Full Service | Sunday June 20, 2021

good morning afee creek hey if you're here in the room with us would you stand if you're out in the foyer you make your way inside and if you're joining us online we're glad you're here with us to spend some time in worship uh we have an awesome opportunity to just praise our savior because he's worthy of our praise amen let's worship him it's by your blood i am free i am free [Music] your death brought me back to life and now i am alive i am alive for me your love has set me free each day is a brand new star beautiful grace [Music] forever [Music] you stole my heart each day is is coming down grace saved wretch like me [Music] grace is how sweet the sound breaks is calming [Music] down for me your love has set me free beautiful grace you stole my heart [Applause] and each day [Music] [Music] is [Music] beautiful [Applause] [Music] i [Music] whisper of love [Music] [Music] that's who i am it's who i am far and wide but i know we're all searching for answers you [Music] [Applause] [Music] good [Music] [Music] are is in all of your ways [Music] [Music] love so undeniable [Music] [Music] deeper still [Music] to you [Music] [Music] is [Music] is you're perfect [Music] [Music] [Applause] it's who i am [Music] you are able to provide you are [Music] [Music] i am [Music] your protection never [Music] i am you are bigger than all my fears through each day i will say that i trust you i trust you [Applause] [Music] for your glory my great reward i am yours you are bigger than all my my dreams whatever will come through each day i will say god i trust you i trust you [Music] no matter what the circumstances [Music] us [Music] through is day i will say god i [Music] trust you you are bigger than all my fears [Music] through each day i will say god i trust you i just you i trust you [Music] lord we ask that that wouldn't just be something that we sing this morning but that it would be reality lord that we put our trust in you that our foundation would be in you and you alone even as the world and the enemy in this world wants to mess us up lord we pray that we would just be firmly planted in you where we thank you for uh meeting with us anywhere we call out your name and we just pray your blessing as we continue to worship in jesus name [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing worthy of all the praise we could ever bring [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] jesus the name of every other name jesus the only one who could ever sing worthy of every breath we could ever breathe be there for [Music] there is [Music] me in your love to those around me worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of all the praise we could ever bring [Applause] worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] jesus the name of every other [Music] jesus the only one who could ever save for thee of every breath we could ever be we live for you oh jesus [Music] show me who you are [Music] [Music] show me who you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i will build my it is a firm foundation i will put my trust [Music] my my [Music] who you are me [Music] [Music] know [Music] upon it is a firm foundation i will put my choice [Music] lord again may we not be shaken by this world tossed in the waves but may our foundation be in you and in your word and so we ask lord that as we prepare to crack open your word this morning that you would get our hearts ready to hear directly from you by your holy spirit so lord we pray your blessing over the rest of this service in jesus name we pray amen amen you can grab a seat at this time and we have an announcement video to roll for you [Music] hey eepy creek james and angela here we've got some exciting stuff to announce today first mark those calendars because on sunday july 11th we're gonna have an all church barbecue it's been a while and we're pumped to welcome back the purple holes and this time they're bringing their brother banjo ben we'd love for you to join us out on the main lawn for a night of bluegrass burgers and loads of fun be sure to register by visiting our website someone at our info table in the foyer will be happy to help you out as well we're also looking for volunteers to help us out speaking of volunteers as athe continues to grow we're constantly on the lookout for volunteers in all sorts of areas there are many opportunities to serve here and if you feel that we invite you to jump in to serve with our children's ministry being a grandma it's one of my personal favorites then there's also the coffee crew parking or the video team just to name a few visit our website or the info table to learn more we'd love for you to join our amazing team of volunteers that's right and with that we're ready to jump back into ezekiel so please grab your bibles and let's get started [Music] [Applause] all right good stuff is anybody going to go to the barbecue you guys yeah good good that's gonna be fun uh banjo ben man what a uh you know how i found those guys is uh uh as a banjo player and mandolin player poser i should say um i uh i went online and said banjo instruction and found banjo ben and uh he's the guy who does these online banjo mandolin guitar lessons and he's over the top amazing and after each lesson he'd just share the gospel like he'd teach people to play stuff and then say you know jesus died in the crossfire and he's like but he's like us like one of the best banjo players in the world he traveled all over the world with bands country bands taylor swift he was taylor swift's main banjo mandolin guy for years uh he's an amazing guy well then i after doing that i saw his sisters had a little group called the purple holes and they're just a little and they're talented too if you guys saw that a couple of years ago when we had them it was amazing and you know you may not even be into bluegrass uh honestly i'm not that into bluegrass except for i love that they tend to be sort of gospel music oriented a lot of bluegrass on it's really hard to be depressed and hear a banjo at the same time so we're gonna have a blast out there at the barbecue so make sure and uh get get your tickets for that you don't want to miss that it'll be a fun deal um one thing that we're sort of dealing with again after uh the last year and a half we've kind of been really mellow on the issue of what to do with babies uh in our church we've got so many babies uh hundreds and hundreds of babies which we love we love babies uh contrary to what some of our facebook account uh surveys or whatever said uh uh there's one that says ac greek hates babies it's like well you haven't been and seen how many babies we have we love babies the problem is um with this many people and especially this service um there's so many babies it's like we run out of room you know for uh babies all over the place so whether you're here in the sanctuary or in the nursery or whatever but um here's the thing if there's any way we can help you with that let us know we'd love to assist you and give you some there's so many options if the little whippersnapper is starting to make noise we do appreciate uh you know moms or dads trying to help uh keep with them as many babies as we have trying to keep the sanctuary down to a low hum you know it can't be a high scream if it's ice cream and then all the other we i kind of have to just dismiss the service as i saw everybody's got to go because we have so many babies so um there are options there's of course dropping