Skip Heitzig - Choosing to 'Go Dark'
Thank you, Father, that you've brought us together. Thank you for the opportunity to study your word. Thank you for the opportunity to get to know one another, to get involved in smaller groups, where we can build relationships and be vulnerable and to feel at home. We pray, Father, that the effect of today's meeting together is that our faith would increase, our knowledge of your love would be more appreciated, and our service to you, Lord, would be more pure, in Jesus's name, Amen.
Hey, question, have you ever heard of a poem extolling the virtues of pain? Yeah, I didn't think so, ever heard a song dedicated to the benefits of suffering, probably not, country music might be like close to that, but all that aside, ever seen a statue erected in honor of suffering. No, you haven't. Who would ever choose to suffer? Who would ever pick that? Well, the answer might surprise you. You would. You would. Many people do it all the time. People eat spicy, hot foods every day. They see scary movies. They have kids. They run long distances. They go to the gym and lift weights. They get deep tissue massage. Oh, it hurts so good. That's, to some degree, choosing a path of suffering.
Dr. Diana Hill, PhD, wrote in Psychology Today, this little clip, "The more you engage in meaningful activities, the more likely you are to experience discomfort." That brings us to Moses, a man who made the choice, the choice, to go dark, to suffer, to go through a very difficult period of time, to engage in a meaningful activity, where he was likely to experience discomfort. This is a series we call Dark Room. We started it last week, and it's all about going through the negatives in life. And God developing those into positive experiences, and making you a better tool for his glory.
Last week we looked at Joseph, and we saw that Joseph went through a series of hardships from his early years, all the way throughout his life. But even though he went through some pretty dark times, God used his darkness to shine a bright light in the country that he was taken captive to, the country of Egypt, really the whole world. He was a bright light in that time.
Eventually, Joseph died, and that light dimmed. And people forgot about Joseph, so that was Genesis. The Book of Exodus opens up with the story, and Exodus chapter 1 who says, "There arose a King in Egypt who knew not Joseph." He had forgotten about the history. He didn't care about Joseph. He didn't care about what happened with this guy who came to town and came up with this plan, and so that pharaoh, that King of Egypt, plunged the children of Israel into a period of severe darkness, oppression, even extermination. He came up with a, I can only call it a Nazi-like plan to find the final solution to the Jewish problem. Let's just kill them. Kill them all. Let's begin with the male babies. Every male baby born, let's just kill it.
Well, one of those babies who was born was a child named Moses, and Moses, as a baby, was growing. And it says in the Bible that his mother tried to hide him for a few months, ever try to hide a baby, yeah, good luck. So she took Moses, and put him in a little basket. And dabbed it with pitch, and sailed it down the Nile River. You know the story. That little boat ended up at the shore of a bathing party, and it was the daughter of pharaoh who was bathing. And it says, the baby was crying, and she looked inside. And two things came together, a woman's heart and a baby's cry. It was love at first sight. She says, I'm going to adopt this child, and bring this child into my home. She called for the child's mother to wean the child, and then eventually, that baby Moses would be adopted into her own household.
Well, that story is told to us in Exodus chapter 2. It is mentioned by Stephen in Acts chapter 7. But it is explained to us succinctly in the text that I have chosen, that is Hebrews chapter 11. It is the story of a man who deliberately went into the dark room. He made that choice, and we see what God did in developing him into the greatest leader, at least the Jews, to this day, regard as their greatest leader in history.
So Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to look at the story of Moses beginning in verse 23 together. It says, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the King's command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as buy dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned." Moses lived 120 years. 120 years, Deuteronomy 34 says, he was 120 when he died. Most scholars divide Moses life up into three periods of 40 years each. So for the first 40 years, Moses was groomed and educated in the most advanced culture in the world at the time, Egypt.
The next 40 years, Moses goes dark, off-the-grid, goes to Midian, becomes a shepherd. And then finally, when he's 80 years of age, takes us to the third period of 40 years, at 80, life began for Moses at 80. At 80 years of age, he enters into successful ministry, leading the children of Israel out of darkness, the darkness of slavery. DL Moody put it this way, Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody. 40 years learning he was nobody, and then 40 years, God showing him what he can do with a nobody. Now to understand the choice that Moses made, the choice to go dark, we need to understand who he was, what he had, and then what he refused, what he pushed away, what he got in return, and how he was able to do it. So we're going to look at the five stages of Moses life. It's Moses whole life in a nutshell.
