How Long Will You Take?
Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · August 9, 2026 · Heroes of the Faith series
Jim Clements looks at Moses in Hebrews 11 and shows that faith is revealed through choices. Faith picks identity in Christ over status, eternal reward over fleeting pleasure, courage over fear, and obedience before the answers come. He asks how long we will wait.
More from Jim Clements · The Heroes of the Faith series
Topics: Faith, Identity, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] For all of us, we have different moments in our life, and they pass through as we journey along. But there are moments in our life that I would say are defining moments. Moments where we're going to make a decision about who we are, or how that's going to impact us in who we are for longevity. It'll define the decisions that we make in the future. It'll be forever part of our history and part of our journey in those defining moments. And in those defining moments is when our faith becomes, or doesn't become, the answer that we seek. For us in our life, for Gisèle and I, we've had many defining moments as we've journeyed along, and probably one that was very key in for me being here today and for us being where we are. We've been married 35 years this year, which is just incredible that she's put up with me that long.
[1:03] But early on in our marriage, we were so excited. Newlyweds, and we had this plan. I planned so much. I was like, "We're going to have all of our children before I turn 30, and we're going to have one boy and one girl." And my son, when he was born, he was born the month before I turned 30. And we had it all planned out. But early on, we were excited to start a family. And I can remember when we first found out that she was pregnant with our first child. And in the moments and months that began to unfold, the excitement built, and we thought about all the stuff, and a room, and the colors, and all that we were going to do to celebrate. And then all of a sudden, it went away.
[1:50] Twenty-eight weeks into pregnancy, we had a miscarriage. And it becomes a defining moment in your life. We were attending church, we were checking the box and going to church, and we were working a lot and doing a lot about what we wanted to do. But in that moment, the child that we thought we were going to have, that we've had, who I believe exists in heaven in the fullness of what God wanted, Gabrielle Miguel would've been her name, is gone. Aw. And we sit there, and I can still see in my head the image on the ultrasound, and no movement.
[2:36] And I knew immediately what was happening. Gisèle couldn't see it. The doctor comes in, tells us, and says, "How can we help? What can we do? Can we get the hospital counselor, the chaplain at the hospital?" And not that either of those people were insufficient, and I can remember saying at that time, "There's only one thing we need to do." And that one thing was for me to rededicate my life to Christ, and for her to do it for the first time. And not just be in church, but be part of what the calling that God may have for us. And from that point on is where we've lived our lives and say, "The answer is yes. Now, what's the question?"
[3:25] It was a defining moment for our faith that brought us back to where God could truly speak to us. And today, we're going to talk about how faith is revealed through choices. We're going to go to the Book of Hebrews, where we've been, and in chapter 11, verse is where we see faith chooses God's identity over worldly status. "It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." Imagine Moses. He's currently living in a palace. He has all the wealth, all the power, all the education, all the influence. Everything anybody could have wanted in that time, he has it.
[4:11] And if we remember, he was a baby whose mother set him adrift in a basket for something better. That Pharaoh's daughter then finds Moses and makes his life different. That's not by coincidence. That's by faith. God, faith, You're going to use my child for something greater for Your kingdom. And we know that in human terms, we say, "Man, he was rescued. Wow, what did he get saved from?" Right? He was rescued from that. But then one day, he makes an astonishing decision and he says, "I no longer want to identify myself with royalty.
[5:02] I identify with God's people, God's enslaved people." And that decision cost him everything, that we would say that it's of value. It cost him everything. Moses understood who he really was. He didn't identify anymore with where he was living and how he was living. He wasn't being defined by his title of what he had or who he was related to, and he wasn't going to be determined by his success. Moses' identity was now to be determined by God's calling on his life. Many people today, we think today, careers define us, our possessions, our politics. We can't even separate.
[5:47] I had the blessing of sitting with two... Don't ask me how this happens, other than God. I was somewhere at a leadership thing, and the two people sitting to my left are two MPs of our federal government who profess in faith. And guess who I had lunch with? I had lunch with them, and I talked with them, and I said, "How can we help? What's the way we can do it?" He said, "The faith community's got to move and move in strong ways when it comes. The things that happen in our government." So we think about politics that define us. We can't separate sometimes our faith and our politics. But I'm telling you, when it comes to that, we've got to hold our faith up first. That's the first thing. Whatever we do or whatever we identify underneath that, that's secondary.
