Full Service | Sunday April 18, 2021

morning everybody let's all get standing and get ready to sing you guys doing good this morning yeah nice sunny day lord how thankful we are for this beautiful day to worship you and i pray that you bless each person that's online watching each person that's here in the building lord we just want to give you glory and honor we thank you lord that you have done the work of salvation lord if there's nothing else that we have to be thankful for just the work of the cross and that we are more than conquerors through the work of the cross and what you've done you won the victory for us so i pray that you put within our hearts a celebratory attitude lord like david where he told himself bless the lord o my soul lord that's what we want to do we want our souls just to be focused on you and that you'd be honored in this place so be glorified we pray in jesus name amen you guys ready to sing all right here we go when my hope and strength is gone you are the one who calls me on you are the life you are the fight that's in my soul oh you're as [Music] we we will not our god in concord [Music] [Music] is you are through christ you have overcome [Applause] [Music] [Music] conquered nothing is impossible and every chain breakable with you we are with you we are [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] through christ you have overcome this world this light we will not [Applause] that lost be seen [Music] is conquered [Music] [Music] amen [Music] your love o lord reaches to the heaven [Music] your faithfulness it stretches to the sky your righteousness is like a mighty mountain [Music] your justice flows just like the ocean's time and i will live to my heart [Music] strength [Music] it stretches to the sky your righteousness is [Music] and i will live [Music] [Music] oh your voice [Music] your love [Music] reaches to the heavens your faithfulness stretches to the sky [Music] so [Music] so [Music] the great unknown [Music] and oceans deep my faith will stand and i will call upon your name [Music] for i am yours [Music] [Music] where feet [Music] and you won't start [Music] my soul [Music] foreign [Music] you are [Music] spirit lead me where my trust is without borders let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me [Music] wherever [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] is [Music] is your name [Music] embrace [Music] [Music] you are mine [Music] your [Music] when oceans rise my soul rests [Music] you are father how thankful we are that when we feel ourselves in the deepest places where we're not sure what's ahead lord that you're the one who takes us through and carries us through the difficult days i pray lord that we'd all look to you and rejoice that you are standing with us lord and that you never leave us nor forsake us um lord i pray that we'd have that mindset and i pray that we'd be joyful because of that lord knowing that you're there with us we thank you lord in jesus name there was an old guy john scriven back in the 1800s who was um the guy in town that was always walking around with his saw like one of those old you know the old saws um and uh and his axe and he would uh he would go and just cut wood and deliver him to like widows and he wasn't a wealthy man he was actually kind of a poor guy but he just went around helping people and doing stuff but most people didn't know his story they they didn't understand that when he was a young man in his 20s or actually 20 years old he was studying to be a pastor and the girl that he was about to marry died the week before her the wedding of a you know there was a pandemic literally back in those days and then she died of that um and that really took this guy john scriven into a real tumble in his life and he kind of went sort of bad for a little while but then came back i thought i'm going to finish my you know theology degree and go back to school and i tried he did that and eventually got that but uh he finally found another girl that was uh he was excited to um you know call his wife and so he asked her to marry her one week later she died as well and the poor guy he just lived to a rough life and um and and then you know his mom who lived in england he lived in canada um she was going through hard times and and he thought i'm going to write my mom a poem um because i've been through some really hard times and and he thought i can encourage her with something that i've discovered and see so he wrote he wrote a little poem and it went something like this what a friend we have in jesus all our sins and grieves to bear what a privilege to carry everything to god in prayer and he wrote that poem and sent it off to his mom it would be years later after he was gone that somebody would add music to his poem and it's one of our hymns that we love to sing because of another guy's suffering and trials we we were able to remember yeah it's true if we've got nothing else what a friend we have in jesus we can you know um we can uh you know cast all of our cares on jesus our friend and so uh let's pick it up a little bit let's bring it up and uh you gotta clap along sing along and remember who jesus is right here we go [Music] [Music] what [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] but with the lord of heaven [Music] is is [Music] oh all because everything you've gotten [Music] [Applause] lord we do thank you that we can pray to a god that is closer than a brother a god that listens to us the god that cares for us and is here with us so what we do just ask that your spirit would fall afresh on us lord that you you would just speak through your word once again that you would find hearts that are are ready to receive your word lord not ground that is rocky not soil that is is is not ready but soil that is soft ready to receive what you'd have us lord open up our ears may we not leave this building this room different people but may we leave as a changed church we love you father and we pray all these things in your precious name amen amen why don't you go and have a seat thanks you guys all right how you guys liking ezekiel so far quite a book of the bible pretty uh pretty crazy stuff if you were with us on wednesday night we saw some real brutal prophet work man there's a lot ezekiel pardon me ezekiel's running around you know cutting his hair all off and weighing it in scales and then taking one third and burning it up taking another third throwing it into the air and slicing it up with a knife and chasing it in the wind um what's he doing people probably thought man that ezekiel he's he's wacko but it was all a message uh one third of the hair he burnt he said these are the people of israel that are going to be destroyed by the babylonians the second group these are going to be the people slayed by slain by the edge of the sword uh the hair why why the hair hair in the uh you know in the old hebrew times what you know your beard and your hair represented your dignity and your maturity and uh and um wisdom even but he said all of israel's maturity wisdom and honor is going to be gone slice and dice man and then the rest of it's going to be thrown off and uh chased down and and put into captivity uh by the babylonians and these are this is the message of ezekiel the prophet so he had all these sort of panel minds remember the lord said you know you can't open your mouth so i'm just gonna have you do stuff like lay on you remember last sunday we looked at him laying on his side for 390 days on one side in 40 days on another side and we did a bunch of math last week because of ezekiel he wasn't saying stuff he was just doing stuff object lessons really well uh in this next section we're going to find ourselves uh joining ezekiel not for pantomiming anymore but actually for field trips do you like field trips remember when you're in