Beth Moore - Your Faith Map - Part 2
If you're like me, when I try to bring something up on my phone, when I try to look on the web for something, if it does not come up in 15 seconds, I'm done. I'm like, forget it. I'm not taking all day with you. I have a really slow, we had an elevator put in. Our ministry back in Houston is an old house. It's three stories tall. It's not huge, but it's big enough for about 15 of us to work in. And so, when we first bought it, my administrator was like, "We are going to put an elevator in it". And I said, "Well, I just think that's a wonderful idea". 'Cause she said, "Beth, you bring so many books in and out. There's no way you're gonna haul those things up the stairs all the time. We're putting an elevator in".
Well, for some reason, the elevator, I can't even tell you, y'all, I age a year every time I get in it. I age an absolute year. Honestly, I put my head against it like this. A lot of my Scripture memory is taped on the walls so that I can have a good attitude. Because honestly, I could read a book of Scripture before I get up to my floor. And it is everything I can do to get in it, because I already know I'm just gonna be kicking the side of it just like this and going like, "Any day now". It's patience, faith and patience. Turn with me now. We've just been in Hebrews 6:10-12. 'Cause we're seeing, it says imitate their faith and patience, and 6 is working toward Hebrews 11, where it's going to tell us all the names of these people of faith like Abraham, and like Sarah, and like Moses, and like Joshua. We're gonna see all of those in Hebrews chapter 11. It's getting us ready for that in Hebrews 6.
These are all the ones that you can imitate. And for every single one of them, it took faith and patience. But then on the other hand, we learn from their stories of what we don't want to do and don't want to find ourselves in. Turn with me now to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now, this is Paul writing. "Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea". Verse 3, "They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ". This is so gorgeous, the metaphor is so gorgeous in this portion of Scripture. "Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness". In verse 6, it says, "Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did". So, he says, "You need to understand something. These people also practiced a lot of what we practice".
And he's very intentionally drawing metaphors. He's speaking with imagery, talking about how they went through the sea when it parted. He is talking about, and the cloud coming down, and he's calling it for our benefit as those who have been, that have come to faith. And many of us have been baptized. He's talking about they've been baptized by the cloud. And so, he's giving us that picture there. And they ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, and I was floored. This is the beauty of commentaries, because I've studied these passages many times, but I had not ever seen this. I'd not seen it plain spoken like this. This is Gordon Fee out of his commentary on 1 Corinthians. And it says this: "In the same way Paul describes Israel's experience of the miraculous bread and the miraculous drinking of water from the rock as a form of 'spiritual eating,' unquestionably viewing it as a type or analogy of the Lord's Supper: 'They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.'"
So, he's likening it by metaphor, and in this imagery he's saying, I mean, they had their own elements. He's not making it a sacrament, but he's just drawing this picture between, what he's basically going is, "Listen". They were invited into so much of this, but they were people that were faithless, and they died in the desert. He said, "You don't want to do that". I'm adding to it, but part of the meaning is you can come all day long to church functions. You can sit and take communion with the saints. You can be baptized in sparkling waters. But if you don't have faith in Christ, you are still dead in your sins. And he makes that explicit. Listen, I don't wish it were so, but I'm not in charge. And this is the word of the Lord. And he's saying something so powerful here. He says now in verse 6, "Now these things took place as examples for us".
So, we've already seen that we are to imitate those who with faith and patience received the promises. That's the positive side. Now he says this side. He said, "Listen, use these as examples, because you do not want to find yourself in the same mess". And if you're like me, I mean, you already have. It's already in your past. It's already part of your story. And thank God for his grace, and thank God that he saved us out of it. But it's gonna be a really important thing for us to see. They took place as examples for us, examples for us. Greek word, tupos, tupos, which is where we get the word "type". If you ever hear about typology in the Scripture, that something was a type in the Old Testament of something that would be fulfilled in the New Testament. When there are things about, for instance, David, that is a type, that he sat on the throne of Israel, of Judah, and that in that way he was a type. He was showing just a little glimpse of what would be ultimately fulfilled in Christ alone. So, this typology. And so, he's saying, "Let it be a type for you. Let it be an example for you".
So, with that in mind, we're going to go into this premise that what was typical for the people of God in the Old Testament can often be identified in a person of God. We're going to look at the Old Testament people of God and try to figure out me, as a person of God, you, as a person of God. Are there ways that I can relate that can help me identify, where am I on my faith journey? That what differs between us and the Old Testament Israelites, as we look at these four locations, is that our spiritual journeys may not include all four of them. It would be possible to never abound at all. You've seen it happen. You've seen people that are in Christ, have trusted Christ as Savior, but they have really never known what it is to live in any semblance of real victory. Anybody, anybody relate to that?
