Satan's Design for Humanity: Paganism - Session 4

Thank you for praying for my voice a number of you have told me you are I appreciate that God's strength is magnified in our weakness.

It's not that we're not called to be strong in God, but it is that our strength is

Powered by God through our own weakness and that is very much True of me and by the way again,

I will sign any book you want me to sign I may sit at that table right there and put a chair behind it and just sign books

If you want your book signed you may not want your book signed. It will decrease the value of the book It's like driving the car off the lot at the car dealership

The minute you drive it off the lot it goes down like seven thousand dollars or something like that Unless you have a

Miata like squirrel in which case Miata's never die, but I will sign anything you want me to sign at lunchtime

In this session, we're going to transition a little bit and now we're going to think about Satan's Anti design so we have been talking about God's design.

Thank you for your attention. By the way I'm throwing a lot at you this morning, and this is not lo -fi content

My wife tells me I'm fire hosy. That's a term you can use. I'm kind of fire hosy.

So I appreciate you Bearing up under all this material We're going to talk now in this session about paganism and this reminds us that we're not just up against the sexual revolution

We're up against something much bigger than just the American sexual revolution, which is a massive cultural force

What we're up against is much more ancient than the sexual revolution as it's often called

It's it's it's a system. I call paganism And we're gonna define this as we go.

What I want to do with you is Just a few things. We're gonna look first at Romans 1 18 to 32

Because I believe it's in Romans 1 that Paul gives us a biblical Unpacking of paganism of living basically living according to your flesh.

That's what paganism is in a really succinct form If someone's a pagan they don't walk in the ways of God They walk according to the flesh now if someone's a

Christian they've been freed from the power of the flesh They're no longer a slave to sin

Right Romans 6 the sounding familiar if you are in Christ if you're born again

You're no longer a slave to sin not because of your own effort or your own will or your own Concentrated powers because of the work of God because of the work of the warrior

Savior Jesus Christ who by his blood has overcome the power of sin on your behalf and now that has

Come to fruition in you as the Spirit has regenerated you and given you a new heart

And now you've trusted Christ by faith and you you've repented of your sin

Not as a work that you and I do not as a merit -based reality But because that's what people regenerated by the

Spirit do If if you give a plant life if you plant it in the ground and water it it lives

That is not because the plant has performed good works. That is that have made it live

That is because that is the nature of a plant in the same way. It is the nature of a Christian it is the nature of somebody born again through the

Spirit to live to trust Christ and to repent of sin and That then means that you have not just a calling to Walk in a godly way you want to walk in a godly way

People who are truly born again don't have to be Harangued or harassed into godly living we all have our ups and downs as we've talked about but fundamentally born again

People want to follow Jesus because of the Spirit's work in our heart

That is the really the fundamental marker of a Christian that you want first John really the whole the whole letter

You want to follow Jesus because God has given you a love for Jesus but a pagan has no such instincts a

Pagan has no regeneration that has happened a Pagan does not have the Holy Spirit and so what a pagan wants to do is walk according to the flesh live out

The desires and passions of their sinful heart and that's not the people out there

That's all of us in our natural state. We're all Naturally a pagan.

This is what Romans 1 18 to 32 maps. Let's turn there and consider now paganism

Romans 1 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth

For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible

Attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made

So they are without excuse for although they the Gentiles knew God They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and Exchanged the glory of the immortal

God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves

Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the

Creator who is blessed forever Amen for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature

And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another men committing shameless acts with men and Receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God God gave them up to a debased mind to do what not to be done

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil Covetousness malice they are full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness

They are gossips slanderers haters of God insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die They not only do them

But give approval to those who practice them Let's pray father as we turn to this portion of your word and to the topic of paganism

I pray that you would help us to understand and apply your truth for our good in your glory in Jesus name

Amen, I Will not attempt a full -scale exegesis of these verses what

I will do simply as we begin here is Walk through and grab

Several key realities of this passage in order that we would understand the condition of sinful man with first reference to the group called

Gentiles But in reality what we will see is that even as the

Jews have fallen away from God Tragically, we all live in pagan ways

Naturally, and so this passage I believe applies to lost people writ large

Lostness as a condition is expressed in verse 18 by suppressing the truth suppressing the truth

It turns out according to the Apostle Paul that no one is an honest atheist

Lots of people say they are lots of people think they are But in reality verse 19 for every human person what can be known about God Paul says?