school i always love field trips because it was get out of school free day you know it was like you didn't have to do a bunch of work in the school so i love field trips but ezekiel's going to lead us on some interesting little field trips uh as we continue our study through this book and each field trip has sort of a specific lesson for the jews and i'd like to draw your attention as we take our text from our upcoming you know wednesday verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book study through the bible we take our text from that upcoming passage so if you would turn with me to ezekiel chapter 8 for today's study ezekiel 8 and we're going to take one of these little trips and uh he's going to make a trip there to the temple mount uh in jerusalem um now he didn't do this literally because he was in babylon so this was sort of a maybe like one of ezekiel's sort of visions but it's like a visionary field trip if you would um like a dream almost but it all has meaning and it's meant for the jews to learn much from so it's ezekiel chapter 8 we pick up the story in verse 7 ezekiel 8 7 and he the lord brought me ezekiel to the door of the court and when i looked behold a hole in the wall then said he unto me son of man dig now in the wall and when i had digged in the wall behold a door and he said unto me go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here now pause for a second this is our indiana jones you know he comes into this dark place and he sees a wall with a chip in it and he says now dig and he starts pulling off the old rock of the wall and finds a door and what are you going to do well the lord says go into the door and see what well this is not going to be a pretty sight because it says here and see the wicked abominations that they do here where at the temple of the of the jews in jerusalem why would there be any wicked thing there well as it turns out um ezekiel's gonna learn something that's gonna shock him i think and it shocks us every time we find out there's wickedness in certain people you know it's interesting how we've seen a lot of famous people a lot of pastors a lot of ministry people fall in you know moral failure and all kinds of abominations and stuff like that the whole me too and you know whether it's uh you know bill cosby or cuomo or whatever all the things that we hear about people and we're all shocked i can't believe that he does those things or did those things or whatever this is going to be one of those moments ezekiel's going to see by the lord what's going on with the elders of israel we're going to use the king james term here um you know it's kind of an interesting word that we don't really use the ancients when we use the word ancients we're talking about people that are long dead and gone but in this context it's more like ezekiel's seeing the ancients that is the elders of or the leaders uh even the priests of of israel and so he's about to see what's going on as he goes through this door let's let's check it out he goes on and says in verse 10 so i went in and saw and behold every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of israel portrayed upon the wall round about and there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of israel and in the midst of them stood je oz ania the son of chafin with every man his sensor in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up now this is an interesting thing we know who schaefen is remember shape from the scribe uh and then we got the son of shaphen these are the priests these are scribes and priests and leaders of the ancients and they look holy they look holy how do they look holy well they're they're in their you know uh leadership form with their sensors and their smoke coming from their sensors that that speaks of their ministry so there's this outward form of piety and holiness a form of you might say religion uh but actually what's going on is there's all kind of idols and imagery he sees on the walls these idols that these these same guys are into in fact verse 12. then he said unto me son of man hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of israel do in the dark every man in the chambers of his imagery for they say the lord seeth us not the lord hath forsaken the earth these ancients had a mindset of saying well god doesn't see what's going on in the chambers of my imagery what's that the chambers of imagery sounds like a lord of the rings kind of place or something well it's actually their brains it's what's going on in their soul in their minds the things that they were doing uh in what they thought was the dark and they also thought man the lord doesn't see what's going on in our brains and also uh the lord doesn't care about us anymore he's if he's forsaken the earth um by the way a lot of our culture today one of the problems with our culture is that we don't believe god exists anymore um does god care or i remember when the back i think was it the 70s or time magazine you know at front cover god is dead uh and really that was the world view of a lot of people especially in academia and all the so-called intellectuals they don't believe god cares about the world or even exists for that matter but as it turns out that's where these jews were in the times of ezekiel jeremiah daniel they just said if god does exist he's forsaken the world so we can do whatever we want especially when it goes to what's going on in our brains and our minds and the and the imagery that ezekiel saw was horrendous it's hard for us to get our brain around how bad it was because you know you and i think oh so what so he saw some idols on a wall whatever but actually the idols and what they represented you know in those days might even cause some of us modern people to blush some of the things that they did you see the people of israel were doing worse than the canaanites did you know that last wednesday night if you weren't with us we read where the lord indicts the jews and says you guys have made even the the canaanites look good you've taken their sin to a whole new level and some of the sins of the canaanites i can't even mention here on a sunday morning in mixed company like it's horrible some of the horrible things they were doing on so many levels sacrificing children to alters on idols like moloch and kimash also they were they tended to practice these crazy sexual orgies up in the high places in the mountains um and it also included children and stuff like that it was a horrible horrible culture that had sort of crept into the jewish culture the lord said man are you kidding me you're worse than the canaanites that i kicked out of this land and you're supposed to be sanctified you're supposed to be my people and this is why god is judging the jews during this time because of their massive rebellion but it wasn't just the general public even the leadership the ancients were there in the imageries of their minds they were doing all kinds of evil stuff and the lord sees it and he shows ezekiel and ezekiel is horrified we're going to actually even go further on wednesday night and see how uh they're they're weeping for tammuz uh if you know about the whole babylonian pagan religion uh semoramus tammuz we're gonna see that mentioned we're gonna see how they would worship toward the east and worship the sun and stuff like that and all kinds of paganism was going on but it was mostly what was going on in the chambers of his imagery um and and as it turns out if you're a bible reader one of the things you and i should know about and be aware of maybe reminded even this morning is that god sees what's going on in our brains and not only does he see it but he cares about it when was the last time you thought about wow the lord knows everything i'm thinking well well you might be making the same mistake they were making oh