Message Overview

Hebrews 11: Faith That Trusts God and His Promises

Series: Hebrews

Big Idea

Biblical faith is trusting God and His promises — living now in light of what He has said, even when we cannot yet see it.

Message Overview

1. What Is Biblical Faith? (Hebrews 11:1–3)

• Hebrews 11 uses the word “faith” repeatedly — by faith, through faith — because this chapter is all about what faith is and what it looks like.
• Our culture often pits “reason” and the “five senses” against faith, as if faith is blind or irrational.
• Biblical faith is rooted in what God has revealed: eyewitness testimony in Scripture, real events, and the God who cannot lie.
• Working definition for the sermon: faith is trusting God and His promises.
• Creation (v.3) is our first example: we weren’t there, but by faith we trust the God who was — He spoke and created everything out of nothing.

2. Faith in the Lives of the Patriarchs (Hebrews 11:4–22)

• Abel brings a better offering than Cain because he brings it by faith — trust in God, not just outward performance.
• Enoch “walked with God” and was taken up — his life of faith pleased God.
• Noah believes God about things “not yet seen” (a coming flood) and builds the ark in obedience, even when it makes no sense to the world.
• Abraham obeys God’s call to go to a place he doesn’t know, living as a stranger and exile, looking forward to a better city “whose designer and builder is God.”
• Sarah receives power to conceive in old age because she considers God faithful who promised, and from this “as good as dead” couple come descendants like the stars and the sand.
• Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all model faith that looks beyond this life — they make decisions with eternity in view and pass that faith on to future generations.

3. Faith That Chooses Christ Over Comfort (Hebrews 11:23–31)

• Moses’ parents risk their lives to hide him because they see that God has something special for this child; by faith they disobey Pharaoh’s murderous command.
• Moses grows up with all the privilege, power, and wealth of Egypt, but by faith he refuses to be known as Pharaoh’s grandson.
• He chooses mistreatment with the people of God rather than the fleeting pleasures of sin, valuing “the reproach of Christ” over the treasures of Egypt because he is looking to the reward.
• Moses leaves Egypt, keeps the Passover, and leads Israel through the Red Sea because he “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”
• Israel walks through the Red Sea by faith; the Egyptians attempt the same without faith and are drowned.
• Rahab the prostitute believes in the one true God, welcomes the spies, and is rescued — her story reminds us that no past is beyond God’s saving grace.

4. Faith in Triumph and in Suffering (Hebrews 11:32–38)

• The author piles up names and examples: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.
• Some “by faith” conquer kingdoms, enforce justice, stop the mouths of lions, quench fire, escape the sword, and see the dead raised — awesome, visible victories.
• Others “by faith” are tortured, mocked, flogged, chained, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, killed by the sword, destitute, afflicted, mistreated.
• In both triumph and suffering, what pleases God is the same: trusting Him and His promises.
• The world is “not worthy” of these men and women of whom God says they are commended for their faith.

5. Don’t Turn Back — Live by Faith (Hebrews 11:39–40; context from Hebrews 10)

• The original readers of Hebrews were tempted to turn back to the old sacrificial system and old ways because following Jesus was costly.
• The author shows that the Old Testament “heroes” were all looking forward to what the readers now have in Christ — they didn’t receive the full promise yet; God had something better planned.
• Faith is not perfection; it is heading in the right direction — trusting God’s promises and persevering.
• Core question for us: Do you have this faith? Are you trusting God and His promises in your life, your decisions, your future?

How We Respond

• Ask honestly: Am I trusting God and His promises, or am I depending on what I can see and control?
• Choose the eternal over the temporary in specific areas (comfort, sin, status, possessions), like Moses did.
• Consider what kind of faith you are modeling for the next generation — at home, at work, in traffic — and repent where needed.
• Prepare your heart to suffer faithfully if God calls you to; remember that faith is not only for “victory stories” but also for costly obedience.
• If you have never trusted Christ, respond today by turning from sin and trusting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

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Lifegroup Guide

Warm-Up

• When you hear the word “faith,” what comes to mind first?
• Have you ever known someone whose faith encouraged you during a hard season? What stood out?

Read

• Read Hebrews 11:1–40.

Observation

• What repeated words or phrases do you notice in this chapter (for example, “by faith,” “through faith,” “promised,” “better country”)?
• What kinds of people are highlighted here (patriarchs, judges, prophets, men and women, well-known and lesser-known)?
• What are some of the different outcomes of faith you see — both “victories” and “sufferings”?