Is not obscure He says it is plain to them.

It is plain to them and he goes on to say The things of God the existence of God is plain to all people why?

Because God has shown it to them God has made it very clear that he exists and that he is not

The creature we are all a creature. He is the creator God has made that clear verse 20 goes on to unfold that further his invisible attributes

Namely his eternal power and divine nature have been Distorted in the world, right?

Is that what he says? No have been clearly perceived For all time ever since the creation of the world

Paul writes in the things that have been made in the created order So they are without excuse

This tells us. Yes that there are people who fall into a trap of atheism. There absolutely are don't misunderstand me

But there's nobody who is actually justified in atheism

People are not lacking proof about God People are not lacking

Evidence about God they say they are and they think they are but they aren't because God has

Clearly displayed his eternal power and his divine nature

You can see it in the creation in in simplified form here living in this natural beauty even as an unbeliever, you know at some level that you are not

God and you know that there has to be a God to Make this and sustain this that in simplified form is what

Paul is saying This is part of why in seminary training and in the theological teaching

I do I try to help people understand That our greatest burden with the unbeliever is not to convince them through proofs that God exists that's what

Aquinas and others in the Catholic tradition argued and there have been a number of Evangelicals who have embraced that idea and they spend a lot of energy and time trying to convince people of these proofs

That God exists the proofs themselves the five proofs, by the way, philosophically are not necessarily bad

I'm happy to talk about them with an unbeliever But the fact that there is cause and effect in the world, for example it is not what

Paul identifies as what is needed to convince an Unbeliever of the truth of the gospel the unbeliever knows that there's cause and effect

They they know in some deep buried sense in their heart that there can only be

Something because there has been a cause and they know according to these words trust Paul not me

That they have seen proof in the creation that God Exists.

So my duty what I'm trying to say is this and your duty as a Christian witness Isn't to get really

Philosophically smart as if you have to do that and then handle all these philosophical matters

Our duty is to point people to these truths and say These things may be obscured in your own heart and your sight

But God is real God made you God exists God is the ruler of everything in this world and actually

Fellow sinner who is made in the image of God You know this, you know that God exists and you are actively right now

Suppressing the truth. That's what verse 18 says Says the unbelievers look at the end of the verse by their unrighteousness

Suppress the truth. It's not that they don't know the truth I don't mean the gospel, but they don't know the

Creator exists. They do know the Creator exists we all do every person does it's not that we have an information problem and We need a lot of philosophy podcasts

To get us up to theistic levels. It's that we have a suppression problem

We suppress what we know to be true as a result of all of this

We have become fools verse 22 Mankind would rather live as a fool than as a follower of God and not only that Verse 23 indicates that we all are worshippers

Our hearts are made for worship. Your heart is not a little bitty

Thomas the train steam engine Your heart is a Japanese bullet train in terms of its power.

It really is That's the worship capacity you have in your heart every person in this room including these precious little babies they have

Developing of course, they have a capacity for worship that if you could somehow assess it it would knock your socks off We have a speeding bullet train of worship in our heart

We are worshipful beings and the question is not whether we will worship as numerous theologians have pointed out

The question is what we will worship Everybody's worshiping something a common target of our worship is

Ourselves That's probably the most common Expression of worship in this sinful world, but it's not the only one

We will worship just about anything won't we you see it's not that atheists worship nothing

It's that in our sinful condition, we'll all will worship Something and we can even end up worshiping everything which means you worship nothing

