You and I would be entirely happy in following after Jesus, if it was always convenient. You know – it suits our agenda. Fits in with our plans. Doesn’t ever get uncomfortable. Yeah right! So when God calls us to do something that’s … inconvenient, well, that takes some faith.

One of the things I dislike intensely in life is being inconvenienced. I guess it's my western upbringing combined with my outcome orientated personality type. But when I have a plan I have a plan and I find it so annoying when someone gets in my road and delays me from getting out there and doing it or even upsets my apple cart and what they do ends up ruining my planning and I have to go and do something completely different.

I'm driving along in my car, there's a traffic light ahead, it's green but I know it's about to turn amber and then red and the car in front of me is travelling just far enough under the speed limit for no good reason so that he gets through the light but I'm caught by the red light. I just don't get that you know. How could he slow me down like that? How could he waste my time like that?

You see that's me, I don't get it. I know it's a trivial example but sometimes that inconvenience factor is much bigger. A break down on the freeway so I miss an international flight, a change in the global economy so this asset you were thinking of selling is now worth a fraction of what it was worth when you started thinking of selling it and the list goes on.

The number of things in this world that can conspire together to inconvenience us, well, man the list is endless but what if it's God? What if God is in the business of inconveniencing you with His ideas and His plans, His take on how things should turn out, then what do we do?

I don't think I've heard a message or a sermon on what to do when God inconveniences us, have you? Well it happens so that's what we're going to be talking about today on the program.

In fact, you'll find it in the Bible actually so because it's there we're going to take a look at it and not just because it's there, fantastic though that is but also because if you're someone whose plan is to follow after Jesus then one of the things you're going to discover is that Gods plan is not always going to be convenient and even though we're all different none of us are too pleased about being inconvenienced even by God.

Over the past couple of weeks we've been spending some time in Hebrews chapter 11, interesting chapter that, it's all about faith, it starts out with a very simple, very clear definition of what faith is in verse 1:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

It then tells us that faith is absolutely vital in pleasing God, verse 2:

Indeed by faith our ancestors received approval.

Verse 6:

And without faith it's impossible to please God. For whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And then it sets out giving us a whole bunch of examples of different situations and circumstances in which we need faith and that's what we've been looking at on the program day after day, if you've missed any of those I'll tell you a little bit later how you can listen to them again online.

And one of those circumstance in which we need faith is when God is apparently in the business of inconveniencing us. Well, maybe that's a little unfair, let's put it another way. When doing the right thing, when following after what we know is right is just going to become downright inconvenient and so the choice becomes between going for the lesser thing, the lower option which is convenient from our perspective or going for the greater thing, the higher option, the God thing even though it's intensely inconvenient.

So here's what Hebrews chapter 11 has to say about this faith choice, Hebrews 11 beginning at verse 24:

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaohs daughter choosing rather to share the ill treatment of the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered it abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking ahead to the reward. By faith he left Egypt unafraid of the king’s anger for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible.

By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that the destroyer of the first born would not touch the first born of Israel.

Now, I love this passage because you know what it tells me, it tells me that the faith that Moses had in his heart completely trumped the inconvenience factor. Let me say it again, the faith that Moses had in his heart completely trumped the inconvenience factor.

How often have you struggled with the inconvenience of getting about Gods business? Going and helping that difficult friend again who just can't seem to get their act together. Honouring a marriage partner, a husband or a wife, that given the way they're acting up right now simply don't deserve your honour. Supporting an arrogant or incompetent boss in your work place even though it's not fair that he's taking the credit for all your work. Walking away from the lunch table at work to the sneers of your colleagues when they start telling dirty jokes. Going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, laying down your life for other people.

You see my friend, those are inconvenient things to do. Moses could have chosen the comfort of Pharaohs palace, instead by striking down an Egyptian who was abusing one of his fellow Hebrews he found himself out beyond the wilderness tending his father in law's sheep and then having to confront Pharaoh when he was eighty years old, lead God’s people out of their slavery through the Red Sea and then contend with and lead this grumbling Israelite nation for forty years on their journey through the wilderness.

Look again what it says about Moses.

By faith Moses refused to stay in the comfort of Pharaohs house, by faith he considered suffering to be greater than comfort looking forward to his reward, by faith he left Egypt unafraid of the kings anger and by faith he participated in Gods miracle by keeping the Passover.

How did Moses overcome the inconvenience factor? Well, simple ... by faith. It seems to me that faith is our pro active tool for overcoming the lethargy we feel towards doing inconvenient things. Faith is like the thing that changes our hearts, to get out there and be about Gods business inconvenient though that may be.

And as we're going to see on another program down the track faith isn't something that we conjure up, it's not a feeling that you and I whip up through emotionalism, the Bible tells us that faith is a gift from God.

Can I tell you the number of times I haven't had what it takes to get out there and do what God was calling me to do? Hey even Moses had that problem, you can read about his argument with God in Exodus chapter 3.

So where do we go to get that faith? How do we get the courage to step out into those incredibly inconvenient places? I only know one way. In my study with the door closed and the Bible open and completely alone when everyone else is still asleep, I go and ask God to give me the faith, I go and pray:

Dear Holy Spirit, I sense that this is where you're calling me but I'm not sure I have the faith to make it happen yet, I'm not even sure I have the faith I need to take the first step.

And this is what happens, He's never failed me. He gives me just enough faith to get started, to take the first step, a mustard seed size of faith, the tiniest amount it seems, nowhere near enough to get the job done it seems but then the last time I checked Jesus said all I needed was a mustard seed of faith to move mountains, with a mustard seed of faith nothing will be impossible for you, nothing, by faith.