Session 4 - Satan's Design for Humanity: Paganism

You're listening to the expository preaching ministry of Kootenai Community Church located in Kootenai,

Idaho.

We pray that Christ is exalted and your spirit is blessed by the teaching of God's Word.

For more information about Kootenai Church, please visit us online at kootenaichurch .org.

In this session we're gonna transition a little bit and now we're gonna 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 gonna 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 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 worshiped 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 ought 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 obscured.

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 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 worshipers.

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 worshiping 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 disagree 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 that'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.

We're 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 in bad seasons.

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

Performed 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 is

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.

It's still 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 back seat.

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

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?

Has 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 fourteen thousand nine hundred ninety -nine 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 10 -year -olds and 13 -year -olds and 7 -year -olds and 18 -year -olds

and 25 -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 that.

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 hear 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 your references.

Apostle 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.

We're 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 in 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 Rosaria 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 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 is 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 now.

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 a 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 to 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.

There are 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.

Thank you for listening to the latest podcast from Kootenai Church.

If you'd like to learn more about Kootenai Church or to donate to our church ministry You can do so online

by visiting Kootenai church org.

We hope you enjoyed this podcast and pray you'll join us again next time.

Once again, thank you for listening.