there's what you know you know almost 8 billion people on the planet and god cares what's going on in my puny little brain i don't think so but don't forget god is infinite he's infinite there's no spread thin god oh man there's so many people i don't even know what to do with myself that's not god god is infinite he's infinite powerful he's infinite in his knowledge omniscience omnipresence omnipotence or omnipotence the the whole uh powerful all-powerful all-knowing and so god can spend a hundred percent of his attention on you but he can't because he can't yeah he can when you're an infinite god you can spend 100 on each person because if you take any number and divide it by infinity uh what's your quotient it's infinity uh you know it's like like you don't run out so god is love for you as infinite but he also knows what's going on in your brain infinitely and he actually according to the bible he cares about each one of your brains and how you use it speaking of using your brain uh you know there were some studies done that i thought were kind of interesting the national science foundation the average person has about 12 000 to 60 000 thoughts per day that's an interesting thing now they call them thought worms because it's usually not just a little thought and then it's gone it usually they call it a thought where there's something you think about and then you think about it for a little while and then you change thoughts and those uh now i think the funniest part of this study is the difference between one person another some people twelve thousand some people sixty thousand there's the guy hey i have a thought you know that there's that guy um and then there's the sixty thousand verses oh i think you can think you know those people that are just constantly thinking about everything um hopefully you're somewhere in the middle there i think but but as it turns out they've found that in their studies that 80 of what people think about generally speaking is a negative thought that's an interesting thing 80 of your thoughts negative 90 this is also sort of troubling to me 95 are exactly the same repetitive thoughts that you had the day before so you're you're not thinking about anything new but you're repeating those 80 negative thoughts day after day after day in your head and so the big question you know we've wrestled with uh even medically and scientifically and psychologically they've tried to figure out how do you change a person's way of thinking because negative thoughts and unhealthy thoughts come out in so many strange ways like even physically in your body your negativity can actually come out in your health and like there's some interesting things that that happens with neurology and they're we're learning more and more i would argue that we're only now catching up to the bible science is only now barely catching up to what the bible's been telling us all along and i want to kind of show you how that sort of works out a little bit um the thing about you know your thoughts is they can they can sink you if you're not careful um and if you let your thoughts run wild have you ever have you ever had a moment in your life where you realized the way i think is going to greatly affect what happens next um i'll tell you a quick story that uh where i felt that and i i think some people feel this more regularly but this was one time in my life that i really thought now if i think wrongly here i could panic i was really in a place where i thought panic and i i think the lord maybe allowed me to uh feel this so that i can know how some people feel um daily sometimes i was scuba diving in the red sea with my uh dive buddy tad slaughter we were down in the red sea looking at looking for chariot wheels and stuff we were down about 70 true story we were down about 70 feet normally i bring my own gear because i like having my own regs and stuff that i've maintained myself because you know you kind of need air and if you use the junkie rental stuff sometimes it doesn't work that well uh well this one time i didn't bring my rags but i thought we'll just rent some gear so i went to that little dive shop in a lot right on the beach and we rented some stuff and um but the the regs i got that day man i could tell i just just look at it oh man i'm putting my life in the hands of some scuba dive shop uh in the middle east um but but anyway we went down and sure enough as i'm going down you know dropping down i just sense that it's not my regs uh i have balance drags it it's almost like it gently pushes air into your lungs and you just it's you feel better diving with my stuff with this rental stuff i was like trying to suck air out of this tank you know it's like it was and so you're already dropping down it's already kind of and i just started feeling like walls closing in on me just a little bit but i thought no just keep your brain calm and just breathe and you know and you know i've done you know lots of diving so it wasn't like it was new or anything i wasn't freaking out about that but i was thinking this is sketchy so we're down there about 70 feet and it just seems the deeper i go the harder it is to breathe and um and and then my my oxygen level uh gauge was doing weird things one minute i'd look at it to be over here and that's going to be over there and it was like kind of all over and i was like man this is so sketchy so i finally signaled tad you know like like a little sketchy on the reg and and uh i kind of you know you do your signaling and so i was i was like you know let's surface you know let's let's let's go up which i never do like if there's anybody that's going to stay down as long as possible that's me but i'm like no let's go and ted's like no no let's not go to that lesson i got to go up like it's like so so what we decided uh through sign language is that we we'd sort of go slowly up toward the surface and i'd get at that sort of level where i could be easily you know decompressing and making sure that i can surface at any moment which was turns out that was a brilliant plan todd was down there exploring while i was up here not the greatest dive buddy in the world tad um he's down there having fun while i'm kind of and sure enough i'm just breathing there and all of a sudden it was it just zero air and i remember at this point i could do one thing i could panic but that wouldn't help that only makes things worse when you panic and i thought i could i could go down back down to tad and we could do the buddy breathe thing you know where you train as a diver you can share your your oxygen and i could do that or i could just pop out of the water and it was a little sketchy like whether i should pop up or go back down it was kind of in between my dive computer was saying uh you still need a few more minutes of you know time at this level but i just i just remember thinking i'm going to die here in israel they're going to find my lungs over there and me over there and it's going to be like this horrible mess and but i finally just popped up out of the water but i i remember just thinking wow if i let my brain i could just tell i was in this moment if i let my brain go the wrong direction for a half a second i would truly be in a state of total panic um and and i remember coming out of there thinking you know i think that there's people that feel that every day of their lives i think the lord gave me that little snapshot just i have a new compassion you know there's people that that can't even come into a room like this because of you know social anxiety like you come into a church service and people just get really like nervous and and um and i i i have a new compassion for that and and but it's part of this mind that we wrestle with what's going on in our brains and how we control our brains and as it turns out science is saying wow you