Interpretation

• How does this chapter define or describe biblical faith (see especially verses 1–3 and verse 6)?
• What do Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and Rahab have in common in the way they respond to God?
• Why do you think the author includes both miraculous rescues and intense suffering in the same list of “by faith” stories?
• How does Hebrews 11 connect to the situation of the original readers who were tempted to turn back (see Hebrews 10:32–39 if helpful)?

Application

• Where in your life right now do you most need to trust God and His promises rather than what you can see or control?
• In what ways are you tempted to choose the “fleeting pleasures” of this world instead of the “better country” God promises (like Moses’ choice)?
• Think about those watching your life (kids, friends, coworkers, younger believers). What kind of faith are you modeling to the “next generation”?
• How might your week look different if you made decisions with eternity in mind rather than only short-term comfort?

Prayer

• Thank God for specific examples of faith (from Scripture and from your own life) that encourage you.
• Ask Him to strengthen your faith in an area where you are struggling to trust His promises.
• Pray for courage to endure suffering faithfully if it comes, and for grace to live as “strangers and exiles” who are seeking a better country.
• Pray for the next generation — that they would see and inherit genuine, persevering faith in Christ.

Memory Verse

• • Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

• Hebrews 11:6 – “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

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Full Transcript

Again, we are in Hebrews chapter 11 this morning. And if you’ve read through the book of Hebrews before, perhaps this chapter is the most well-known because it’s referred to as the Hall of Faith. In fact, as you read through this chapter, what you’ll see is the word “faith”—either “by faith” or “through faith”—is mentioned 25 times. Twenty-five times faith is mentioned. So it’s important that we understand well: what is faith? What does it mean to have biblical faith?

The first thing we need to recognize is that our culture would actually set things in contrast to faith. So if we think about observation—our five senses, reason—they would almost set that in contrast to biblical faith, saying that, “No, faith is just blind faith,” or even, “Yeah, you just believe it because it’s said that way.” But no, biblical faith is actually built upon the foundation of the five senses. In fact, in 1 John he says, “The things that we have seen, the things that we have heard, we tell to you.” A lot of what we see in Scripture is based on eyewitnesses. So that is part of our faith—that observation. We use our five senses. We also use our mind. Again, we’re not credulous or incredulous; we believe based on reason, on what we read in the Bible, and so that serves as the foundation of faith.

But biblical faith actually goes beyond those things. And that is because God has given us His Word. We call that revelation—the Bible. God is not like man. He cannot lie, and what He says is true. And so we believe in Him. And so if you were to ask me, “Brian, how would you define biblical faith?” my definition of faith for you this morning is this: that you trust God and His promises. So faith is trusting God and His promises. And my question to you is this: do you have faith? Do you have this faith—that you are trusting God and His promises?

So we’re going to dive into the Hall of Faith here. But before we do, let me pray for us.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we pause and we thank You for Your inspired Word. We thank You that You always speak the truth. And so, Lord, we ask that You will just grant us understanding. Help us to see, understand, and apply the truths of Your Word to our hearts and our lives. And we ask all these things in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

This is a long chapter. It’s 40 verses. So get buckled up. We’re going to run through it as quickly as we can and highlight some key parts of this text.

Beginning in verse 1, Hebrews chapter 11: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is being sure, being convicted. You know these things are true because of who said it—again, trusting God and His promises. Verse 2: “For by it,” that is by faith, “the people of old received their commendation.” That is, they were accepted. They pleased God not because of what they did but because of their faith—by trusting in God and His promises, they were commended by God.

Verse 3 begins with the creation: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Now I have a scientific background, and I would have loved to have been there at the creation time to observe what was happening, but I wasn’t there. Neither were any of you. But we do have an account from the Person who was there—God our Creator. And we go back to Genesis 1. What do we read? We read that, ex nihilo—that is, out of nothing—God spoke and made everything. Out of nothing He created all that there is. And we believe that by faith. We are trusting God and His promises.

Verse 4: “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” So this takes us back to Genesis chapter 4. Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve. They both bring an offering to the Lord. Cain brings an offering of the firstfruits of the land, and Abel brings an offering from his flocks, the fat of the flocks. And we read that God accepts the offering of Abel but not the offering of Cain. If you read that account in Genesis, we don’t get a lot of details of why one was accepted over the other. But here, the inspired author of Hebrews says it is because Abel brought his offering by faith—trusting God and His promises.

