Having Bibles turned to Hebrews 11 as we work our way through this chapter of faith. We have one more Sunday to spend in this chapter to conclude it. This morning we're going to be looking at Moses. Moses was probably the most highly revered individual in the history of Israel, even more than Abraham. Though Abraham was the father of faith, Moses was used by God in many ways. When Miriam and Aaron tried to challenge Moses' authority in Numbers 12, God said I spoke to other prophets through visions and dreams, but I spoke to Moses mouth to mouth or face to face. And Moses is referred to as a friend of God. Moses became the lawgiver. Moses was a historian. He is probably the human instrument. of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses was a prophet. He tells us in Deuteronomy 18 that God was going to send a prophet like unto him. And as you recall in the first chapter of John, when John the baptizer began to do his public ministry, they sent an entourage from Jerusalem to investigate him. And one of the questions they asked him, are you the prophet? They were always looking for this prophet like an unto Moses. And ultimately we know that that prophet is the Lord Jesus. Hebrews tells us that, that in the very first verses of chapter one, that God spoke to us through prophets in various ways, but now in these last days has spoken to us in his son, the Lord Jesus. And so, but one reality of Moses is the reality that is in our life. Moses was a sinner. And as great as he was, and as great as God used him, he needed a savior. And he also had to deal with the consequence of his sin. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, as you know. He was able to see it. God took him up in the mountain to let him see the promised land. but he was not able to enter it because of his anger that was displayed the second time at the rock. You know, God told him the first time to strike the rock, but the second time he told him to what? Speak to the rock. Now, I think I was in college in Chapel one day when the speaker made this observation. I think this is where I remember this from. The rock, Paul tells us in Corinthians that the rock is Jesus. Jesus said he's the living water. And so the rock was smitten first because Jesus was crucified. Jesus endured the wrath of God. And so he was struck at Calvary. But he, as we've seen here in Hebrews, he was struck or he was once for all, he died once for all. So now when we come to Christ, we must come to him as the one that is smitten for us. We must come to the one who died for us. But now when we come to him, we come to him as our great high priest. So we don't need to come and recognize that he is smitten for us. We come to recognize that he is risen for us and that we can speak to him. And as we pray to him and we call to him, we cry out to him. He's able to hear us and heal our heart, heal our life, and give us strength, give us guidance, give us encouragement, manifest His grace and His mercy toward us. So now we have that privilege because He was smitten for us once for all, that we can come and speak to the Rock and receive life in His name. So we're going to examine the faith of Moses, not only his, but also in the very first verses, talk about the faith of his parents, which is very important. So if you stand with me as we read these verses. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw the child was beautiful. and they were not afraid of the king's eating. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured it, seeing him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, walls of Jericho fell down as they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Let's pray. Again, Lord, we're so thankful for your word. It is refreshing. It is inspiring. It is encouraging. It is life changing because it reveals you to us, Father. He reveals you to us, Father, in your Son, the Lord Jesus. So Father, we hear verse six of this chapter, that without faith it's impossible to please you. Father, may we be truly people of faith and trust your word, trust in you, trust in the gift of your Son, that Father, in him we have life. Father, not just here, But Father, in all eternity, help us to look for that reward as Moses did. Help us, Father, as Abraham and Moses and all the Old Testament saints saw the promise of Christ, the Messiah, and believed in Him. And Father, we believe in the reality of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, that You were in Him reconciling the world unto Yourself. that in him we might become the righteous of God. So father, we thank you for your word. May Holy Spirit open our hearts and speak to our hearts that we might respond in faith. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. First, I want to speak about the intervention of the faith of Moses' parents. Now, Moses had an older brother, Aaron, had an older sister, Miriam. Apparently they were born before this Enoch of Pharaoh, the king, had been brought. As you read in Exodus, the opening chapter of Exodus, that there rose up a Pharaoh or a king who did not know Joseph, and God was blessing the descendants of Jacob. Basically, now, Basically, it's counting the men that there was about 70, sometimes some interpret 72, came into Egypt when Joseph sent his brothers back to bring Jacob and the fellow in the family back. And possibly there was maybe 150 that came into Egypt while Joseph was second in command of all of Egypt. But over the course of about 400 years, that 150 grew into at least a million and a half, maybe two million people. And there's Pharaoh Rose that did not know Joseph and began to fear this population that was in the land, that they might take over the land. And so he began to oppress them, you know the story. But the more they were oppressed, the more they grew. In fact, that's how it works with the people of God. The more the church is oppressed, the more it grows. The more this world and the powers of darkness try to wipe out the church of Jesus Christ, the more it grows and expands. This has happened in communist China. Now this is probably a statistic that is at least 20 years old. But we went to, at least I did, I don't know if Chris went with me, but we went to a commissioning service of our Southern Baptist missionaries And part of the testimony at that service was that in China at that time, 25,000 people a day were coming to saving faith in Christ. And they are under great oppression and great persecution, but that's how it works with God's people. We really don't know persecution in America like some of our brothers and sisters do. It's coming. And it may come like a tidal wave, like a tsunami. Maybe not in our lifetime, but possibly in our children's or our grandchildren's lifetime. And we sing that Bill Gaither song, because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, we can trust our grandchildren and our children in his hands. We don't know what the world holds forth. This world hates Jesus, hates God, and the powers of darkness hate him. So we don't know that, but what we would know is that it does come. It's going to be, in reality, a blessing to the church. Because when darkness rises, the light shines brighter and God moves in great power. So, Pharaoh gave an edict to every male child. throw them into the Nile River or kill them to the midwives, the Jewish midwives. They began to disobey, and particularly Moses's mother, Jacobin, and his father, Ammon, decided they saw something in Moses. Now since he was a beautiful child, some folks say every baby is what? beautiful. Well, that's really not true. I've seen some that weren't too beautiful. But it wasn't his physical appearance. It seems it wasn't his physical appearance. Now, he might have been a very beautiful child, but there was something deeper in what they saw in Moses. Maybe God had revealed to them that there's gonna be something about Moses that was gonna be special, significant about his people. We don't know that, that's just kind of implied by this word beautiful. And because as we read the story of Moses, and even in this text, he made the choice, and we'll talk about it in a little bit, to identify with his people. He had spent the first 40 years of his life in a household of Pharaoh and Pharaoh's daughter. Stephen in chapter seven of Acts, as he recites the history of Israel, speaks that Moses was greatly, significantly educated, that he was a very educated man, but he made a choice to identify with his people. I believe, because in the first early years of his life, because of God's sovereignty and God's providence, When Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the Nile River, and God opened her heart to have compassion upon him, Miriam was there on an instruction of her mother to watch out for Moses. And so she comes up and says to Pharaoh's daughter, do you want me to get a Hebrew woman to nurse this baby for you? And so Pharaoh's daughter said yes. And so Miriam went right to Moses' mother. And Moses for those first years was cared for by his own mother. And I believe my impression from scripture is that in those years, she was impressing upon Moses, that God, the God of Israel, the true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had something special for him in his life. And I think that seed was planted in his heart. And by the way, that ought to be planted in all of our hearts. that God has a significant purpose for us in this world. The reason you're breathing right now is because God has a purpose for you and for me. And when I told you when my sister died, I felt guilty for a while because I never cried when my sister died. I watched my dad weep just, I never saw my dad cry until that day at the funeral home. Matt Herman and Sons on West Florissant. And my dad, his whole body was shaking as he wept for my sister. I felt guilty for a while that I didn't have tears, but as soon as my dad come bounding down those steps as I was walking home from Bryan Hill School and said, Mike, Dinie's died. She's passed away. That's what we would call her. My sister's name was Diane, Diana Jane. We called her Dinie. When she'd get upset, my brother and I would sing, Daisy. Anybody know that song? Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer. That seemed to calm her down, so we'd always sing to her. It was almost instantaneous. I was 12 years old. But it was almost instantaneous. The first thought that came to my mind was my, the Lord's purpose for my sister was complete. And he just called her home. That gave me, as a 12-year-old, deep peace. That's why I didn't cry. I had a great peace in my heart that God's purpose for my sister, a girl that had cerebral palsy, that could not speak, that could not walk, could not feed herself, refined to either My great aunt, my Aunt Marie, my mom's aunt, my grandpa's sister, bought her a little recliner that my sister would sit in that fit her. She was either in that recliner or in a wheelchair or sitting in a high chair to eat or in a bed. That was her life. That was her entire life. She would have seizures at times. My dad coached softball, our fast pitch softball team. And some of the guys would come over. We usually played on Tuesday evening down at Hickey Park down in Baden. Sometimes other parks, but most of the time at Hickey Park there in Baden. And so they'd come over and eat supper with us. And every once in a while, my sister would go into a seizure. Now, we understood what was going on. We understood what we needed to do. But that just freaked these guys out. I mean, they were terrified when she went into a seizure. That was her life. But it had purpose. I think in the early days, my dad came to Christ when he was 23 years old. But he had a lot of rust on him. He had a lot of baggage in his life. And I think in those first years of my mom and dad's marriage, was there were some rough times in that marriage as God was working in my dad's life to refine him to be a man of God. And I really believe my sister was the glue that God used to hold our family together until her purpose was complete and God called her home. I think Miriam, our Jacobite, implanted in Moses' heart a sense of destiny. Now, we see when he was 40 years old, he tried to manifest that destiny on his own by intervening when this Egyptian was abusing one of his people. And I think he, and because that was the second accusation the next day, when then two Hebrews were fighting and he tries to intervene there. And they said, who made you ruler over us? Well, the answer is going to be God, the Lord. But Moses was trying to manifest that on his own strength in his own time. And so his parents did an act of faith. They had some type of understanding that this child was a very significant child, and God was going to use him in a very significant way. And it was a fearless faith. They weren't afraid of the king's edict. Now, scripture tells us that we're to be submissive to what? Higher what? Authorities. God has placed government And by the way, the purpose of government is to provide a safe atmosphere, or community, or culture, and to punish those who do evil, and that's pretty much it. Our government has gone way off the rails. What they should provide is protection for America, their borders, and protection for citizens within those borders, and that's pretty much what government should do. Now we could maybe go into providing like Eisenhower after he saw the autobahn in Germany, saw the highways in Germany. was so impressed with that, came back with this vision of this interstate highway here in America that would connect all the states. I remember when I first started kindergarten, 1958, they basically just knocked the farms off of Interstate 70. And I walked up Angelica from Second Street up Angelica, and I would walk under Highway 70, and it was almost brand new. And so government can do things like that to help society, but that's about it. Our government has gone way off the rails in their involvement in our life, but that's another story. And we are called to resist authority, man's authority, when it circumvents God's authority. And during COVID, when governments were trying to shut down churches and certain churches said, we're not going to do it, and they were sued and all kinds of fines given to them, ultimately came out that the government was wrong and the churches were right. And so what Moses' parents did is they submitted themselves to a higher authority, and they did not fear the king's edict. And it was a focused act of faith. Their focus was on what they understood about Moses and what God was going to do through his life. And it was favorable. God brought favor upon his family and upon Moses. It was divine providence that Pharaoh's daughter found Moses. It was divine providence that God gave compassion to her heart for Moses. It was divine providence that Miriam was there and that Miriam hooked up baby Moses with his natural mother so that she could instill this sense of destiny in him. God was super intending this whole circumstance. And by the way, he does that in our life also. Now the identification of Moses. First of all, there's the confirmation of his faith. Our text tells us that when he grew up, this is kind of a sidebar, but you know, there's a lot of Christians that just need to grow up. And they need to grow up in faith. And as the preacher here accused some of these believers, a part of their problem was they were still on the bottle. they were still on a milk diet. And they should be progressing in their spiritual maturity and growing in faith. And that seems to be what Moses was doing. Now again, he had his failures. He tried to superimpose and fulfill his destiny on his own terms, but he was in the process. Now, what God did with Moses there is he put him on the backside of a desert for 40 years. to teach him what his destiny really was, to teach him to depend on him and to trust in him. It seems that Moses's sense of destiny was a