[6:37] And so I'm blessed with this conversation to listen to these two men tell me how we can be of help. We define ourselves by achievements, awards we put up, and certificates we're given, or popularity, who's more popular than that. And the interesting thing that I've noticed as I've traveled, living in North America, when someone says, "Oh, tell me about yourself," the first thing we do is we tell them about what we do for a living. You go to other parts of the world and you go, "Tell me about yourself," and they go, "Well, I like hiking. I'm a believer. I'm involved in my church." They tell you everything about them that they identify with. And very often, it's not their job.
[7:24] And I think for us, the first thing we could do when someone says, "Well, tell me about yourself," I always go, "Tell me your story." I'd love for people to go, "Oh, well, I received Christ in this time, and this is when I made my decision to follow Him." That'd be awesome, wouldn't it? I mean, that'd just be incredible if that's how we started. Followers of Christ need to find our identity as children of His. And before God changes what we do, He changes who we are. And sometimes we don't like that because we think it's going to change everything about who we are. Well, I challenge you today to think of yourself. I don't know the kind of tree, like trees that lose their leaves, right? The trunk stays the same, the roots stay the same, and it grows, but the leaves that defined it the one year fall away and new leaves come.
[8:14] And if you're in a position where you're thinking, "Well, I don't want to give everything up," just change your leaves maybe. Start there. Let God work on what everyone else sees and define your identity by your faith in Christ. The greatest question isn't what do I do? The greater question is who do I belong to? That is the question that needs to be answered. Faith begins when we recognize that we belong to Christ above everything else. Above everything else. Faith chooses eternal rewards over temporary pleasure. Faith chooses courage over fear.
[9:00] Faith chooses obedience that leads to deliverance. Moses wasn't perfect. He feared things. He was insecure, and he failed. But God used him because he learned to trust God. Moses chose what we read in the next portion of Scripture, the following. He chose to share the oppression of God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. Notice the wording there. It doesn't say that sin isn't pleasureful. It says it's temporary, it's fleeting. It's a risk. It leaves a long-term impact that just gets ingrained into you and leads you further and further away from where God's identity would be for you. Sin always promises you more than it can deliver.
[9:55] The world always promises you more than it can deliver. God promises you, through your faith, everything that you can have in following after Him. Faith sees beyond this moment, and Moses looked past Egypt to give it all up for a greater calling that God had placed on his life. He looked beyond temporary gain and he looked further. In Hebrews 11:26, it says this, "He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead at his great reward." Now, think about that. All the treasures of Egypt could have been his.
[10:43] It was the wealthiest empire. It was unimaginable. But yet Moses said, "I consider Christ, I consider following God," for us today, "I consider following Jesus more valuable than anything." See, the world wants us to use the mathematics, right? This is what they want us to use. They want us to use temporary pleasure is greater than obedience, and that's the formula that they're living by and want us to live by, and that way it stays in the way that we move and a little bit of the way they control what we do. But faith calculates obedience is greater than temporary pleasure. It's the obedience of following your faith and using it to be the compass that guides you, and not you that guides you. Because I don't know about you, but any time I guide me, I tend to get in little spots that I probably shouldn't get in.
[11:41] But when I go, "Hey, God, what is it You would like me to do in this spot?" And I slow down a little. When people ask me, "What's the best advice you can give me?" It seems like I'm always ending up in a mess, or I'm like, "I just get in these spots and I can't figure it out." First thing I tell them is, "Slow down." We're running so fast through everything that we experience and the life that's created for us that we miss so much, and we make decisions way too quick. And the one thing I hold to, and I've shared this with you before, it doesn't matter. We can turn the news on and we can see earthquakes. We can see hurricanes, we can see tornadoes, we can see famine, we can see war. We can see so much awful that's happening, and every time I begin to get down that rabbit hole of thinking all that's wrong, I sit, and usually when I sit, something happens from creation.