baby off in the nursery there's also um the fellowship hall just over here it's a big room with the tv you can kind of go out there and do some assistance or whatever for the little whipper snapper there's also a nursing mom's room and there's also a family room over here this that's an option we got a bunch of options for people that kind of want to still sort of take in the service but also want to be sensitive to the sanctuary and the noise level and distractions and stuff like that um some people have interpreted our uh way of doing that is that we hate babies it's really the opposite i feel like it's torturous for anybody to sit through my teachings let alone a baby for an hour hour and a half that's a long that's a long haul uh so um so we want to encourage you to be sensitive that and let us know if we can help with that um this service and the next service those the 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock are kind of our two toughest ones if you'd like to go to a service that has more room for the babies uh definitely uh uh eight o'clock am service is a good option and then also the saturday services as well the four o'clock and six o'clock um we're just busting out at the seams all across the boards our uh youth group had more than 400 kids there last thursday uh like it's like we're just we're just seeing tons of stuff yeah it's great um and so be praying about that uh maybe go to six services once the fall hits uh because summer's when it's a lull that's always our lulls right now uh so um anyways um you know uh one of the things i also want to point out is uh the help you know some of you i've heard from old school lately creakers have you know been here in the old days brad i missed the good old days when it was just you know the it's so simple and just one service hey i missed that too uh five services uh if you ever tried doing five services it's quite a thing um but but you know it's so neat the lord's blessing and people are you know piling in here but did you know the reason why we've kind of upgraded and have more cameras it's not because we're like look at us wow no the reason we've upgraded our cameras and you might see moving cameras around and stuff it's because like for example just the live streaming this isn't i'm not even talking about the people that watch the teaching after the fact um live streams last week we had more than 54 000 live views of just the service like that's a lot yeah um and so that's why there's camera people in front of you sometimes and don't be upset about that when you see a cameraman pray for those that are online and watching because um people are getting saved uh we had this i got this great letter this last week this guy writes and he sends me an american flag and a certificate uh and i'm like what is this all about and it was one of our soldiers over in baghdad at he's kind of outside of baglet and they're sort of the last group they're um sort of dealing with some of the last bits of isis and they're kind of still in combat situations there but he was watching athy creek online you know taking in the services over there and some of his buddies started joining in well one guy was an agnostic guy and he's kind of what do you guys want and started asking the guys question and they they're you know calling themselves ac creakers over there in baghdad yeah where are the greekers um and uh this this guy this after time uh one of the guys they got a picture of them holding this flag on this roof in this city where there's like bombs going off you know like like seriously it's like and the flag flew over that front position where they're you know still trying to take ground and they're holding this flag the guy in the middle of the picture was the agnostic who just accepted the lord and uh it's really cool he's a christian yeah and uh they're gonna come when they get out of their deployment they're gonna come and get to portland so they can get baptized they want to get baptized in the river right here so that's going to be fun i'm looking forward to that one that's going to be it's just so cool hearing the stories of what the lord's doing not just in these walls but you know kind of out and around so um praise the lord for that but but keep all that in prayer our room trouble our services and traffic jams and people uh don't even know how to deal with it other than we're doing our best so uh thanks for your patience and what have you we're going through the bible and we're in ezekiel 28 why don't you grab your bible and turn there as we continue verse by verse through the scriptures we'll be looking um at chapter the end of chapter 28 and uh 29 30 31 on wednesday night we're gonna read so so read ahead you can kind of be ready for the wednesday night study join us here live or online but i want to show you something here in ezekiel 28 the first 19 verses is our text for the morning it is a father's day sermon by the way i'm going to make a loose tie uh to i'll show you what that is but uh i love going through the bible so i don't veer off from that even on father's day mother's day i tend to veer off because the moms wouldn't have it but the dad's like okay um in fact uh wait to hear what this father's day sermon's about well um as it turns out we're gonna be talking about satan happy father's day he's called the father of all lies jesus called him that the father of all lies so that that'll be our uh you know speaking of saying there were these two little boys who had in the summer time they'd go out to the cemetery outside of town and there was a big pecan tree that dropped pecans around the cemetery the boys would go and pick up the pecans and put them in a bucket and then divvy them up and bring them to the grocery store and get paid for the pecans well these two boys they were gathering up got a bucket full and they sat behind one of the gravestones and sat there and started divvying up and they said there's more over there by the fence let's get we'll get those later the pecans but they divvy it up and the little boys like one for me one for you one for me one for you well this other little boy a third boy comes riding by on his bike and he hears this voice coming from the cemetery saying one for me one for you and he's he's shaking he runs this old man walking down the street says i think satan and the apostle or the apostle peter is arguing over the souls in the cemetery well the old guy comes and he says that's ridiculous and he walks over and listens and they look through the fence there at the edge of the cemetery and listen and sure enough one for me one for you and the old man's you're right this is amazing and they're a little bit freaked out and then the little boys are getting one for me one for you okay and the last one's for me now let's get those nuts by the fence oh boy satan is not a cartoon satan is not a joke i think we have all these jokes and stuff and whether it's you know uh you know you know ezekiel 28 you know kind of squaring us away uh because there's so many misnomers about who satan is um you know we have to kind of be careful about this whether it's your favorite mascot you know or sports team they're always using you know satan you know the sun devils and uh maybe you're a sun devil fan i don't know or maybe you like your deviled ham you know uh but we got this we've kind of cartooned cartoonize satan and by the way with your kids cartoons and stuff they always make satan cool and the good ones always real kind of