A.R. Bernard | “Culture of Death | Christian Cultural Center (January 5, 2020)

come on let's set as we go to the Lord in prayer happy new year praise the Lord I hope it's off to a great start with you amen let's bow our heads as we go to the Lord in prayer Heavenly Father thank you again and again for getting us through this last year of 2018 thank you for all of the I'm sorry 2019 thank you for a wonderful congregation that corrects me when I'm wrong but father thank you for the last year all the lessons that we learned along the way the challenges to our faith but also the opportunity to see you in new and profound ways to get to know you in a deeper way this year ahead is a year of vision and we want to make sure that whatever vision you stir in our hearts that we know that it's a part of a greater vision that you have for us so Lord continue to stir our faith our boldness to imagine you in ways we never imagined to dream big dreams pray big prayers because we serve a big God so Lord bless us as we launch out into the deep this year and let our nets down knowing that we're going to pull in a catch that we never imagined we'll be able to pull in we bless you we love you today Lord and we thank you for all of the good things ahead in Jesus name we pray amen and amen come on three people bless them in a name [Music] so mark chapter six verse seven mark six seven Jesus is about to send out the 12 apostles I remember there was one case where he sent out the 70 right he spoke to crowds of 500 and their multitudes that could not be numbered but here he calls the twelve and he sends them out they're going to preach they're going to teach they're going to lay hands on the sick watch them recover so he's sending them out on a mission to represent him the interesting thing is what he does with them right up front so let's go to the text and he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two what did he do it's not on my face on the screen or in your device or in your Bible what did he do right up front at the game he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two right but then what did he do what did he give him authority over the hmm why would he do that why would he do something like that I mean they've got a great message to preach right the kingdom of heaven is at hand the things that were spoken of to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant the Davidic covenant it is a time of its fulfillment Messiah is here - uh sure in an age of peace and justice fairness God's love God's life God's light is now present in the earth Immanuel God with us and he sent them out and he gives them authority over unclean spirits I think it changed the way they looked at the world I think it brought to their attention that although they had a great message although they were going to be doing good would you think healing people is good delivering people is good although they have a great message and we're going to do good things one of the most important things they needed to be aware of if that is that there would be forces in opposition to all the good that they were about to do why do you think that's important of course this is the benefit of sitting in the front you get to answer questions of course he's coming of course he's coming your way why do you think that's important cameras on you now oh how important is that is it important I mean the Holy Spirit records it in the text so that we would have it so that we would know how it went down right am i giving you a pass I'll be back is this something that they needed not only to exercise but also to be aware of suppose he did not tell them and they went out and they ran into that little kind of opposition do you think it would have challenged their faith you think it'd have made them wonder well are we doing the right thing are we doing things wrong what's going on here do you think they would go through a whole process of trying to figure out why they're not experiencing the kind of success or why they're experiencing the kind of pushback that they're getting I will tell you Christians can act quite naive if you're a Christian if you're a believer if you know the scripture at all and you're still surprised when forces come against you while you're trying to do good and be good you're naive turn your neighbors say he's talking about somebody you know the Apostle Paul says that we are ambassadors of Christ the moment we become Christians now we become the property of God the temple of God His Holy Spirit indwells us right and we become his representatives in the West we're evolving into a secularized view of Scripture and the secularized view of scripture actually takes out of it the supernatural so if we were to read that text with a modern lens we would take unclean spirits and translate that into a concept of evil we translated into a symbol of evil but not real evil spirits because we don't want to talk about that and yet you go to other parts of the world right you go to other parts of the world guess what you find people are very aware very conscious that there is another realm of reality and let's put it this way God is spirit this universe is a vast universe so why wouldn't it be plausible that there are other beings highly intelligent beings that occupy a higher realm of reality how many convinced that this is not the only reality you can't believe in God without believing in another reality because God exists in another reality a higher reality than ours amen which means that those beings who occupy that