Spiritual Warfare - Idolatry and High Places

you you will use that for your kingdom and for your glory whether I love you I thank you so much for your written word I thank you for your spirit and I thank you through the salvation offered through your son Yeshua HaMashiach amen all right next chord you it remembers what we talked about last week worship what about worship specifically worshippers warfare right and tonight I want to look at spiritual warfare again this week from another angle so let me start up asking you a riddle what has eyes but cannot see but as ears but cannot hear but has a mouth but cannot speak anybody you I can't tell what you guys are saying you have to speak up louder a spirit hmm a river the other guesses let me let me show you the answer it's in psalm 115 verses four through eight says their idols are silver and gold the work of men's hands they have mouths but they do not speak eyes they have but they do not see they have ears but they do not hear noses they have but do not smell at hands but they do not handle feet they have but they do not walk in order they mutter through their throat those who make them are like them so is everyone who trusts in them what's the answer to the riddle idols okay idols and gods the pagans are worthless according to the Bible says they can do nothing they can do nothing praying to an idol praying to false god what does that do for you I can't hear you they can't act they can't respond they can't reply to you they're worthless right you where to false gods and idols is vain but we see this contrasted with the true God when Elijah confronts the profits of bail you guys are familiar with the story when I go ahead and read a portion of this from first Kings chapter 18 P for those of you who may not be familiar the story I want to go ahead and read this verses 21 through 39 and Elijah came to all the people and he said how long will you falter between two opinions how long will you falter between two opinions this is a key statement that Elijah made Israel was constantly faltering back and forth are you going to follow the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob are you gonna follow Bale for the other gods the guards are the people around you the gods of the nations that surround you the gods of the nation in whom you dwell and this is the the problem that Israel constantly had is it how long will you falter flip back and forth how long will you falter between these two opinions if the Lord is God follow him but have bail follow him but the people answered him not a word then Elijah said to the people I alone am left a prophet of the Lord but bales profits are 450 men therefore let them give us two bulls and let thee let them choose one bull for themselves cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood but put no fire under it and I will prepare the other Bowl and lay it on the wood but put no fire under it then you call on the name of your gods and I will call on the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire he is God so all the people answered and said it is well spoken now Elijah said to the prophets of bale choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first for your many and call on the name of your God but put no fire under it so they took the bull which was given to them and they prepared it and called on the name of bale from morning and even until noon saying o bale hereis but there was no voice no one answered then they leaped about the altar which they had made and it was so and so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said cry aloud for he is a god either he is meditating or he is busy or he is on a journey or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened so they cried aloud and they cut themselves as was their custom with knives and Lance's until the blood gushed out on them and when it was midday or when midday was passed they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice but there was no voice no one answered no one paid attention then Eli just said to all the people come near to me so all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down and Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come saying Israel shall be your name then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two saia's of seed and he put the wood in order cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood and he said bill for water pots with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood then he said do it a second time and they did it a second time he said do it a third time and they did it a third time so the water ran all around the altar and he also filled the trench with water and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice Elisha the prophet came near and said Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word hear me o Lord hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again then the fire of the Lord consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and it licked up the water that was in the trench now when all the people saw it they fell on their faces and they said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God now you notice the stark contrast between bail and the God of Abraham right it says that they cried aloud and they cut themselves and they danced and they prophesied they did all kinds of things to try to get their God's attention and there was nothing no response not a word Alijah prayed to his God fire came down from heaven the Bible is constantly showing us who the true God is who false gods are problem so many times we have is we have our time believing the testimony of what the Bible says about our guy and when we do this when we believe in a god that is not the same as the God of the Bible we're believing in a false God have you ever thought about that if you don't believe that God is who his word says he is and you believe something different however slight that might be if you believe a different version of who God is than what the Bible says he is then you're believing in a false god you're making an idol for yourself you're making a false God for yourself and I think that's the problem a lot of people have with their prayers because when you pray to a false god they don't answer think about that for a minute this is a scary thought this is something that God has been talking to me about this week and really there's a lot of stuff that he's been showing me this week that has been extremely convicting for me and as I was putting this this teaching together I felt like I was getting pulled in 18 different directions and I was looking at my notes and going what in the world am I talking about this week because it was just all over the place and God just kind of wrapped it all together I'm like oh now I you know it just kind of caught me off guard and and he was really dealing with me on a lot of stuff this week and so as I'm presenting this I understand if some of you guys are gonna get uncomfortable but some of the things I'm gonna be talking about and even what I've already said is probably already made some people uncomfortable and so some of you who are new here tonight who've never been here before you may not want to come back welcome I'm glad you're here hopefully you do want to come back but just letting you know if you're wearing sandals you might tuck your