failure, that the dream, that the hope was finished when he left and fled to Egypt. But God still had his purpose for Moses. He spent 40 years in the backside of the desert. Now, what does that call for? starts with a P, patience. It calls for faith. It calls for trusting in God. Because God is the one that gave him and his parents this sense of destiny, of purpose. But it didn't happen the way Moses thought it would happen. And most of the time in our life, our life doesn't happen the way we want it to happen a lot of times, does it? Things come in, we lose loved ones, We lose a job. Relationships are broken. A child may rebel. All these things may happen to us, and we're going, again, I talked about last week, it's not so much we ask why, we gotta get past why, and we have to ask what. What are you teaching me in this circumstance? And so Moses was growing because if he was so enthralled with Egypt, he would have stayed with Egypt. But he was growing in his faith, growing in his sense of identifying with his people. And so our text tells us he basically moved out and moved in. He basically left Pharaoh's household and moved in with his people and was there with his people. And so Moses made a commitment of faith. He made a commitment to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he made a commitment to his people. Let me say this. That's what we need to do as the people of God toward the church of God. We must be committed church people. That's God's design. That's God's design for us to grow in grace. I used to come home from school. When I started in sixth grade, I started cooking supper for my family until I graduated high school. From sixth grade, for six years, I came home and cooked supper. My mom was working at that time. My dad was working. My brother got involved in sports. And so I was the only one left. It fell to me. And so from sixth grade on, I came home. I learned to fry chicken. I learned how to cut up a chicken. I learned how to make meatloaf. I learned how to make pork cutlets. I learned how to do all kinds of things. And I was the cook. The only problem was I was also the chief bottle washer. I had to cook and I had to do the dishes afterwards. And so I came home to an empty house. I got comfortable in my skin in an empty house. And I can be a great caveman. Give me a bed, a refrigerator, and maybe a TV, if not a TV, some books, and I'm OK. That's what I need is a bed. Well, I need a shower. I do need a shower. So just give me those three things, and I'm OK. But we're not called to be cavemen or cavewomen. We're not called to be Lone Rangers. There's been a growing number of don'ts, or nones, N-O-N-E-S-es. They say, what church do you belong to? I don't belong to any church. And they say that they believe in God. They may even say they believe in Jesus, but they don't believe in the church. And they aren't involved in a local church. That's not what the Bible says. The church, the body of Christ, we're the body of Christ. Now we're locally expressed here at Antioch, the same as all these churches all around us. And we're not in competition with any of these churches, except the ones that don't believe the gospel. But we're just a local expression of the universal body of Christ that connects us from generation to generation, to future generations, and it connects us together in the Bible. That's why I could go over to the Crimea back in 1995 and 96, and I could come in and worship with these folks that I could not speak their language. I could not communicate to them directly except through an interpreter. But they sang the same songs we sing. And so I could sing in English while they sang in Russian. What united us together was Christ, because we're the body of Christ all over this world. And to deny the body, the first church we passed was down in Potosi, Springtown. Potosi Southerners had a revival. The evangelist was Walter K. Ayers. Now, he was about my height, but he was about this wide and about this tall. I mean, he had a barrel chest. I bet his chest was 54 inches. And he was the chaplain for the University of Arkansas's football team. He's from Arkansas. Just a big, burly guy. And so he was talking, preaching from Ephesians 5, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church, because Christ gave himself for the church. And I said, you can talk about me all you want, but if you start talking about my wife, you and me, buddy, are going outside. And so he finished the sermon, and he was standing at the back, and people were coming out, and this little lady gets all past her ears, You didn't mean that literally, did you? He said, no ma'am, I meant that physically. To say you love Christ and do not love his church is contrary to scripture. And people need to mature in their faith to realize as broken as we are as a people of God, as really sinful we are as the people of God. That I will disappoint you, and you will disappoint me, and we will fail one another over the course of time, someway, somehow, but we're to come toward one another in forgiveness, and in grace, and encouragement, and in love, so that we can grow together as the body of Christ. Moses made a conscious decision to identify with the people of God, even as they were under great persecution. He says in his text here that he thought the reproach of Christ was worth more than all the wealth that was available to him in Egypt. And so the reproach of Christ, you know, when Paul wrote Timothy, his second letter, In that first chapter, it seems that Timothy was a timid man and that he was apparently prone to be intimidated by this world. And so Paul writing to him in that first verses of 2nd Timothy is trying to encourage him to be strong in faith. I thank my God whom I serve as I did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I've longed to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. nor of me, his prisoner, but sharing and suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, which is now have been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. for which I am appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I'm convinced that he's able to guard against that day what he has entrusted to me, following the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Our text tells us that Moses, believe that the reproach of Christ, that the suffering laid upon the Lord Jesus and subsequently upon us, the rejection of Christ and subsequently the rejection of us by this world is of greater value than all the riches this world could give us. Paul talks about in Romans 8, he says, I think that these present sufferings that we're going through compared. They're less than a drop in the bucket of God's glory. In fact, they're like mist in the bucket of God's glory. They are nothing compared to the glory that we're going to receive on that day when Christ comes back. And so Moses made this choice to identify with the reproach of Christ. Moses made this choice because he was looking for that reward when Jesus comes back. And so, Moses' consideration of faith. Seven times in these verses I read to you, it says, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. And that's what we do. By faith, we move on. In fact, the last verse in Romans 14 says, whichever is not of faith is sin. And so if we fail to walk by faith, we're actually walking in sin. And so we must be people of faith and exercise that faith. Is it perfect? No. Do we fail? Yes. But we keep getting back up and pursuing Christ. And it was a conquering faith. Now in Exodus, it said Moses feared for his life and he took off. In this text, he says he didn't fear and he left Egypt. Now some interpreters want to put 40 years between verse 26 and 27. That him not fearing to leave Egypt is referring to the exodus. Some, that's their interpretation to try to reconcile Exodus, he feared for his life. Hebrews 11, he didn't fear for his life. I think it's more like this. He might have initial fear, but as he fled, he conquered that fear. There was a conquering faith in his life that overcame fear. and he was trusting in God, and he was spending those 40 years on the backside of a desert. You ever been on the backside of a desert? I'm not talking about literally, I'm talking about figuratively. That in your soul, it seems like you're in a desert land. In your soul, it seems like what seems to be most prevalent of failure. And you're on this, you're in this desert place. Well, Psalms tells us that God gives what in the desert? Starts with an S, ends with an M. Streams. He gives streams in the desert. Children of Israel were there in the wilderness and by the way Those 40 years that Moses spent in the wilderness was the exact place that they wandered for 40 years And he was familiar with it and he was following God's leadership, but it was a place that he knew And by the way this desert Prepares you for the next desert, right? With David the lion and a bear prepared him for who Goliath. And so our season of sensing despair or fear or worry or disappointment, abandonment in a sense, surely Job was there. But through all that desert time, what Job realized that God was his redeemer. and that his Redeemer liveth, and that Job could trust in his Redeemer, and that God, his Redeemer, would bless him in his life. And so Moses had a conquering faith, quickly. As we read, again, these background texts, particularly Exodus, Moses was God's chosen one to deliver his people. And after those 40 years, now Moses is 80 years old. I was thinking about this particularly this morning. Moses' best years was between 80 years old and 120. The last 40 years of his life were his most significant years. Sometimes we get down the road And he said, I can't do much anymore. Well, you might not need to do certain things you used to do, but there's other things that we can do in the winter of our life. And one of the privileges we have as believers, no matter how our body may become frail, Paul tells us that though the outward man perished, the inner man's being renewed day by day. And no matter how we, we can't do things we used to do. When I was in college, I could put 250 pounds over my head. Now if I put 50 pounds over my head, I'm glad, okay? I can't do some of the physical things I used to do. And so there's some things that we cannot do that we used to do, but one of the most significant things that every believer can do, you wanna guess what it is? Starts with a P and ends with a Y. Pray. There have been folks that have become invalids, that they can't get out of bed, they're refined to a bed in the waning years of their life. But some of those folks are the greatest