But atheists don't have their worship capacity like the little switch right here this is the worship switch just so you know click their worship switch is not off and Ours as conservative

Christians is on click. It's on. No, it's that everybody's worship switch click

You get the sound effects for free. Everybody's everybody's worship switch is on it's on at all times

It's just a matter of what you'll worship you worship self you worship The person you find beautiful you worship images resembling mortal man's worship birds creeping things nature rock bands

Deprivation chambers military heroes celebrities athletes novelists parents children and on it goes

Everybody is worshipping something We have very powerful worship capacities in us and To turn this around to positive news for just a second before we dive back into the darkness here

This helps us understand what happens when we are regenerated When we are regenerated the bullet train is redirected

It's redirected away from hell and the realm of darkness and it is shot into the stratosphere to worship

God and Jesus Christ You're a way bigger Worshipper than you think you are your capacity to worship

God is way bigger than you know it to be and That is what your soul is made for your soul isn't made for lesser things

C .s. Lewis is really with Edwards the best figure in the Christian tradition at expressing this

I just agree with him about a few things, but nonetheless C .s. Lewis understood in a powerful way

Just how full -throttle the human heart is in its capacity for worship we don't have 42 horsepower in this heart with apologies to those who love cars and car culture

This is like this is like a I shouldn't say the word Hellcat I was gonna say this is a Hellcat engine, but that's not a good that's not good.

I'm gonna say this That's not good. That's self -editing on the fly in public here. This is a

Dodge Ram. You know max horsepower 800 Horsepower engine in us for worship so Christian you weren't made for lesser things you weren't made to worship

Humanity you weren't made to worship an interest group. You weren't made to worship a sport You weren't made to worship the creation you were made to worship

God You were made to worship an infinite being and that's where you will find joy

Not when you worship yourself or this world, but when you worship God, that's where all the joy is

In worshiping God worship isn't just when there's there's singing up here. That's great.

That's a part of worship that's a key part of worship the Bible teaches but worship is all of life and and our growth as a

Christian is is bit by bit Day by day realizing that more and more and more wait

My whole life is worship It's not that I worship when I go to church alone that's corporate worship that matters to God it's very valuable

It's that all of life is worship. You see all of life is worship for the pagans.

Do you understand that? That's what we're in We're not just in a culture that has featured different stages of the sexual revolution were in a war of worship and The question before us is are the pagans going to out worship us or are we going to out worship them?

said differently and slightly less contentiously Are we going to show the pagans that our

God is worth giving up their worship? for the true worship of the living

God and the answer is to give you the answer key at the beginning of the test

Yes This this is the only reality worth worshiping

God in Christ and this world is not worth it at all, but they are

Worshiping to the smartest atheist with degrees from Oxford and Cambridge is a worshiper

The celebrity who's living out the perfect blend of work -life balance and is doing all the juice cleanses

Imaginable and has the perfect, you know airbrushed home and the kids sitting on the couch smiling that Celebrity on Instagram is worshiping

We're all a worshiper. We're all a worshiper It's just a matter of what we are worshiping the positive form of that to understand is that when you are

Born again now again All of life is worship and that doesn't just mean the easy parts of your life

That's how Christians tend to think quick word here and we go back to paganism We tend to think when I'm happy when my life is good as I was saying some in the last session

Then I'm fitted for worship. Then I'm I'm I'm able to worship No No, that's the wrong way to think honestly, we all think it it's the wrong way to think

Do you know? Some of the best opportunities for worship of the Living God, you know when they come

Suffering pagans worship in large part

Because they are getting to do what they want Their worship is dependent on their circumstances

Christians worship in good seasons and Definitely worship

God in good seasons give thanks for all the good in your life But Christians also worship

God Christians don't just worship when it's the happy wedding day for their child or You know their their kid is doing well and has become a missionary and moved overseas something happy like this

