20220312 | Illusions | Pastor John Lomacang (tvsdac)

for us to get to the ideal that he has for us thank you for bringing that to our hearts this morning let's go to the lord in prayer our gracious father and god this morning as we open your word we pray for your holy spirit to open our hearts this is a message that you've laid upon my heart and the time and day where everything around us has been designed to keep us from the main thing and so this morning we pray that you'll take these words and anoint them with your power and presence and find the heart that is fertile and find a life that desires the real thing this i ask in your precious and holy name i pray amen about 25 or so years ago maybe even more than that my wife and i were in honolulu hawaii we went don't know what the reason was i think we were stopping back maybe from australia and we decided to stay there for a few days and get to know honolulu in a way we had not known it before we were in a hotel and after church on sabbath we had fellowship lunch and they said well the beach is not too far from here it's not a beach where people tend to go and swim but it'll give you a beautiful view of the ocean and we had not been to that side of the island before so we said well where is it so we decided to go to that side of the island but a day before that we were in our hotel room and thumbing through the channels and we came across a very well-known man by the name of david copperfield some of you may remember that name he's a master illusionist and i was sitting on the bed and my wife got drawn in by that i said honey don't mess with that it's not what you think it is so she said i'm gonna play along so david copperfield decided to go ahead and said okay we're gonna put some numbers on the screen and tell me what number you picked and you know the he went through the whole thing and i said honey you don't want to mess with that she said this is fascinating i'm sitting on the bed and i'm thinking i'm not messing with that because i know there's something more to an illusion an illusion itself is an illusion of something deeper and darker so she played along and i thought she said well how how can he possibly pick the number i chose when there are probably thousand maybe hundreds of thousands of people watching this program that are picking different numbers there's no way that he could come up with the number i picked well i'm sitting back on the bed getting further and further away from my wife just in case she decides to combust and as the devil would have it he she picked the number that he picked and he said is this your number and she said ah how did he know i said honey you just played around with a power that you're not aware of well the very next day when we went to that beach i hadn't made the connection that very next day when we went to the beach we just walked from our car maybe to that wall looked at the beach looked around the rocks and then walked back to our car and in that short span of time our car was broken into both of our wallets was stolen all our credit cards all of our money thank god it was before there was a need to show identification to get on the plane and i went back to the hotel and did a boohoo video there was no facebook back then there was no internet postings there was nothing that i just did it on my phone how we both just got robbed and the very next day sunday we were leaving thank god there was no need for identification all of our credit cards were stolen we had them tracked by the credit card companies and before you know it they had run up all our credit cards to but praise god he took care of it amen somebody but the point i want to make is when you enter into a situation and confront somebody whose number one aim is to distract to elude and to deceive and to take you beyond the point of reality to gain access to your mind the bible says give no place to the devil and i learned something that day and ever since then i've always looked at magicians and illusionists not as just people that are good at a craft but they're laying the foundation for the master illusionist of all when satan comes to personate the appearing of christ so many of us may ask what is what is an illusion an illusion is an attempt to be persuaded to believe something that is not real it is also a desire for something to be true when in fact it is not it can also be a way to define delusion as is to see with the mind and not with the eyes you know people tend to see what they want to see but i'm going to begin by sharing with you the scripture of the day and then i'm going to share with you how significant it is that what you see on the screen is in fact the direction of reality that i want to spend the majority of my time today this passage is not an illusion john 17 verse 3 and this is eternal life that they may know you the only say it together true god and jesus christ whom you sent it is the aim of the kingdom of darkness to keep us from knowing the only true god in a world where fabrication is the way that most things are marketed they appeal to your senses to your emotions to your desire to have a pleasurable experience either in something that's digital or something that's physical or something that's emotional or something that's sexual our world is designed to say to you that if you participate you will have an emotional feeling or a satisfaction that will be far beyond your perceived understanding so today the reality of an illusion is people see what they want to see case in point what do you see do you see a young lady with a wonderful hairstyle whose face is turned away or do you see an old woman whose nose is long and whose mouth is open what do you see an illusion gets you to see one thing or the other while both are there sometimes you see the obvious because your mind is tuned that way sometimes you see the obscure because your mind is tuned that way what do you see it depends on what you're seeing with your eyes or with your mind case in point again you see two people standing by the river but what else do you see do you see a nice big fat baby who has been carved into the woodwork of the illusion his feet are in the top of the tree branch his head is to the far left it's an illusion intended for you not to really see what's actually right in front of you that is the power of illusion you see what you want to see and sometimes an illusion can be so great you become obsessed with the obvious when in fact god is trying to take you beyond the thing that is right before you to something far deeper or sometimes satan is trying to put something before you when in fact behind it is something much darker that's the power of an illusion i say to you today eve's deception in the garden was accomplished by a manufactured illusion when you go back to the account of the book of genesis chapter 3 you find that satan convinced eve that god was withholding from her her true potential he suggested that you can be far greater off if you simply follow my suggestion but in fact it was just an illusion we find in genesis chapter 3 and verse 5 these words the first elusive statement made between the serpent and