toes a new chair a little bit so you don't get stepped on tonight is gonna be a difficult one to hear I'm just warning you up front okay be prepared I'm gonna say some things that are hard okay yes still want to stick with me the problem with Israel is they continually worship bail and not the true God of the Bible they were constantly mixing their worship so they they wanted to worship the God of Abraham they claimed to worship the God of Abraham and yet they mixed it with idolatry with Bale where should we see this as soon as they left Egypt right Moses goes up on the mountain and what's the first thing they do all right give me all your gold let's make an an idol let's make this golden calf and you know what they said this is your God who led you out of Egypt let's have a feast and celebrate this is the el-amin this is Yahweh or Jehovah this is the God who led you out of Egypt they were trying to worship the God who saved them they weren't doing it and we're doing it the way he said right they were mixing that worship and there was warnings given in the Torah says not to adopt the practices of the pagans in the nation that you're going to possess don't adopt their practices don't worship me the way the patient's worship their gods right but we see all throughout history we go through Joshua we go through judges we go through the kings and chronicles the prophets all throughout the Old Testament we see the same pattern over and over and over as they get into they they start adopting these practices from the other nations around them adopting the religion from the nations around them and letting that affect their worship of God they work they mix the worship of Yahweh wished with the worship of other gods this is ultimately what caused Israel to be divorced and sent into exile is considered adultery right spiritual adultery their idolatry in worshipping other gods eventually caused them to be separated from God divorced in an exiled and this is this is all part of Satan's plan this is part of the plan of the enemy and we see this back in numbers when Balaam spoke with Bailey okay numbers 25 one through three it says now Israel remained in Acacia Grove and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods so Israel was joined to bail up your and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel now what happened was Balaam was hired by Balak to go in curses really he tried and tried and tried and he kept saying I can't do it I'm trying to curse them and I'm not able to it was he was not permitted by God to curse Israel all he could do was speak blessings over them and so what he said he went to Balak and he said I can't curse them but let me tell you what to do let me give you some advice send your women over there to seduce them into sexual immorality in a die dolla tree if you can get them to do those things they're gonna curse himself basically it's essentially what he was told so they invited them to the sacrifices of their gods they invited Israel to join them in participating in the celebration sacrifice of their gods right they went over and went to the party they ate the food that was offered to the idols and they became seduced into idolatry the book of Revelation warns the church about the same thing Revelation chapter 2 verse 14 assists but I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the tuner of Israel he thinks sacrificed idols to commit sexual and to commit sexual immorality so according to the scripture the there's a problem that we need to be on the lookout for is the worship of bail that we're going to be introduced to some form of worship a bale some form of idolatry but you know you look around the world you say nobody's offering sacrifices to bail that's not even a temptation for us right okay why in the world would anybody be tempted to go eat sacrifices offered to a golden calf we wouldn't worry would say no I'm not going to do that that's absurd every Christian on the planet would say that's absurd right we all know not to do that so how can this be a problem still how can this be something we are led astray into people aren't sacrificing animals to statues not that I'm aware of anyway I heard of that in a long time if it's happening it's happening in dark places hiding from the rest of the world it's not it's not a common thing anymore is it and even even places that they have statues you know you think of religions that do have some kind of an idol some kind of statue like Buddhist right they have the little fat golden idol thing right or the Catholics they have the statues of the Saints the statues of Mary you have some of those things you have some idols but nobody's offering sacrifices to them not that I'm aware so how are we eating the sacrifices that are offered to these idols let me suggest that we're consuming these pagan sacrifices with our eyes and ears not our mouth so you remember what I spoke about last week right about spiritual warfare and music and how music can be used as worship of God but your music can be used as worship of other things as well I'm gonna kind of continue that same thought process tonight and a few years ago I spoke about the influence that television movie movies have on our brains how many of you guys remember me talking about that do you remember me talking about the mirror neutrons in your brains that I give you see you're watching something on TV and you see like let's say you're watching a really intense moment in the movie and you grip the edge of your seat right because you're your motions are tied to what's going on because what you're seeing in through your eyes it is directly impacting your mind so you watch something like Mission Impossible where the guys hanging from a plane and your your pans are gripped to the chair because you're feeling that tension that he's going through right when you see other kinds of things on the screen that does the same thing in your brain as well whether it be sexual or violent but of what you know all kinds of other things that you see through your eyes it affects you and when you're watching it on TV it actually puts your mind into a hypnotic type of trance and so it bypasses your your mental process of reasoning your prefrontal lobe basically shuts down and all that information just gets downloaded into your subconscious mind so you're not processing it you're not filtering it it's just getting dumped into your head and so this is what's going on as you're watching these films in these TV shows and I said I talked about this before and you know but did not a trance and subliminal messages and all kinds of stuff that could be going on as you're watching these things talked about Satan's agenda in this right how he is using TV movies and various things - morally influence people to affect our minds to cause us to think about things that we shouldn't think about implanting thoughts into our minds subconsciously just by passively watching something you know I've talked about how the marketing and you know with the the marketing industry television commercials any kind of marketing you can think of marketing the theme the motto of all marketing is sex sells do you look at it that everything they sell whether it be candy or cars or beer or clothes or whatever they always have to have some kind of a something sexy about it because that's their motto of sex sells