Three men are golfing. There is Jesus, Moses and an old man.They’ve been pretty evenly matched until they arrive at the 11 hole to find a huge water trap. Moses tees up, and smacks that ball right out into the middle of the trap. Without a second thought he parts the water, hits the ball and gets it on the fairway, one stroke from the green. Then Jesus tees up. He smacks his ball right into the middle of the water trap. Without a second thought he walks out on the water, and hits that ball right onto the green. Finally the old man tees up. He hits the ball into the water trap. A fish swims up from the bottom of the trap with the ball in his mouth. An eagle swoops down, picks up the fish and carries it over the hole, where the fish drops the ball and it plops into the hole. Jesus looks at the old man as Moses pencils another 1 in the old man’s card. “Alright Dad, stop showing off”!
I guess now we know why it took 40 years for Moses to lead the Hebrews from Egypt to the promised land….every time they came upon an oasis they played golf!
Hebrews 11:24-28 (TNIV)
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
The first thing I see in Hebrews 11:24-28 (below) is that, like Moses, it is important for us to choose God’s plan over our own. The plan of our own making may please us more, right? The plan of our own making may even seem to make sense. However, how often have “Our Plans” gone wrong? What am I saying here?
What I’m saying is that it is better to seek God’s answers and wisdom in our lives than it is to apply the WORLDS WISDOM and think we have all the answers.
Jesus tells us, “Seek and you will find, ask and you will be given, Knock and the door will be opened”
This Scripture uses some very strong words, “mistreated & disgrace”, to speak this truth, however, as I have pondered this, I have come to realize that in life, it is important to do what is right (that’s called, “living in God’s will”), regardless of what others think.
Like Moses, we need to choose AUTHENTICITY over PRESTIGE. It’s better to be REAL than to look all good and be but just a shell of a person inside. From a worldly perspective, it looks like Moses was giving up everything: all the prestige of the royal family. Ultimately we all have to settle the question of our identity. Who are we? The answer is that we are God’s children.
The things that we think count so much to us in this world are of little concern to God. The great writer, Warren Wiersbe said, “Many people think that a ‘spiritual Christian’ is mystical, dreamy, impractical, and distant. To be “spiritually minded” simply means to look at earth from heaven’s point of view. The spiritually minded believer makes his decisions on the basis of eternal values and not the passing fads of society.”
Let’s look again at Verse 24 (Hebrews 11:24): By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
One of our guiding principals for making good decisions that we talked about two days ago, and I think this is the one that people misunderstand the most, is to resist making decisions BASED only on our own gain or prestige: We should resist the temptation to make a decision based on our ultimate gain (power, money, fame, etc.) as this often leads to bad decisions.
Just think what would have happened if Moses had decided to live outside God’s will and had made different decisions to maintain his prestige as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. For one, he wouldn’t have played golf with Jesus and the Father! More importantly, the Hebrews would never have been led out of Egypt from bondage to the promised Land.