a woman who was about to be deceived by an illusion he said to eve for god knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be what opened and you will be like god knowing good and evil this illusion was saying to eve you can become something other than you are when in fact if you really consider how god created man he created man in his image after his own likeness but god did not create man to replace him god created man to reflect the glory of a perfect character but this illusion came forth and you know the rest of the story you see the frustration about the story is when i read it i think to myself how could eve who had everything whom god gave access to everything how could she have been deceived by a suggestion that she can have more when she already has everything it was an illusion the reality was in genesis chapter 1 and verse 29 and i say eve's deception was accomplished through a manufactured illusion the lord put that on my heart her deception was accomplished through a manufactured illusion satan studied her to see what was necessary to gain access to her mind we read in genesis 1 and verse 29 the facts about what god had done and god said speaking to adam i have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of how much of the earth all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you it shall be for food i've read that passage thousands of times but as i was putting my message together yesterday donna i thought to myself how many trees were there on the face of all the earth let's let's play with that for a moment if adam was in thompsonville god is saying i've given you access to trees in australia when you get to australia there'll be trees there for you did that hurt let me make it even darker indeed let me make it even broader not darker let me make it even deeper you're the only guy on the planet nobody's going to mess with your tree before you do y'all get that on tuesday god was saying adam and eve wherever you put your foot on this planet except for one small spot it's all yours i mean we look back at that story and we ask ourselves the question what was wrong with eve and what was wrong with adam adam was deceived she was beguiled the bible says eve was deceived beguiled but adam went into it with his eyes wide open god had given her everything for her happiness and an illusion says to you that's really not true happiness happiness is going down this road going down this path and as christians god has made available to us everything that can bring true lasting happiness so what happens to take christians down a path where where they think happiness is but it results in sadness and disappointment and discouragement and frustration i suggest you today we are very much like eve in many ways look at this quotation from the book councils on diets and foods page 145. eve had everything eve had what everything to make her happy she was surrounded by fruit of every variety mangoes on one side peaches on the other strawberries blueberries i the list goes on and on there are fruits in the philippines that are not here and there are fruits that are here they're not in the philippines they're fruits in new guinea that are not in the philippines and not in australia there's fruits in australia that are not any place but australia but she had access to every fruit of every variety but listen to this yet the fruit of of the forbidden tree appeared more desirable that's what an illusion does it makes you think that there's something you have not yet been able to accomplish or experience and that is the way to do it go down the path of something that god forbids but to you an illusion makes it appear to be desirable the tree appeared more desirable to her than the fruit of all the other trees in the garden of which she could freely eat don't know if you have any children but you ever see if you ever see your children don't touch that and what do they do exactly what you told them not to do we're just like our parents some of us adults do the same thing when i say to people don't look what do you think they do they look you almost have to use reverse psychology on people to get them to do in fact what they should do this story is an indication that when your desire goes outside of god's permissible will you are about to step into the place of an illusion that will not remind you of how dark it really was until like samson you're grinding at a mill and your eyes no longer function it's all an illusion we even have that in the preamble of the declaration of independence notice this this is what we have promised we have promised this in the preamble we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among that among these are together life liberty and the pursuit of happiness now when you go through that and you read the constitution i'm one of those weird guys that have a copy of the constitution i have a copy of the bill of rights i have these little books that sometimes i carry with me i like to know my rights but nowhere in the constitution itself are their provisions to protect your pursuit of happiness the constitution promises to protect your pursuit of life and liberty but the constitution does not promise to protect your pursuit of happiness it's an illusion because if they promised to protect your pursuit of happiness they would have to then say how do you define happiness i'm gonna protect your pursuit of illegal drugs or immorality or or pornography or or drugs or alcohol i will stand behind your right to go down any path of destruction and we will give you constitutional protection as you pursue happiness but there is no pursuit there is no protection in the constitution there's no provision made to protect and provide you coverage while you're pursuing happiness each person has to go down that path on his or her own accord and become completely responsible for the impact on your own life when we lived in northern california in placerville we would drive to lake tahoe every now and then and along the way you'd see people that are hitchhiking and i thought to myself why would people be hitchhiking at four thousand feet five thousand feet seven thousand feet it seemed really odd and somebody said oh those are the people that drove to lake tahoe and lost all their money in the casinos now they're hitchhiking back to places to placerville to sacramento those are the people that got pulled in by the illusion that you can beat the house it's all an illusion it's designed to tap your desire but leave you unfulfilled it's all an illusion there was a study done that i'm going to share with you right now it was theguardian.com this was published on january 21st 2021 by psychology magazine the article was entitled why it's time to stop pursuing happiness the person conducting this study was a lady by the name of iris moss at the university of california berkeley and here's what the study revealed she says the participants were first asked to rate how much they agreed with a series of statements such as i value things in life only to the extent that they influence my personal happiness and secondly and i'm concerned about my happiness even when i feel happy