can start changing the neurology the neural pathways there's fancy names like neuroplasticity that people like talking about now where you can sort of retrain the brain we'll talk about that in a second but the bible teaches us that what is going on inside of the person is kind of what matters more than even what goes on outside of the person we tend to focus on all the externals when the bible says it's what's inside of the person there's an old pastor from a generation ago j wilbur chapman who said it is not the ship in the water but the water in the ship that sinks it so it is not the christian in the world but it is the world in the christian that constitutes the danger it's what's inside jesus talked about it's what's coming from the inside of a man that defiles him to the outside it's not the outside of the man interesting thing so here with ezekiel the prophet the lord is exposing a problem with the inside the soul the mind and what the elders of israel the people of god was were doing inside and it was destroying them it was uh it was ugly it was an abomination before god what was going on in their brains and in the images or the you know chambers of imagery uh that was going on there and so really if we just have two points this morning number one a problem exposed the problem exposed that which was going on in the inside the thoughts and the intentions of the heart now interestingly the bible tells us that there's something that sort of shows you what's going on in your heart and in your mind what is that well jot this down in your notes hebrews 4 12 through 13 it says for the word of god is quick or living and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and the marrow and that is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest or literally made known in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do this is what the men of ezekiel's time didn't understand that god sees it all he sees what's going on inside your soul in your heart and your thoughts everything's open and naked before the lord with whom we have to do and what is it that helps us discern what's right and wrong in our soul it's the word of god the sharper living powerful sharper than any two-edged sword and it says and it and the word of god is a discerner of the thoughts and the intentions of the heart one of the things the bible will do for you if you let it is when you read the bible it sort of sorts out what's good and bad and ugly in your heart in your mind in your soul in your psyche whatever you want to call it the world calls it the psyche the the greek word for soul in the greek new testament is psyche so it's the same thing we're talking about the soul the psyche the mind the emotions but it's the word that discerns whether what's going on in there is good or bad or ugly um you know uh the psalmist declared in psalm 44 verses 20 and 21 if we have forgotten the name of our god or stretched out our hands to the estranged god shall not god search this out in other words he'll see it if you're seeking after strange gods for he knows the secrets of the heart well good news brett i haven't worshiped baal or astroth or you know kimash or moloch the gods of the hebrew times um and you might be right about that literally worshiping you know kimash good for you dagon whatever that's great but but you know the same things that were behind those idols are alive and well today and they're still battling for your brain you know there were there were gods and goddesses that they'd worshiped to cheer themselves up there were gods and goddesses that they would worship just for sexual pleasure there were gods and goddesses they'd worship for financial gain and greediness they all had but behind every god was a notion so we have the same things they're alive and well we don't worship astrath or diana you know diana was this this stone god of with multi-breasted imagery uh she had hundreds of breasts and she it was this kind of ugly goddess that they'd worship and and when you go to the temple to the goddess diana which by the way some of the amazing archaeological digs in ephesus shows one of the biggest temples to diana in the world at that time ephesus where timothy was a pastor where paul preached and this goddess diana what they would do with this temple is they had these little miniature stages on the front face of this this big fancy temple in ephesus you can see it today it's still there or the ruins are and these little niches or little miniature stage they would have these women seductively dancing in each one of these little stages luring the travelers to come worship diana and they'd go in and have all kinds of sexual you know orgies and what have you going on in these places of worship it's the same thing as pornography it's just we just don't call it diana we don't have a temple but the temple is the internet and there's still the seduction and the lure of sexual promiscuity and lust it's the same thing and as it turns out the lord says he sees what's going on in the secret places of your heart and and if we've forgotten the name of our lord um and we've stretched out our hands to strange gods the lord says don't you know i will see this that's what it says when i will search this out i will see what's going on in the imagery of your mind um that's a little scary when you think about what the lord you know and it's not just that you know there might even be seemingly uh where we have victimized ourselves so much we don't look at things with the same perspective but you know it's easy to talk about pornography and the stronghold that's in a in a person's heart uh and how they are attacked by that but what about the stronghold of depression that's not sinful bread yeah but it's from the enemy maybe couldn't it be that the enemy does the lord want us to be depressed is that the lord saying yes be depressed no the bible talks about rejoicing the lord always again i say rejoice the joy of the lord is my strength i mean the lord wants us to be joyful people but the enemy satan wants to mess you up and he wants to put a little stronghold in your soul in your mind that's going to be there as a little fortress and at the least opportune moments the enemy attacks from that fortress in your soul what do we do about this when we have these things going on in the chambers of our imagery and man i could go on and on about the little strongholds every one of us have different fortresses built up in our soul in our mind and our thoughts that have to do with either lust or greed or envy or jealousy or hatred or anger like the list is long of the things that could be messed up in our minds in our souls and that's just the sad truth and and and what's interesting when humanity goes unchecked on this where we instead of trying to fix that problem we just say you know that's just the way it is my mind is my mind and that's it and when it goes unchecked our minds will only snowball even worse and worse into those chambers of imagery where pretty soon your mind your soul is kind of a real mess is this important to god um that our minds that we take control well the bible's going to give some language i'll show you in a second that we're supposed to take captive our thoughts we're to tear down those strongholds that are in our mind and in our emotion the bible doesn't say you just leave them hey it's my mind my mind is my mind so whatever lord you have to deal with it that's the attitude of so many but where did that get the people of noah's day interestingly enough genesis chapter 6 verse 5. it says and god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually this is one of the like seven there's there's like seven maybe nine uh things that that are listed in the bible as the days of noah should you care about what the days of noah were like anybody why should we care