Choosing to "Go Dark" - Part B

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. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip concludes his message, Choosing to Go Dark, and shows you that God's plan for you, even when it includes pain, is far better than anything this world offers. But first, here's a resource that gives you a glimpse into what eternity holds. Skip Heitzig has some straight talk about hell. The lake of fire is name of a place of eternal torment. You might call it the final hell.

The Bible calls it the second death. So hell is an actual place. There's a second fact I want you to notice, and that is hell is an intentional place. This is critical information about the future of those who reject salvation through Jesus, but that does not need to be the destiny of any man or woman on earth. That's why we've assembled a special resource called the Eternity Package to give you confidence in your eternal home and an urgency to share Christ with those who don't believe. God created hell for a very specific reason. Verse 41, He will say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire. Here it is, prepared for the devil and his angels.

God did not create hell as a place to punish people. The Eternity Package comes with seven of Pastor Skip's most powerful messages about eternity, covering topics like the truth about hell, what most people don't know about heaven, the second coming of Christ, and much more. You'll also receive his booklet, Hell, No, Don't Go, about the glory of heaven and the torment of hell. This powerful new resource is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support the broadcast ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig. So get your copy of the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Hebrews 11 as we join Skip for today's message. 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 hop-knobbed 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. You know, 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? Okay, 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 and 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. Just stop right there. I'm saying no to all the wealth and prestige and education and perks of Egypt.

And my choice, 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 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. Does that help? Is that a little bit better? Okay, 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. 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. 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 him. Choosing, rather, to suffer affliction. And then go down to verse 26, esteeming, a very strong word. It means to make a careful consideration. Like, I've really thought about this, and I'm making an estimating value here. I'm esteeming the reproach, the reproach of Christ's 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 his 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 ask 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 Israelites.

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. Yep, 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 did he do it? 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 choice 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's 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 like more times than ever, right? 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 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. 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 light that will make you 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 was 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 Elliot, 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 keep 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?

Okay, 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, 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 passed through the Red Sea as by 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 of the parting of the Red Sea, water actually parting, children of Israel going through on dry land, and then that water drowning the Egyptians.

He 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, the 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. 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. You know, 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 Baal 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 Sherman 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 denied himself, hooked up with God's 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 he wanted to do. But notice it says, passing pleasures of sin. The old authorized version says, enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Nobody has to be convinced that sin is fun, right? It'd be stupid if I stood up and goes, your sin is horrible. Nobody likes to do it.

Really? 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. 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 of 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 sort of chase that and 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 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 sort of 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 forevermore. Forevermore. 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, you know, 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 are not walking with Him today.

You need to come back to Him and you need to do it now. Now is the time. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Darkroom. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can connect you and many others with the truth of God's word with a gift to keep these messages going out around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Believers need to study God's word in order to understand what He desires of us and for us. And this broadcast ministry exists to connect you and others around the world to God's word so you can enjoy His presence and do His will. I want to invite you to join in that important work today. Through your support, you can expand this ministry into more major U.S. cities and help more people respond to the life-changing truth of the Bible.

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Join us next time as Skip continues his series, Dark Room. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.