[12:46] Birds fly by. I hear the sound of birds, and I'm reminded that the God that I serve who created all this and put it all in motion long ago, it is still in motion the way He created it. The only part that's changed is us. We've decided to make our own decisions of what we think is best for us instead of just having our faith to follow after Him. The creation that He made, the animals that He made, the fish still swim in the water. The birds still fly in the air. They go about their life just like they were created. So slow down. Let Him speak to you. Let your faith come alive.
[13:34] Faith evaluates everything based on eternity, because that's what you have at risk when you decide to go opposite to your faith. Mark 8:36 says, "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?" Some of us are trying to benefit as much as we can from the whole world, and our soul's at risk. Faith always asks, "What's going to last forever?" And that forever is our relationship with the living God. Every day, we must choose between comfort or calling, popularity or faithfulness, convenience or obedience, temporary treasure or eternal reward.
[14:34] That is what we're facing each day. Faith also chooses courage over fear. As we continue in the Scripture, it says, "It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt. Not fearing the king's anger, he kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible." The verse summarizes Moses' life after he met Him at the burning bush, because for 40 years, he just spent his time kind of hiding and felt useless, and then he has an experience when God appears and He says, "I see the misery of my people and I'm going to send you." And we look at Moses' response. "Who am I? What if they don't believe me?
[15:21] What if they ask me Your name? I don't even speak well. Please send somebody else." Doesn't that sound very similar to even today? Like excuses, fear, self-doubt, insecurity. God never answered Moses by boasting about him, by building him up. He answered every objection that he had with one statement, "I will be with you." I think that's enough. The living God says, "I'm going to be with you." I think that's pretty well all I'd need to have in my back pocket when I go. But Moses was afraid, and faith simply obeys outside of fear. Despite fear, faith continues to go.
[16:13] Many believers think that courage means that you'll never feel anxious. Biblical courage means moving forward because God is with you each step that you go. He saw Him who was invisible. That's a remarkable phrase when you think about it, because in faith, when it's us, but with faith, we see what our physical eyes can't see. Everyone else saw Pharaoh in that situation. Moses saw God. Everybody saw the Red Sea. Moses saw God's power. Everyone saw what was impossible, but faith saw opportunity. Faith sees opportunity every day.
[17:01] The invisible reality that we have to remember today is that God is still present. God is still speaking in the lives of people. God is still delivering freedom for all who seek Him. God is still open to impossible paths that you think are not attainable for you wherever you are to gain the freedom and the insights and the life that He has for you. Faith chooses obedience that leads to deliverance. We continue reading, "It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts that the angels of death would not kill their firstborn sons. It was by faith that people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned."
[17:54] These are two great moments when you think about the Passover, and it's happening in the Book of Exodus when we read through. God instructs them to sacrifice a lamb, to take the blood and pour it and wipe it on the edges of their doorframe so that when the angel of death comes, it will pass by their doors and their firstborn sons will remain alive. It sounded unusual. It probably didn't make a whole lot of sense. But what it did, it showed faith, it showed trust, and obedience brought salvation as the danger of death passed each house marked by this blood. Centuries later, Jesus became the Passover Lamb for each one of us.
[18:41] We're not saved because we deserve it. We're saved because we trust that the sacrifice that He made is real for each one of us. And then we look at the Red Sea. There's mountains, there's deserts, there's the sea, there's Pharaoh's army, and here they are in a situation, no escape. And God spoke to Moses, and He says, "Tell the people to move forward." He's like, "Move forward, like towards the water, you mean? Like the water? I'm not sure half of these people can swim. Anything we got loaded up is probably going to sink like a rock." And he's like, "Forward, towards the water?" "Yes. Yes. I want you to move forward." See, because sometimes God's decisions and directions that He gives don't unfold until we obey.