about what the days of noah were like anybody it's like now jesus in matthew 24 verse 37 jesus said even as in the days of noah that's what it's going to be like in the second coming like if we study the days of noah the bible tells us that guess what when the end of the world is near it's going to be like the days of noah and i'm telling you if you study the days of noah you'll be shocked at how wow it's like 2021. it's really is there was there was pandemics and diseases going on there was um there was population explosion there was violence do we have we don't have violence man portland's become nuts we have some guys here from out of town great dudes that are helping us with some of our tech stuff and um and uh somebody booked their hotel in downtown yeah everybody's like whoa they had quite a show the night before last they were out there well we're in portland and it's like armageddon down there but um uh they they were trying to burn down the apple store i don't know if you saw they were close they were pretty close but fortunately the fire teams got there and got the pretty raging fire out but you know we just saw our city's just tall we've lost it um but violence population explosion corruption evil unchecked stuff but one of the list of seven things that marked those days is the thoughts and the imagination of the of the heart of man was only continually evil have you ever just thought man people have such dirty minds like if you ever listen to comedians for example it's hard to find a comedian that just doesn't point after point gig after give bit after bit just have slimy sinful grotesque stuff that we're all laughing about today um watch the you shouldn't watch but movie trailers and and advertisements for shows it's like what are they having this woman slept with her and they got this and that and adultery and fornication and murder and violence and it's like oh i'm gonna watch that that looks really exciting uh it's like we use out our thoughts are just continually evil um you know and as it turns out we're inventing evil things you know um one of the one of the things that comes out of trials and difficulties uh as it turns out for humanity is evil comes from that like for example this coronavirus lockdown experts on sexuality are concerned why because husbands and wives are not having romance anymore there's no sex in marriage and it's like they've said it's just plummeted uh and they're worried about just the sex life you know what is on the rise though and uh this this is horrifying to me um but this whole thing of these sex uh robots uh that's on the rise and and the news is covering all this stuff about how there's these life-like robotic uh things that are just big sex toys and we're we're coming up with high-tech the the best robotic science out there is with these sex dolls it's like it's like humanity we're just totally messed up you know it's interesting uh if you look at history with an honest perspective some of the greatest inventions throughout all of history came out of sinful humanity like the sinfulness for example what's the greatest thing that brought more invention than anything war whenever there's been warfare that's when we our tech goes up exponentially you know especially with the big world war world war one world war ii that's where we had massive tech that's where you know the atomic bomb came out of the necessity to kill as many people as possible like it's an amazing thing how just human nature we just get more and more able to think about things that are just totally gross and sinful that's just what comes out of our our struggles and our trial and that was a mark of noah's day and it's a mark of our day as well the thoughts of men and his heart were only evil continually we see that in our music we see that in our movies we see it in our discussions and our newspapers and our magazines that everybody gets into and all that stuff um so that's noah's day how are we doing today well even in the new testament paul said to the roman church he said because that when they knew god they glorified him not as god neither were they thankful but became vain in what their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened and then he goes on you know professing themselves to be wise they become fools you know it's like and then the lord says and he gave them over to those lusts and those sinful things god just said okay there's a point of no return where the lord's gonna eventually uh um you know say you're done like you did in the days of noah now what's funny is we tend to dismiss certain things well it's just harmless thoughts that i have nobody has to know what i'm thinking um and you know who cares so so i have a little thought you know jesus on the sermon on the mount he upped the game on this by uh quite a bit i'd say exponentially you know when when the pharisees they used to you know walk around some of them with looking down to the ground because they didn't want to look at a woman and unless they might have lust in their heart so they look down and walk around they call them the bump and stumble pharisees because they bump into stuff that's a true story look it up um but these guys who thought they were so pious and that they'd never committed adultery jesus upped the game there in matthew chapter 5 verse 27 he says you have heard that in the son of old thou shall not commit adultery but i say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart does your thought life matter and the answer according to jesus is yes and god sees everything that you're thinking um and it's it's it's actually means a lot to the lord to know what's going on in your brain now this might be troubling for some of you how troubling like i always like to think of this you know um can you imagine the technology is getting closer and closer i used to say this thinking it would never happen but the technology elon musk is wanting to put a chip in your brain like he's already working he just came out last week that he's making great progress and it's going to make these you know uh make us much more productive and superhumans and stuff so called but um but what if we have the technology right now hey guys elon musk is here this morning and he's got this cool thing all you have to do is is uh they hook these little electrodes to your brain you'll sit right here on this stool and we'll project it right up on this big screen up here all of your thoughts for the past week any volunteers like who in the world would volunteer for that all the thoughts that you thunk that sounds brutal man uh what would happen to you if we all saw would you would you even allow you in our church again let me sorry you're not welcome here you're a weirdo but but guess what all of us would be in that cat you know our brains it's because what's goes on in the in the soul in the heart and the man and so there's this problem that ezekiel is identifying you know um so we have the problem exposed but point number two for the day a solution expressed really the bible gives us the solution to this problem as it turns out we're not going to find the solution that much in ezekiel and i'll tell you why because the people are too far gone they're already too far gone their thought life the chambers of the leaders imagery they'd allowed themselves to go to that point of no return that romans 1 talks about so you have to kind of search the rest of the bible about well how do we deal with our thought life and there's some really practical but important things i'd like to give you and let's just kind of number them real quick number one the solution and this is the first thing you've got to do is confess our sin to the lord that's the first thing you got to do if you want to fix this problem of your thought life and what's going on in your mind no matter what it is