i'm concerned about my happiness even when i feel happy they have deeper issues it goes further the people who scored highly should have been seizing each day for its last drop of joy what does that say instead of waiting to arrive at the station of happiness we should be happy to wake up alive in the morning if you can wake up alive the counter to that is wake up dead and that doesn't happen you just don't wake up to get up every morning to be able to put your feet on the ground that ought to make you happy to be able to breathe even to be able to sneeze that ought to make you happy i read a story about one man who who talked about the joy of pain and somebody said how could you possibly say that there is joy and pain he says i used to work as a doctor in a leper colony believe me it's a joy to feel pain she goes on to say the people escort highly should have been seizing each day for its last drop of joy yet moss found and this is interesting that they tended to be less satisfied with their everyday lives and were more likely to have depressive symptoms even in times of relatively low stress they were depressed there was so much information that i i found on this topic that i had to figure out what to include and what not to include so let me elude up something that i did not include in my sermon what you find today in society among those and they put two age groups 10 to 12 so 10 to 14 and 14 to 19. they said in the group from 10 to 12 higher cases and they invade and the study shows that from the time that myspace a social media platform as old i don't know if anybody's still on myspace from the time that was introduced 10 to 12 year old 10 to 14 year olds started experiencing higher incidences of depression and rejection and feeling left out and feeling ostracized but the other part is even more frightening from the 14 to the 19 year olds they said suicides went up 76 percent because of their exposure to social media because they could not handle not being liked they went down a path of an illusion thinking that friends are really friends when in fact it's nothing but fit and illusion but something also is happening in the religious community religious leaders are also selling the same thing rather than rather than presenting jesus and the free gift of eternal life if you listen to many other preachers today they're selling happiness your ship is going to come in your butterfly wings are going to spread you're going to rise to the top of the corporate ladder god never promised to rise to the top of the corporate ladder he promised that through his grace we can rise above the power of sin one of those early positive thinkers was a man by the name of dr norma vince norman vincent peale he wrote a book called the power of positive thinking there was also a man by the name of reverend ike he's an african-american man who followed dr norman vincent peale and he became the power of positive thinking guru for the african-american community also dr robert shuler we sing at his church the crystal cathedral this is the day that the lord has made i have nothing against these individuals personally but they were not presenting the gospel as it is in christ and they were saying to us that if you follow the elusive path of happiness if you follow the path of positive thinking it can produce a permanent and optimistic attitude well you can have a permanent and optimistic attitude but not even know who the person of christ is they said through affirmations and visualizations think of what it will cause think of what it will take to make you happy and pursue that rather than pursuing holiness and godliness and peace in the survey a lot of medical there was a group of seven medical professionals that studied one of the particular books the power of positive thinking bought by dr norman vincent peale and they said this book was nothing but a compilation of his own ideologies and suggestions nothing based on any kind of medical science and data that that proves that this positive thinking attitude can ward off diseases he even said that some of the reasons why people get sick is because they don't think of god as able to prevent them from getting sick but we've heard some of the same foolishness during covet whatever camp you're in there's a responsibility to do what you must and leave the results to god dr norman vincent peale said don't do what you must just throw it all on god and he'll do all the rest jesus paid it all but jesus didn't do it all there are some things that we must do and in dr norman vincent peale's book he said through affirmation of israel visualization you can have a higher level of satisfaction and a higher quality of life now let me add something here it is good to meet people that are positive can you say amen to that i don't like to meet people when you say happy sabbath and you know how is your day be careful when you ask certain people that because some people some people will tell you all the bad things that happened to them how their cat ate their lunch and you know they lost their car keys and they were walking down the road and their phone fell into a drain and i i had one day like that in new york city i got up one morning i was working at bank of america and it started raining out of my suit like i dressed now on my way to bank of america i went outside it was pouring down rain tracy i had this gigantic golf umbrella and i as i stepped outside it was cold it was raining and i said now what else could go wrong i shouldn't have said that as i was crossing the street i got attacked by a german shepherd dog and had it not been for that big golf umbrella that i held every direction long enough for the owner to gain access to his leash and save my life and on my way to the subway i said that was horrible what else can go wrong i got arrested that day before i got to work i got arrested and falsely accused by a police officer i said and i had the nerve see i wasn't converted yet and i had the nerve to say to him if i lose my job i'm coming after you well he took me to jail anyway and i was in a cell for about maybe two hours and i stood before the judge and the judge says and why are you here you know that's how they talk in new york instead of saying how do you plead guilty or not guilty he said and why are you here and i i explained to the your honor what you got to be very respectful your honor here's the situation and he said get out of my court go to go go to work and i went to work and i i didn't tell my supervisor what happened because i was working at a bank come on help me out you get arrested and working at a bank i since then confessed for lying to my supervisor but i want to tell you be careful when you expose yourself to circumstances and with this negative attitude you continue because some people by their attitude by the way they sense life and by the way they feel they could actually become their own worst enemy by anticipating things that really will not happen but everything that happens to them goes from a mohill to a mountain so there's some benefit of a happy attitude but when you read the word of god the truest happiness that we can find the truest