And I want to begin with his status. I want you to know what he had. In verse 23, we are told, by faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw, notice this, they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's command. Then the next verse begins, by faith Moses, when he became of age. So verse 23 and that part of verse 24 covers the first 40 years of his life, 40 years, the Bible tells us, when he made a decision. It mentions to us his status, and let's begin with his status, physically. It says he was a beautiful child. It's the same description in Exodus chapter 2. That's why it's written about in Hebrews 11. In Exodus 2, it says, his parents noticed he was a beautiful child. Now that's Exodus. By the way, do you know who wrote the Book of Exodus? Yeah, Moses wrote it. I just want you to know that. That's just fun to think about it.
He wanted to make sure that people would remember he was a beautiful child. But because the Bible mentions it twice, it is noteworthy. And probably, he was a pretty good looking guy. Acts 7, Stephen just says, he was well pleasing to the Lord. But the Jewish historian Josephus says that Moses had outstanding physical features, and that the Egyptians would often try to catch a glimpse of him. And once they saw him, they were so amazed at how good looking he was. They stared at him, and couldn't take their eyes off of him. Now I'm sure he's exaggerating a little bit. He never met Moses, but he wants to really extol how cool Moses was in their history. That's Josephus. Now to me, Moses always looked like this. That's Charlton Heston in the movie The Ten Commandments. That's what I grew up thinking of Moses is like, so that's Mo.
And good looking guy, but I can take my eyes off of him. I met him, by the way, once because I was so excited. It's like, I'm going to meet Moses. And I met him, and it was a neat experience. I was a little disappointed, but nonetheless, that's his status physically. Let's think about his status, educationally. Now I'm piecing a few scriptures together. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen said about Moses, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Remember, he is raised in the royal court. He's the adopted son of the daughter of pharaoh. Being raised in that environment, he would have access to a superior education, the best in the world. Egypt was very progressive, educationally.
I don't know if you know this or not, but the Egyptians at the time of Moses already had the theory of a round Earth. They had pretty well figured out, almost, pretty accurately, the distance between the Earth and the Sun. They were pretty amazing architecturally. They were pretty amazing with chemistry. They could embalm people so that thousands of years later they still look pretty good. So that's Moses upbringing. He probably went to a University called the Temple of the Sun. The Temple of the Sun was the best University in Egypt, and it's the modern day Harvard or Yale or Princeton or Dartmouth, a little bit higher than UNM in that status. So going to that University, he would have learned hieroglyphics. He would have learned languages of that area. He would have probably learned, I don't know, advanced mummy making or how to walk like an Egyptian. I don't know what he learned, but it was pretty hefty.
And then think about his status, positionally, positionally. Again Acts chapter 7 says, Moses was mighty in words and deeds. Mighty and words and deeds, simply meaning, he had skill in leading and communicating. Now we don't get that. When we read the story of Moses, we see a man who is afraid to talk in public, stuttered a little bit. And we think, that guy couldn't lead much of anything. That was Moses after the dark room. I think he lost a lot of his self-confidence. I think he was now at a place of having to just to trust in the Lord. Again, Josephus tells us, when the Ethiopians attacked Egypt, and the Ethiopians were about to destroy the Egyptians, Moses became the general of the army that led out the Egyptians to defeat the Ethiopians. So that was his status, positionally.
Then look at our texts, and you'll notice his status, financially. Look at verse 26, it talks about the treasures in Egypt. Now just imagine the wealth he had access to. How many of you have ever seen pictures of the tomb of King Tut? Raise your hand. It took nine months to take all the things out of that tomb to find out what was in it. That's just one pharaoh's tomb, and King Tut lived only 100 years after Moses. So it's right around that time period. If you are the adopted son in the household of pharaoh, you have access to the kind of money that people only dream about. He could do anything he wanted, any lustful pleasure. He wanted to do it. Nobody would question. He could party hearty all day long.
Then consider his status, relationally. Look back at verse 24. It says, he refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter. According to Josephus, the pharaoh at the time had no sons, only daughters, which according to Josephus, would have placed Moses in line as the next heir of the throne of Egypt. So if that's true, you mean this guy had it all. He had brawn. He had brains, bucks, and background. And I don't know. Maybe, he had his own private personalized license plate on his chariot, number two or something. So that's his status. That's what he had. Let's look at his spurning, what he said no to.