if you're lustful or depressed angry or anxious like whatever the issues are that's going on in your soul that's not in line with what god wants for you how do you do this confess it lord forgive me my thought life is not what you want it to be it's like when david said in psalm 19 verses 12 through 13 he said oh who can understand his errors or literally sins he says cleanse thou me of my secret or from my secret faults or secret sins keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me interesting presumption presumption is almost like the lord doesn't see what's going on in my brain and so i can think whatever i want that's presumptuous the lord says i see it all and what's interesting is that these secret sins that are presumptuous let them not have dominion over me that's what your thought life that's what the enemy wants to do did you know that the enemy satan the bible says he whispers into your soul accusation he accuses the brethren day and night and he's the he's called the devil the deceiver the liar and he wants to put plant those little things in your mind of doubt or depression or anxiety or lust or whatever those things are and he wants to have dominion take control over you so david gets this and he says oh lord cleanse thou me of my secret sins of the presumptuous sins that i think i'm getting away with that nobody sees let them not have dominion over me then shall i be upright and i shall be innocent from the great transgression man confession is the key first john chapter 1 verse 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so you start with um you know confession you've got to confess your sins to the lord number two part of this solution that's expressed understand the conflict understand the conflict um have you ever been in conflict but you didn't know you were in a conflict that's a weird situation uh if you've ever been in that situation where maybe somebody hates you and they're talking about you behind your back and you think they're your best friend but meanwhile they're trying to destroy you um i've had people do that even here with me as a pastor they act like they're my friend and then they'd go and say stuff about athei and stuff that was just not true but kind of interesting it's like man there's a conflict i don't even know we were at war interesting but that's one of satan's specialties he doesn't want you to realize there's the battle for the brain there's a battle that's going on you need to understand the conflict check this out second corinthians chapter 10 tells us about the battle of the brain it says for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or you know practically like you know guns and knives and stuff but but mighty through god to doing what the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations that's in your mind every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ you know you got a picture of the battlefield and warfare you know what do you do man you gotta you gotta defeat the enemy and take captives like uh either wipe them out and kill them or take them captivity and what does it say you need to take captive those thoughts so when i was under the water they're breathing thinking i'm going to suffocate down here at 70 feet if i kept thinking about that i could have panicked and panicking makes you use up more air which makes you the death happen earlier so you can't do that you got to take captive those thoughts and say you know what there's answers to my problem here that i am running out of air i can do this or i can do that but i'm not going to panic and so i had to take captive those thoughts i think you and i need to learn to do that with spiritual things whether it's lust or greed or anger anxiety learn how to take captive every thought to the obedience of christ casting down imaginations the things that the enemy plants in your heart saying oh you're gonna go down and nobody likes you and everything's horrible cast those things down say i'm gonna do battle against those things so really you know the second thing is you've got to understand we're at war understand the conflict number two and then number three you gotta then change the way you think now this is where the world is just now trying to catch up with biblical christianity um and i remember remember in the 80s and 90s everybody was into positive affirmation and we're getting close but we're still not there positive of affirmation is ridiculous and we've talked about this before as you look in the mirror i'm smart enough and i'm good enough and people like me and you just tell yourself that and change those neuroplasticity by by talking to yourself and saying positive things here's the problem that i have with that um you can look in the mirror and say i'm smart and i'm handsome and i'm and people like me but the problem is people still hate you and you're still ugly and you're also dumb that's that's what i've learned personally i'm just from my own experience uh um that's the problem but i got to give credit where credit is there is blessing and i don't believe in just the power of positive thinking i think we might need to change that to more of a biblical way if you've been kind of raised i'm just going to think positive i'd say you've got to have the power of truthful thinking because um that's what we're supposed to be doing yes change the way you think but don't just lie to yourself in the in the mirror philippians 4 8 tells us what we're supposed to do with our brains and it's very clear finally brothers and sisters whatsoever is tr or whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things man there's a nice list for you i used to teach this to my kids and family devos kids when you're bummed out what you got to do is tina plap those thoughts tina plap yeah if you break these words out right here in this verse true noble right pure lovely admiral praiseworthy it spells tinor plap now you've got to use the niv bible uh because the king james is and it doesn't make a nice word so so you got to go with the niv and i used to tell my kids if if you know one of my kids was walking around the house you know i'd say better tina flap those thoughts um tinor plapim yep and i think some of you guys probably need to learn to tina plap your thoughts too remind each other to tinor flap if you're a husband and a wife and the husband oh man i'm just really honey might want to tinor flap those thoughts and you know what that means that's philippians 4 8. think finally brothers and think on these things whatsoever things are true noble praise or right pure lovely admirable excellent or praiseworthy i i left the e out of there because it's excellent and praise or praise worthy but you could say tina plate if you want to a-e-p but either way that's what we need to do is is change the way that we are thinking about things change the way we think um science like i said is only catching up to this but but i love what science is starting to figure out um those that study neurology and the way your brain works and how it relates to actual the way you feel and even the actions that you do um repetitive thoughts as they find out create connections in your brain that quickly become ironclad um behaviors uh these thoughts move from conscious to unconscious ways of thinking and being enacting this is how you tend to move in more of an autopilot mode are there things you do on autopilot well the answer is yes the process you know of learning something like remember when you first learned how to drive a car uh how many guys learned with learned on a stick shift anybody see you guys are a rare breed um there was there used to be a day where you had a stick shift you had to push in the clutch and but i remember when you first did that your your dad or your mom okay now you're pushing the clutch and then you shift