joy that we can ever experience comes not necessarily in a positive attitude but in the promises that jesus made to us notice john 15 verse 11 this is a promise this is a promise and by the way i want you to notice the word he uses he doesn't use happiness he uses the word joy he said these things i have spoken to you that my joy may what remain in you illusions don't remain they come and go and that your joy may be what full illusions don't ever fill up your space they keep you running for the next elusive thing illusion is also the byproduct of elusive you never catch it it's like hosea chapter 2 where the lord says you'll pursue your lovers but you'll never overtake them this is constant pursuit that's why when you drive down the highway and it's so sad i'm so glad that god somebody gave god the inspire somebody that god gave someone the the fortitude to put up a sign as you're driving towards st louis my wife and i you know we do we said look at all those cars look at all those cars all those men driving over to this smut club and i'm so glad that god some god inspired somebody to put a big sign there repent you ever see that big black repent they ought to see that when they get off that elusive exit they meant somebody trying to find happiness in a place that's nothing but darkness and unfulfilling but don't don't make a mistake happiness and joy are not the same that's why the bible says count it all joy when you fall into various trials it's not happy to be in trials but why does it say count it all joy is because when you are in trials and god is there with you he can he can lead you into furnaces and bring you out unscathed he can allow you to face furnaces that are seven times hotter than the average furnace and you can come out with not even the smell of smoke on your garments he can give you an all-expense paid night in the dungeon with a bunch of lions and you can come out in the morning and say we had some great conversation that's god can you say amen happiness and joy not the same happiness is an illusion that does not remain in us but joy not only remains in us but it keeps us full that's why you are to pursue joy in your marriage do i need to wait five more minutes amen somebody because if you don't have joy in your marriage you're gonna start looking for happiness and it's elusive it doesn't happen you'll be at a grinding mill somewhere with the eyes plucked out i was watching a a documentary called the social dilemma and this was powerful this was a powerful statement i want you to see this edward tuft who was one of the contributors to this documentary called the social dilemma he said there are only two industries that call their customers users illegal drugs and software are you ready for the rest of it if you are not using the software the software is using you unlike microsoft word and microsoft powerpoint and adobe photoshop and adobe illustrator these are softwares that professionals use but facebook is using you instagram is using you no amn's necessary snapchat and tick tock are designed to use you you should listen to the testimony of these gentlemen that are behind the development of this industry one of the contributors and i didn't put this in there but i could tell you based on what i watched in this social dilemma documentary the guy that was on the developing team for instagram he wrote the code to create instagram and said and we when he got home he became a victim of the very code he wrote so he had to write code to deliver himself from the code he wrote to capture everybody else he said i found myself walking around my house with my phone in my hand my phone was with me in the closet in the bathroom at the kitchen table and my children were trying to get my attention and i was captured by the very software i designed to capture other people reminds me of the guy that was a chief maker of chains for criminals people went to him he was a blacksmith i was good at making chains because people said i like your chains because everybody else's chains criminals find a way to get out of the handcuffs but i like your chains because they are without without fault they are perfect they are good they work very well one day this man became so wealthy and so well known and so famous that he decided to go down the wrong path and got arrested for a crime he began to commit and he went to jail and he got chained in jail and the thought came to him well i can get out of this chain because most guys make chains that are not that good only to realize he was chained by a chain that he made you see sometimes we are chained to the chain that we make and we don't even know it we get there because we fail to realize that we are being used rather than guiding our own experiences there's a lot to the world of illusions we're just touching the surface but our world is a world of illusions designed to inspire the pursuit of shadows while ignoring the substance people are looking for things that are not there that's why they drink themselves into an inoculation into a place where they're inebriated they cannot sense they they think that by getting inebriated the problem goes away only to realize that when they are sober the problem is still there and the use of illegal drugs and whatever the form of the of the of the inducement may be they only come to realize that when it is over when they're back to their right mind the thing that they were pursuing hasn't gone anywhere there's a book called digital invasion and my wife did a little experiment yesterday and i'm only telling to you because she did the experiment because we talk a lot when i'm working on my sermon and we go through a lot of different things and we thought about the development of this addictive world and how there's such darkness in the world today she said she asked me she says i wonder if playboy still produces a magazine you know my answer was i don't know amen somebody come and help me out i have no idea amen god it's ridiculous amen ryan it's red why do i need playboy have you seen my wife i got a playboy bunny a divine go godly woman i won't even call a bunny she's a gift from god so she said i'm gonna look it up so she looked it up and found out that playboy went out of business in 2020 because they realized they can't sell these magazines anymore because it has gone underground on your phone your devices there was a time that we had to pursue the illusions but the devil has worked it out so now the illusion is pursuing you so while you rejoice that you live in the country the devil says i know how to go to the country one of the developers of facebook a young indian gentleman he says i do not allow my children to have phones at all even steve jobs and bill gates their children don't have phones because they know why they have designed those devices that's why they're called devices vices d vices let me say another way the vices if you don't use your phone for the right reasons your phone is going to use you for the wrong reasons your devices will use you for the wrong reasons we talk about the new world order let me let me introduce you to the new world order here is the new world order the digital