Drift | Staying the Course — Citygate Church

About this series:

Become anchored in purpose and discover how to live with intention in a world that pulls you off course.

The characters in Hebrews 11 stayed the course against all the odds. Against the tide of their cultures, against a tide of personal questions, even doubts, they remained focused on the purpose God had given them. This series will help us all assess whether we are drifting from our God-given purpose and, where we have, will challenge us to realign.

About this talk:

Moses is the dominating figure of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), his story beginning in Exodus 2. At that time God’s people were suffering greatly as forced labour at the hands of the King of Egypt.

Moses’ parents exercised faith in placing their son in the Nile (Hebrews 11:23), a faith that was rewarded by Pharaoh’s daughter unwittingly arranging for Moses’ own mother to raise him (see the account in Exodus 2:1-10).

Hebrews 11:24-25 recalls a very unsavoury incident which nonetheless demonstrated that Moses was siding with God’s people. Despite his privileged upbringing and position, as he watches the Israelites labouring and then an Egyptian beating one of the Israelites, he reacts in solidarity with God’s people because they are the ones to whom he knows he truly belongs.

At the end of the day, Moses knew who he was: a Hebrew. Clearly, that core identity had never left him and when he saw his fellow Israelites suffering he suffered too. In so doing he “chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 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.”

Knowing who weare helps to keep us on course, stay true to our purpose and keep us from drifting aimlessly. When we are susceptible to drifting into sin, we remember that we are God’s holy people; when weare liable to drift into compromise, we recall that we have been called for a great purpose; when we drift towards worshipping idols, we remind ourselves that there is only one God who is worthy of our worship. Identity keeps us on course.

But Moses was also “looking ahead to his reward.” Destiny is always a huge determining factor, of course, in plotting our course. Any journey starts with the end in mind. As Christians we know the end, we know where our lives and all of history is heading and so we can plot our course accordingly (see, for example, the three “since” statements in 2 Peter 3 vs 11, 14 and 17).