the gear but don't just don't pop the you got to slow and let the accelerator you got to kind of whoo and you're like man this is like juggling i can't do it and you're like you know remember that it's the way you learned but after a little while pretty soon man you you start getting the feel you know okay i'm gonna give this a little more a little more throttle and and pretty soon smoother and after a while it's amazing how you just drive a stick and you don't even think about it and some of you ladies i've seen you you're driving a stick and you're putting on the lipstick and you're scolding the kids and you're eating your chick-fil-a and it's just like it's like wow that's impressive but it's all muscle memory you got that yeah it's like it's amazing it's amazing gifted but as it turns out that's the way your brain works the more you do something and and muscle memory playing an instrument all those things you start to do stuff because of repetition and your brain makes those connections now here's the troubling thing if you wake up let's just take an example uh every morning in oregon and you look out the window it's cloudy again i'm so depressed i want to move to florida okay forget florida arizona i want to move and you just feel yourself down and blue well guess what the next morning if you do that again you're creating these sort of connections in your brain that pretty soon just you associate getting up in the morning with uh what a bummer even when it's a sunny day you're like come on it's a sunny day i should be feeling really good today but if you've created those pathways that just start to become muscle memory in your brain as it turns out the process of change requires forgetting what we already know to discover new ways of thinking and being you know the world says regular meditation and yoga no the bible says prayer and seeking the lord and and thinking on things that are true noble bright pure lovely admirable praiseworthy changing those thoughts over prayer and meditating on the word is okay it accelerates as it turns out as you think on these things the science is now showing us what the bible says it accelerates the achievement of change by repetition learning something they've also found this is interesting learning something new after creating those neuro pathways that are so locked in learning something new requires considerable focused energy and you cannot have your attention divided if you're trying to change that's an interesting thing isn't it interesting that jesus who was god in the flesh needed to get away and seek and pray and have time of quietness jesus needed that the same one that just you know uh you know spoke and someone was healed the same one that turned water into wine the same one that fed five thousand was just five loaves and two fishes like this is the same they said you know i need to get away and just take time i wonder how much more you and i need to have undivided attention uh focused on change of our minds why shut up quick work god is good god great thanks for the food so i prayed and i'm still feeling depressed no undivided change and repetition to change that fortunately what science calls neuroplasticity the bible says no actually you can start to change your mind again but it takes work and it takes focus and the bible's been telling this all along so learning something new requires that energy and by the way the older you get the more energy it takes to change did you know that that's what science is telling us something we already knew we have a phrase you can't teach an old dog new tricks but i think you still can the bible tells us you can so we have the ability to alter by the grace of god and and you know i can't say we can do nothing apart from god but but change is possible with god um here's another one for you on this how do we fix this problem the solution expressed the bible says resist the devil i told you already the devil is whispering in your ear accusation and lies and all that um just a quick reminder james 4 7 submit yourselves to god therefore and resist the devil and he will flee from you the best example of this is jesus matthew 4 was led out to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and every time the devil tempted him he would speak back scripture remember that hey you're hungry you've been starving for 40 days turn these stones into bread and what did jesus do this is how you change your mind this is how you create the the pattern of muscle memory jesus said you know man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god like jesus was perfect and he knew how to deal with that lie that temptation that was coming into his mind for food there's nothing worse than the smell of bread when you're starving and you're saying i know you're starving hey there's the friends bakery right here can you smell it turn these stones into bread i probably would have been ding okay we've got cinnamon rolls and and uh you know what is that krispy kremes and all kinds of but jesus jesus resisted the devil and four times the devil said something four times jesus spoke scripture and then eventually what happened the devil left him resist the devil and he will flee another solution the bible gives us to this battle of the brain is is to overcome evil with good you guys know it romans 12 21 it says be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good um you know again the scuba diving example um if if that's starting to overcome or overwhelm me it puts me into a panic and a spin so you've gotta you've gotta start pushing back um and so when you feel that sense and maybe it is literally social anxiety and panic you've gotta you've gotta do the work and it's not always easy um but you gotta start speaking uh and doing battle with it maybe do you have ammo verses what do you mean ammo verses um well the power of scripture when jesus was tempted he always spoke scripture so if you're let's just talk to the person who comes into a church that i can't go to church anymore i feel that anxiety soon i'm in a crowd and i just feel like i'm going to freak out or scream and i'm going to do something weird and the deacons are going to have to haul me out of here you're like this is horrible i got to hey learn to don't be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good have some ammo scripture like like famous ones like second timothy chapter one you know it reminds us that we you and i are not to be given over to a spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind like have that on the tip of your tongue just like jesus spoke the word out that's that's the way you overcome evil with good so every time satan fires that fiery dart and be ready with scripture there's your you're you're just going along thinking good things and loving the lord and suddenly satan fires that lustful thought in your head james chapter 1 verse 12 blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he has tried he will receive the crown of life which is promised to those that love the lord ammo scripture every time satan fires one at you you fire back scripture it doesn't even have to be scripture by the way um let's say you're feeling depressed and you feel like satan has kind of put that you're like where did that come from i was feeling great yesterday and today i'm just down again what do you do don't be overcome by that evil overcome evil with good maybe you have three friends that wrestle with depression wouldn't it be great if every time satan kind of throws that depression into your heart you go to your knees and say i'm going to now pray for three of my best buddies who struggle with it lord i pray for so and so who's prone to feeling the way i feel today lord would you encourage their soul today fill them with that joy lord i pray for such and such this this person i know