Christians worship God when a child is sick and Is not quickly healed

Christians worship God worship God when a child dies

That's how far Christian worship goes Christian worship unlike pagan worship

Isn't dependent or driven by your circumstances and that Along with the end of worship

God. That is the difference and That is a huge part of the witness we are supposed to provide to the world

It's not just Billy Graham renting out stadiums, you know 80 years ago and witnessing to people

There was some good in that not not all but there was some good in that But actually the normal form of witness we're supposed to provide as believers isn't anything fancy Most of us aren't going to be a globe traveling evangelist

The worship the world needs to see from us is worship that is expressed in good seasons medium seasons and bad seasons and Don't underestimate how powerful that worship will end up being

Some of you have seen this on social media just a quick word here, but there's a family I believe their last names are the

Morgan family. They live in New Jersey. The husband is in Christian ministry strong strong ministry that he has

Reformed guy and went to Southern like I did and They were just on a sabbatical pastoral sabbatical, you know

Like four months off or something first sabbatical of his pastoral career pastors don't often get a lot of that.

Do they Jim a lot of hard work in the pastor Pastors need sabbaticals by the way, but I think they should have them

Anyway, they go to Maine to my home state just happened to go there I don't know this family or have any connection to them but they go to Maine and they have just begun their sabbatical and the kids are playing and they're by the lake and Everything is good.

This is days ago. This is all true This is days ago like a week ago And the kids are playing badminton or something like this in the backyard and there's some kind of terrible freak

Accident and a piece of the racket splinters and goes into the skull of a little girl named

Lucy Lucy this pastor's daughter and so Immediately the family swings into action and they they go to Maine Medical Hospital I know

Maine Med in Portland, Maine and over the next three days They they storm heaven with their prayers and and this pastor

Last name of Morgan asks for people to pray on social media and writes several blogs

He wrote them days ago hours ago and long story short Just a couple days ago

Lucy died. So this pastor and his wife are finally getting a break

Finally getting a sabbatical they go to a beautiful place to rest and relax and not have hardship happen, right?

that's the whole point is to like Ah Pastors don't just need sabbaticals in a sunk in some sense

Christian families all need them to some degree so good for us That's what they were doing

But little Lucy in a freak accident that no one could have prevented as I understand it

Has part of a racket go into her skull and she dies and they have

Returned home from their vacation with one less child in the backseat

That's their sabbatical and they are crushed as as you would be and I would pee

But here's the point in everything this pastor has communicated he's expressed trust and faith in God and So the worst possible moment in their life has become you understand the point it has become an opportunity

For worship of the Living God it has become in a way They never would have planned for never would have asked for an opportunity to worship

God to show that God is greater than anything in this life and to show that even when

Circumstances truly are at zero of a hundred in terms of goodness

Yet God is good. Isn't that the message of the book of Job?

Job loses everything including his children his precious children. He's a good father

He offers sacrifices for them in a old covenantal form of worship if they have done something and he doesn't know about it

He's such a godly plugged -in father, but even all that godly fatherhood does nothing to save his kids

They're their physical lives. They're all killed Satan attacks Job Satan attacks

Job's family in order that Job would curse God and die and that's exactly what

Job's wife sadly says to him She says in her own absolute despair

Curse God and die and we all can understand hitting that low Paul himself says in 2nd

Corinthians 1 8 that he despaired of life itself at points in his ministry

Paul knew Going into the abyss and looking down it and almost walking off the cliff

Paul knew that It's it's not it's not nihilistic to acknowledge

That that you can get to that place even as a believer Paul did he despaired of life itself

That's dark. That's low. He was right beside Job He was right beside Daniel in the lion's den shoulder to shoulder.

