In the sermon 'Burning in the Soul' by Justin Dillehay, the speaker draws on the example of Moses' parents, Amram and Jochebed, to illustrate the theme of courageous faith. The sermon references Hebrews 11:23 to show how they hid Moses from Pharaoh's deadly decree, demonstrating faith and courage in the face of real danger. Dillehay argues that the challenges of starting a family in a morally chaotic world are not new and have always required faith and courage. He addresses modern fears around marriage and parenting, comparing them to the fears faced by Moses' parents. The sermon emphasizes that while fears are natural, faith in God should be stronger. It also discusses societal views that discourage marriage and family out of fear, suggesting that there is no perfect time to start a family. Dillehay encourages the audience to follow the biblical call from Jeremiah 29 to build lives, have families, and seek the welfare of their community, even in challenging times. The ultimate message is to pursue marriage and parenting with faith, building a legacy and passing down values in the name of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11 23 says, 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. Getting married takes courage, so does having children, so does raising them in a fallen, wicked world. That's why a lot of people don't do it. In liberal circles, some people say they're afraid to get married and have kids because of climate change. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's not a big concern amongst the singles in this room.

Instead, we might be inclined though to be concerned about the moral insanity of our culture, the rampant wickedness, the government overreach, and wonder, is this a good time to start a family? Getting married and raising children takes faith and courage. It takes courageous faith. But I hope it will encourage you to realize that that's nothing new. That has always been the case.

And I want to think just for a few minutes about the example of courageous faith of Moses' parents, Amram and Jacob. The text we just read says when Moses was a baby, his parents hid him. Now why would you need to hide a baby? Well you all know the story. Because the government was trying to kill him.

The wicked Pharaoh had ordered all the baby boys, the Hebrew baby boys, to be drowned. First he told the Hebrew midwives to do it. When they refused to comply because they fear God more than they did Pharaoh. Exodus 1 22 says Pharaoh commanded all his people, all his people. Every son that's born of the Hebrews is usually cast alive into the Nihilac.

Any good totalitarian dictator, he turns every citizen into an informer. If you hear of any Hebrew baby boy, be sure to report it. It's the law. In other words, this order was not just a threat to baby Moses. It was a threat to Moses's parents if they failed to comply.

This order came straight from the top. It came from Pharaoh. Failure to cooperate would have been very dangerous. And yet Moses's parents didn't cooperate. They had every reason to be afraid.

And yet the Bible says they were not afraid of the king's edict. It's not that the danger wasn't real to them, It's simply that God was more real. To the man or woman of faith, to the boy or girl of faith, God is the realest thing in the universe. He's more real than anything else. All those people you're tempted to be afraid of, the Bible says they're like grass.

And someday they're gonna be gone. For all you know they could be gone tomorrow, but the Word of our God will stand forever. So this is what we have to do. We have to put people in one hand and God in the other and say, which one am I more afraid of? Which one am I more concerned about offending?

My neighbor? Other kids? Other parents? The government? Or God?

Moses' parents had to make that same calculus and though it wasn't easy, it was simple. They went with God. And of course it's not that Pharaoh had no authority over them. It's not that they had no obligation to obey Pharaoh. It's just that you rendered to Pharaoh the things that are Pharaoh's.

And to God the things that are God's and your children don't belong to Pharaoh. They belong to God. So when the government tells you to do something that clearly contradicts what God tells you to do then as the scripture says we ought to obey God rather than men. And that's what Amram and Jacob did. By faith they hid their baby.

They defied the most powerful man in the world by hiding their baby. You've seen that black and white photo of the Nazi rally where everybody's got their hand up, piling Hitler, and there's this one guy standing there with his arms crossed, and the caption says, when the time comes, be that guy. Moses, his mom and dad, they were that guy. They were that guy. And it's sad when something as simple as normal as not killing your baby makes you a political subversive.

Just like it's sad when something as normal as not wanting your children to be taught that they're a boy trapped in a girl's body is politically subversive. But sometimes human cultures just go demonically insane. And when that day comes the only sane thing for you to do is to obey God and protect your children. They hid their baby for three months. That must have been a long three months.

When you think about that, It's not easy to hide a baby. I mean yeah, they're small but they also don't know when to be quiet. Every time little baby Moses cried, it must have been a potential crisis. What if somebody hears? What if someone's passing by?

Hey, I think I heard a cry in there. We better go check and make sure it's not a boy so we can turn it in. Fear must have been a constant temptation for these parents and even in normal circumstances, Fear is a constant temptation for parents, especially when you have young children like I do. What if something happens to them? What if they get sick?

What if they fall out of that tree in the front yard and break their arm? What if I let them play outside in the woods and they get bit by a snake or get you know caught by the neighbor's stupid pit bull, which why do they have to have a pit bull anyway? What if they grow up and marry a terrible person? What if they've never find true happiness? What if they don't get saved and they never know Jesus?

Any of those things could happen. That's why parenting requires courageous faith. Because you can't be with your kids all the time. You can't control all the factors that go into who they become. You can't shelter them from every bad thing.

Now obviously that doesn't mean that you should just let your kids run their own lives. Some fears actually are reasonable. So if you see something that very much appears to be harmful to young children, like a smartphone for instance, then you don't give them that thing. No matter how much they beg, no matter how much the parents around you pressure you, you don't do that thing. I have a three-year-old, we don't send her outside to play by herself Because it's reasonable to assume something's gonna happen if we do.

Some fears are reasonable. That's why Moses his parents hid him instead of taking him down to the kiddie pool or nursing him in public. They hid him. So I'm not saying be reckless and foolish, but I am saying that the only way to make sure nothing bad ever happens to your kids is not to have kids. And that has its own cost.

And it's a cost that our society is paying as people refuse to get married and have children. Think about Amram and Jacobad as young singles. They were foreigners living in a culture that was becoming increasingly hostile to their people. It would have been easy for them to look at each other and say, you know what, this is not a good time to get married. Not a good time.

Who wants to raise kids in this environment when they're bound to end up as slaves anyway? And Paul is very clear in 1st Corinthians 7, there are advantages to not getting married. But Paul would also tell you that if you're waiting for the perfect time to get married and have children, It's never going to come. There will always be challenges. Even if you actually were living in the easiest time in all of history to raise kids, you wouldn't know.

You couldn't know, right? Because You can't go into the future to compare. And if you got in a time machine and went back to the time you think was the easiest and you talked to the parents back then, they'd say, easy? This is the wickedest time in the history of the world. There is no perfect time.

If you're waiting for it, it'll never come. Amram and Jacobet were exiles in Egypt, strangers on earth, just like we are. They were living in a difficult time and a difficult place for their people, But they didn't let that frighten them into becoming recluses or hermits or pajama boys who lived in their parents' basement all their lives. They were willing to take a risk. They had courageous faith, and so they looked at each other, and they decided, you know what?

We wanna build a life together. We wanna get married, we wanna have children, because God says, this is a good thing. Even in Egyptian slavery, even in Babylonian exile, even in American decadence, God said to his people in Jeremiah 29, when they're in exile, build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Get married and have sons and daughters take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters multiply there and do not decrease but seek the welfare of the city of which you are in exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29. That is still what God calls us to as his people. As one of our own poets has said, get married, have kids, build a legacy, pass down your values, pursue the eternal, seek joy. And I would only add, do all that in the name of Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible teaches.

That's the courageous faith of our forefathers. May God help it to be all of ours as well.