so everything is wrapped in sex or humor because they're messing with your emotions because they want you to buy based on emotion not on logic or reasoning and so that's their goal is to affect your emotions to affect your mind and they do it intentionally nasha have studies where they they scan people's minds as they're watching commercials as they're watching TV shows as they're watching movies as we're watching movie trailers even they have scan they scan people's minds to see how they're reacting to what they're seeing and they use that to tweak to make things even more appealing to make it affect you even more if they're using science to manipulate you through these things it is extremely scary because you don't know what they're trying to do and whether or not the movie producers and the directors and the actors whether or not they have any clue or not what's going on the Bible says that we are war is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of darkness in the spiritual world right and I guarantee you that those principalities and powers are working behind the scenes really hard to use that stuff against us okay so keep that in mind now I talked about this a couple years ago and I talked about how Satan's using these things against you that is his agenda and I even tied it in with Balaam and Balak back then and about how Balaam sent the women to seduce people into sexual immorality and that's a big part of what's going on that's not what I'm going to talk about today there's a big you know like I said it's a big part of what's going on in the media is trying to seduce children of God into sexual immorality to getting our minds to be full of lust but I wanna talk about something different today related I'm just refreshing your memory because I want you to keep that in mind as well as we look at some of these other things but as a result of all of those things I've got to gone through phases over the over the years and goddess has gotten us to purge things out of our life and so you know years ago before we had kids you know we had all kinds of movies we had you know we just had a huge movie collection right we love to watch movies it was a lot of fun we enjoyed it it's just it's just entertainment it's kind of our attitude about it no big deal and when we had our first kid we kind of started feeling maybe we should get rid of some of these movies because you got a little one in the house now I don't know if we should be watching some of these things with the little one around and so we went through a movie so we got rid of a whole bunch of them and we kind of we thought well we'll just keep the ones that are family friendly you know the ones that are now they're not they're not real bad you know what I mean anybody else ever gone through something like that were they bill fiction about something and you decide you're going to purge it out of your life and so as a result we cut back on a lot of stuff that we used to entertain ourselves with we decided you know maybe this stuff isn't so good after all this stuff isn't okay you know kind of brought up with the idea all things are permissible just not all things are beneficial right that's kind of attitude I had it may not be beneficial but missable no that was kind of how I approached and time went on and and I started feeling like I was saying you know you need to just stop cut back on all the entertainment altogether and just you know step back from that and take a break fast from some of those things don't let that have such a big impact in your life and so I started doing that I step back I stopped watching as much TV and movies things like that and it's great I really felt like I was making progress and moving in the good direction and about a year ago I found a I hadn't watched hardly anything for a long time and we we got a cellphone changed it was about a year ago maybe two years ago I don't remember exactly what it was but our cell phone renewed and when we renewed they said hey you get a free subscription of Hulu with your cell phone renewal we're like oh okay you know so you know I'll check it out see what they got on there looking through Hulu and found a series that I looked really interesting and so I started watching it and sort of binge watching this TV series it wasn't like a bad like something you would think is really bad it was it was like a cop show and you know it's it's the good guys you know fighting the bad guys put them in jail you know I'm just like oh this is this is okay it's kind of my thinking of it and you know there wasn't and as a TV show it wasn't like it was rated R you know like I'm justifying it in my mind those are things are going through my mind right it's okay and I've watched it for probably a week straight just binge watch this show and Amanda said I think that show is affecting your attitude is changing and when what you said that to me at first I was like what no no that's not affecting me it's not changing me and then I started thinking about it more in and I realized she was right it was changing me it was affecting me and I didn't see it and so I made it live stop Russia I was like okay I'm I'm gonna watch this anymore and you know again took a break from watching everything TV movies all that kind of stuff just kind of cut it out of my life took a break from it and really haven't watched a whole lot I mean occasionally I'll pop a movie in or you know if we have a date night you know occasionally watch a movie together or something very rarely have I watched anything in the last year to two years I mean you very rarely and recently I was looking at the we have a DVD shelf and has DVDs on it look at this shelf and I thought why do I have these why is this here and I just was feeling this conviction in my life about some of the movies that on the shelf and again I told you the family-friendly they weren't stuff that miss stuff that I would was comfortable with my kids watching stuff that I grew up watching when I was a kid even you know like some of my favorite movies were on the Shelf like Star Wars and Indiana Jones okay Star Trek things that I would consider to be family-friendly don't have cussing they don't have sexuality then you know the violence is is pretty tame for the most part but yeah they said these aren't that bad that was my reasoning right there's other stuff going on in there there's spiritual stuff in those movies that does have an effect now you start let's just think Star Wars this is one of my favorite movies I mean I've loved Star Wars since I was a little guy watch it when I was a kid but what does that do well you get this idea of this mystical force that's in control of all things you say well that's kind of like God and so as you're watching this movie you're tying this force in with your idea of who God is let's shaping and adjusting your view of God is it not warping your reality of who God is and creating in your mind a false God a false version of God thought about that how subtle these things can be think about Indiana Jones another one of my favorite absolute favorite movies of all time loved all of them Indiana Jones he says things that are basically blasphemous you know he's his dad was like in the visit the last crusade his dad gets you know lost or whatever he's got to go looking for him and they're asking him know don't you believe in