that the other day something bad help them to just get through that with joy and may your joy be their strength like just start praying can you imagine every time satan attacks you you just start praying and the power of prayer is real so you're you're doing battle suddenly eventually resist the devil and what's going to happen what will he do do i have to teach this all over again resist the devil and he will yes thank you that's so good listen listen have the things to do that that where you're not being overcome by evil but overcome evil with good i'm angry why my neighbors garbage cans are always in my driveway and i have to like who am i murray and jenny having to drive around these cones of trash can all right and don't be overcome by evil it's not that you're a your neighbor is evil you're evil so what do you got to do you got to overcome that evil good you you lovingly bring their trash can in for them um and when you mow the lawn instead of getting out your tape measure this is still my property i'm gonna make sure not mow any of their blades of grass and there's this perfect lie no just mow the whole thing and don't be a weirdo instead of being mad and angry overcome evil with good it's stuff that goes on in your heart and your mind and god sees it and he cares about it and it's important so important is the imagination of the mind and what's going on in the head that god takes this whole section of ezekiel and says listen ezekiel you need to see what's going on in the minds in the chambers of imagery in the hearts of the leaders of israel it's not good it needs to be fixed and so bad was it that the lord said i'm going to judge the whole world in the times of noah it was one of the big reasons why the lord said their thoughts were evil continually so i'm going to destroy the world and that's also one of the problems of the last days you and i today we need to do battle the battle for the brain and we've given you some tools some weapons that we can use to see some victory may the lord give us ears to hear what the spirit says to the church in jesus name let's pray lord we thank you for this reminder from ezekiel this little field trip seeing what was behind the creepy door lord i pray that you would help your word to penetrate our hearts into the temple of our hearts lord and that we would honestly assess what's going on in our minds lord i pray that each one of us would would take account and lord realize that we're not just here messing around but there's a battle going on and i pray that my brothers and sisters watching online or here in the sanctuary would would have great victory lord in this battle for the brain um i pray that lord we would start just brand new this morning as you tell us if we confess our sins you are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we take this time lord as we close the service to go to your table what a what a great opportunity lord to go to your table of communions you've spread out before us in the presence of our enemies and lord that your cup runneth over the cup of mercy the cup of christ the blood of jesus lord that washes our sins away and so lord i pray if there are anybody that might be watching or hear that is not saved yet to believe in the cross and be a christian lord i pray first and foremost that they would repent of their sins and be saved lord that they would confess their faith that you died on the cross for their sins in their place and that you paid the price for their sins and then lord you would start giving them great victory over sin and over the challenges of this life lord so we pray blessing now as we consider you lord in jesus name i'd like to at this time just to have you take those little packets out uh the corona free packets cracks me up and um what i love about these is um you know we get to do what jesus said now some people say brad i this is weird doing like this i was raised a catholic or certain disciplines the russian church does it differently than this listen there's a few requirements for communion one you need to be a christian if you're not a christian don't do this because it means nothing to you and please don't get up and leave at this time i know it's it's um tempting but this is the most holy part of the service for crying out loud unless your bath you have to go to the bathroom i understand that but um but please this is not a great i can get out early no this is the important part here and i even ended early this morning so um so here's the thing um jesus said do this eat the bread drink the cup often and remember to me the priest with the tongue thing that was made up by men with much much light hundreds of years later made up by men um you know uh transubstantiation made up by men uh you know is the is the bread literally jesus's body when you start to put it like that's the way some traditions have told you but i challenge you to read your bible and realize that um you know it's it's i don't agree with transsubstantiating the catholics but i also don't agree with a lot of the protestants who dumb down communion to be merely just a symbol there's power in what we're about to do here and that is the body the blood we're remembering what jesus did but there's power in the body and there's power in the blood um jesus said you know teaches us in his word that the stripes are whipped on jesus back that's how you're healed um i think part of this tearing down of strongholds in our brains is is the healing that comes from just accepting the work of the cross and remembering um there's healing there's power over sin when we remember the body and the blood of christ but above all there's forgiveness and washing remember the movie i told you about the electrodes on your head and showing the movie do you want that movie erased uh do you want to delete that well i do and guess what that's what this does when you confess lord my brain has thought bad things guess what when you confess and say lord would you forgive me when we eat this bread and drink this cup we know that man the lord says i remember your sins no more you have a clean slate clean film and then we can go out of this place today and not mess it up again but if we do good news we can confess and the lord is faithful and his mercy endures how long forever so lord as we eat this bread we're so thankful for the work of the cross we thank you lord that you took the penalty for us on our behalf we eat this bread lord this morning asking you to heal us from our sins even as by your stripes we are healed lord give us power over sin help us to walk in victory we pray so we eat this bread thanking you in jesus name and let's eat of the lord together [Music] [Music] nothing but the blood of jesus oh pressure [Music] [Music] should now just peel back that foil layer and um the cup of christ what a great thing to know that jesus is precious blood like um peter explained it's not blood of goats and rams and bowls of the old testament that forgive sins not purchasing with silver or gold but with the precious blood of christ that's how we were purchased we were redeemed and we're forgiven so as we drink of this cup let's celebrate what jesus did jesus we thank you for your blood we thank you for the cleansing and washing and now we drink of you in jesus name let's drink together nothing but the [Music] nothing but the blood of jesus oh precious is the floor that makes me [Music] let's all stand together and sing it out [Music] [Music] so may the lord bless you may he keep you may he cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you in jesus name you're dismissed god bless you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 13,771

Rating: 4.89644 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: 0p3p1YHnQyU

Length: 82min 51sec (4971 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021