higher reality have to be highly intelligent beings in fact quite powerful beings compared to us are we reasonable here yeah so how many you may not know personally but you know of a human being who is highly intelligent very talented well-connected and wicked morally compromised in position of influence oh wait I'm not talking about any specific person here y'all chill out yeah I know who he's talking about no you don't know you know if you can have good human beings and bad human beings who are freewill beings in this reality can you have bad and good beings and a higher reality I will tell you a human being with smarts intelligence talent influence power well-connected whose wicked is a dangerous person [Applause] can you imagine a divine being highly intelligent smart talented well-connected influential and yet wicked can you imagine so the Bible presents to us two realities one that is visible to us and one that is invisible to us the Bible also presents that these two realities are connected in that one influences the other so in Jesus sending out these Twelve Apostles and he's giving them Authority he is preparing them he is equip them for the other reality that they're going to face when they try to help people you see there's personal evil which is in the visual and the choices that we made the morality and standards that we may reject they're a structural collective institutional evil which is expressed in government's institutions around the world right but then there's also spiritual evil and it's spiritual evil that undergirds all the other evils I'm gonna say I'm talking about so he wanted his disciples to be equipped and aware for what they could not see but they definitely would be dealing with how about us does God want us equipped and prepared for what we cannot see and yet we'll be dealing with you see how how many believe that there are fallen morally compromised spiritual beings Emily being that I'm gonna believe that there they are at work in this world see because there's some things that you just cannot explain psychologically or politically it's only a biblical explanation for it especially when things happen and masks the prophetic is predictive to the future by the way the prophetic is not fortune-telling so you don't go to the Prophet and say am I gonna meet my husband next week the prophetic is predicted to the future but primarily analytical to the present so the prophets would look at the nation that they were in and those that surrounded them and they would analyze and evaluate the spiritual moral conditions the political conditions and they would get a word from God and then speak it into that culture and that society in hopes that the eyes of that society would be open to the spiritual activity that's going on behind the scenes that is creating the culture that is influencing and shaping the culture got it very important so we as believers with our eyes open know that as we look at the world around us when we look at America we look at what's going on in the Middle East when we look at what's going on in Asia all over the place we know that it's not just politicians at work bankers at work it's interesting to me that we have an assassination of a an Iranian general and that occupies a 24-hour news cycle and then in the next 24 hour news cycle we are examining the price of oil are y'all with me here what does oil stay tuned the next time you're at the pump so things that are being done behind the scenes are pushing different agendas and Jesus's disciples would encounter these things and so would we as his disciples it would be foolish of us as believers to think that the only intervention that the realm of spiritual beings makes in human history and human culture are people rolling around on the floor foaming at the mouth there are very real extraordinary things that take place have witnessed them I've been involved with them exercise authority over them but they are not primarily how these forces work because it's obvious or should be obvious I'm gonna roll around on the floor foaming at the mouth something right here you don't need deep and profound discernment but when you're dealing with the individual who's in a three-piece suit looking sharp clean respectable highly educated [Applause] and making decisions that will affect millions of people now you really understand what's going on behind the scenes and that's exactly how the believer should see the world we should not be distracted by all the stuff by all the noise we should be able to cut through it and say okay what's behind that well you know pastor that's all that political stuff what you better start asking it about your family and your relationships what's behind that someone asked well how do we know the presence of darkness how do we know the activity of evil I'm glad you asked see because I don't care what vision you outline for 2020 there gonna be some forces at work to push back against that vision and it's not so much that they don't like you they don't like your Jesus and don't think you can disconnect yourself from your Christian identity while you do your little thing over here [Applause] how you know the operations how many of you in here we're in the spiritual warfare class just raise your hand on okay good I got some seasoned folks in here your you're ready for this conversation you know the operations of the enemy you know I'm talking about when I say the enemy by some of the names that are given to him see with us we name things very casually all we try to find if