new world order that's our world that's the world that your child has access to when they pick up that phone do you think that there's something out there that might not be good for them do you see the guys standing in front of that wall when they pick up that phone when you give them that phone you think that you've given them the best gift in the world as simon sinek says it's like saying to a child under 18. there's the bot there's the cabinet of alcohol drink as much as you want because there's no no filter when you put a phone in the hand of a mind that is not guided by godly principles and even when they are guided by godly principles the world is pursuing them that's why sometimes you may see in your email something that you're not even thinking about and it prompts you to click on it and before you know it your phone is locked down you got to pay for somebody to get your phone back because illusions come after you here's the new world order i call this other one you have the whole world in your hands in your hands somebody once said there's more there's more computing power in a wrist watch than there was in the first space shuttle that made it to the moon can you imagine the computing power and they're not satisfied 5g is here but their company is already working on 10g because they want to get information to use so rapidly the human body is not designed to handle that kind of information at that rate of speed you can't assimilate it it's coming at you too fast so what does it do it disorients you if you try to handle it you find out very quickly it's going to handle you and you cannot handle the whole world that is in your hand from day to day this one i call the digital invasion you could pick whatever you want there was a time they call it the sling you can go on the train you'd be on the bus you'd be on the plane and most people today when you stand at a subway or in some kind of public place at a dinner or restaurant most people's heads are down at their devices rather than looking across at the person in front of them that's why these guys that are in that world they say when they go to lunch five guys go to lunch they said only one person takes a phone just in case the office needs to contact them they said we need sanity because we know what we created so they don't even they don't even put their phone on the table when they go to lunch they say one guy has a phone just in case the office needs to get in touch with us but we don't take our phones with us whatever happened to normalcy there was a time that you could get in your car and you can be at peace until you get to your destination but even in your car nowadays all these sounds grabbing for your attention i saw in the same documentary the social dilemma there's a little boy who just could not put his phone down and his mother bought a box a glass box with a timer on it and she said to the daughter give me your phone enter the husband give me your phone enter the sun give me your phone and we're gonna put that in this box and we're gonna dial it and it's locked for one hour you cannot have it for one hour because we're gonna eat dinner together and the first question is what are we going to do why don't we try to eat maybe why don't we try to get familiar with each other i'm your mom you're my daughter you're my mom and he's your dad remember us well in the in the social dilemma they talked about this real scenario they tried out and 15 minutes into the dinner the they heard they heard that sound and the daughter said mom could i could i just go look and see who was could i go just look and see where the text came from then they heard this crashing sound the daughter took that jar and threw it to the ground and broke it just to get her phone out 15 minutes into the dinner you're talking about an addict you think drug addiction is bad our young folk are more addicted to their phones than any drug that has ever been manufactured the digital invasion and here's the other one the pursuit of elusive acceptance that's why instagram said they have discovered that they had been blamed by the congress had called these developers of these instruments to congress and said you are purposefully you are purposefully designing this software to gain access to our children so what they did is they took away the like button for instagram so people can't see how many views they get because people were addicted to the views they do stuff like walk on the edge of a building jump from one building to the next stand up on a tower 105 stories above the ground just to get a like and in in some of these instances young people lose their lives because they are pers they're in a pursuit of the elusive acceptance of an illusion susanna kobling from bbn times november 11th 2020 wrote this article very very telling about social media she says social media is an undisciplined pursuit of more it's about the number of impressions and constantly filtering out the relevant from the non-relevant it's the antidote to less of less but better social media is fundamentally portraying our highlights creating a shortcut to success let me go on it denounces the genuine interactions we used to have like actually talking face to face most influencers choose to post about a trending topic and speak less on the real problems in our world today once you put something on the internet here we go there's no turning back selective posting eradicates freedom influencers have a fear of being judged and scrutinized there is an uncomfortable feeling of voicing our opinion about real conflicts and tragedies posting the positive side of their lives is nothing more than together an illusion you try to go on the internet and talk about a real issue you'll be attacked like you're a dead piece of meat and you're in the in the jungle and they're nothing but vicious lions all around you we can't even be real in our world today for fear of being attacked scrutinized judged because we simply want to express something that is real and genuine and that has been developed by this elusive pursuit of something that never satisfies you see illusions are designed to produce surface satisfaction and one thing that you must keep in mind is illusions never bring satisfaction that's why the apostle paul told his protege timothy let's read this together very short first timothy 6 6 together now godliness with what contentment is what great gain notice what it didn't say it didn't say contentment with great gain is godliness or didn't say great gain with contentment is godliness what comes first friends being content to be godly is great gain you know why because when the day comes that your eyes close until one of the first one of the two resurrections you can't take any of that stuff with you that's why your pastor has focused on specifically talking about character development that's the only thing we're taking to the kingdom when jesus comes but we are so distracted i'm i'm just blown away i don't know what else to do to try to get folk to even participate in a wednesday night bible study i don't even know maybe we should offer free cell phones i'm just amazed that we can be so busy