Have you gone there? Are you there? As someone, you know been in that pit

Some of us may be called in days ahead to go To that pit and stand shoulder -to -shoulder

With those men and many women we could name But the Christian by the grace of God does

One thing different from the pagan the Christian worships

God the Lord Gives and the Lord takes away

Job says Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's Worship God God work in us

God work in us That we would offer That kind of testimony in that kind of darkness and some of you may have

Some of you may have done this praise God if you have We are all worshipers the pagans verse 25 have exchanged the truth about God for a lie

And they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator The stakes are very high here and then following the

God giving them up in verse 24 God has given up the pagans in the lusts of their hearts to impurity

Verse 26 has a second giving up There's three in this passage for this reason verse 26

God gave them up to dishonorable passions and what follows there is all sorts of sexual aberration

Initially in a heterosexual form and then in a homosexual Form in verse 27 and because of that verse 28

They did not acknowledge God God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done and now follows a

Pandora's horrible box of every evil imaginable that floods the world and all of this is because They did not see fit to acknowledge

God and that points us to just how high the stakes are with Acknowledging God and giving thanks to God and seeing the 14 ,000 999 instead of focusing on the one in our lives if Ingratitude is allowed to seep into our life bit by bit by bit like a tide coming in as the day goes on Imperceptibly quietly if bitterness and anxiety is allowed to creep into our heart bit by bit by bit

Quietly, what will end up happening is that we will not acknowledge God We will not give thanks to God and we will not worship

God The stakes are are high as I am at pains to say

And all of this will mean that we have a debased Mind and that is what paganism is

Militated to creating it wants to create a debased mind because behind Paganism is not

God, but is the anti God the devil behind these developments in American society that we've been talking about and will continue to talk about is

Not God in terms of one who wants these things to happen I mean God is sovereign over at all but the one who is who is wanting this wickedness to increase is the devil and So as the old biography of Martin Luther captured we are caught between God and the devil

Every human person is and it's a matter of whether we will worship and follow the devil or whether we will worship and follow

God so This is where we are We are amidst the worship of Mankind we are amidst worshipers of the flesh

It's not just that people are confused about their their gender the body of ideology that is targeting our children and our college students is demonic

Ideology it is trying to get us to live out an alternate design of God's design

We've talked about God's design for manhood and womanhood. We've talked about God's design for sex and sexuality already

Satan's design is the opposite of all that Satan doesn't teach one man one woman marriage for life

Satan teaches marriage can be anything you want it to be not just with one person

But with any amount of people whoever they may be man or woman that you would prefer

So God creates and Satan perverts God creates and Satan twists

Satan is fundamentally the twister. He is the one who doesn't necessarily

Undo creation. He is the one who comes into creation and warps it and He wants to warp the minds and the hearts of our young people today

The Bible teaches biblical manhood Satan teaches warped manhood where men are either

Too weak or too strong the Bible teaches biblical womanhood a woman as a nurturer and a helper

But Satan teaches what we call today Feminism, which is not the biblical ideal of the woman the

Bible teaches That that sex is for marriage But Satan teaches that you can enjoy sex with whomever you would like at any time

The Bible teaches that there is one man one woman that there are two sexes That's it in the creation and you can't change your

God -given sex But Satan says you can change your sex has God actually said there's just man and woman

No, there's there's this thing called transgender and there's many different Gender identities and so however, you perceive yourself to be that is who you are

The Bible teaches what we call heterosexuality as a design But Satan teaches that Homosexuality is good to the degree that verse 32 back to Romans 1.

They know God's righteous decree They know God's righteous decree Paul says

That those who practice such things deserve to die the pagan knows that what they're doing deserves death

They know it As they're celebrating Pride Month right now. Don't be confused

They know at some level that this is wrong and that it's the way of death

But they not only do them But give approval to those

Who practice them? What we are seeing with Pride Month, it's the flowering of this isn't it take pride in your flesh take pride in homosexuality take pride in transgenderism take pride in Polysexuality take pride in in having sex with whoever you want to have sex with excuse the direct language but that is the flowering of Paganism and this is the system of worship of paganism.