we're a Christian believer have a child you know and let's give him a biblical name so we go through the Bible and find a name and then we put that on the kid for the rest of his life I never tell you something giving a child a biblical name doesn't influence how they turn out if we just named him jebediah let's think about him going to school jebediah all those names you skip over when you read in the Bible but we know things about our adversary through the names that are ascribed to him one of the names that Jesus calls him in John 8:44 is a murderer murderer it is a Greek anthropos which means man Slayer is that a hint or what can't understand that malevolent spirits do not like human beings and that's why anyone that engages in witchcraft or necromancy and thinking that they're somehow getting into a good relay how do you have a benevolent relationship with a malevolent spirit that's an oxymoron and I'll have to tell you whose oxy [Applause] he's called a liar he's called the accuser he's called devil the Avalos but he's also called a murderer and Jesus said in John 8:44 he said he was a murderer from the beginning see that doesn't speak of someone who who just wants to attack an individual this speaks of someone who has a history of coming after human being you know back in the in we come from three decades maybe four decades of a lot of the prosperity gospel and health and wealth Gospels and things like that and one of the key texts were John 10:10 you all familiar with John 10:10 right the thief comes to steal you know oh that one pastor yeah that one the thief comes to do what steal kill and destroy let me dig a little deeper into that you know what it means to steal but the words kill they're in the Greek means to slaughter without purpose I'm gonna try that one more time the word kill they're in the Greek means what come on talk back to me yeah to kill without a reason to kill that's a dangerous spirit and remember it's not about just the individual but it's the collective influence of a spirit like that we have a term that comes out of the 20th century the last hundred years it's called mass shootings are you familiar with the term it's happening in elementary schools with little children and it's happening in open-air concerts where someone just decides that they're going to slaughter innocent people that they don't even know and it happens again and again and again I okay well let me finish so the word kill means what slaughter without purpose right just to kill at random without any reasonable logical explanation pastor Karen likes to watch these Forensic Files shows yeah she was making me nervous the way she watched those shows so about people getting murdered I'm saying I said what's up with that she says explain to me so she said I like to see them get caught because nobody gets away with anything but then she said what puzzles me is why didn't he just leave her why do you have the killer and where are we when we think that suicide or murder is the resolution to a problem where are we as a society especially when it begins to happen over and over and over again let's say what concerns me is the desensitization of our society where it becomes normalized and we simply say oh another shooting it infiltrated the safe spaces of our children and now it's infiltrating the sacred spaces of our beliefs so I want to elevate your consciousness so that you don't see Satan just as this individual who wants to steal your joy don't let the devil take your joy hallelujah I want you to see him at work influencing society in ways that come back and affect you so to kill means what again slaughter without purpose the word destroy in the Greek and you could look it up you get a chance it means to put an end to entirely to ruin to render useless now I hope you're taking that and applying it to yourself because what I'm saying is he wants you to be useless and I will tell you other than there rolling around and foaming at the mouth the more subtle ways of the intervention of malevolent spirits into this realm of our humanity is to simply make suggestions in such a way that you think it's your own idea so if I can suggest that you take yourself out and you don't recognize it's coming from an external source you think it's you and then to be and then you begin the reason why you shouldn't here gotta understand the subtlety of all this so through suggestion insinuation and of course he's called a accuser so he'll hurl an accusation at you and then you'll do some self soul-searching and agree with them an agreement becomes a place of power against you and convince you that you are your biggest problem so if he Duvall use you then it's easy for you to accept the removal of you and no matter what you think of yourself the value that you have in God's eyes never changes he still sees you in a way then he's willing to die on a cross just for you so no matter what you think of yourself because these forces are at work your value in the eyes of God never changes no matter what you do as you could do something that'll surprise him so very subtly they suggest something to you and it's so quiet so sneaky that you think you thought of it I forgot was a Oh visiting and we were we'd gone hiking and I was at the edge of this this plateau looking over and there was a cliff going on rocks down there beautiful sight but dangerous if you got other things in your mind can I share this with you my secrets I'm standing there enjoying the beauty of the of the ocean hitting up against the rock and the fall and