prayer warriors this world has ever seen. Because God has used them and can use us no matter where we are. One of the most significant things that every believer can do, no matter what our circumstance is, and become an intercessor. He was God's chosen one. He was God's chosen redeemer. God raised him up and sent him. Now, as you read the story there next to this, Moses didn't want to go. Apparently, Moses developed a speech impediment. He said, I can't talk. That's OK. I've already raised up your brother Aaron. He's going to be your mouthpiece. I'm going to tell you. You're going to tell Aaron. He's going to tell the people. He's going to tell Pharaoh. I got it covered. Even Jeremiah, when you read the first chapter of Jeremiah, Jeremiah was a young man. And he said, I can't do this. And God says, yes, you can, because it's me really doing it through you. And so God chose Moses to be redeemer of his people. He was their deliverer. Moses was obedient. I think he had some fear and trepidation. I think he was considering, again, his age. But he was obedient. He went and, you know, again, you read the story. God used what Moses had become familiar in his lifestyle. What did Moses become in the backside of the desert? A shepherd, right? So what did he have in his hand? What did God say to him? Throw that stamp down. And what happened to it? It became a snake. And then what did God say? Pick it up. And Moses picked it up. And what happened to it? It became a stamp again. But as you read through the history of Israel in those early years, those next 40 years, Many times, it was not referred to as Moses' staff. It was referred to what? As the staff of God. It was the staff that struck the Nile River. It was the staff that was, God said, stretching across the Red Sea and the sea parted. It was God's staff. What Moses did was surrender to God what he had in his hand and in his life. and God used it, and that's what we must do. And it was God's chosen heritage. Our time is gone. Those remaining verses, Moses in that last plague, who instituted the Passover, said the destroyer, the death angel, As they passed over the houses of the Israelites and saw the blood, he passed over them and they were delivered. Again, that's a type in shadow of the Lord Jesus. He's our Passover. It's his blood that we're covered with. It's his blood that we're going to be delivered from, ultimately from eternal death because we receive eternal life. But then subsequently, 40 years passed, God raises up Joshua to replace Moses. And God said, The same city that the spies 40 years earlier saw, Jericho, these mighty walls. They say the walls of Jericho, you could run, I think if I remember correctly, at least two chariots around those walls. They were so thick. The same walls that the 10 spies said, can't do it. Too big, too thick, too high. We're like grasshoppers on the side of these people. We can't do it. The majority vote won, which was wrong. And so they spent those 40 years in the wilderness because of unbelief. And so now he raises up this next generation, Joshua and Caleb, the only two remaining, and their families. And they cross the same Jordan River. They come to the same city. And instead of providing siege equipment and trying to seize this city, God said, I just want you to march. I want you to march seven days and then the final day seven times. And then I want you to blow the trumpets. And when the trumpets are blown, the wall is going to come down. And so they did it God's way and they overcame Jericho. So we have this heritage with Joshua, Caleb, Rahab. I really like, I really like the description. Rahab, the prostitute. Because Jesus came to save sinners, right? He came to save the broken. He came to save those that are in darkness. He came to deliver us from sin and death and hell. And I just love that they didn't whitewash that. They didn't try to clean it up. Rahab the prostitute was a woman of faith. She didn't remain a prostitute. In fact, Whose lineage does she come into? Jesus's. Just like Jesus in John 8, the woman caught in adultery. Where are your accusers? They're gone. Now Jesus could have accused her. Jesus could have picked up the rock and stoned her because he was without sin. But what did he say? Neither do I would. accuse you, but go and what? Sin no more. Rahab was a prostitute, but she became a woman of faith and woman that was transformed by the grace of God. And by God's grace, he brought her right into the line and lineage of Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. that gives us encouragement, strengthens our faith, and directs us, Father, brings light to our path. And Father, we might follow the Lord Jesus. John tells us in 1 John that we're to walk in the light as He is in the light, because we are children of the light. And as children of the light, we're children of faith, and we walk in obedience. Father, may our preceding years be our best years. Even if we're in the winter of our life, may they be the most productive years of your grace. We may not receive accolades, we may not receive recognition, but, Father, in eternity, in eternity, Father, we'll receive our reward. Help us to say with Paul, I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. And so Father, help us to be that drink offering that's poured out in obedience to you.