I have lived, listen, I've lived in seasons like that. So, boy, do I get it. It could also be that there are people that never, ever know, will get to the distinction between slavery and captivity, as we go through it. But it could be that somebody never does experience anything of what captivity stands for. Man, would that ever be a marvelous thing. So, it may be that we don't visit all four places in the course of our life. Our locations won't necessarily be linear or sequential. See, when we're looking at the example of the Old Testament Israelites, it went just like this. They were in slavery in Exodus. They were then delivered by God out of slavery. They were brought to the promised land, where they could abound, and then later they went into captivity over their idolatry. So, theirs went sequentially just exactly like this. Ours may not do that at all. And so, we're going to see that.
Also, last thing I want to say about it is that a person doesn't have the luxury of time that a people group does. This is really, really important. Let me say that again. A person doesn't have the luxury of time that a people group does. What you and I are going to be looking at, what's happening over periods of centuries, we'll be able to relate on some levels in our own spiritual journey. But get this with me, and I'll say this without one hint of condemnation. I say it with passion because I know what it's like to live absolutely enslaved to something. I know what captivity is like. And here's what I want to tell you. Our lives are so short, we don't have time to live long like that.
You and I want to be in a place of abounding. We want to live as much of our believing lives in a place of abounding, as is absolutely possible, because it's what Jesus came to give us, and we will understand that better in our next session. So, that's the heart of it is that I don't have time to just stay in a mess. Could somebody lift up their hand if they know what I'm talking about? Just like, it's going too fast. Life's too short for you to just live in anger and unforgiveness toward somebody. It's just, it goes too fast. It's too short to spend all of this time in resentment.
Now, I want you to see this with me because we're going to start looking at landmarks, and so we won't spend much time on many of them, but I want you to get it with me. Like, for instance, if you saw a picture, an iconic picture of Paris, but it didn't have any label on it, how would you know it was Paris, somebody tell me. So, what is the landmark you look for? Eiffel Tower, absolutely. In Los Angeles, what is it? Hollywood, all those white block letters going across that hillside. You know it because those are the landmarks. So, let's start with location one. What is location one? Tell me the word. It's slavery. Say it one more time.
All right, turn with me to Exodus chapter 2, 23 through 25. "After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of their difficult labor ascended to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the Israelites, and God knew". He knew all of it before they ever cried out, but he's waiting for them to cry out. It ascends up to heaven, and he comes to deal, he comes to deal.
Look at 3:7-8. "Then the Lord said," of course to Moses, "I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out, because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites". And it says then, "So because the Israelites' cry for help has come to me, I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt".
So, we've gotta take down a couple of landmarks. How would we know? How would we know? Well, taskmasters, taskmasters, not just masters but taskmasters. And so, let me tell you how the enemy works according to the Scriptures. There is nothing that means more to him than dominion. Satan wants what is God's. He always has from the beginning of his rebellion. That is what he was after. "I want to be like the Most High. I want to be the Most High". And so, he wants mastery. He is looking for domination over us, a taskmaster. It's what he craves more than anything else, and it's very important to know that the taskmaster is a very, very strategic part of the locator, because it is looking to exhaust us and exploit us.
The next word is exploitation, exploitation. Our enemy, the devil, is not like our good, good Father, who is out for our good. He is the absolute antithesis. You know how God works everything together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose in Romans 8:28? You can turn around every single one of those and see the opposite picture where you would see that the enemy tries to do everything he can to take what is good and turn it into evil. I mean, what you honestly intended for good... has he ever done that with anybody? Like, my intentions were pure there, and I don't know what happened. Write down the next word, impoverishment, impoverishment.
Now, this was very literal for the Old Testament Israelites in Egypt. You know, in the time of Joseph, they had the favor of Pharaoh, and they were treated well, and were able to prosper there, and grow into an enormous people. But by the time this era comes along, and the Pharaohs that knew of Joseph had long since come and gone. Now they are under terrible oppression because there are so many of them now. There's such intimidation. They have to use them and keep them down and keep them oppressed. And so, there's this impoverishment. So, they are made complete slaves. Now, for us, in our metaphor, this would be a poverty of spirit. There comes a time when you just realize you are impoverished inside, enslaved to a taskmaster.
The last word I want you to write down, again, it wouldn't take all of these, but these are just words I want you to help identify on what this place would be like for us. Meaninglessness, meaningless, where the Israelites were at the time when the book of Exodus opens. They were just like day in, day out, just doing the same labor all day long, backbreaking labor. Wake up, do it all again. Wake up, do it all again. Wake up, do it all again. Anybody just in that where you just felt like, "Does any of this mean anything"? That's so the work of the enemy. I told you that I would tell you the ones that were absolutely compulsory. This one is for us. It might not have had to have been for them, except, of course, it was in the plan of God. But this one, the Bible says that all of us, that everyone is born enslaved to sin.