He said no to all of it. Verse 24, by faith Moses, when he became of age, we're told in scripture, that was when he was 40 years of age. When he became of age, he refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter. The Bible says, when he got to be about 40 years of old, it came into his heart to visit his people. He knew that he was a Hebrew. I'm sure that he was taught that as a young child by his own personal mother, and then reminded of that even in school. When he was at the Temple of the Sun, he knew that there were this group of people, the Hebrews. And any adoptive child usually comes to a point in their life where they want to discover who their parents were or why they got adopted. Moses was no different.
And so he found out. He went to visit them. And apparently, he made a choice to link up with them. Moses made the kind of choice that Napoleon spoke about. He said, in every battle, there's a period of about 15 minutes where the leader makes the choice that will either bring his defeat or victory. It's a very crucial time period. Moses came to that period where he had to make a choice about his future, which people he's going to associate with. So he made a choice to do the right thing, which was not the easy thing. The easiest thing for Moses to do was nothing.
I mean, I have it all. I'm the next pharaoh, perhaps. I certainly have a lot of money. I have the best education. I can do what I want. I'm going to leave well enough alone. I like it right here. But he didn't make that choice. And choice is the hinge of destiny. You make choices, then your choices make you. Choice is one of the greatest privileges we have. It's also one of the weightiest responsibilities we have. Think of it. For 40 years, Moses had been Prince of Egypt. For 40 years, he enjoyed the wealth of Egypt. For 40 years, he hobnobbed with the elite and the powerful and the cultured and the educated. For 40 years, he enjoyed all the perks afforded him by the royal court.
Now he's giving it all up. He is refusing to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter. What? What do you mean you're giving it all up? Moses, you are groomed for success. You are headed for the top. No, I'm giving it up. I'm refusing it. I don't want it. I'm spurning it. Why? It's an important question to ask because usually when people say no to something, it's because they want to say yes to something else. And it's usually something better, bigger, bolder, brighter. It's a better job, a better company, or a better location. It's much better. Let's just say, you won the lottery. I'm not advocating you go buy lottery tickets. I'm just saying, let's say you win the lottery.
And I don't know. What is the lottery up to now, anybody know, so a lot, millions of dollars. So you win the lottery, and they come to your house. And they write you a check for a bazillion dollars. And they have the check in their hand. The cameras are there. They hand you the check. And you look at it, go, no, I don't want it. I refuse this check. I don't want it. You don't want it. Why? I've got something better. Really, better than this, better than the kind of money that you could do anything in the world with, well, pray tell, what is it? So here it is. Let's look at verse 25. Now we go from the status and the spurning to the selection.
Here's what he chose, verse 25, choosing rather to suffer. So stop right there. I'm saying no to all the wealth and prestige and education and perks of Egypt. And my choice, I'm picking. I'm selecting suffering. Take me to the dark room. Now we know what happened. Moses left Egypt, went to Midian for 40 years, off-grid. He went dark. Midian, I know that is a word you've heard. You don't know what it means necessarily. I've only been to Midian once in my life. It's in Saudi Arabia. In fact, it is on the Western shore of the Eastern flank of the Dead Sea, of the Red Sea, excuse me, and just down from the Gulf of Aqaba. And it is so desolate. It's like a whole new level of desert. I'll put it to you in a way you can understand. It makes Rio Rancho look like the Oregon coast, that help. Is that a little bit better? That's Midian. That's where he goes. He goes there, and hooks up with the people of God eventually, the Israelites. But I want you to go back to the text.
Notice that Moses chooses two things. Number one, he chooses to identify with a new family. It says, by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. Mom, I'm leaving home. My new people are my old people, the people of God. I'm going to go link up and link arms with them. I'm sure it was a very difficult time, a very emotional moment. I mean she saved him out of the water. She gave him the life that he had. And to say, I am no longer going to be your son. I have a new family now. I can only imagine that she wept. She felt angry, maybe even called Moses ungrateful. I can just say that I didn't have this experience. But I remember when I got saved, and my parents didn't understand. And I tried to sit them down and explain to them that I have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Yeah, but we raised you in this family and with this church. And you're hanging out at that other church, and it's like you have a new family. And I said, first of all, I love you, and I love my family. And I will always honor you. But in a sense, I do have a new family. And I felt like such a part of that new spiritual family. And I do want to say because this is connect group weekend. Make a choice to find a family. Don't let the choice be, I come to hear a sermon once a week. Choose a family, a group of people who will love you unconditionally, support you relentlessly, and do so with accountability. That's a family. That's a connect group. So Moses chose to identify with a new family. And another part of his choice, he chose to experience a new agony. He chose to experience a new agony.