Verse 5: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” This goes back to Genesis chapter 5. Only four verses there talk about the life of Enoch. He lived 365 years—a pretty long life—and he never died. Why did he never die? Essentially it says that God just took him away. He took him up. And why did He do that? All we know, two times in those four verses, is that Enoch walked with God. That is, according to Hebrews, he lived a life of faith. He trusted God and His promises. And again, he was commended because he had pleased God through his faith.

Verse 6 brings clarification to this: “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” You see, you can do a lot of really good things—in man’s eyes, a lot of good things, religious things—but not please God because you do it with the wrong motive. You must do it by faith. You’re doing it for the glory of God. You are trusting God and His promises. You must believe that He exists. For those of us who draw near to Him, we must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who truly seek Him.

Verse 7: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Most of you are familiar with the story of Noah. Noah is instructed by God. This is before it even had rained on the earth. According to the account there in Genesis, there was some kind of, we assume, a vapor canopy that watered the earth at that time. There had never been a flood before. And God told Noah to build this monstrous ark, almost the length of a football field, three stories high. And it ultimately brought about the salvation of the family of Noah—Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives, eight in total—and then also a representation of every kind of animal. Even though he had never seen rain, he trusted God and His promises. He built this ark that ultimately brought about the salvation of his family.

So many times we don’t understand the circumstances around us, but God’s Word speaks clearly to us. We must obey Him, even though maybe the things around us are confusing. We must obey what the Lord commands us to do. And Noah—it’s interesting, if you read toward the end of his story—he doesn’t really finish that strong. Yet he makes it here in the Hall of Faith. You see, faith isn’t about perfection; it’s about heading in the right direction, keeping your eyes and your focus on God. If you fall, if you fail at a moment, repent and turn back to God. Keep your faith, your trust in Him.

Verse 8: “By faith Abraham”—and most of us are familiar with Abraham, especially if you were raised up in Sunday school: “Father Abraham had many sons,” right? Abraham, the father of faith—“obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” God just said, “Abraham, I want you to go here.” He had no clue where he was going. He had never heard of the place that he was to go, most likely. And this really hit home for me and for Dina as God called us to ultimately sell our possessions and move overseas.

I was a research scientist with Abbott Labs, now Abbott Nutrition, in Columbus. And God essentially gave us a burden, a desire to go share the gospel with people who did not have access to the gospel, to make disciples of Jesus. And when we left the U.S., it was the first time for my wife and, at that time, we just had four kids—our four children—to leave the United States. And we went to a country that we had never been to before. Our kids were eight, five, three, and ten-and-a-half months. Why did we do that? Not that our faith is great, but we trusted God and His promises. We knew that He would be with us as we went to make disciples of Jesus. Abraham—it was by faith. He didn’t know where he was going, but he went out obeying what God called him to do.

Verse 9: “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac his son and Jacob his grandson, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” This city he’s talking about is pointing forward to heaven. Abraham wasn’t concerned about earthly possessions. He wasn’t concerned about the temporal. He was concerned about the eternal. Faith means living with eternity in your heart, living with eternity in your mind. You make decisions based on the eternal impact, not on the temporal impact.

Picking up now with his wife Sarah in verse 11: “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” If you haven’t read that story before, you might think, “Well, that’s not a big deal that God gave Abraham and Sarah a child. He had promised them a son.”

Now, Sarah at the moment that she received this promise was 90 years old. Just imagine in your mind that your great-aunt who’s around 90 gives you a call and says, “Hey, guess what? I’m pregnant.” You would laugh. That’s what she did. That’s what she did. The angel of the Lord comes and visits and says, “By this time next year, Sarah will have a child.” And Sarah’s overhearing the conversation between the angel of the Lord and Abraham. And it says that she laughed. She laughed, just like you did. You laughed like, “Man, that’s crazy, a 90-year-old woman.” And Abraham was 100. That’s amazing. This is not natural. God gave them a promise and He completed the promise despite their age. God provided. And it says that by her faith, even though at first she laughed, she was trusting in God’s promise that He would give them a son. Because of her faith, she received power to conceive, and they had a son who brought about two sons, and then many people after them—as many as the grains of sand by the seashore.