nerdy and stuff like that but but is satan a cartoon does satan exist some of the churches you go to today will tell you you know satan's more of a notion or an idea well that's that's ridiculous if you read your bible the the bible actually teaches us a lot about who satan is ezekiel 28 verses 1-19 is an interesting passage that doesn't start by talking about satan but ends talking about satan i'll show you what i mean and ezekiel he's quite the deep thinker and mysterious mystic um as we've been seeing him as the prophet and we're going to see that uh here in our text let's read ezekiel 28 verse 1 it says in the word of the lord came again unto me saying son of man say unto the prince of tyrus thus saith the lord god because thine heart is lifted up that's another way of saying being prideful whenever you see that phrase because your heart is lifted up and thou hast said i am god or i am a god i sit in the seat of god in the midst of the seas yet thou art a man and not god though thou set thine heart as the heart of god behold now now this is where the lord through his ego is being sarcastic does the lord use sarcasm yes here it is watch this he says behold the thou art wiser than daniel there's no secret that can that they can hide from me you know nothing gets past you verse four with thy wisdom and with thine understanding now has gotten the riches and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures by thy great wisdom and by thy traffic thou has increased thy riches and thine heart is lifted up pride because of thy riches therefore thus saith the lord god because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of god behold therefore i will bring strangers upon thee the terrible of the nations and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom and they shall defile thy brightness and they shall bring thee down to the pit and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas will thou yet say before him what slayeth thee i am a god but thou shalt be a man and no god in the hand of him that slayeth thee thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers for i have spoken it saith the lord god or the lord jehovah now pause here in verse 10 because um up till now it's kind of clear what happened i think it is if you were with us last sunday we talked about the city of tyre the destruction of tyre and remember god made a flat tire he did not spare a tire um it was not a good year for the men of tyre um but if you recall that study was about the destruction of tyre and then verse chapter 27 on wednesday night we saw the the funeral procession of the people of tyre and and the city itself but here in chapter 28 we talk about we start here with the prince of tyre and his destruction and what's the problem he thinks he's all that you know and maybe he is maybe he really was an impressive individual it seems like the bible is saying yeah he was impressive but that was the problem he was lifted up with pride and started to think you know i'm pretty amazing in fact i'm so amazing i'm pretty much god and he started claiming to be god now by the way that sounds a little crazy right now um but uh as it turns out in those days people were claiming that as kings all the time you know the pharaohs were considered gods um you know the roman emperors some of them were considered deity but here the man that was the king or the prince of tyre was was calling himself god in this sense and here the lord saying you're not god and i am god and you're going to die like a man because you're a man and guess who's going to kill you god is going to kill like this is a really radical section of scripture saying you're toast mr king of tire prideful arrogant and so we understand that and kind of marries nicely to our sermon from last sunday of the destruction of tyre but here's what happens ezekiel is going to take and look beyond this story in his local situation and his prophecy is going to extend to something bigger and even more important and more long-term and and even more eternal and and use this as an idiom an illustration a metaphor of another ruler satan himself by the way if you're new to the bible um you might think well brett this is kind of a stretch uh suddenly thinking that he's talking about satan when he was talking about the king but what you need to understand is if you read the rest of the bible most of the prophets do this where they talk about a local situation and then their gaze goes past the local situation and goes into even a thing that's yet to happen in our own lifetimes future prophecies um let me give you an example in the book of daniel remember he gives this prophecy about you know the babylonians the medes and the persians the the greeks and then when the greeks come alexander the great is prophesied about by daniel the prophet and after alexander there's these four other generals that will come out of alexander remember lysimicus cassander uh you know tommy solutious those those uh generals if you know your history and they took over but the tomies and the solutions went to battle against each other and daniel talked he prophesized about all this stuff with great precision but then he talks about a ruler that's going to come out of that group the ptolemies and the solutions and it would be what would the jews would eventually know as the maccabean revolt because a guy named antiochus epiphanes the jews called him antiques epimanis as a play on words the hebrew is basically saying antiochus the madman that's what they called him why was he called the madman he slaughtered tens of thousands of jews in the streets of jerusalem he smeared pig's blood all over the temple you guys remember that story the maccabean revolt hanukkah all came out of that whole story but daniel then when he tells that prophecy about the maccabean local situation his gaze goes past that and talks about even that same kind of spirit that was on antiochus to kill jews and to file the temple and all this stuff would happen even in a future time where it wouldn't be antiochus it would be antichrist this one who would come in the future and set himself up to be worshipped in the temple in jerusalem and and that's a common thing that the prophets did they talked about the local and then they looked forward to something bigger that's exactly what ezekiel is about to do so verses 1 through 10 of our text is talking about the the prince of attire but now see if you can notice what is it that gives us the clue that this is something greater than just a person or even a human what are the attributes talked about here that are not really human attributes that he's going to talk about let's take a look as we finish up verses 11 through 19. it says in verse 11 moreover the word of the lord came unto me saying son of man take up a lamentation upon the king of tyrus and say unto him thus saith the lord god thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty thou hast been in eden the garden of god every precious stone that was thy covering the sardius topaz the diamond the barrel the onyx the jasper the sapphire the emerald the carbuncle and gold the workmanship of thy tabrts and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day thou was created and thou art the anointed cherub that covereth and i have set thee so that was upon the holy mountain of god thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire by the way that's an idiom that the hebrews looked at when they talk about stones of fire let's talk