He knew what he was getting into when he chose it. Choosing rather to suffer affliction and then go down to verse 26, esteeming, a very strong word, it means to make a careful consideration. I've really thought about this, and I'm making an estimating value here. I'm esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Now, please, get this. It's not like suffering was forced upon Moses like it was Joseph. Joseph didn't ask for this brothers to hate him. That was forced on him. They hated him. He didn't ask to be abducted and taken to Egypt. That was forced upon him. He didn't asked to be mistreated and accused of things he never did. That happened to him.
Moses is different in that he knew what he was getting into, and he picked it. He chose to suffer. He preferred it. He made a selection. I mean imagine the conversation. Mom, I'm leaving home. What do you mean you're leaving home? I'm leaving Egypt. Where are you going? I'm going with the slave people, the Israel, the slave people, the Israelites, that's where you came from. You don't want to go back to that. No, I'm going there. You're making the choice to leave. Yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to go to the slave camps. I'm sure she said, honey, calling her husband, honey, Moses has been riding the chariot in the hot sun a little too long. He has lost it to make that choice.
But I'll say this. Anybody who has ever had to make a hard choice of sacrifice gets this. Anybody who had to make the choice of having your parents who have failing health move in with you, you understand this. It's a hard choice. You know what you're getting into. You do it anyway. Anybody who's made a choice to marry somebody and say the words, until death do us part, death do us, not debt do us part, not feelings do us part, not if you ever get ugly, and I get ugly, we will call it. It's till death do us part. If you make that kind of a commitment, you understand a level of this, or if you have a choice to have children, even though you've been warned they may have congenital defects, you get this. Sometimes the hardest choice happens to be the best choice.
Well, how do he do it, says he made the choice. He said no to Egypt. He said yes to Israel. Why? How? Here's the secret to being able to make hard choices, vision. It's what you can or cannot see that will determine if you will or will not make the hard choice. It's your vision. Look at verse 26, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he, what does it say, looked to the reward. He saw a payoff. He saw something really, really good in making that choice, a reward.
Verse 27, by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. It's an interesting phrase in scripture. He saw what you can't see, invisible. God's invisible. He saw him, who is invisible. Here it is. Moses saw more than most people. Moses saw what no one else could see. Moses saw the eternal reward over the temporal risk. So he could have chosen two things, first choice, to bring immediate gratification but long-term heartache. That would be the choice to stay in Egypt, immediate gratification, long-term heartache, because I know I'm not where God wants me to be, or choice number two, short-term heartache, but long-term gratification. That's the choice he made.
It's going to hurt. It's painful. I'm going to suffer. I'm going to go into the dark room, but I'm looking to the reward. I'm going to go with Israel. So Moses chose the dark room that he might have a destiny. He chose the dark room that he might have a destiny. Now there's a way you get to see this way. There's something that enables you to get this kind of vision. It's called faith. Hebrews 11 has that word repeated more times than ever. It's the hall of faith. We call it the hall of fame of faith, Hebrews 11, by faith, Abraham, by faith, Sarah, by faith. And it names all these people who did stuff by faith. Faith is what ables enables you to have the vision to endure anything. So here's what it's like. If you go into a dark room, they have, I remember, a thing called a safe light. And we showed you that in some of the video clips.
So in analog photography film, I told you about the silver halide crystals last week, and how it's sensitive to light. The room has to be completely pitch black, dark, to load film, to get it developed. But when you do the development of the paper that makes the negative into a positive, you can operate with a safe light. A safe light is a very dim light, a very red or amber hue. And the silver halide in the paper is not sensitive to that. So it's dim, but you can see enough to get the job done, to make the masterpiece. So faith is the safe light. Faith lets you see just enough so that you can endure anything. Faith is the safe light that will make you endure anything. From a worldly standpoint, Moses sacrificed everything and got nothing. I mean it was a stupid choice for him to make, from a worldly standpoint. Are you kidding? You're giving up Egypt.