Verse 13: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.” Verse 15: “If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.” Verse 16: “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” Again, they are making decisions not based on the temporal but upon the eternal. They’re keeping their focus on heaven. And yes, they probably had moments of homesickness when they left, going to the place they didn’t know, but they didn’t turn back. They didn’t go back, because they had the eternal in mind—this great city created and built by God Himself.

Picking back up with Abraham in verse 17: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

Verse 20: “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

The first time that this passage really struck me—really stood out to me—was about 25 years ago when I was teaching a parenting class. What struck me, what I saw here, was how faith had been passed from one generation to the next. We have Abraham, his son Isaac, then Isaac to his son Jacob. Jacob ultimately had twelve sons, but the one specifically mentioned here was his son Joseph. And it says that Jacob blesses Joseph’s two sons. Five generations. Teaching that parenting class, the immediate application is: what are you doing to help pass your faith on to the next generation?

What I want you to think about now is this: some of you are parents, some of you are grandparents, but all of us have influence over somebody or some people. My question is, does the way you model your faith—that’s what you want to see in the next generation? Not just your time here on a Sunday morning, but the way that you interact with your family at home, the way that you interact with your colleagues at work or at school as you live out your faith. Is that what you want to see in the next generation? As you go through traffic—right?—is that what you want to see in the next generation?

If your children or your best friend lived out their faith after your model, would God be pleased? There are probably some things that you would say, “Hmm, I think I want to make some changes.” May the Lord, the Spirit, guide you in that. May He bring conviction and help you turn from sin and continue trusting in God and His promises.

Picking up in 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.” Here we see the faith of the parents of Moses. During this time of the Exodus, we see Moses born in a time when Pharaoh was afraid of the multiplying peoples of the Israelites. And so he decided, “We’re going to kill all the baby boys.” What should have happened was all the baby boys after birth should have been immediately thrown into the Nile River to kill them. The parents of Moses disobeyed this command by Pharaoh because it says here that they saw that Moses was beautiful. Now, every parent thinks their newborn baby is beautiful, right? Even though we know they’re not, right? They’ve got these cone heads when they come out and we think, “Are they going to have brain damage?” But they normally turn out, right? Here, when Moses’s parents saw that he was beautiful, it wasn’t his physical attraction but they knew that God had something special for this baby. And so they risked their own lives to preserve Moses’ life.

We continue now in verse 24: “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 fleeting pleasures of sin.” Verse 26: “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”

Moses gets adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. He is raised up with everything that anybody would ever want at that time. He had position, he had power, he had physical wealth, he had access to anything that he probably could have wanted as a sort of grandson in Pharaoh’s household. But we don’t know exactly at what age, but at some age he decided, “No, I’m not enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.” That’s a good reminder. Many times sin is pleasurable, but it’s fleeting. It’s temporary. Moses kept his eyes on the eternal. He lived for the eternal. He rejected that. He rejected the status that he had. He considered the reproach of Christ—that is, the sufferings of Christ—even though he only knew of the promises of the coming Messiah; he didn’t know Christ Himself. He considered that better than all the treasures Egypt had to offer because he was keeping his eye on the promise of the coming Messiah and the promise of eternal life with God.

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.” We don’t know exactly when this occurred, but most likely it was probably in the midst of the ten plagues. We know Moses, for the most part, was a man who struggled with fear. He didn’t want to be called; he didn’t want to go to Egypt. He ended up getting his brother to come along to be a spokesman. But there was a moment when he was coming in front of Pharaoh in the midst of the plagues where Pharaoh said, “I don’t want to see your face again.” And Moses said, “Yeah, you’re not going to see my face again.” He went without any fear and he obeyed what the Lord told him to do because he endured as seeing Him—that is, God—who is invisible.

Verse 28: “By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.” This is in reference to the tenth plague. What was happening there? God told Moses, who told the rest of Israel, in order to avoid the angel of death, the destroyer, we must kill a lamb, take the blood from that sacrifice, put it on our doorposts, and then when the destroyer comes—the angel of death comes—when it sees the blood on our household, it will pass over. What happened that night? Apparently, we don’t know all the details, but all the Israelites obeyed. They celebrated what we know as the Passover—killing the lambs, putting the blood on the doorpost. The angel of death, the destroyer, comes, passes over their homes. But in the homes of the Egyptians, who did not have blood, each of the firstborn sons of their households was killed. They did that by faith.