[19:39] It's not a vending machine where we put in and then we get what we want. If we notice, nothing happens until Moses extends his staff and everyone's moving, and then the water parts. See, they're not standing over in a corner going, "I don't know. What do you think? Should we go? I know He said move forward. We've been following Him all this time. And the army's there now, and I don't like climbing mountains, and the desert's really dry, and I might be able to swim halfway, and then leg, and maybe it'll be shallow enough, then we..." And then the sea opens. That's not happening. It's like walk, and then it opens. Because that's the way He wants to know that we're going to be obedient. Our faith, trust. If we have faith, faith is that. Faith is trusting God's going to work it out.
[20:25] Faith isn't going, "Okay, show me." If you want to show me, you can live in Missouri. And if you don't understand that, go look up their license plate. They're the Show Me State. God doesn't live in "show me." God lives in "obey me," and that's where our faith walks. That's where Moses shows. Faith moves before all answers appear. And again, that's where we live a life of saying, "God, yes." Now what's the question? You can see incredible things happen when you give your life over to Him. And I know some of us are standing at Red Sea moments. We have challenges that are in front of us, whether that's work, whether that's health, whether that's family, whether that's financial, whether it's a broken relationship that we have. We have all these Red Sea moments, and we're waiting for God to remove that obstacle before we obey, but He's not. He's wanting us to obey, live our faith out like we can.
[21:21] Here's a funny thing, funny story. I didn't even have this in there. I'm just going to add it. I had to get blood work done at the hospital. And I got there, and I took my number, B10. Thought I was playing bingo to start with. And I look around, there's a lot of people there, and it's on, like, A98, and I'm like, "Okay, it's going to be a while." So I want... If you've been to the Moncton City Hospital, and this is not a knock on the Moncton City Hospital, do not take it this way. It's just a story. And I walk over, and I lean on the counter, waiting for my number to call so I can see the sign, and I look down at the countertop where everybody has laid their little tabs. And to my surprise, sitting on the counter is B1. I'm like, B10, A98. It doesn't take long to do the math.
[22:07] I can take B1 and be, like, in three. That might seem okay, but in that moment of just slowness, contemplate, I'm not going to tell you I didn't contemplate it. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm like, "Yeah, I could jump like seven on the list," right? And in my spirit, God just goes, "It's not right. Everybody else has been waiting." If you're going to live a faith of obedience, it's even when people aren't watching, when people don't even know. And I took that little pile, and I scrunched it all up and put it together with B1 underneath, and I waited till B10 came. See, we've got to live it all the time, in the simple things, in the complicated things, all the time.
[22:54] Our next step is always taking a faithful step, and Moses teaches us about faith through these scriptures. His obedience, it wasn't perfect faith by any means. I mean, he murdered an Egyptian. He doubted God. He argued with God, his calling. He didn't want to do it. Yet Hebrews, the scriptures remember him as a man of faith. Why? Because God gets to write the final chapter in everyone's life, and he obeyed Him. Our failures, once freed from us by God, don't define us.
[23:41] Our faith and our obedience to follow after Him every day is what defines us, because God writes the final chapter, and God specializes in redeeming brokenness in the lives of everyone. We can see Jesus through some of the examples of the story of Moses. It even points us when you look at it. Moses left the palace. Jesus left heaven. Moses identified with his suffering people. Jesus came to be with us. Moses delivered Israel from slavery.
[24:27] Jesus delivers us from sin. Moses instituted the Passover. Jesus became the Passover Lamb. Moses led people through the sea. Jesus leads us away from death and into eternal life. Everything Moses accomplished ultimately points to how Jesus' life unfolds for us. The Book of Hebrews and the life of Moses gives us four choices. Will we choose to identify with Christ or with our world status? Will we choose eternal reward over temporary pleasures?
[25:13] Will we choose courage because God is with us as He promised? Will we choose obedience even when we can't see the outcome? Because faith is not merely believing, faith is choosing. That every day, every decision, every action, every relationship, every opportunity, everywhere you find yourself, faith will be the first thing that comes and leads and guides you, not something of this world. Moses never saw a detailed plan laid out in triplicate, in color, and all that kind of stuff, and highlighting spots to know what God wanted him to do, but he trusted Him because that's what faith does.