You're giving up wealth. You're giving up status and power to be a slave. Are you an idiot? You're giving up everything to get nothing. But from the spiritual standpoint, he was giving up everything to get more than he had, more. So here's the point of all that. The worst God has to offer you is better than the best the world has to offer you. Whatever the Lord lets you go through when you commit everything to him, and it's painful, and it's suffering, it is better in the long run, especially, but also in the short run. It's better than the best the world has to offer. And folks, that's how people of faith operate. If you ever wonder, how can a missionary leave the United States? I mean, that guy who's living in Honolulu, Hawaii. And he went to the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa or the deserts of Sudan. How does a person do that?
He sees more. They see more. And faith is the safe light that lets them endure anything. Jim Elliott who was a missionary, who did that, and got killed on the mission field, by the way, said this, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot to keep what he cannot lose. I'm going to give up what I can't keep anyway to gain what I can never lose. Paul put it this way, I consider, Romans 8:18, I consider the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. So that's his status, his spurning, his selection. That's a secret. That's how he did it. He saw more. What was his success? What did he get from all of that? He made the choice. I'm going to the dark room. I know it's going to be hard. So what did God develop him into?
Here's a short answer, a masterpiece. Remember this print last week, Ansel Adams? Remember, I said that this picture of the Grand Tetons and the Snake River sold a few years ago for $988,000, almost a million bucks. And I said, that's because there was a master who worked with negatives to make something very positive. So that's what happened to Moses. Moses was a success. Verse 28, by faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood. Lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith, they pass through the Red Sea as buy dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. Moses became, in the Jewish mind, the greatest leader in their history. God let him see the Passover. The pinnacle event that every Jew to this day looks back to every year, Passover, every year, Passover, and Moses.
Moses saw the protection God gave the children of Israel from the 10 plagues, including the last of the 10, the death of the firstborn in Egypt. He saw all the provisions they got when they left Egypt and brought with them. He got a front row seat to that. Then when he was in the wilderness, God let him see, verse 29, the greatest miracle, the parting of the Red Sea, water actually parting, children of Israel going through on dry land, and then that water drowning the Egyptians, got a front row seat to that. Michael Shapiro called Moses, in his book The Jewish 100, the most influential Jew of all time. Jews call him their greatest prophet. Deuteronomy says, since Moses, there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.
Moses is mentioned in the Bible 852 times, shows up at the transfiguration of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The New Testament refers to Moses as a type of Christ and as one who predicted the coming of Christ. All of that because he chose to go into the dark room. That's his success, and he could see the reward. I don't think he saw all that. That was coming, but he looked and saw the reward because he chose to suffer. The Bible often calls us to make choices. Joshua said to the children of Israel, choose this day whom you will serve. Elijah, later on with the prophets of Baal, said, choose today if you're going to serve bail or you're going to serve God.
Do you know that, in the New Testament, Jesus often called people to make very difficult choices that would define their destiny? Listen to what Jesus said, Matthew 16, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Luke 14, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
To the rich young ruler, he said, sell everything you have. Give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me. To us all on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Moses did all of those things. Moses had denied himself, hooked up with God, slave people, chose a new family, left his status, and sought God's kingdom first. Now as we close, I just think it's time for some of you to choose, to make good choices today, so that you don't have regrets tomorrow. So let me close on one passage. We just have a few minutes left.
I want to look at a verse, a phrase in verse 25, choosing rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. He was in Egypt. He could have any sin he wanted. He could indulge in anything you wanted to do. But notice it says, passing pleasures. And the old authorized version says, enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Nobody has to be convinced the sin is fun. I'd be stupid if I stood up and go, sin is horrible. Nobody likes to do it. Really, why do why does everybody do it then, because they're not convinced that it's not fun. It's why people do it. It is a blast to sin. It is so fun to sin for a season. It's passing. Satan packages sin so well. He's a master marketer, but it's temporary. You drink of that well. You'll be thirstier than before. You eat of that. You'll be hungrier than before. You take off that. You'll be emptier than before. You'll be hollower than you were before.
So this is what people usually do. They try what the world has to offer, the pleasures of sin, and they come up thirstier and hungrier and emptier. They do one of two things. Drink more from it. Double down on their choice to drink from that well that doesn't satisfy them, and get even thirstier and hungrier and emptier and hollower. And they just chase that and chase that and chase other things, or they get a little bit of sense. And they stop, and they drink from the fountain of living waters, which can never run dry.