as one writer said if you're too busy for god something in your life has to be given away to make room for god i'm gonna use my my dear friend evelyn haney as our teacher as an example remember when evelyn was teaching before she left and then she's come back but i remember one day she approached me she said pastor something's got to give either i have to stop teaching or i need some more time so i could start my day with god and my schedule is so cramped that i don't have time for devotions you got more time my brethren it is amazing it's a praise god when people know and realize they need more time with them and god but how many people are willing to say if this job doesn't allow me more if this job does not allow me the time i need with god i need to give the job up because my time with god is more important how many people will do that with their phones i need to put this phone down because it's robbing my time with god and when you decide to study your bible please don't use your phone as your bible because right next to your bible is facebook and next to that is instagram and your friends don't care about your bible study so they're going to send you a notification in the midst of you reading john 3 16. and just guess what's going to happen you get to the middle of john 3 16 and spend the rest of the time on your notification responding they even said they're so clever in the community they said these doctors of physics and psychology get together to try to find out how they can addict their customers even deeper so instead of sending you the picture that they tagged you in which would seem sensible they just sent you a notification that they tagged you in a picture because they said it's about behavior modification they want to teach you how to behave so they say instead of saying here's the picture that i have tagged you in they said don't send them the picture because we want them to hit that button so while they're on the way to the picture to find out what you tagged them in what what they tagged you in you go past all these commercials on the way and our advertisers got what they need and they said it's done intentionally spiritual illusion never reveals the true reason for our existence thus to turn in my sermon here illusions never reveal truth but spiritual illusions never reveal the real reason why we are here i like what j.i packer said in his book called knowing god he said once you become aware that the main reason that you are here is for the main reason you are here is to know god once you realize that the main reason you're here is to mo to know god most of most of life's problems fall into place on their own accord now what do you mean by that i don't mind facing a problem as long as i have god with me in it because i said earlier god sometimes use that problem or that conflict to sand down the rough areas of your life but he says once you become aware that the main reason that you are here is to know god most of life's problem fall into place on their own accord in other words knowing god when you get to the point of knowing god knowing god forces you on a journey beyond the illusion of christianity and whether you did not know it this was not just about social media because christianity also was packed with illusions feeling holy but not pursuing holiness singing to the glory of god but living to the glory of the devil saying i love you lord but i'm not keeping your commandments the illusion of christianity that's why the bible describes the last day church as rich and increased increase with goods and have need of nothing we will not make it to the kingdom based on our natural talents we will only make it based on the righteous character of christ so you may feel good you may even come to tears because the song moves you that's a good thing i was a singer i understand how that works sometimes a song could bring you to christ where a sermon cannot but don't allow the song to become the end in and of itself if it doesn't lead you to a life of obedience it's nothing more than an illusion a feeling the constant pursuit of illusions will destroy your pursuit of god here's how i know that look at luke 16 and verse 13. this is the fact no servant can serve how many masters two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other and it ends by talking about god and mammon the reason i didn't need that part is because we have to decide who is going to be the master of our lives it's amazing how we have allowed this thing that's simply for the purpose of communicating to become our master have you noticed in the bulletin we say turn off your cell phones i'm gonna have a sermon one day and i'm gonna say before you come in you have to submit your cell phone to us you gotta leave your cell phones in the foyer i wonder how many people will go home are you serious yeah when we went to washington dc we were on a personal tour of washington d.c we had a privilege to go into the most secure room in the world the the the situation room they said now but there's one clause you can't take any cell phone in that room okay here it is which master has preeminence in your life because daily you got two masters let me tell you how deceptive this one is it's coming at you and this one's waiting for you to come after it god's not going to run after you and force you to be in his life he's going to say i want to know if you want me to be in your life this one will bring you information in splits and nano seconds but this one is like a gold mine that takes time and when you dig for it you little you should read the bible till it makes you sweat until the scripture starts saying yes my wife and i read the bible and say woo that was that was deep we go back and we highlight and we highlight right honey we say wait a minute read that again unbelievable unbel amazing you want something that will last and that'll hold you that has real calories it's god's word come back over here you go over there god's word no empty calories in god's word what do you say church but it is a satanic delusion that to believe that anyone can serve god while they are a willing prisoner in a digital cell does it not dawn on you why they call it cell phones you thought they were talking about the tower that's an illusion it's your place of incarceration what's your cell number everybody's got a cell number it is for functioning in normal aspects of life it was never intended by the makers to become your cell but i'm gonna get a little deeper now just got a short left i'm almost done i understand you guys are starving to death so i'm mindful of that when god's children were in bondage in egypt what was god's message to pharaoh look at it in exodus 8 and verse 1. it's very short god told moses to say to pharaoh what did he say let my people go that they may do what serve me it's amazing how god brings things to my mind terry in different ways see the problem today is many claiming to be god's children are slaves in digital egypt and they don't want to let go that they may serve god so while i'm see then they wanted to be freed from egypt but today egypt has made itself so desirable you can look at as many