the same stuff too like your dad and he's like now as fairytales right those are the kind of statements he makes these things aren't believable they're not real we don't have to believe these things it's just fairytales is the kind of the way he treated it well that implants thoughts in your mind begin you know how many movies there are that have negative things about God in lots lots and lots and lots where they say blasphemous things where they say things negative about God where they just make fun of God or people who believe in God is all over the place that stuff again as your as your prefrontal cortex is shut down that stuff is being directly downloaded into your subconscious mind what do you think that's doing to your view of God that's scary and so but again I was looking at this stack of DVDs these movies that I've hung on to I haven't watched in long time I've watched him but they're still there sitting on a shelf and I was reminded God showed me some verses in kings and chronicles this weekend and at those really interesting there's a number of Kings as you look at their kings and chronicles it'll say so-and-so became king and he did good in the eyes of the Lord but he didn't remove the high places laterz say so-and-so became king and he did good in the eyes of the Lord but he didn't remove the high places what are the high places high places are the places where the pagans would worship their idols they tore down the idols but the high place was still the place of worship was still there and then you keep reading through Kings and you come to one and says and so Saint became king and he did wicked and he caused all the people of Israel to turn to idols he set up the idols again and he instituted the high places again and they started going there to worship again and you know a little later you see another king well this guy became king and he tore down the idols of his dad but he didn't tear that on the high places and as I was looking at these stack of DVDs I had there I thought man I don't idolize these things I don't I mean watch these things in years and I felt like I was saying this is a high place you needed to tear down join us down yet and so I'm standing there staring at the DVDs and Amanda walks in she was like you want to get rid of those don't you ask they can eat soup so we get box we start putting DVDs in a box and you know I'm confessing this to you openly because this is something that God is convicting me uh I don't know you know I'm not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn't do I'm just telling you this is what God has been talking to me about I'm saying that maybe there's some high places in your life to maybe there's some idols in your life that are warping your view of God causing you to worship and pray to a god that can't see or hear speak or answer Oh God who can answer I don't want to pray to a God who can't respond pray to God who since fire now ona pray to God who can hear who does respond who does care will interact who will say that's the God I want to pray to I don't want to have a false God in my mind and so I want to get rid of anything in my life that might be creating a false god for me that makes sense this is what God's been talking to me about this week so I purged my DVDs this week there's a cardboard box that I got to do something with but I've got them got them off the shelf there's something to think about most most of us in here went through a time where we said you know what I know you know I don't know everybody there may be some people here who when I say this you're gonna be like what why in the world would you do that but most of us the people that I know in this room have gone through a stage in life where they said you know what celebrating Christmas and Halloween I don't want to do those things anymore I see the pagan influence those things have and I don't want to be part of that anymore they're not scriptural they're not biblical there were things that were brought in later on their pagan influence that pagan traditions associated with them and they and we look at the verses in the Bible says not to worship God the way the pagans worship their gods and so we say well I'm not gonna do Christmas in Halloween anymore and some of these other holidays is there pagan and we get rid of that out of our life and then we go and watch a TV show or movie that's got more paganism in it than Christmas ever had you didn't remove paganism your life you just chose which version of paganism you remove you when we watch TV movies we are allowing greater pagan and worldly influence in our life than celebrating pagan holidays you disagree with me does anyone here disagree with that state I'm convinced that TV and movies are high places I'm convinced that this is part of a spiritual battle that we all are basing that the enemy is using these things against us he's trying to tear down our faith tear down our belief in God moral values break them down and make us just like the world that's his goal he's trying to get us to stop worshipping God and just live like the world and that can take all kinds of different forms I would say he's pretty successful at I think he's doing a pretty good job tearing down moral structure of Christians in the world you just look at how is the church changed in the last hundred years where's this 20/20 what was it like in 1920 100 years ago think about it what was the faith of those people like converted beta people what was the preaching like in 1920 versus the preaching you hear in most churches today it's a lot different wasn't it what was the attitude people had towards God just the in that in the world in general in 1920 versus today you would you could argue that America was a Christian nation in 1920 I mean even people who didn't claim to be Christians were still moral there was two morally good people for the most part morality was high integrity was hot Christians were influencing the world they lived in at that point in history well now you look today and we have churches who are saying it's okay we'll have a lesbian preacher yeah you can be a transsexual and sit right here and worship with us and we're not going to tell you anything different and those you see how drastically the world has shifted in a hundred years why because Satan's been really effective at manipulating the minds of Christians what has been the major thing that has come into place in last hundred years what happened in around the 1950s television you know what the church said when that first came out that thing is evil don't watch that that was the response of the church when the TV first came out you know to church this today hey the Super Bowl is on we're gonna have a screening here in the church and you can watch it on the big screen happens all over the place didn't it hey after church we're gonna all go together and go watch a movie nobody even cares anymore you these things are full of witchcraft sexual immorality violence crime lust greed occult practices lies false gods and all sorts of other Filth and uncleanness you can name any TV show on TV and I guarantee one of those things is in it or multiples of those name any movie that's come out ever very much aside from like specifically Christian production right but even some of them may be questionable honestly we're living in a world that is just full of