about the stars of heaven that he would walk among the stars of heaven verse 15 thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee by the multitude of thy merchandise have they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned therefore now now i want you to note this god is going to make you know like you know five i will statements god says i will do this i will do that and i will do that note these he starts out in the middle of verse 16 therefore i will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of god and i will destroy thee o covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness i will cast thee to the ground i will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee thus defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities by the iniquity of thy traffic therefore will i bring forth a fire from the midst of thee it shall devour thee and i will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all of them that behold thee and verse 19 all they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee thou shalt be a terror and never shalt thou be any more here we have the king of tyre mentioned here but do you sense that this is something bigger than just some local king and why do we get such a huge section of the bible talking about this king that nobody really cares about um it's because of this this moving to something bigger um is the king of tyre referring to satan well i believe there's several clues and i'm only going to give you my top several there's actually a bunch more than this but here's some of the clues that we see this is not actually the literal king of time but now we're talking figuratively about satan notice he's called in some of your translations the model of perfection blameless um from the the from the very first day that he was created it says that in verse 15 that was perfect in thy ways till the day that that from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you now now what human was born in perfection now if you're you know if you went to berkeley or harvard or you know portland state you know you were told you're a good person and people are basically wonderful and all everybody's good and all of a sudden well the bible says the opposite everybody's bad we were born in sin all have sinned and fall short of the glory god there's not even one person righteous and it even says we were conceived in sin like we're just full of sin we have sin nature within us if you don't believe that just give birth to a child and you will say wow there's a little sitting nature in there and it came very naturally you didn't teach junior to say that's a very greedy attitude that just comes very naturally um stuff like that lying when they first tell that first big lie uh you didn't teach them okay now here's how you lie you didn't do that it's a sin nature but this being whoever it is was was created in total perfection it says until iniquity was found see that that's not a human characteristic let's go on not only the king of tyre uh it also says that he was in the garden of god the garden of eden verse 13. who was in the garden of eden well this is pretty easy because there was only two people on the planet adam and eve well and you could say also the lord but then well who who's left the serpent remember the serpent the devil in the tree of the knowledge of good evil hissing saying come on he eat of this you know the the the fruit of the tree uh this this being was there was the king of tyre in the garden of eden the third thing he's called in verse 14 the anointed or the guardian cherub the appointed some of your translations say it the appointed or the anointed cherub the word cherub is the highest form of the angels and that's what this is being referred to as who is the highest form well as it turns out we know from other passages in the scriptures that satan was the most beautiful of all the created angels and probably somewhat of a leader if not the leader of those angels uh the guardian cherub as he's called also it says you know you were perfect until wickedness was found in you or as the king james says till iniquity was found in you um what what leader suddenly was going from beauty and perfection to suddenly evil that's the story of satan does anybody know what was the singular sin that he committed pride the bible tells us that in other places i'll show you that in a minute um but also what we see here in this passage is he says i expelled you and threw you to earth we see that there um you know uh in verse 17. i will cast thee to the ground and i will throw you down to before the kings of the earth and you've defiled the sanctuaries so you know the the the thing about satan is um all of these quantities and qualities fit him as a being so that's why scholars believe that probably ezekiel's saying listen um the king of tires one thing but now the way that the king of tyre went down that's a picture of how satan himself is going to go down now we learn a lot about satan and and if you're new here we don't focus on satan all the time here at 8th greek what we do is go verse by verse through the bible so when it comes up we'll talk about satan and i thought father's day would be a wonderful day to talk about this so so that's what we're doing um but i want to while we're here we should know about satan because the bible teaches us that we're supposed to know about satan um so so first of all note with me if you're taking notes number one satan's display he he puts on a display that's quite impressive i need to say this and i hope you listen satan is not ugly we all think the same he's a red guy with a wrinkly face muscular but with a red face and a red goatee and horns and he's down there going yeah and he's he's there with steam and stuff and sulfur smelling around him no no the bible tells us so much about satan it's it's it's actually impressive when you see it and you get the sense from ezekiel he's describing this beautiful creature but he's still going down um here's a few scriptures you should know second corinthians 11 14 no marvel for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light angel of light he's not ugly um also here in our text in ezekiel you know 28 13 the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in the in the day that that was created now this is a mouthful this verse but um the hebrew scholars say that the implication is kind of strange that satan himself wasn't good at playing instruments that somehow his created being was an instrument it might be as simple as you know if you hear a woman who's got an amazing voice people say wow she's got pipes you know she can really sing well satan's got pipes that's what it says here the workmanship of his tabrets in the day of of thy pipes was prepared and thee in the great day you were created and so he was a musician but maybe he wasn't playing instruments he was part of the instrument this created cherub in heaven some scholars have suggested he was a worship leader maybe the worship leader in heaven that explains a lot about worship leaders i'm just kidding just kidding um some sort of um um old j vernon mcgee you know he's that preacher that's on uh you know he's been in heaven for a long time but i love that uh my radio program's on uh at ten o'clock i think and he's on at 10 30. and uh we're next to each other i love that old javert and when he was asked about this he said when satan and his demons fell he said they fell right into the choir loft i thought