all of a sudden I heard jump off see but III have a level of spiritual maturity I asked why if we gonna talk let's talk why we got go talk why why would I do that see but if you don't understand that this is an external saw you think it's internally you and you start going through a reason about oh maybe I'm feeling in my life maybe I got maybe insinuation and not only does it happen on an individual basis it happens collectively to societies through one individual in a position of power and see what I'm concerned about what I'm watching it trends trends as things develop over time do you know the 20th century was the bloodiest century in human history give you some statistics because remember Jesus said I'm come that you might have life so if Satan is a murderer he comes that you might have [Applause] I'm try that one more time I gotta make sure it's sinks in Jesus said I'm come that you might have what exactly so whatever God does enhances life doesn't diminish life it enhances life and whatever the devil does he diminishes life takes away from life and brings what death and what is death the cessation of life it'd be death to your finances oh wait wait wait wait wait how many understand death to your finances puts you in a place of poverty despair why do you think the devil is called the desolate one do you know what it means to make desolate it means to ruin you and leave you empty bad and dry and hopeless so he brings death and God brings what I'm come that you might have what how many are convinced of that how many are how many of you are convinced that Jesus came to give you life if you're convinced of it if you're convinced of it then you will reject anything that is offered to you suggested to you brought your way laid at your feet at speaks of death Jesus came for you to live Jesus came for you to live yeah I I'm trying to get Jesus came for you to live to experience life and experience it more what abundantly any notion of giving up throwing in the towel despair and hopelessness does not come from Jesus fear doubt listen I'll say it again benevolent spirits lead you towards Faith Hope Love malevolent spirits lead you to doubt fear and narcissism you've got to know the difference he's a matter that means he's about what death darkness fear anxiety distrust and why does he stir those emotions because when we make decisions and this is scientifically proven no matter how much reasoning we go through at the end of the day we make decisions based on intuition and feelings after you gather all the information you ask yourself how do I feel about this come on isn't it true and that's why you could have information that's solid and valid and yet something inside you said I don't feel right about this because that's how we were designed remember we were placed in time but we were designed and created for eternity so there are things about us that are transcendent of time and that's why nothing in time can satisfy us because we weren't designed for time and space we were divine design for eternity and those things that are eternal leave a lasting impression on you alright let's talk how many have ever done something said something experienced something and it was pleasurable it was joyful it's a great experience at the moment but a year later you look back at what you said what you did what you experienced and you say to yourself you know what I don't feel good about that as I did then do you know why because what you said what you did what you experienced was temporary but then on the other side you have said things done things experiencing that 10 years later you look back you still get uplifted by it thinking about it reflecting on it you still feel good about it it charges you it inspires you that was eternal we've just taken a closer look and I think we need to in the last hundred years in America we've gone from two mass shootings in the 1920s that decade to thirty-seven mass shootings in the 2000s mass shootings and we're not even talking about war we're talking about mass killings I was referring looking back in the early part of the 20th century 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire Turkey in 1915 1916 were slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994 were slaughtered are you hearing me Washington Post in July of 1994 reviewed the hitler and reviewed individuals like Mao Zedong and those of you who were young in a Mauser who Communist China millions of Christians saw it as slaughtered and killed Hitler is now blamed for 12 million concentration camp deaths and at least 30 million other deaths associated with World War two while Stalin is believed responsible for between 30 million 40 million unnatural death including millions from a famine that he created Mao Zedong in communist China while most scholars are reluctant to to put out numbers all right but the best evidence shows that he is responsible for at least 40 million deaths and perhaps 80 million more indirectly which includes deaths that were a result of disastrous policies that he refused to change mass killings in Rwanda mass killings in Cambodia Dhafir Southern Sudan mass shootings in America from 1973 to the present in America 60 million babies were aborted globally from 1980 to now 1.5 billion babies were aborted now that's not to condemn anyone in here if a circumstance and situation presented to you that puts you in that very very tough citizen scenario it's not to condemn you but what it is is to express that in the last hundred years we move decidedly from a culture