CMLC 2024-10-13 Sermon

Howdy. Now we've been starting up in our lessons in Hebrews. Last week we went ahead and started up with Hebrews 2, looking at how people kept trying to find messages from angels, spiritual beings of some form to give them some sort of message from God, when in reality everything had already been done by Christ Jesus.

So there was nothing left to do except to follow Christ and to let him be the one to lead. But see Hebrews has several examples of people and events that kept becoming almost a distraction.

Because instead of following after Christ who was above everything and had superseded everything, instead they kept going back to what they had originally been looking for.

And today what we want to talk a little bit about is how it is that the people had been focused on Moses and how Moses as one of their heroes had almost become like a distraction away from Christ.

But you see the thing about Moses is that he's just an infallible, he's just a fallible imperfect human being just like the rest of us. And so in looking at this we want to see and understand why it is that Christ is meant to be our focus rather than all of the heroes that we may have looked at in the past.

But if we're looking at what a hero is, then that means that we also have to understand what a hero's journey may be. Now this phrase, this term was especially coined in the 20th century by Joseph Campbell.

For some of you the 20th century was this long ago time period, okay? A lot of strange things happened, alright? So it's in the ancient past dinosaurs might have been there, just let it go.

But with it though is that as Joseph Campbell was writing about this, what he was doing was studying all of these stories that had happened throughout human history.

Stories that grabbed our attention, that grabbed our focus. And people might wonder why is it that some stories really catch our attention more than others?

Why is it that some stories managed to catch our imagination and draw us in? And what he did is he saw that there were some stories that had certain things in common.

And that you could see that by having a certain journey, not only does that person end up growing and changing, but we feel a connection with them as well.

Different stories that might be like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars or Neo in the Matrix or Harry Potter in... Harry Potter. Yeah, they might have been a little more creative on that part.

But with looking at each of these characters is that the character typically goes through a similar journey. They're called to a new life.

They're called to some form of adventure. They're called into something that's new and different and usually they're hesitant.

They don't really want to go and do it. But for various reasons, whatever the circumstances may be, they're thrown into it.

So in that time of adventure and discovery is that there is typically somebody there to lead them, to guide them.

Whether it be Obi-Wan for Luke or Morpheus for Neo or Dumbledore for Harry Potter, is that there is someone there that walks alongside them.

And as the character struggles through these things, they do not get it all right. They don't. They stumble. They make mistakes.

Large, major mistakes. The time whenever Luke was on the verge of leaning toward the dark side or whenever Neo wasn't willing to make that leap

because he didn't think he was the one or whenever Harry Potter would sometimes trust the wrong person instead of leaning on his friends.

The times whenever they make these huge mistakes. But in the midst of it all, they change.

They become the person they were meant to be. They are transformed. Things are revealed to them. Things that finally make sense.

And they become the person that they were always intended to be. And then they can finally return to the world around them because they no longer see it the way they did before.

They see the world in a new lens, with a new light, as a new life. They become a new person and everything is now different because of it.

But that is much of what we end up seeing when we look at Moses as well.

See, the thing is that Moses was one of the heroes that really grabbed the attention of the Hebrew people.

But you see, oftentimes we don't look at the entire journey of Moses. You see, Moses on his hero's journey, see, it wasn't just the part where Moses ends up going to Egypt.

Or ends up saying, now let my people go. We get really focused on that a lot of times.

Because we love the heroic moments. When we think of heroic, we think of bold and loud and courageous and, man, you're getting things done.

But even as Moses went to Pharaoh and the ten plagues walked them out and they were able to go across the Red Sea and to escape Egypt, that was not the end of the story.

It was only the beginning. Moses had to stumble and struggle for 40 years, time and time again, that both he and the people of Israel could not follow after God the way he had intended.

There were so many times in so many ways where they just could not believe, they just could not trust in what God had intended for them.

The thing is, is that they were out there in this wilderness, they had left Egypt, but they couldn't actually believe what God had intended for them.

See, they were leaving Egypt, but in leaving Egypt, they didn't necessarily believe that God had another place for them.

Remember, this is more than four centuries after Israel had come to live in Egypt. Nobody from that time was still alive.

The people had only known what it was like to be in Egypt. They didn't know anything else.

But when the time came, they were happy to escape from Egypt. They wanted to get away from a place where they were treated like second-class citizens.

They wanted to get away from a place where they were constantly being forced into what they didn't want to do, but to believe that there was something better out there to move toward.

That was hard for them to grasp. And when they got to that point where two, three years later, they could have gone into the Promised Land and they saw what was facing them.

The large people, the ones who were standing against them, and they did not believe that this was the place that God had intended for them.

And so instead, they had to wander another 38 years until the people who were the most sure that God had abandoned them had passed away.

Or even more than that, how many times throughout that journey that God would specifically say, this is what I want of you.

And they would instead decide that they wanted something different, that God would provide food for them continually.

And yet they're saying, this isn't what we want until God finally gives them what they want and they end up becoming sick from it.

Or where God is saying, I want to provide water for you. Moses, I want you to speak to this rock.

But Moses remembered that he had hit the rock before and that's how the water came. And instead of listening to what God had wanted,

instead he decided to take it in his own hands and he hit that rock. Did the water come out? Yes, it did.

But God didn't end up getting the glory. It all became about Moses.

And so Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land because of it.