that that's that's probably probably true in some ways but but satan was a musician and by the way did you know that satan still to this day uses music oh brett preach it talk about the devil's beat tell us maybe you come from a traditional background and your preacher or your parents said there's a beat that's you can find youtube videos if you want to that a four-four beat is a godly beat one two three four but once you syncopate that rhythm it's demonic there's like serious youtube people claiming that um i've had people come and say the drums are the devil's instrument um let me just tell you the drums are not the devil's instrument the bases no just just kidding sorry peter uh he's playing bass day um no it's not the bass it's not the drums and there's no such thing as the devil's instrument except the devil himself he is an instrument now this should be important to you because i believe all music by the way is soul music you mean like james brown you know i feel good no not that solicit music that is your mind and your emotions uh music ministers to your soul one way or the other and so rather than talking about a genre of music well i think that hip-hop is demonic or country music is demonic or or classical music or whatever you want to say um people say stuff like that that's all ridiculous it's not about the genre it's about what does the music do does the music draw you closer to the lord or does it drive you away from the lord does it make you think of pure holy things or does it make you think of sexual perverse things does it make you want to draw closer to the lord and worship him or does it make you want to just kind of live pridefully and into your own thing and and bust your move and just kind of be cool and all that like you have to measure that out and say man is this is this of the lord what i'm listening to and making part of my life um and i think that's a tricky thing uh i think there's some christian musicians that actually feed more of the secular soul and the the flesh then the spirit um i think there's some secular artists that feed more of the spiritual side more than they even want to admit uh like it's really a trick a tricky thing but you need to discern is this music satan still uses music be careful especially you younger people because there's you just have everything available to you and i think a lot of kids are sort of sucked into things that are just kind of harmful to their souls because they haven't had that discernment about man is this really making me want to love the lord and walk with the lord or is this making me almost against the lord be careful but all that to say satan's display it's glorious it's beautiful it's bright it's desirable that's what this chapter is telling us but he's still evil that's the thing you have to be careful of the world does this too satan uses things that are flashy and beautiful do you remember when people used to watch the oscars oh the red carpet and the beauty and the clothes and the gowns and the music and the lights but you know what's funny to me and i think that most people are seeing through that as just evil most people now that's why nobody watches anymore they're kind of like yeah we're kind of done watching that it's it's it's become so wacko and people are seeing through the glitziness and see that it's just a bunch of weirdos now here's the thing there's a lot of other things that the enemy is doing to still dangle in front of us that is bright and beautiful and he wants it to be like a a lure that hooks you be careful satan transformed himself into an angel of light that's what the bible says that's his display beauty brightness light number two satan's desire what does satan want well as it turns out we actually have that in the scriptures the bible tells us what satan's desires are and as it turns out remember how i showed you god's i will statements in ezekiel 28 for every thing that god does satan has a poser duplication of it do you know that satan's an imitator by the way like like god is a holy trinity god the father the son and the holy spirit but there's an unholy trinity when you read the book of revelation there's satan the false prophet and the antichrist like these there's a there's an unholy trinity there that's a copy duplication not nearly uh even close to what god is of course but he's an imitator but one of the things that god says i will do this i will do this i will do this well satan has his own version of that and let's explore that just for a second if you look and we're not going to turn there for speed because i was too long last service but you can jot this down your notes isaiah 14 satan verses 12-17 makes i will statement so let's go through those and compare them with the i will statements of god in ezekiel 28 the first one satan says in isaiah 14 i will ascend into the heaven god says in ezekiel 28 i will cast thee out or cast the as profane out of the mountain of god you see how those i will statements are very much opposed to one to the other the second one that he makes in isaiah satan he says i will exalt my throne above the stars of god god says verse 16 of ezekiel 28 i will destroy the o covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire remember the stars of heaven satan in isaiah 14 13 says i will sit upon the mount of the congregation and the sides of the north and in ezekiel god says i will cast thee to the ground in isaiah satan says i will ascend above the heights of the clouds and ezekiel god says i will lay thee before kings that is on the earth that they may behold you you're going to be stuck to the earth um now one more i will be like the most high now pause for a second is that a good thing or a bad thing you know here's satan saying i will be like god now if somebody in the church came and he said man i just want to be more like the lord similar statement what's the difference well that's important that you and i discern the difference on this one because as it turns out it can be very evil to want to be like the lord because that's what satan is and god says about that i will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee why the reason was because he wanted to be like god to be in place of god he wanted to be like god so that people would give him glory and accolades and credit he wanted to be seen as god but he wasn't giving glory to god that's the difference if you and i are desiring to be like god so that we can be more merciful or compassionate kind-hearted and patient then that's a good endeavor but if you're wanting to be more like god to be seen of men and to be wow that person's really holy look at them they're amazing that's actually very much like satan you're acting like satan if you're trying to be glorified lord make me more like you so that everybody thinks i'm amazing uh that's satan right there be careful that's a subtle one but it's still nonetheless uh true now this is the thing that was dangled in front of eve to be like god uh remember that satan said for the god doth know as he hung their speaking hissing you know to eve there in the garden god doth know that in the day you eat thereof of the fruit then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil that was the lure that he put in front of eve to take a chomp out of the fruit but that mindset is wrong to be like god for your own glory for your own enlightenment or your own credit um you know as it turns out the greatest man born among women who was that john the baptist what did