So, none of us are born, saved by Christ. That's why we have to come to a place in our lives where we confess our faith and say, "You are Lord, and what you did on the cross, I want to place my trust in you that you have done that for me". So, the Bible is clear. Romans 6 is one place in verse 17, "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you've been committed". Everybody starts in this place. So, there's no way we've ever gotten away from this one. This one is every single time for all of us. So, we've all been there. What would be really, really important is if we came to the realization that not only have I been there, I think I'm still there. If we realize that we are enslaved, that we've never even come out of that place, if that's us, this is us, then, man, do we want to know it.
And so, there are two things that you see happening here in Exodus 2:23, do you remember? And it said it twice in a couple of verses later. They cried out, they cried out. Now, what we know is that God is prompting us to cry out. One of the most beautiful concepts in the New Testament is when Jesus tells us in John 15, listen, I'm putting this in my own words. "You think you chose me but actually I chose you. You chose me because I chose you". Gorgeous, gorgeous. So, of course, we know that God is working all of this, all of this in his providence, all of this in his sovereignty. But it shows that they're crying out, and this is where we make confession, crying out.
God wants to hear your voice, and he hears the cries of your heart. But I'm a real big one on putting some volume with the cries of my heart. I really am. Like, God save me, save me. I just, I'm enslaved. Save me. Cry out. So, cry out. If we realize, you know, I'm still there. I mean, I have a respect for him. I worship him. I go to my church. I've taken communion. I've done all of these things, maybe even been baptized. But you're going, like, "I do not know Jesus personally. I don't, I don't have any idea if something happened to me today if I would see his face or not. I have no idea". If that's you, I mean, it's so clear what he tells us to do because he just calls us to confess, to believe with our hearts, Romans chapter 10, and confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord. So, Lord, I confess you, Jesus, as Lord over all and Lord over me. Be Lord and Master of my life. This is what begins to get us out of slavery, on our way to deliverance.
Now let's go to deliverance. "I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment". You will never be condemned when you cry out for deliverance. I think sometimes we think, "Listen, at this point, after all I've done and all the places I've been, I'm too ashamed to cry out for deliverance". "He delights to show us mercy," the prophet Micah said. He delights to show us mercy. Now, here's something really important. The Old Testament Israelites were rescued, really, the moment they were behind the doorposts in Egypt, when the blood of the Lamb was put on the doorposts, and they were behind it. At that point, they were saved from death. But then they had to all come together and make their trek out of Egypt and into the wilderness.
And so, you probably heard this old saying, but it's so true that it really never gets very old, that it only took a day to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites. And that's so true of us, that in that moment that we, with our faith, know that by grace we have been saved, that there's nothing we could do to earn it. There's not enough works we could accomplish, that by grace alone we are saved, and we receive Jesus as our personal Savior. From that moment, I mean, we are under the blood of Jesus Christ. We are rescued from death and hell and the grave. But it sure does take a while for some of us to get Egypt out of ourselves, doesn't it? That is the process of sanctification. Deliverance, what are our landmarks? A couple of things because this is going to be really, really important, especially when we compare it to abounding.
So, keep this in mind. Landmarks, what were the landmarks? They've got slavery, but now I mean we're on with it. We're on with it. The children of Israel have now come through miraculously the Red Sea. They're out in the wilderness, and two things that are especially noteworthy happened out there. Great difficulty. Difficulty is the first one. I mean, it's difficult. There was difficulty out in that wilderness, making that journey. But here is the other part of it, and this is the wonderful part of it. There were also divine exploits and wonders. Here's where we find out for them it was like manna from heaven, bread from heaven. It was water from a rock, all these divine exploits. And yet, they walked through that desert with great difficulty and with colossal loss of faith.
Directions. When we are in that season, we have come out of our slavery to sin. We have been rescued by the power of the cross, and now God is like, he's teaching us to walk. He's teaching us to walk away from Egypt and to walk toward a place of our abounding. And often in that particular part, what's most important is that we just keeping walking. Look straight ahead, look straight ahead. When we're trying to get over those old habits and over those old addictions, we look straight ahead. Do not have sympathy for that life that would have destroyed us. Walk straight ahead. The next one is worship, worship. It is what he said he was bringing them out to do. It says in chapter 3 of Exodus 11 and 12, "But Moses asked God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' And he said, 'I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.'"
Get in the Word. Study the Word of God. And it takes time to get to know him through his Word, but you can begin worshiping immediately, immediately, I mean just open your mouth, sing the songs, sing, sing the praises, sing the words, sing the confessions of faith. The last one is trust, trust. Now, I want you to understand something here. You have to have trust when you're going through this season of your life and when you're in this particular location, because this location you think will kill you. It's not going to, but you will think it will.