uncleanness and I think the enemy is trying to just throw buckets of that on us anyway he came excess 23 verses 32 and 33 says you shall make no covenant with them nor with their gods they shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against me or if you serve their gods it will surely be a snare to you again what did they do Balaam said invite them to your celebration invite them to your feast let them eat with you and it will we'll turn them to your items what we do we go sit in the theater we set it at home and watch TV and what do we watch we watch sexual immorality violence crime lies cold all those kinds of things we're just welcoming it right into our home you this is what I've been convicted about lately I'm about you guys are we inviting pagan gods demons and idols into our home dwell with us you know another one of my favorite types of movies to watch a superhero movies I grew up watching superheroes right Batman spider-man Superman x-men Marvel Avengers you know all those movies actually love this and always thought was it's clean you know they don't not going around sleeping with each other there's very little profanity I justified it again right but what do you have you have pagan gods wearing spandex in case that's what it is pagan gods wearing spandex and capes welcoming it right into our home you Deuteronomy 726 says nor shall you bring an abomination into your house lest you be doomed to destruction like it your shall utterly detest it and utterly abour it or it is an accursed thing again this has been a very convicting week for me as I've been wrestling with what we're talking about tonight as God has just been showing these things to me it's been hard it's been a hard week for me sure as you're sitting here you're probably looking at your watch guy is he done yet target my so stepped on right now what you think about the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time I looked this up this week just because I was curious what are the the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time these are the most popular movies of all time was it make the most money in the box office and I'm gonna confess you I've seen all of these every single one of them and I bet most of you have too and most of them actually are considered family-friendly by most people you know I mean I think maybe one of them might be rated are the rest of them are like pg-13 and then PG okay so they're not considered mean it's not like we're talking about really really awful stuff right and the question I was asking is is looking at these as are they pleasing to God they're pleasing to my flesh right my flesh enjoyed watching them my eyes enjoyed watching them my ears enjoyed there I mean very highly entertaining movies let's start with number 10 is black panther anybody seen this one Marvel's Black Panther right you know it's full of occult witchcraft raising the dead necromancy all kinds of stuff very dark dark occult themes in this movie talking about pagan gods speaking to dead ancestors ancestor worship very dark movie I would argue that that the power he receives to become the Black Panthers basically is demon-possessed basically what it is lots and lots of violence too the next one number nine was Avengers age of Ultron how many saw that one another was Marvel movies right I mean aside from you know the the gods and spandex and capes you've got violence witchcraft there's you know one of the characters is a witch The Scarlet Witch is her name and she does magical spells and all kinds of stuff right witchcraft right they're false gods again the gods and spandex sensuality a lot of these spandex clad women are very sensual aren't they being honest they are they do that on purpose and again so are the men showing up their muscles right it's appealing to your flesh there's also blasphemy in this one this is really interesting Ultron the bad guy in the movie makes several references to the Bible and reference to himself he says something along the lines of on this rock I will build my church the bad guy in this movie says this he makes his home is like location is in an actual church building he claims to be the savior he's coming to save the world was his goal his agenda they're portraying this bad guy like Jesus like a schewe they're giving him the characteristics of Jesus and he's the bad guy in the movie they're flipping the narrative around on us they got all these pagan false gods all they're the heroes they're the Avengers they do the same thing with all of them them puttest a nose a nose in the newer ones right he's basically he's got he's the almighty when he snaps his fingers and half the universe gets erased he's the bad guy I want to kill him flipping the narrative around and trying to make the good guy bad and the bad good what was the Bible say about that exchange good for evil evil for good right light for dark darker light and this is the kind of thing this so many movies do so many movies and TV shows the next one number eight Furious 7 this is part of the Fast & Furious series that will never end right nobody's tired of watching cars drive really fast because they just keep making more movies and selling more tickets these movies all of them are full of violence crime and sexual immorality right you got criminals driving cars really fast stealing stuff blowing stuff up lots of sexuality in between that's what those movies Avengers the original one and by the way at the top 10 highest-grossing movies 5 of them are Avenger movies that's interesting how many false gods do we need to watch the same ones over and over yeah Avengers number seven post God's demons violence sensuality you know there's those demon things that come down out of the sky and chasing people around number six Jurassic world this one has evolution lots of talk of evolution kind of swapping your mind against what the Bible says about creation right why was his God created the earth in six days he rested on the seventh day God created Adam you created all the animals all on the same day number six right all these land animals feed on day number six and then Jurassic Park comes along dressed world all these kind of movies come along and they say no dinosaurs the billions of years ago we dug up their DNA and we recreated it we played God mix their DNA with the DNA of these amphibians right and then now we've got dinosaurs because God is not real we're real and we created these things we played God this is this is a message that subliminally being pumped into your brain there's also lots of bad language violence and terror in those movies number five Avengers infinity war again false gods witchcraft blast me violence sensuality knew that Thanos claims to be I am you know the Captain Marvel claims to be I am you know that vision claims to be I am this is a direct reference to you got to the Bible these characters in these movies are making this claim of themselves you look at this one's not on the top ten list but the x-men forward Horsemen of the Apocalypse right bad guy in the movie calls himself Yahweh right it's it's all throughout these movies there's all kinds of hidden subliminal messages that are being pumped in your brain warping your view of who God is that's what the enemy is trying to do with this stuff star wars the force awakens is number four this one has pagan religion blurred