jay the bee say well the greatest man born among women said this i uh he must increase but i must decrease that was not what satan was saying same was saying i want to increase and and so i can be in place of god and that's why lifting up with pride that was his downfall which brings us to the next point point number three satan's downfall what was his downfall well we see that here in our text satan's downfall it's interesting because most people don't realize that it was very singular and we don't even have to kind of wonder about this his downfall was that single word pride it's the phrase that we read over and over here in this passage and others that his heart was lifted up uh you know that feeling of pridefulness interesting pride the lord takes real issue with the the sin of pride um you know i think sometimes we think some sins are worse than others and they might be in the sense of the repercussions of sin you know if i sin uh by um you know telling a little white lie it's still a lie and it's still a sin but the repercussions of that may or may not be really bad it could be bad but it may not be super bad but it's still a sin if however i get you know overdosed on meth and go and get a chainsaw out of my house and you know accidentally put a huge gash of in my leg and blood spreading everywhere well that's still sin doing the meth and getting all over dosed on that but the repercussion of that is pretty painful i don't like getting cut with a chainsaw and blood spreading everywhere isn't it interesting that in the bible the sin of pride cause causes huge destruction what was it that made the men of sodom and gomorrah go down in fire and brimstone some people in a nominal introductory read of the bible they say it was homosexuality which is a sin according to the bible not a lot of pastors will say that today i'm saying it it's true it's the bible it says it over and over again but that's not the sin as it turns out that crushed sodom and gomorrah does anybody want to take a stab what was the guess of what that sin was pride it was the pride of the men of sodom and gomorrah god said i'm going to rain fire and brimstone on that city i do think it's interesting that you know the lgbtq community links pride with their whole you know narrative gay pride they go hand in hand pride day marches and pride month that we're all seeing in front of our faces jammed down our throats i'm just telling you that that's that's that's what the lord says it's not it's not as much um the sins that we we think are horrible as it turns out god says it's pride and that was satan's downfall that was sodom and morris downfall and that's really what is the downfall of humanity altogether so pride what that was his downfall what is satan's defeat is he defeated when will he be taken out of the picture why doesn't god wipe him out right now well let's look at that satan's defeat as number four um we see how that's going to shake out as it turns out our passage before us explains that satan was cast out of the mountains of god which is kind of a way of saying heaven and he was where was he cast to the earth now this explains a lot even though your insurance company if you have a tree fall in your car they'll say it was an act of god as it turns out i disagree with that satan jesus said he's the god of this world little g he's a fake god not a real god but he's called the god of this world jesus said that and he's also called the prince of this world satan got the title deed to this world when adam and eve sinned against the lord in the garden of eden that title deed will be taken back we read about that in revelation chapter 5. and the lord is going to fix all this stuff but right now satan's large and in charge um you say okay brett that that's depressing but it explains a lot when we see what's going on in the world no wonder the world's in such a fallen sinful state satan's the leader of this whole thing um but but here's how that went down by the way when satan was lifted up with pride what happened well we see that in revelation chapter 12 verses 7 through 9. it says there was war in heaven michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought against his angels and prevailed not neither was their place found any more in heaven and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent that's from the garden of eden called the devil and satan which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out in into the earth and his angels were cast out with them so that's when satan and his angels fallen angels demons if you want to call them that um they were hurled to this world back and that's what happened revelation 12 gives us that description so that's the bad news that's the situation we're in right now but there's coming a time where all that's gonna fix by the way this this this verse tells us a whole lot of stuff um uh one of the things i always love to point out is don't forget satan and god are not opposites are they if god wanted to wipe out satan he could just go and be over flick him and he's gone shoe fly like that's the way it is god is way more powerful than satan satan's just a created being and jesus and satan are not opposites because jesus is god so who would be satan's opposite anybody want to take a guess michael the archangel it says it in this verse michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels against michael and who won michael and he's going to win again in the future he's going to do more to uh subdue satan uh where do we read about that we'll fast forward to revelation chapter 20. um it says and i saw an angel come down from heaven that's probably michael we don't know for certain but probably having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devil and satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and uh set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till or until the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season now this is probably the thing you didn't color in sunday school most people don't even know what this is all about but let me just give you a really i'll try to do a quick so right now satan's alive and well going to and fro over all the earth uh seeking whom he may devour that's what we know about devil right now but there's coming a time and i'll tell you what i believe that time is going to look like the rapture of the church happens where we're taken up into heaven the seven year period called the tribulation is going to be a horrible time and that's where satan's going to go crazy and do all kinds of stuff that the world's never seen even worse than anything we've ever seen during the tribulation but then christ at the end of the seven years jesus returns that's the second coming of christ and who comes with them us the believers ten thousands of the saints christ returns and and and then at that point that is when the devil will be taken by michael with a chain and throw him into the bottomless pit the greek word is abuso or the abyss and that's not hell people think that's health not hell he's gonna throw satan into this for how long for a thousand years what happens for a thousand years meanwhile the millennial kingdom the kingdom where christ rules and reigns on this earth for a thousand years while that's happening satan's in the abuse so not doing what he's doing now that's why the millennial kingdom is going to be glorious the bible says the millennial is going to bring an end of transgressions and everlasting righteousness