pictures on instagram you can get rheumatoid arthritis texting you could go absolutely nuts until all the dopamine in your body has been drained and you hit the floor and you are depressed and you're only 16 and you're getting psychological counseling because you have not yet been able to accomplish what you thought that that text would bring you and all those friends can't visit you in the hospital reason why spiritual illusions are bad spiritual illusion is satisfaction with a divided heart you may have heard about lu giglio he wrote a book called don't give the enemy a seat at your table this is a powerful quotation here's what he said he said god wants to be known by you you and you can know as much about him as you have the appetite and desire to know but you have to have the appetite nobody could feed you stuff that you don't have the appetite for am i right wendy i can't force you to eat what you don't want that that when i read that i said thank you lou i understand why people don't like bible studies because they don't have an appetite for it they too busy that's why one day amos talks about one day there will be a famine in the land not for bread and water but for the hearing of the word of god and then everybody's going to want to go to bible studies they'll search from north to south east to west and they won't find it but in this relatively peaceful environment where god has given each one of us an opportunity to come up higher we prefer staying down low and the reason why you can't find god jeremiah tells us right here in jeremiah 29 13 and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with what all your heart all your heart but how can you find me if most of your heart is occupied by something else it's a heart issue in the book maranatha page 76 this is what started this sermon my wife and i read this we like to read at night we read in the morning we read our bibles together and we always like to read something spiritual before we go to bed sometimes i said let me read you something she said she draws it real close to me turn the light off and the only light we see is as we're reading on our phone reading ellen white not facebook people say to me didn't you did you know who's in the hospital i said no they said it was on facebook i don't go to facebook to find out who's sick does that seem odd to anybody whatever happened to so-and-so oh they had you know they're in surgery well how do you know it was on facebook when do when do we stop communicating like normal people like can i get a phone call you're sick that was not in the sermon i just want to add that no extra charge but here's the point maranatha paid 76. this i couldn't sleep when i read this as a matter of fact if you go on my phone you'll see i stayed up till after one o'clock putting just note after note after note this is the right use of a phone thank god for that yeah note after note afternoon i put this whole long thing together of my sermon's on here too i've just noted after notice that honey she said while i was sleeping i said while you were sleeping i was just searching the scriptures quote after quote after quote she said how much do you have for your sermon i said well i have so much for my sermon i got to figure out where to pare it down so i i cut my sermon down by one whole page today so you'll be getting out soon but you're not getting out before this quote only what's that first word only maranatha page 76 paragraph one only by knowing god here can we prepare to meet him at his coming but many of those who profess to believe in christ do not know god they have only a surface religion they do not love god they do not study his character therefore they do not know how to trust how to look and live they don't know so when trial come you find these folk at the nearest water fountain trying to figure out how can i get relief when they could have been at the feet of jesus having joy amid the temporary disappointments of life which brings me to my third point spiritual illusions lead to spiritual delusions you see when you profess to live as a christian but your life is completely altogether different when your profession and your life are in conflict you don't know god when your profession and your life are opposite when what you profess and how you live are not the same you don't know god there is no excuse here's the here's the evidence titus 1 and verse 16. they profess to know god but it works what happens they deny him i'm a christian you don't live like one you don't make choices like one you don't act like one we're the fruit of the christian life they profess to know god but in works they deny him being abominable what else disobedient and disqualified for every good work you ain't getting to heaven on the label you only get into heaven on the righteous character of christ and i think the reason why spiritual dedication is at an all-time low is many christians are working for jesus they don't know jesus that's a danger we have to prevent down here right janelle right don right ryan we working all week long bible q a sabbath school preaching on air that's dangerous when we think that that is our fulfillment of our relationship with christ that's not our fulfillment that's our call to lead others if you can feed people and die of starvation yourself that's why matthew 7 verse 21 and 23 is a caution to those of us that are busy doing the right thing for the wrong reason matthew 7 21 to 23 not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven this is challenging many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied or preached in your name and cast out demons in your name hmm and done many wonders in your name and look at this and then i will declare to them what i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness thank you for working for me but i don't even know who you are thank you for preaching uh people are going to be saved by your work but you're nothing more than a vehicle because i don't even know who you are you see spiritual activity is not a substitute for a life dedicated to christ you could be good at what you do but that will not get you to the kingdom how do i know that look at the danger of illusions to those who are very spiritual luke 18 verse 10 to 13. two men went up to the temple to pray one a pharisee the other a tax collector the pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself god i thank you that i am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector but the tax collector i [Music] fast what's the first word in that sentence i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i possess but here's humility and the tax collector and the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying god be merciful to me a sinner you see the inability the inability to see one's true condition and the practice of self-praise is based on the illusion of i i do this i do that i can do this i can do that i am well known here i'm well known there and the lord says you and your eye won't get you a quarter of an inch off the ground but when we understand who we are and the greatest challenge today is people to see themselves that's why