morality rebellion all throughout the Star Wars series rebellion is highly glorified right so the rebels the rebels are the good guys like I said Star Wars is my favorite movies I grew up on stores that was one of my favorite things to watch but when I'm honest with you it's not it's not good rebellion magic necromancy I have to talk to the dead spirits of these people necromancy these are occult themes Titanic is number three we have infidelity right this woman who is she engaged or is she married to the guy I don't remember it's been a long time subsidy in the movie she's engaged to this guy right the rich guy he brings her on the boat and then she finds this or sewer guy that's worthless and he gets her in a car right meanness they fall in love and he draws a picture of her and then the boat sinks and everybody drowns it's one of the most popular movies of all time the theme of the movie is infidelity in death right infidelity greed lust sexual immorality and chaos are things you see in this movie number two is avatar I mean you saw that one that was a popular movie wouldn't it if giant green demons running around that's what an avatar is right an avatar if you look at the word avatar it's it's a icon representing a God that's what it is there so these giant blue demons running around and what we have is this guy who mind merges with these giant blue demons and then he becomes one we have this crossbreeding of these demons with human DNA right sounds an awful lot like what I read in Genesis he's nepheline things the offspring of all in angels Giants so anyway the avatar we got false gods a cult ritual right they got this tree that they pray to in these little floaty things you guys remember that occult rituals pagan religion sexuality sensuality mixing species and more violence and then number one number one highest-grossing movie of all time is Avengers in game false gods witchcraft time travel blasphemy feminism violence and sensuality are some of the tough games that I thought about as I was thinking about that movie so we're supposed to separate ourselves from the world aren't we supposed to separate ourselves from all forms of paganism witchcraft false religion idolatry come out of her be separate from these things right and then we just bring it into our home and put it on the television we're supposed to be separate from these things not entertain ourselves with I want to read this is this is something I'm actually a little uncomfortable doing because of the source but I feel like it's significant I want to read some quotes from a guy named Anton LaVey he's the guy that founded the Church of Satan he wrote The Satanic Bible I want you to hear what he had to say about television Bank this is this is scary many of you already read my writings and indicating the TV is the new god there's a little thing I neglected to mention up until now television is the major mainstream infiltration of the new satanic religion that's what he had to say but he also said there are television sets in every home every restaurant every hotel room every shopping mall now they're even small enough to carry in your pocket like electronic rosaries it's an unquestioned part of everyday life kneeling before the cathode-ray God with our TV Guide concordance in hand we maintain the illusion of choice by flipping channels chapters and verses it doesn't matter what's flashing on the screen all that's important is that the TV stays on comparing the TV to a Bible basically you think about that would when you when you read the scriptures what are you doing you're getting the Word of God into your mind when you're watching demonic inspired movies and television shows what are you getting in your mind we were writing the pages of your mind how's that affecting last quote the TV set or the satanic family altar has grown more elaborate since the early 50s from the tiny fuzzy screen to huge entertainment centers covering entire walls with several TV monitors what started as an innocent respite from everyday life has become in itself a replacement for real life for millions a major religion of the masses the reference to it being the satanic family altar really got my attention do we worship television and movies this is a question I think we should it's a legitimate question we should ask right is is this legitimately an idol do we really worship this thing or is it isn't insignificant does it have any impact on my life or should I even bother worrying about it I might just am I just wasting my breath talking about this stuff what does worship involve think about this what is worship involve worship involves devotion devotion giving your time to it right you're devoted to it you're giving of your time worship in both sacrifice is giving of your money a type of sacrifice how many people spent money on TV or movies giving money too right you could buy a DVD with spend twenty twenty-five bucks just to buy a DVD go to the movie theater you spend twenty twenty-five bucks just to go watch it not counting all the popcorn and so did you buy depending on how many people you have with you you made in a hundred bucks bring your family by cable spending money rent DVDs you're spending money by satellite you're spending money you pay for Internet so you can stream you're spending money money is going into this thing one way or the other so their sacrifice involved worship involves speaking praise how many people like to talk about their favorite TV and movies sit around at work and though hey did you see the episode last night hey did you guys go see the new movie yet I was really great it was awesome I really enjoyed your singing praises didn't in that what you do ah worship involves our emotions bring our emotions into it right word when we come to worship what do we do we pour our heart out to it pour our heart out to God in our emotions evolved woody what happens when you're watching TV movies your emotions are getting involved aren't they somebody dies you cry right we watched Old Yeller and cried how many of you don't have a clue what Old Yeller is [Music] the dog the dog died who said you worship involves our submission this one's interesting when you worship God you submit them don't you worship involves our submission so giving over and yielding to the control or authority of another right giving over yielding to the control of another what happens to your brain when you're watching TV go into hypnotic trance your brain your prefrontal cortex shuts down you ever watch your kids when they're watching TV you yell at them and they're still I have no clue you're even talking to them you go over and thump on the back of the head no quirk cuz they're in a trance you yield your control to this thing you become a slave to this thing is what you're doing worship involves our mine love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength your mind is a very important part of worship giving him your mind filling your mind with things they glorify him right what is TV do TV hypnotizes and seduces our mind to think about things that are contrary to the Word of God TV is working to undo the stuff that you're trying to do when you read your Bible TV is working to undo the stuff that you're trying to do when you pray right this is what the enemy is trying to do he's trying to undo the work that God is doing in your life first Corinthians 10 18 through 22 it says observe Israel after the flesh are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar what am I saying then is an idle anything or what is offered to idols anything rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God and I do not want you to fellowship with demons you cannot drink the cup of the Lord in the cup of demons you cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons where do we provoke the Lord to jealousy are we stronger than he are we partaking but the table of demons when we sit down to watch some list you know years ago well it was before we just probably been 1215 years ago I remember when it was when was when was the Harry Potter really popular movies when they came out right long time ago right there were people at our church the people at our church that we went to who they were saying how wonderful Harry Potter was what a great wonderful movie nothing wrong with it one of them was a youth pastor one of them was a pastor at another church that we familiar with pastor another church saying oh yeah we love Harry Potter it's awesome read all the books love the movies satanic deeply dark wicked evil pagan the blinded why are they either so blind that they can't see how evil that is you it warps your mind there are many things there are many things that can lead us astray from God hey I don't want to just have your focus so sting will mindedly on television movies that you overlook all the other things I wanted to bring your attention to this because I wanted to see how easy it is how easy it is for us to turn something into an idol unless something show work our mind to control us it's easy to do easy for them the enemy did manipulate us like that there are other things that can lead us astray there are other things that can lead us into idolatry so a challenge you we praying God is dessert an idol in my life that I need to tear down is there a high place in my life I need to destroy because I don't want to mix the worship of God with the worship of bail I don't want to set at the table of demons and at the table of the Lord that should be our prayer that should be our hearts and so I'm not telling you what I think you should or shouldn't do with your TV or your movies or your book collection or your magazines or your CDs or whatever you do what you need to do to get right with God I'm just here to tell you what guys been telling me what he's been working on my life how are we mixing our worship with God with paganism the worship of evil last week we talked about music right come to church you sing worship music about God then you get in your car and you drive home and you you sing music that glorifies the devil it shouldn't be you there are things that complete our mind and distort our view of God that's what I want you to be on the lookout for is mixing worship idolatry worshipping other things beside the one true God what does that do is is it it warps your view of God messes with your mind it distorts your understanding of who God is that's what's dangerous that's what's scary because you're not praying to the God of the Bible you're praying to a false God that you worked up in your own imagination you know if when I was in College there's a number of things that I was told from various teachers and a lot of people in my class just like oh yeah course and it angered me some of the things they said a professor who said that the first 11 chapters of the Bible didn't actually happen so that's you know creation through the Tower of Babel right first 11 chapters ababil didn't happen that's just a made-up story it was just it was just there it's fiction is basically what he said it's a it's a narrative and it's the the thing is called narrative theology right it's a narrative it's a story that was made up to try to illustrate a point to try to illustrate some kind of a theological point is trying to make that's what they said and you know what I said you're a liar Genesis 1 through 11 is true it did happen because the Bible says that happen God created things he created the earth in six days he rested on the seventh day we have Adam and Eve they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and they sin we have Cain and Abel and Cain killed his brother we have Noah he built an ark it really happened there was really a flood you know I had a professor argue that but we have flood accounts from all these different different tribes over the world and that just proves that it didn't really happen like what that proves it does happen this proves that it is true if you if you go to all these different people groups from out all over the world and they all have a flood account that tells me hey they all came from Noah they just call him by a different name because they speak different languages but they all are talking about him people's who didn't even have access to the Bible had stories about Noah's Flood they never heard of the Bible and they have a story about knowing the flood they just don't call Noah Indian tribes have stories some guy in a giant canoe right I mean it's true don't tell me it's not true but you know what the world wants to tell you let's just make believe that's not true why does anime want to convince you that because if you think the Bible is not true did you don't know what to believe about God because when the Bible says that God part of the Red Sea you're likely I don't know about that which is it you sure walked on water you're like well that maybe maybe narrative theology going on here I don't know about that and maybe just a story something made up I don't that's really true you start doubting one thing about God in the scriptures and then what are you do with the rest of it you have doubts your fears you have uncertainties did Jesus really turn five loaves of fish right or you know five loaves and two fish did you really feed 5,000 people with that come on that's got to be make-believe no it's true isn't it so what do you believe about your God do you believe what the Bible says about him again Oscar's idols they have eyes they've ears their mouths your prayers are worthless when you cast your prayers upon them just because you call this idle Jesus or Yeshua Yahweh God ha who whatever name you want to call it if it's not the true God of the Bible your prayers are being wasted you're praying to a false god it's not about what name you call you don't have to call it bail for it to be a false God what do you believe about God is worth significance why we're saved by our faith our belief by faith so the Bible tells us that God is all-powerful all-loving and all good when we pray do we really believe that do you believe that God is able to heal you believe that God is able to forgive you you believe that he wants what you believe about him is significant that's why we need to be in the word and know what the word says so we know who he is because the word is what tells us who he is we don't know him fully except from what he has revealed to us in his word all we know about him is what he's told us about his work if you're getting your information about God from somebody else somewhere else then chances are you've got a warped view of who God is when you shoe heel someone he said your faith has made you well right it's our faith our belief in who God is it is important so this is the most important