This is how you worship according to Satan That's Satan's book worship according to the flesh

That's what he wants us all to practice. This is nothing less than an ideology

That culminates in basically a worldview. It's a worldview It's how people are being deceived to live all of this

Alternate worldview that I just mapped with all those differences those distinctions. All of that is trying to get you to deny the goodness of God's design where the gospel

Calls you to honor the goodness of God's design The gospel calls you to want to be a man to God's glory

The gospel calls you to want to be a woman to God's glory the gospel doesn't just call adults to this the gospel calls ten -year -olds and Thirteen -year -olds and seven -year -olds and eighteen -year -olds and twenty five -year -olds to live for the glory of God The gospel makes us a worshiper of Jesus Christ That's what the gospel does and in making us a worshiper of Jesus Christ God overcomes the power of the flesh that Paul has mapped out in Romans 1 you and I still have pagan instincts to different degrees

Everyone in here. Let's get real for a sec Everyone in here has a certain wildness in the heart.

The heart is not a neat and tame reality The heart is not a hallmark heart, okay little heart on a card

I can't now men do this in public like soccer players I like soccer and start like European soccer players will do this to the camera after they score a goal and I'm like I said

To my kids the other day. I try to be balanced and nuanced and I said men should not do the little heart in public I'm sorry.

I Apologize for being a legalist, but I don't I don't think that men should do a little heart in public

You can do it to your daughter or something. Like, okay. Anyway, let's let's not let's move. Let's move off of this God's glory is in us living in these ways

But Satan has this alternate ideology and this alternate worldview that he wants us to live

What? Should we do in this kind of context? I'm gonna conclude this session earlier than I have a few of the others

So I'm gonna just rip through five ways. We respond to paganism Five ways we respond to paganism as you're as you're prepping that Here here that last thought let me just say a quick word about that last thought

It's not just that the pagans have these instincts. It's that we have these instincts

This is why you hear the reports about some pastor who has had a seemingly very sound ministry

I don't mean in far -off circles I mean like in our circles and all of a sudden his marriage blows up and he leaves his wife and children after 20 to 30 to 40 years in the

Christian ministry and you're like, how could that happen? It can happen because he has a certain

Wildness in his heart that we have in our heart the power of sin is overcome by the cross of Christ.

That's good news, but We have to live carefully, don't we

Isn't that what Paul says to Timothy watch your life and doctrine

Closely, this is a young man trained by an apostle If anyone has good pre -loaded software, it's

Timothy, right? The Apostle Paul has mentored him It's a pretty good CV reference for the church to call when you're interviewing for a pastorate

Who are your references well Jim from the next town over This weird guy

Owen and then the Apostle Paul. Okay. Okay. All right. We'll call we'll call your references. Also Paul's a good reference

It's to Timothy Paul says watch yourself careful

That's not because you know, we're we are we are pagans as Christians That is because we still are battling the flesh

Still battling we all are battling it all of us a lot of sin to battle

Until we die and we have to watch ourselves carefully we all have the seeds within us of our own destruction man and woman alike and That applies not just when we're young but all throughout life.

So what do we do? What do we do? What do we do first? first help people understand lies

Help people understand they're living not under one lie. They're living under many lies today

There are lots of lies that are being sold to us in America and the

West in 2024 and Here is a major part of Christian witness to calmly temperately

Steadily unpack those lies for people I Don't mean in a shouting match at work.

I'm or your neighborhood I mean as you get to know each other and you build a relationship as a Christian witness

You you're talking things through and they say well I just think it's it's wonderful now that we've moved into a more inclusive society and you say what do you mean by that?

How do you define inclusivity? Do we include everything do we include pedophilia in in what we affirm today?

Do we include you know murder? What are the limits of inclusivity? Are there any limits as you understand this and then as the conversation goes on in steadiness and love?

You are clear you look back at this person made in the image of God and you say these are lies

These are lies that we've been fed. These are not true. This is not God's truth that you're believing

Some of you know the story of Rosaria Butterfield who knows that name just quickly was there a Butterfield quick example of this professor of queer theory

How about paganism there at Syracuse University massive platform? Very gifted woman.