this quotation is very powerful just got two more and then i'm done here it is review and herald february 1 1898 paragraph 11. ellen white was not around in 1989. i would have loved her meter but she wasn't here very very typo listen to this many professed christians will be seduced by satan's delusions there is safety only in continually seeking counsel of god refusing to receive the praise of anyone watch out when your head can no longer get through the doorway of your house embracing the mind by the knowledge of the word of god receiving thorough diligent study received through diligent study watch this then satan's what's the next word illusions may be resisted the application of spiritual truth to the heart and conscience by the holy spirit's agency is saving in its influence if the spirit of god is working in your life god is able to bring you to the place out of satan's illusions into god's true knowledge and righteousness you see spiritual illusions is the pandemic of the last state church the only cure for a spiritual pandemic is a vaccination from the holy spirit finally satan's final attempt to distract us by and lead us to be dedicated to many illusions if that's the case we won't be ready to for this last statement there's one statement that i want to make when jesus comes and here's my closing text i'm inviting the praise team to come on up because we want to end by singing more about jesus there's a particular passage in the bible that i want to be able to say when jesus comes back and i pray that our desire to be delivered from the illusions of this world will get us to the place that this passage expresses our future desire isaiah 25 and verse 9 and it will be said in that day now i want to show you the difference behold this is our god no no behold this is our god we have waited for him and he will save us this is the lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation but here's the hook how can you be waiting for someone that you don't spend time with and don't know [Music] that's the danger today you want a shocking statement harriet tubman said this and i think it's true to the christian today harriet tubman said i freed up i freed a thousand slaves i could have freed a thousand more if they only knew that they were slaves that's powerful some of you i've appealed to you to give your life to christ but you don't even know you're a slave therefore you don't desire freedom that's my wife's contribution to the sermon we do the sermons together i freed a thousand slaves on the day of final account they're going to be those in the wrong crowd saying i remember that i remember that evangelistic appeal i remember that bible study i remember that opportunity i remember the day when the appeal was there but i didn't respond [Music] and there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth but i'm going to ask you today i'm going to end with the most non-elusive passage in the bible and here it is you want eternal life here it is john 17 3 and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true god and jesus christ whom you sent can i ask a question today how many of you can stand and say i want to know more about jesus i want to know more about jesus how many of you could stand and say that today i want to know more about jesus i want to know more about his word [Music] i don't need to know about his plan for my life i just need to know him and his plan for my life will be clear i don't need to understand how he's doing things or what he's going to do next i just simply want to be able to know more about jesus so as our praise team sings the first and last stanza of more about jesus i want this to be our dedication today because the devil doesn't want you to know more about jesus he wants you to wait for the next social media platform and take you down another elusive path to an unsatisfied journey you'll feel all the things that you may want to feel but in the end you will feel what you don't want to feel disappointment discouragement sadness disaster when in fact jesus christ came to deliver us from the illusions of this world to deliver us into the true honest and eternal kingdom that awaits for all of us more about jesus [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] more about jesus on his throne ready [Music] sure desires [Music] more about jesus [Music] as ben continues to play i'm impressed today there's somebody here that says you know i do want more about jesus i want more because i sense that i'm on that path and today i want to make a right turn [Music] i want to get back on that path where my life can be more fulfilled my heart can be more at peace [Music] that i won't be searching for something that is going to leave me empty and disappointed and depressed but i want to know who christ is so that when he comes he won't have any problem recognizing me because we have been in touch all along is there somebody here today that says i want that deeper connection with christ i want that deep abiding yes my brother yes my sister yes yes it's yours it's yours don't be so busy that that somehow the week comes to an end and you say oh hmm yeah we're going to church today anybody can go to church but not everybody in church is going to heaven the lord wants to get you out of this building into his eternal kingdom and he'll only be able to do that if you say no to the illusions and yes to the only true god and jesus christ whom he has sent father in heaven we thank you lord that you more determined to save us then sometimes we are willing to be saved and your spirit has been battling with us wooing us speaking to us he has been patiently working on our hearts of the young and the old and everybody in between because there's the day of reckoning coming when all the illusions of life the curtain will be lifted all on them all and behind it we'll see the deceiver the arch enemy the adversary laughing with hellish joy [Music] but he's managed to snatch someone from the promise of eternity lord may it not be us may no one in the sound of my voice or even those watching be be people that miss out on the greatest joy that's not an illusion but as the apostle paul's eyes have not seen ears have not heard neither has it entered into the heart of men the things that god prepares for those that love him so lord send us from this place on the pursuit of godliness of true lasting joy that will sustain us on the cloudy and the rough days that will give us assurance when the answers are not coming quickly enough that will say to us endure to the end and you will be saved not in spite of it but even in light of it and finally father when we stand before you on that glorious morning may we be in that group that says this is our god we have been waiting for you lord and we cannot wait to go home with you may that be our desire but may that also be our experience in jesus name we pray and god's people said amen and amen now before you leave for those of you that want to stay by with our young you

Channel: Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Id: hKu_rFTv3zI

Length: 77min 15sec (4635 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 12 2022