[26:02] Then the same invitation stands before us today. Choose faith, choose obedience, choose Christ. It's for us to choose Christ. He's already chosen us, and He wants us to be in eternity and in the kingdom with Him. So how long, let me ask you this, how long are you going to take to hedge your bet on the return of Jesus before you put all your relationships in order? How long are you willing to wait to surrender your job and the workplace, the marketplace that you're at so your faith comes first? How long are you willing to take before you decide that so your faith comes out there?
[26:53] How long are you willing to take when your faith becomes the first thing in the spot that everybody hates to talk about in church: finances? When are you going to put that first in faith? When are you going to put sharing about your faith first? How long are you willing to wait? How long are you willing to wait? The Scripture tells me we don't know the hour, the day, the time. How long are you willing to wait to put your life in the hands of the One who died on the cross so that you may be free? That hope is in this world. He created it. He put hope in it. He wants you to experience the eternal life that He has planned for you. But so many of us are coming to church, and we're checking the box, and then we go the other six days of the week, and we're not putting our faith forward.
[27:40] We'll put it forward here. "Hey, bless you, brother. Good to see you. Amen. Let's pray together." We'll do all that here. And then six days of the week, we go through the world schedule. How long are you willing to wait to read your Bible every day and let it come alive to you? How long are you willing to wait to sit in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to speak to you in the quietness of a space without it being interrupted digitally or any other way? How long are you willing to wait? I don't know about you, but I spent walking through airports yesterday, and everybody, like, "God, just go." Like, "Do they know the Lord? Do they know the Lord? Do they go to church? Do they have a faith community?" It's almost like there's voices coming out of them as they're walking by. There's so much to do.
[28:31] And part of the big step you've already taken is you're here. You've made this a priority. Don't make it a checkbox. Make it more than a checkbox. There's so much more for you. Ask yourself, what Egypt are you willing to leave behind that you're reluctant when you came in this door? What Red Sea are you trying to cross, but you don't trust God to open that door? What temporary pleasure are you indulging in that you don't have the courage to share with someone else to help you overcome it?
[29:16] Because the God that I serve, you can trust, and when He says that He will be with you, that's good enough for me. And so in a second here, we're going to sing a song, and I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you that where you sit right now, if you've never made the decision to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, or maybe you did when you were younger, and you've been checking the box, and maybe you haven't put your faith forward, and you just need the help. You just need to hear God say, "I'll be with you." You just need to hear that in a simple way, in a quiet voice in your head.
[30:06] I'm going to invite the prayer team to come, and as we sing, I invite you to come. Because if you're not willing to show your faith here, you're probably not going to show it outside of here. And it's a simple question. When you go outside, you just look at someone and you say, "Tell me your story." And as they're telling, what are they going to do in return? "Tell me your story." And you live and you journey with the lives of people in our community. Why? Because they're counting on you. They may not know that, but they're counting on you.
[30:53] Every head bowed, every eye closed, and we'll pray. And if you've never received Jesus as your personal Savior, you can just pray these words after me. The rest of you that have professed Him to be your Lord and Savior, you can pray for the people that will be praying this, and so for those of you to receive it: Father, I come to You today. I give all that I am to You. Whatever I have hidden my faith behind that's of this world, I now put my faith in front of it. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior today. I ask for forgiveness of my sins.
[31:39] I ask You to be with me each day from this day forward, to live a life that puts my faith as the compass, like Moses did. And for the rest of you that maybe have moved away and not been leading with faith as your compass, let's just pray. Father, we ask You to enter in, that You've already been stirring in our spirit, You've already been stirring in our hearts, and I know for people in this room, it's difficult. They'll go through the earthly things, they're thinking, "I can't move my chair. I can't move in the row. I can't come down from the balcony. I can't come from the back. I got to be somewhere at a certain time. There's people sitting to my left, sitting to my right." You know what? Just move them for Your kingdom.
[32:27] May You be glorified. May the compass that we live by each and every day be our faith, and may we be willing to take the step, like this morning, take the step that leads us to an everlasting eternity with You. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray and ask this, and everybody said, Amen.