Very smart hundreds and hundreds of students in her classes and this local pastor reaches out to her through a variety of Circumstances and Rosaria ends up.

She's a curious person. She's so she's like I'll go talk to a Presbyterian pastor Even though I'm as far away from that as I can possibly be and they end up starting a friendship

They have dinner multiple times. She comes to his house Christian hospitality and involved in gospel witness there and long story short through a very

Winding process this professor of queer theory is born again the kind of person you look at and you're like They're never gonna they're never gonna cross the line of faith

I I don't I don't have the resource maybe like some apologist out there that we could fly in That guy could be a witness maybe to these people but this person but not me.

No, no, no It's not about your background. It's not about your credentials.

It's not about your qualification It's about the power of the gospel. It's about the spirit in you

So that's a wonderful example of how that pastor didn't just share the gospel

He did but he walked through lies He exposed the lies of godless ideologies.

That's what Paul talks about in 2nd Corinthians 10 3 to 6 We destroy strongholds.

He says we destroy strongholds Destroying strongholds is walking people through the lies.

Satan has Entrapped around them like those horrible horrible horrible spiders

Massive spiders in the Lord of the Rings movies that just you can barely stay in the room You're like Peter Jackson made these spiders so freaky

We want to introduce our kids to the Lord of the Rings films, but I have one daughter who is so freaked out

I don't know that she's gonna come back from seeing these spiders So we're still we've delayed. Okay, but anyway

We have to do that unpacking work because people are not living free and clear and live in their life in actuality people are trapped in a spider web a spider web of Satan's making and they're in thick and They can't get out.

And so we come to them with the sword of truth Ephesians 6 and we Slash that spider web in love to get them out as God works second

We have to help people understand lies second we have to show the distinctness of Christianity It's a show the beautiful distinctness of Christianity we've talked about this at length.

I won't go into it here. But that's where the the The doxological effect of our life takes place

That's where you're worshiping God not just when you go to a worship service But you're worshiping

God by living a Christian life in your community in your neighborhood around your peers around your co -workers at school

That's what that's what is needed We don't need a Christian Prince.

We don't need a huge celebrity to come and and make America, right? We don't need ten more

Billy Graham's I mean God may give who he may give if he gives us an amazing evangelist in this generation praise

God But that's not what the New Testament tells us to expect. Do you know what our world needs?

Do you know what America needs? It needs a whole lot of Christians who are normal steady people who just live a

Christian life That's what's needed But I don't just mean the ideal do what's right

Christian. I mean people who make clear to fellow Sinners, I'm just a forgiven person.

I've taken to saying that in our in our family Times when when we read scripture and we have some song nights in my home and and I've I'm trying to help my kids understand

Christians are not perfect people Christians are forgiven people that's a

Christian a Forgiven person and so we need to help people around us who are not forgiven

Understand the line between them and us is not we're really consecutively performing righteous people it's forgiveness

We've got to show the beautiful distinction of Christianity in love third We need healthy churches

That preach these truths in love. We need healthy churches that preach these truths in love Churches that aren't fundamentally angry at the world and scared of the world

There's a lot that is fearful in this world We need something better than fearful

Christians We need Christians anchored in the truth of God who are secure in God so they can go out and they can be salt and light

Fourth we need Christians who see themselves as salt and light Individually, I just talked about that but just to line it out here.