of life to a culture of death it's interesting in genesis chapter 6 it says and the earth was filled with violence and the imaginations of men's heart were evil continually these are patterns these are movements and let me say this to you we didn't even add up those millions that I just shared with you in just a hundred years fan we cannot say that it's just political just psychological there's got to be something more going on and that's why we are blessed to have eyes to see ears to hear hearts to understand so we look at the news differently because we know that there are forces that were fashioning and shaping what's going on in human society this is not to make you paranoid because here's the good news Jesus through his cross death and resurrection conquered all principalities powers rulers Thrones dominions and according to Colossians 2:15 made a public open disgraceful show of their defeat and then he says to you and I in 2020 go preach teach heal and I give you authority you know what it is to have a key to a lock that opens the door and the key is sitting in your pocket and you're standing outside the locked door screaming and complaining and blaming everybody he told Peter upon this rock I'm gonna build my church I give you the keys of the kingdom what is the kingdom of God it's righteousness joy peace power made real intelligible by the presence of the Holy Spirit faith unlocks the kingdoms power and the reason the children of Israel failed in the wilderness because they would not mix what they heard with faith and as a result they fail to enter the Promised Land vision is your picture of a preferred future there is a future that the devil prefers for you which future are you going to choose [Applause] what will it take before we believe the Word of God stand up and begin to operate in faith embracing all that God has for us when does it begin right now right now you don't go out without being equipped God won't send you without equipping you but it's up to you to trust that equipment believing that equipment use that equipment and it began by giving them authority over the spiritual forces which means that if you can check the spiritual forces it frees you to deal with the mess they created I'll try that one more time if you can check the spiritual forces you can now deal with the mess that they created God gave you the authority you now have to roll away the stone you now have to engage the mess I gotta stop here but did you get anything out of this today only thing missing behind me is a fireplace so I hope you appreciated this fireside chat we're gonna have more of them because I want you guys shocked I want the demonic realm to see you come in and say ah is that all right with you [Applause] now think about this when he sent those men out they had no seminary training they didn't have any special degrees they didn't have any power and influence they didn't have any position you want me to go down the list of what they didn't have because the devil will get you to focus on what you don't and I'm trying to get you to focus on what you do have and what do you have I come in the name that is above every name a name that every Nehemiah preaching here this morning must bow and every tongue confess his authority come on let's all stand I hear a song in my mind This Means War [Music] [Applause] pastor of pastor why you're ruffling the feathers hell I drop in the boat why you starting the war the war has been on since genesis 3:15 you were born into it God just pulled you off of the enemy side and put you on the right side [Applause] whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world our faith let's bow our heads Heavenly Father maybe rise up may we be stirred by the prince of life [Music] maybe seas but depth in our hearts the authority that you placed in our lives may we rise up as a mighty army in this 21st century [Music] instruments in your hands to bring light to the darkness life with his death hope with his hopelessness and despair love use us we ask you in Jesus precious name Amen and amen come on slap high-five with three people Telemark got that word [Music] listen nuclear weapons all of the tension this is death that we're dealing with globally death of relationships I thought it was interesting that all the reports you hear over the last ten years is how many people are leaving church it makes sense that the devil were trying to get them out of the place where they're gonna be nurtured and their eyes are gonna be open and they're gonna be given authority and understanding it makes sense because then he could do what he wants with the society and they'll be blinded to it this is the place this is the source this is where we need to be amen come on let's give God a good hand clap offering for his word today if you were blessed father thank you for this incredible spiritual family let us be just that a spiritual force father help us get our house in order so we're not distracted [Music] and we can be a sharpen instrument in your hands we ask you and we thank you in Jesus precious name Amen amen come on let's say something good as leave this place but never God's presence Jesus is Lord period we believe it we proclaim it and we're seeing it comes to fast god bless y'all love your family have a wonderful week in the Lord

Channel: Christian Cultural Center - Brooklyn Campus

Views: 26,929

Rating: 4.8448277 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 0GywhA65GTg

Length: 57min 16sec (3436 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020