They take God at his word. And they go, well, that sounds like a hard choice. But I think it's the best choice. It is. It's the best choice. God wants you to choose him. Some of you, for too long, have let God be a spoke in your wheel. You're in the center. It's your little wheel of life. You've got your career and your family and your hobbies and your house. And you're there right in the middle. God does not want to be a spoke in that wheel. He wants to be the hub, the center. He wants you to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And it's the best life you could have now and forever more. If you've not made that choice, I'm going to give you an opportunity in a moment to do that. I want you to get ready to make that choice. Some of you have just been religious. You come to church every now, and then you'll hang out with the wife because she goes to church or with the husband, or my parents do this. But you have never committed your life personally to Christ, or some of you made some decision when you were younger. But you are not following him. You're not walking with him today. You need to come back to him, and you need to do it now. Now is the time.
Father, thank you for an opportunity to look at the life of Moses, who made a very esteemed choice, careful consideration, to say no to what the world says is the greatest thing possible, that he might say, yes, to you and your plan, even though in the short-term it was painful and hard and dark. We're convinced that Moses is very happy today that he made that choice. And Lord, I pray that some of us who are gathered here would make that same choice to make Jesus the Lord of our life, the center of our existence, the reason we live and breathe. And we will commit our lives to him, the one who promised that we would never thirst again, the one who promised he is the Resurrection and the life, the one who promised to give us abundant life, a sense of satisfaction and purpose and meaning in this life, no matter what we go through in the highs and the lows.
And if you're gathered here today, I want to give you that opportunity. Heads are bowed. Eyes are closed. But if you're willing to surrender your life to Christ today, I want you to raise your hand up in the air. Just raise it up for a moment. Keep it up high, so I can acknowledge you, if you don't mind. God, bless you, you, you, right here in the front and the middle, right there in the middle. Yes, sir. Raise it up high enough just so I can see it, if you don't mind. God, bless you, yes, on the left, and you. Who d just raise it up, anybody else, in the balcony, thank you for that. Thanks for holding it high. God bless you, sir.
Father, thank you for so many people that have just said yes, yes, yes to your plan, or give them eyes of faith today. Give them a heart filled with the satisfaction that they are doing the most important thing that could ever be done and getting right with eternal God, accepting the love of his son into their heart being changed, and being part of the family of God, in Jesus's name, Amen.
Let's all stand to our feet. We're going to close with a song. Those of you who raised your hand. I'm going to ask you to do something now. I'm going to ask you to get up from where you are standing. Get up from your place. Find the nearest aisle. Come walk to the front. Come stand up here, and in a moment I'm going to lead you in a prayer to receive Christ. Jesus called people publicly. And we believe that when a person comes publicly, it cements something in their heart.
And so you get up and come. We're going to wait for you, but come and stand right up here in the front. God, bless you. "You're promise still stands. Great is your faithfulness, your faithfulness. I'm still in your hands. This is my comfort, and you never failed me." The promise still stands. Great is your faithfulness, your faithfulness. I'm still in your hands. This is comfort, and you've never failed me, yeah. If you're still thinking about this, you're seeing this happening up here. You have never stepped forward yet. I want you to know that we don't do this to embarrass anyone.
We do this as you can here to celebrate with people who come forward to encourage you in this. We are saying by our applause that this is the smartest thing you could ever do, the most important decision you could ever make. Some of you know you need to be down here. You need to come. You've waited and watched this far too long in your life. Today is the day, the Bible says, of salvation. Let it be your day. Say yes to him. If you were in the balcony, just come down the steps. We'll wait for you. If you're in the family room, there's a door. Just come through the door. If you're outside, raise your hand up. If you're outside, raise your hand up right where you are.
"Still in your hands. This is my comfort, and you've never failed me, yeah." If you're watching online, or you're seeing this on the computer or on television, and you want to make this choice, you can text the word, saved, either on your phone, to 505-509-5433. You can text that on your phone, 505-509-5433, or if you're on a computer, there's a little button that says, knowgod, K-N-O-W God. Click that.
Now we have seen people this weekend make decisions for Christ. God, bless you. Look at all of you. You're such a good looking group. Hey, I'm going to pray with you now. You ready, if you've come forward, I want to say a prayer out loud. And I'm going to ask you to say this prayer out loud after me. You're talking to God, so mean this from your heart as you pray to him. Say this, say:
Lord, I give you my life. I know that I'm a sinner. Please, forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe he died for me. That he shed his blood for me. That he rose again. And he's coming again. I leave my sin. I repent my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow Him as my Lord. Help me. It's in his name I pray. Amen.