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.” After they had left Egypt, they ultimately find themselves trapped. They’ve got the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army right behind them. God, through Moses, opens up the Red Sea. These people—it would have taken some courage to walk through walls of water as on dry ground through the Red Sea, and they did it. It says they did it by faith. The Egyptian army attempted to do the same. We can say they had courage, but they didn’t have faith. Because of that lack of faith, it says that they were drowned.

Verse 30: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” This fast-forwards a little bit. We are now in the book of Joshua. Joshua is leading them into the promised land, and the most fortified city in Canaan at that time was Jericho. Jericho had these walls around it which, according to historians, they thought were impermeable. There’s no way anybody was going to get through their walls.

If you’ve got a military background and you see that wall, you’re probably thinking a couple of different things: what can we do to go over the wall, or what can we do to tunnel and go under the wall, or maybe what can we do to just bust down the wall? But God said, “No, none of those are part of the plan. I just want you to march around it.” That would probably never be your strategy—to march around something to make it fall down. But after seven days of doing it, on the seventh day they do seven rounds, blow their horns, and the walls come tumbling down. They did this by faith. By faith they believed God and His promises.

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.” If you were making your list of people of faith, I don’t know how many of you would have included Rahab in that number. What was her career, so to speak? It says, “By faith Rahab the prostitute.” In Hebrews there’s only one way to translate it: she was a prostitute. That was her past. But she did not perish with those who were disobedient because she welcomed the spies. Rahab recognized the LORD as the one true God. Ultimately, it is quite obvious she got married; she repented of her sinful lifestyle and began living for the Lord. If you read the genealogy of Jesus, who do you find in His genealogy? You find Rahab. Isn’t that awesome?

That’s a good word for you and me, because for some of you, or maybe some people that are close to you, they have done some horrific things in the past and they may think, “There’s no way God could forgive me.” But if you repent and believe, it is a free offer for all who believe. There is forgiveness. There is salvation. Look at the example of Rahab.

Picking up in verse 32: “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection.”

If it stopped there, we would say, “Man, everybody should have faith. Look at all the amazing things they did. Even the dead were raised back to life!” But the passage continues: “Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

When we read through that list, we think, “Wow, that is faith.” That should challenge you and me that, no matter what this temporary earthly life brings, no matter what suffering comes our way, it is all worth it for the sake of Christ. Have faith. Trust in God and His promises. Today, by God’s grace, at least in the U.S., not many of us are threatened with death because of being a follower of Jesus. But yes, we could say there are some mockings; people will make fun of us or post things about Christianity in general in a negative light. But we are to continue to pursue Jesus, to keep the faith. It can be done.

Again, stepping back: what we see in the book of Hebrews, and what we had just read in chapter 10 as chapter 10 ended, is that these Hebrew Christians were apparently considering turning back to the old ways—to the old sacrificial system—because of the social ostracization they were receiving. The writer of Hebrews is encouraging them. He’s saying, “No, stand firm in the faith. ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” And he lists all of these Old Testament heroes of the faith. He concludes in the last two verses: “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

So what’s the writer trying to say to this first audience who received this letter, this sermon? It is this: you look up to these heroes of the faith of the Old Testament—don’t go back to the old covenant, because these heroes of the faith were looking forward to what you are experiencing now. They were looking forward to the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah. Don’t go back to the old ways. Trust in God. Trust in His promises. You can do it. You can persevere. Look at these heroes of the faith. They weren’t perfect, but they were headed in the right direction. Believe the promises that He has made to you.

And so again, what is faith? Faith is believing God and trusting His promises. And I ask you: do you have faith?

Would you pray with me?

Gracious Heavenly Father, again we thank You for Your inspired Word. We thank You for this chapter that highlights the many men and women of faith who are examples for us. And while not perfect, Lord, it just helps remind us that we don’t have to be perfect, because Your Son Jesus is perfect. So Lord, whatever life brings our way—whether it be good things and lots of great victories, or just moments of mocking and persecution and trials and suffering—help us, like Moses, to reject the fleeting pleasures of sin in order to keep our eyes on the great reward that we have through Jesus. And for those who have not yet professed Him, Lord, would You convict them of their sin, draw them to Yourself. May they trust in Jesus, our risen Lord. We ask this all in His name. Amen.