and christ is going to rule and reign it's going to be a glorious time on this earth for a thousand years but at the end of the thousand years this verse tells us he'll be loosed for a little season now this this brings up a question but it also gives us i think an answer the question is why in the world would god lose satan at the end of the thousand years here's the reason most of us believe this why it's going to happen during the millennial kingdom those of us who were raptured or died before we're given new bodies we're given glorified bodies we're in a whole different condition meanwhile there are some people that will live through the tribulation kind of like you and i are now in our physical bodies but it will change for them the millennium isaiah talks about people will live long like in the antediluvian world the pre-flood world that when they lived like remember methuselah lived over 900 years the millennial kingdom will go back to that kind of a thing and isaiah says if a person dies at the age of 100 it's like a child dying people will be sad as if a child died that's that's the book of isaiah now millennial kingdom is going to be a different deal but nobody during the millennial kingdom will have had an opportunity to choose whether they were going to follow god or follow satan so we believe that that's why he'll be loosed at the end of that time at the end of a thousand years where people that never had the opportunity they'll say i'm gonna make a choice you see god gives humanity the free will to choose to follow him to be linked to him the wording is actually even more intimate married we're called the bride of christ and he doesn't hold the gun up to us and say marry me and by the way i'm the only choice he says you can choose me or you can choose the devil the bible makes this clear there's choices choose this day whom you will serve the bible says and you know joshua talked about as for me in my house we will serve the lord you can serve gods and idols if you want to but as for me i'm following the lord like that's a choice all throughout the bible and by the way this is why i believe god doesn't offer satan right now i mean he could just say done but he doesn't because there's still a choice and god he's a perfect gentleman he allows you to choose whether you're going to go for him or against him well brett i like to think of myself as neutral i'm switzerland um well the bible teaches it's kind of like this it's like a river and we're floating down the river alive but there's a fork in the river and it's really it's you know it's it's really binary you can either follow the lord or you can follow the other direction and the other direction whether you like it or not by saying no i'm not going to go that way you are going down the way of satan that's the way the bible tells it whether you like it or not so that loosing for a little season at the end is to give those people a final option whether they're going to follow the lord and sadly they're going to deceive the devil is going to deceive many at that time and that leads us to revelation 20 verse 10 and the devil that deceived them in the millennial kingdom was then cast into the lake of fire now that is hell as we know it the greek word is gehenna cast in the lake of fire brimstone where the beast and the false prophet i remember the unholy trinity i told you about bam those three entities will be cast into gehenna and shall be tormented day and night forever and that parallels what ezekiel was saying in ezekiel 28 that satan does his thing until the lord finally says that's it and he'll be no more for us to deal with uh we won't see him or hear from him ever again at that point that's what's going on with satan that's his future now the reason i go into that is because you got to understand right now satan is alive and well and causing his dastardly deeds if you're a christian guess what you don't have to be worried about being possessed by satan um by the way people say i think i'm being possessed or i think satan's messing with me i don't think you're that important what do you mean brett well did you know that satan is not omnipresent like god god is omnipresent satan is not he's just a single being um and he's spread thin for you know eight billion people on the planet i don't think you or i are that important for satan to really do a work on us now there's demons and fallen angels i think that could be causing trouble in the world as well maybe they're part of that but if you're a christian man you have to remember that christ is in us satan cannot have power over us he can tempt and lure and distract and cause trouble but as a christian we don't have to be afraid you see this leads to my final you know few minutes here is two big mistakes people make about satan the first mistake is simply this they ignore or have become unaware of his existence again if i'm satan some of you are like i think you are but if i'm satan i'd want people not to believe in me if nobody believes in me anymore mission accomplished um so there's a lot of people who don't believe in satan anymore but as it turns out second corinthians 2 11 says don't be ignorant of satan's devices the one thing one of the several things the bible says don't be ignorant about one of them is that satan has devices that he wants to use against people on the earth don't be ignorant about those devices that's why we're talking about it today the um the second verse there that you might note is that james 4 7 that talks about how we're to resist the devil and he will flee from us if you don't believe in the existence of the devil you're not spending much time resisting the devil and so people don't realize it but there's things going on in their lives that all they need to do is resist how do you resist jesus modeled that read matthew chapter four every time jesus was tempted by the devil jesus spoke the scriptures and the word of god the sword of the spirit that was the weapon he used to do battle against satan's temptations resist and he will flee that's a promise so the first mistake we make is some people ignore him all altogether unaware that he even exists the second mistake i've seen people make is they give him too much attention and too much credit there's churches that run around with looking around every you know corner with heebie-jeebies the devil is going to get you you know watch out for the devil and they they're the ones that are going i rebuke you in jesus name i rebuke you know they get all weird and watch out for those churches by the way once they start handing out snakes and stuff probably should leave that church i have a buddy i haven't talked to her for a long time but he um chico holiday was a famous las vegas performer back in the old days and he and i were friends but um he was became a christian left las vegas as a performer and started playing in churches but true story he booked a date in texas somewhere a big church and he got his guitar out and he was doing a concert and then everybody's getting really into it he's like wow they really like my concert you know but suddenly these guys bring these boxes out in the front of the sanctuary and uh they start passing rattlesnakes around the sanctuary um and and it's a stupid thing that some churches do especially in the south because the bible says they'll handle deadly serpents and they won't the poison won't kill them that's why they do that now read your context it's in the context of being on the mission