasting. That means we need to get into the mindset that Moses had, that Jesus had, and make the decision to be uncomfortable now for the reward of eternity.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in the Philippians, as he is rotting away arrested in jail for his faith: But whatever I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… (Philippians 3:7 ESV)

God doesn’t promise us a good life. He doesn’t promise us health. He promises us an eternity. Choose the eternal reward of Christ and not fleeting pleasures this world. That’s exactly what the woman in the well chose when she encountered Jesus at noon on that hot day. She was living with yet another man, after 5 previous divorces. She decided to share and tell people about Jesus. The result of that can be found in John 4:39 says that “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”

The third way we can use our faith to drive our decisions is to:

Choose the ways of God and not worldly wisdom

Moses’ life showed us what choosing the ways of God over worldly wisdom looked like.  Now, I want to show you how Moses’ faith decisions created the environments for decisions made by the people he directly influenced.

Verse 29: By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. In Exodus 14,Moses has led the people out of Egypt and they can see that Pharaoh and the Egyptian army in hot pursuit, seeking to destroy them. Then they come to the shore of the Red Sea.

Worldly wisdom tells them they are going to die either by drowning or by the sword. But instead of fear, they choose to believe that God will provide. And God parts the sea and the people of God walk through the sea on dry ground. Once the people of God are safe on the shore, God closes the sea and the army is defeated. By faith they decided to follow the way that God provided, and they were saved. They could have turned back, but they marched forward.

If you’re in this room and your past is chasing you, trying to enslave you again and your future may have an unpassable barrier, but choose God’s ways because he is faith and provides a way through the obstacles. Your past will be drowned by the power of God.

Verse 30: By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. This verse refers to the events in Joshua 6. God is in the process of fulfilling the promise that Israel will inherit the land of Canaan. They come upon a huge fortified city called Jericho.

I told you that Moses was born into slavery right? The Israelites were slaves until 40 years ago and for the last 40 years they were nomads living in tents—they didn’t have an army to wage a war against a fortified city. There was no military strategy. God tells them to march around the city one time each day for six days. On the seventh day they’re to march around the city seven times, and on the seventh time the priests are to blow the trumpet and the people are to shout, and the walls are supposed fall down. Then God’s people are able to walk right in and take over the city.

Worldly wisdom looks at God’s plan and says that it is doomed to fail. Marching around a fortified city blowing trumpets and yelling will not bring the walls down. In order to break down the wall you need explosives or a battering ram, or a dragon. But, by faith, the people of God chose to follow the way that God provided and the walls fall down.

There are people in this room who feel like they are nomads. You want to be inside the fortified city of relationships, but unforgiveness or isolation has kept you on the outside. Turn to your neighbor and say hi because that’s God knocking down the barriers to rich relationships. I’m serious, go have a cup of coffee with them after service and then go to Clawson City Park and have fun at the church BBQ.  

Verse 31: By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. In Joshua 2, before the people of God entered into the promised land Joshua sends spies to view the land. The spies go into Jericho and when they are in the house of a prostitute named Rahab, the King of Jericho hears about the spies and sends men to find them. Instead of giving the spies up, which is what you are supposed to do when you see an enemy spy, Rahab hides the spies. Then she provides a diversion to help them even more.

Rahab chose to help the spies because she knew God was on their side. The influence of Moses’ decisions and Joshua’s decisions reached her. During her conversation with the spies she declares her faith in God “for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11). In fact, her decision becomes integral to the lineage of the Messiah, Jesus! (Matthew 1)

Choosing to follow the ways of God means that you come to the place where you decide to relinquish control to Him. Jesus went to the cross for our sins, even though in the world’s eyes, it is foolishness. Yet God, in his wisdom gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Are you sitting in this room and needing to declare Jesus as Lord and give Him dominion in your life? Make that decision and see how your life changes and how the lives of people around you change.

Say, “God, I trust you. I trust that your ways are better than mine. I trust that you know what is best for my life. I trust that you have a plan for my life. I trust you with my future. I trust you with my marriage. I trust you with my family. I trust you with my finances. And when you show me the way to go I will follow you with uncompromising faith.” If you made that decision today, fill out a communication card and drop it off at the connect desk so we can walk with you on your journey of faith.

When we follow God by faith, he asks us to follow him in ways that may not make sense to our rational minds and often does not make sense to our friends or family.

This passage showed us choice architecture at work in our faith. Life is full of tough choices and each decision in faith, leads to another decision in faith, leading us to create environments where faith becomes the driver of our decisions and the decisions others make around us.

As followers of Jesus, we need to intentionally create environments of faith through our faith driven decisions so that we can continue to make decisions in faith.

Our volunteers do this every week—they set up the best possible environment in faith so we can join them in a faith journey with them because here’s the truth: God always honors our decisions to trust in Him.

What decisions do we need to make in faith? Is it to consistently join your family for worship at church on Sundays? Or maybe to join a group in the middle of the week? Or do whatever it takes to get your elementary aged kids to FLIP Camp this week or drop your teenagers off at Students on Wednesdays? Or maybe it’s to simply invite your friends and family to church. How awesome would it be if we all intentionally created environments where people perpetually fall in love with their savior? The choices don’t seem

Living by faith will require us to make tough choices: Let’s choose not to fear. Let’s choose to live for the future reward. Let’s choose to follow God’s ways.

Let’s pray.

Father, we need boldness to continue living into the promises you gave us through your son, Jesus. We saw how the faith of Moses’ parents shaped his decision making environment. How Moses’ decisions shaped Joshua’s, and the influence even reached Rahab, a prostitute, who had no business with the people of God, but became part of the lineage of God.

We do not want to shrink back from our faith as we make decisions. We want bring you pleasure, we want you to be our Lord and allow us the strength to continue to make decisions driven by our trust in you. If there are people in this room who have never decided to trust in you, give them the courage to do so today. If there are people who haven’t trusted you with their decisions in a while, give them reason to start trusting you again with their lives and their difficult decisions. Lord, we thank you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.