We need Christians who see themselves as salt and light When you see a skittle -haired person when you see somebody who is clearly

Transgressing the bounds of their God -given sex, you know, you've got kids your kids will nudge you dad

Is that a man dressing like a woman? The way you respond is so important because it is right to see that as not good at all to see that as pagan rebellion fleshly

Rebellion that Satan system that person is living in make no mistake about it call a spade a spade

But what you're trying to train your kids to understand is not that Oh get out of the restaurant now

That what you're trying to help kids understand is hopefully we can talk to this person Hopefully we can befriend this person

Hopefully we can invite this person to church. Hopefully they'll show up and hear the word preached. That's success

That's faithfulness That's salt and light There won't be a shred as point one tried to articulate of buying into that person's system

We won't affirm their sin one bit just like we don't want our sin affirmed, right?

but what we do want to do is be like Jesus who was called the friend of Sinners and I'm gonna cut it straight with you right now in our

Reformed community. We don't have enough of this, right? We have a lot of the instinct to withdraw from the world to not go to Disney to boycott this outlet

To cut the cord with Netflix and some of those things. Maybe we should do that's Christian freedom. That's Liberty You may have very good reasons for taking some of those actions.

Certainly. There's a lot We don't watch and there's a lot of places. We don't go as believers, right? Absolutely, that's true.

But we have too much withdraw instinct and not enough engage instinct

Don't Don't buy the lies of the culture, but you and I are called to press into the darkness

Not to retreat from it and wait up on a hill somewhere until Jesus returns

We got a press in is it easy to do that? It's easy to say this. Is it easy to do?

No No It's hard to stay in the restaurant in the line right behind The person living a lie a man dressing as a woman.

You feel very uncomfortable You're you're uncomfortable for your child And of course, there are all sorts of ways we are careful and we do shield our children in particular from these evil ideologies

But in terms of people at some level we don't want to leave at some level

We pray to stay and engage this person just like we were engaged and God saved us

They're no worse Than us. They may be expressing their depravity more publicly.

They're a sinner just like us We've got too much withdraw right now in the Reformed community. We've got too much withdraw in the conservative evangelical world

We need more we need to be not we're not a military garrison over here.

Just hold away You know again in our fortresses Okay, you have to have garrisons don't you but we have to think of ourselves more as forward operating basis

That's what we are. We come back in the walls. We need the walls. We protect our kids in our homes

We absolutely do we shepherd our kids. It's not a free -for -all in our homes where anything goes, right?

Absolutely, not. Absolutely not. We live according to God's design by the power of God's grace in our homes

We have we have shelter baby. We got shelter these kids live under our protection

We fathers and mothers we love these kids. We are plugged in. We are engaged. We communicate with them.

We love them But then that's not it Then we go out on missions on missions to save sinners as God works

We're forward operating Basis, we're not static garrisons fifth and finally

We've got to preach the gospel and we've got to do so confidently

Satan makes you feel so weak when you preach the gospel. All you're doing is preaching the gospel.

That's all you're doing That's the power of God unto salvation Romans 1 16 and 17.

That's the power of God The power of God is not called in the New Testament Civil law the power of God is not called

Philosophical persuasion the power of God is not called a great personality The power of God is not celebrity that you then can use with your platform to reach everybody

The power of God is the gospel. That's where the horsepower is So that's what we need to be.

We need to be people who are confident not in ourselves But in the gospel and do not fear the world and that is witness we need people who out worship the world

Not in our own strength, but by the grace of God, I'll pray and pray for lunch

Do I pray for lunch you want that? Okay, I get to pray for lunch

Just so you know father Thank you that you have entrusted divine power to us

Thank you that you have saved us and made us a worshiper Help us to worship you far far far far far more than we often do

Father I look at my own life And as my recent conversation with my wife pointed out in my existence

With with the weight on us. I've gotten into a pattern of complaining and grumbling sometimes in small ways but father

I confess to you and these brothers and sisters that too often I Focus on what has been prohibited and kept from me and I lose sight of everything

You have given me and my life thus does not look like at least as it should a life of worship

It looks like a kind of defeated gloomy Christian life father I pray for myself and I pray for everyone in here that we will by the power of your grace out

Worship the world help us to show the world that Christ is a great Savior though We are great sinners.

Thank you for lunch. Thank you for good food Thank you for a thousand kindnesses you've given to us in the name of Jesus.