field out in the jungle that's where the lord will protect you from poisonous snakes not in church passing them around it's just a dumb thing but my buddy chico said i made a new door i grabbed my guitar and just ran out through that and he said i was gone but here's the funny part the church didn't even notice he left there was this like whoo-hoo you all it was crazy crazy so some churches get all into this who you know hooping and hollering the devil is going to get you and i rebuke you let me just remind you there's none of that in the bible um refresher course who's the one who's ultimately going to subdue satan michael the archangel we've read that twice now but as it turns out michael and satan have an interaction in the small little book no chapters in jude but jude verse 9 it talks about this strange event it says yet michael the archangel when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of moses i don't have time to talk about what that means but that's quite a story and of itself but it says he dirst not or did not bring against him satan a railing accusation but said the lord rebuked me if michael who could crush satan and has and will again says he's not going on ah rebuke you devil that's not what michael's doing michael's saying the lord rebuked thee even michael says that um see you and i shouldn't go around rebuking the devil what we should be doing is just praying and saying lord would you please bind up satan we don't have to gyrate and shriek and have green vomit and spinning heads we don't need to do any of that stuff that's just hollywood and stuff like that you and i can just calmly put our trust in the lord and and and just remember what the bible says uh because again the bible's where it's at first john 4 4 greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world we don't have to run around freaked out and he be beat and all weirded out because the devil learn the lesson the satan is a being he is powerful and he is messing with people but the best way to resist the devil is to become a christian and trust in the lord and let the lord fill your life because where there is light there can be no darkness if you go into a dark room all you got to do is turn on the light switch and guess what the darkness is gone that's what a christian is a christian puts christ the light of christ in them their sins are washed away their sins are forgiven i'd like to end this service because i think it's appropriate going to the table of communion and if you didn't get one of these little communion packs right here the pastors are going to come up the aisles and they'll hook you up just as they get up there just lift your hand up and they'll they'll get you set up but go ahead and pull those out and what i'd like to do is finish this service remembering how important it is of what jesus did for us because without the cross and without jesus satan would have power over us and satan could do his dastardly deeds against us and sadly he is doing that to people over all over the planet but as christians we get to celebrate the the jesus you know we as christians aren't fighting for victory over satan we're fighting from victory jesus won the vic victory on the cross satan is a defeated foe and like i showed you we already know what his future is but because of jesus what is our future our future is salvation forgiveness of sin and eternal life in heaven with christ what a glorious thing that is and if you're not a christian you know you should probably pass up on this because this doesn't mean anything to you yeah bro what is this a little packet hey it's a coronavirus free communion pack that's what it is and what we get to do is um is remember even as jesus said when you eat bread and drink the cup remember remember my body that hung on the cross remember my shed blood so we're going to do that and if you're doing this you're acknowledging i'm a christian i believe that jesus died on the cross for my sins and i i believe that he rose up from the grave and you also believe you're a sinner you don't take communion if you don't believe you're a sinner um but uh if you're not a christian now's a great time what do you do to become a christian we've got to join our church no that's ridiculous what do you do if you want to become a christian romans 10 verse 9 and 10 confess with your mouth believe in your heart the lord jesus christ that god raised him up from the dead and it says you will be saved that's what the bible says so you can do this right now by saying lord forgive me of my sins you got to acknowledge your sins and repent and say i'm a sinner and then and then as you say lord i believe that you died on the cross and i believe that you rose from the grave and you're saved by god's grace through faith not of your works lest any man should boast it's not of yourselves it's only from him so would you take this little packet peel back the clear first layer to get to that little matzo bread in there lord how thankful we are for your body that was bruised and beaten on our behalf the nails in your hands the nail in your feet the nails lord they were they should have been through our hands and feet the crown of thorns the whipping on your back the brutal torture of the cross as we read in your scriptures lord they should have been our sufferings but you substituted yourself in our place and that anyone who would confess and believe that substitution would be saved lord how thankful we eat this bread with thanksgiving we eat this bread remembering what you've done for us and we do it with thanksgiving on this father's day we we're humbled that so great a father in heaven would send his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish thank you lord for that so let's all eat and celebrate jesus together i give you all my life i'm letting it go is yours i give you everything do you i belong every beat of my heart the breath in my lungs all i am is yours all i am is yours if you would just peel back that little foil section at this time and expose the cup um peter talked about the precious blood of jesus that washes our sins away no longer the bulls and rams and goats of the old testament altar but a new and living way through jesus christ and the shed blood of a perfect lamb jesus john the baptist said behold the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world when you drink this cup you're acknowledging your sins are washed away on this father's day you can walk out of here knowing that you're forgiven and that there's no guilt held against you and the lord loves you and forgives you that's just the grace of god i love that so lord we thank you for your beautiful grace we thank you for the saving grace of the cross and we drink of this cup remembering your blood in jesus name let's all drink together [Music] what can make [Music] is [Music] nothing but [Music] i lift my hands up god i [Music] surrender to [Music] a living sacrifice no [Music] thank you lord for your love and your goodness i pray your blessing on all the fathers out there the grandfathers lord just just may just be a blessing for everyone today as people celebrate father's day lord we celebrate you the father who's who's in heaven holy is your name lord we worship you we bless you and we pray blessing now as we go our way in jesus name amen you

Channel: Athey Creek

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

Id: TkHGNRsEpLc

Length: 80min 4sec (4804 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 20 2021