Or even knowing the times and the ways in which people were not even seeking or desiring of forgiveness.

To believe that they were entitled. To believe that there was something that they were meant to have because they deserved it.

Instead of realizing the times and the ways in which they needed to come to God for forgiveness.

When they are out there complaining time and time again and God allows the serpents to come and to strike them.

Because he needs them to realize that they were the problem and that they needed to come to him for forgiveness.

This life, this struggle, we are meant to go on this journey.

As we're on this journey, this hero's journey, it is one in which we're meant to learn and to grow and to see that we don't have it all figured out.

We are not always right on this journey. The hero is not always the one making the right choices.

But that's something that we struggle with in our own lives as well.

Because as we're going on this path is asking this question, are we willing to have faith in what God is doing as we go on this path as well?

Because without faith, we never make it to the other side.

The thing about the journey is that it has to believe that there is something we're moving toward.

Do you believe that there is more than what we see in front of us now?

Sometimes it seems that we lose heart.

We don't actually believe or see that there is a kingdom that we're pursuing.

Think about all the things that you allow to have your time and your attention and your focus.

How many things, how many ways do we end up getting distracted from things that matter?

Instead of asking how we can live out our lives and serve God in this world around us,

instead we're just like, you know what, I'm bored. Give me something to distract me.

You know what, I really just want to have fun and have friends and not worry about anything else.

Or you know what, my time is my time. Do not ask me to share it with anyone else.

Instead of thinking that maybe in this world, there are purposes and plans that God has for us.

Or more than that, that in this world, God has ways and directions and guidance for us.

Whenever we are making decisions, whenever we are deciding what we think is best,

do we genuinely pause long enough to bring it back to God?

That we can be standing there in our home and our school in our work thinking,

I have to fix this. I have to make it better.

Instead of slowing down to ask God, what do you actually want of me at this time?

Or maybe God, you don't want anything from me, except to step back and let you be the one to lead.

The times whenever we miss God's path, because we're sure this path makes a lot more sense,

even though we know this is the one that seems like what God would do in Christ Jesus.

But more than that, is how often do we miss out on our need for grace?

Whenever we feel weak, whenever we are stumbling and we know that we've made a mess of things,

is that we spend so much time either trying to justify ourselves and say,

I had a reason for this, I had all these purposes and this is what I did and why I did it.

Or then we decide, you know what, I'm just so horrible and I've ruined everything

and now everything's fallen apart and there's no more hope.

Instead of realizing that the time is to come back to God and to say,

God, I need you, forgive me, please, because that grace is there and it is truly ours

and that the journey is never based on our own strength.

The journey is not based on making sure that we never made a mistake,

but the journey is set before us because of what God has given to us.

Because at the end of the day, we may be the hero in the story,

but we are not the savior of the story.

See, that's the thing about this is that the hero is not meant to be perfect.

The hero is meant to be transformed and to find what it is that God has intended for them.

See, that's the thing about that though, is that the hero never does it alone.

Every time that we see an example of someone who is meant to be living this life

and proclaiming who God is, is that they are not meant to then do it by themselves.

Moses did not end up bringing the people of Israel into the Promised Land.

Joshua did.

Or later, whenever we look at the prophet Elijah,

and time and time again where he got discouraged and frustrated,

and he's like, God, I'm all alone. You left me here with nobody else and God has to say you're not alone.

There are others too.

And so Elijah was not able to do nearly as much as he could have.

He had to leave that to his successor, Elisha.

Or when King David, and we see that he's a man after God's own heart,

but what does he do? He cannot keep his life straight in regard to women or children,

or what it is that he thinks matters.

And it isn't until centuries later that his descendant Josiah can finally restore the worship of God the way it was meant to be.

Or even John the Baptist is that there he is, he's finally had a chance to proclaim and see the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world. And then what does he do?

He starts questioning it and wanting someone to tell him, did I really point to the right person?

But then who is actually here to save?

Is Jesus.

What's funny about all of their names, Joshua, Josiah, Elisha, Jesus,

is that each one means that the Lord God Yahweh, he delivers, he heals, he saves.

Because that's the thing about this is that the hero's journey does not bring salvation.

Salvation is what brings hope for the hero's journey.

You may be looking at what there is ahead of you, and you are wondering if you are getting anywhere,

if it matters, if there's anything worthwhile, and you see the ways that you've stumbled,

and you see that you have stepped off the path and you wonder, am I still going anywhere?

And whether or not there is still a place of forgiveness for you and a place on the journey,

despite everything you've done.

But that's the thing about who God is, is that the story doesn't end because you have stumbled.

Is that he has still made that way for you, and that through his salvation, you are transformed,

and you are changed. That's the thing about what Hebrews is trying to get across to us.

Moses was a great guy, but he was human, going through his own path,

and having to deal with his own issues, even as you do.

But that we don't look to the other heroes for our salvation, we look to the Savior Himself.

So wherever you may be struggling, or stumbling, or wondering what is next,

and whether it means anything, don't lose hope.

There is still a future and a purpose for you.

And as much as we may struggle on that path, is that there is always forgiveness to bring us back to it.

So may we, as we go forward in these journeys, continue to trust that God has his plans and his purposes in mind,

and that he continues to do that with us, as fallen as we are,

so that we are changed to be the people that he has always intended for us to be.

Thanks be to God.