READ: Colossians 3:5-15
“By faith Moses … refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” – Hebrews 11:24-25
To be successful you will have to follow Moses in forsaking pleasures. Christianity is a religion of denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Christ. This means that there will be physical pleasures to forgo. Many Christians cannot imagine living without certain pleasures. That is why the number of missionaries being sent to poor parts of the world has greatly reduced.
It is these little pleasures that the modern Christian is unwilling to part with. Being unwilling to part with little pleasures has sentenced many to Hell. Millions have gone into damnation having no Saviour, having no salvation and having no hope. The incidence and level of infection of HIV is the same in the church as it is in the world. Why is this? It is because Christians have virtually the same lifestyle as unbelievers when it comes to their sexual lives. Modern Christians will not forsake the pleasures of sin for a season. The refusal to put away the pleasures of sin has brought about impurity, confusion and curses into the church.
The art of following Moses is the art of putting away the pleasures of sin for a season. “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 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” (Hebrews 11:24-26, NIV).