thing we need to protect is what we believe about him should we not be guarding our minds as much as possible you know when the Centurion understood authority he came to your shoe and he said I'm a man of authority and you don't even need to come lay hands on my kid I don't even want you to come under my house just speak the word and I know it'll happen because I understand authority you sure said I I've never met someone in Israel with such great faith he had a proper understanding God's Authority is that fantastic understanding God's authority your shoe a link to this guy has greater faith than anyone I've ever seen because he knew what authority was he knew what God's Authority was when people had doubts and lacked faith Yeshua did very few miracles why why is the amount of miracles he did linked to the faith of the people around them to show us faith is important seyton once our faith to be weak and useless he wants us to have a distorted view of God and I would argue that most of the spiritual warfare we face has to do with that our belief in who God is why do you think that they push evolution in everything because they want to warp our view of who God is all right why are they trying to teach your kid the earth is sixty billion years old and it came from an explosion because they want you to have a work view who got is they don't want you to trust the Bible right and it's stuff like that all over the place most of the spiritual warfare that we face is dealing with our belief in who God is Satan is trying to distort the image of God so that we have a false god have you ever thought about that I've heard people say well you know Satan doesn't care what you worship as long as you're not worshiping the true God isn't that true you'll get to look at anything else have any Idol you want just don't worship the true God he's trying to distort your view of who God is you Hebrews 11:6 says but without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and the his a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him it's about our faith what we believe about him is significant we have a warped view of who God is how can we please we believe that he is but that he's not a rewarder right you think about what is what is it an agnostic believe oh there's agnostics a well yeah there's a God I believe there's a god he created things but you know he's kind of absent he's like the absentee landlord you know he kind of send everything into motion and then went on vacation we don't actually know who he is we don't know anything about him he doesn't really interact with us I just believe there's some kind of creed or somewhere there's a higher power the man upstairs right what is that that is an absolutely warped and twisted view of who God is the Bible says God is intimately concerned with every detail of your life he cares even what you eat do you know that I've heard people say I doesn't care what I eat I can eat bacon all I want now he does care what you eat sis so right in his word you have a warped view of who God is do you think he doesn't care God does care here is very deeply about you he's given us very good instructions and how to follow him how to serve him how to live a life that pleases him a life that is blessed healthy how to love each other but if we have a warped view of who God is in work view of who what his word is we're gonna fall off on the ditch somewhere romans 10:17 says so but then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God if faith is so important if our belief in God is so important then how do we get it by hearing the Word of God by studying the Word of God by letting the Word of God fill our minds meditating on it letting it change and transform our thinking romans 12:2 say right we need to be transformed do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind because what we think is significant it's important but we think about God especially faith comes by hearing the Word of God hearing has to do with receiving it into our mind and letting it shape our beliefs we have to believe the testimony at the Bible to be true if you believe in the God of the Bible you have to believe the testimony about God in the Bible is true if you don't believe what the Bible says about God then you don't believe in the same God that makes sense if you don't believe what the Bible tells you about God if you believe something different even if it's minor if there's a minut difference in the God you believe in the god that's portrayed in the Bible you're worshiping a different God you're praying to a different God you you have a false image of God in your mind a warped and distorted picture of who God is it's why it's so important for us to know what the word says about him so that we can know the truth about him so are we constructing false gods in our mind are we praying with faith to the true God are we praying in vain to God that cannot see or hear you know for a long time I have wrestled with the idea that what's going on in the church stay we've got all these people praying and we just doesn't seem by God's listening we have people dying of all kinds of stuff and people praying for them for hours and hours and hours and they just die well reading the Scriptures and they pray for them and they come back to life I mean the scriptures they pray for them they get healed find they're happening maybe it's because this because we have a false god that we're praying to and he can't answer that's a scary thought it terrifies me you allegis said how long will you falter between two opinions if the Lord is God follow him but if fail and follow him it's what I read the very beginning with it how long will you falter between two opinions Poulter means to lose strength to be hesitant to move unsteadily in a way that lacks confidence what would cause you to do that to move hesitantly to lose confidence in the god that you're praying to doubts fears insecurities uncertainty about who he is so the enemy's trying to plants in our minds all the time we falter in our faith and lack confidence in God because we don't believe the testimony of the Bible we'll say oh yeah god is love God is good God is able to heal God is able to God is all-powerful is all loving we will gladly give him lip service and claim those things but when it comes down to it do we really believe it you do we falter in our faith that's convicting me I don't know about you guys James 1:6 sirata says but let him ask in faith with no doubt for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind for let not that man supposed that he will receive anything from the Lord breeze double minded and stable in on those ways is that not what I was saying you have a false God you have an idol you pray to you receive nothing all right because you're double minded you're faltering between two opinions your prayers are falling on deaf ears because you're not praying to the true God I don't care what you call him oh and whatever name you want if it's not if his character the belief you have about his character and who he is is not line up with the scriptures the prayers are falling on deaf ears to know his character now who he is the way to do that is by knowing what his word says about him but his testimony about himself is you this double-minded attitude towards God is the problem Israel has always had it's always been the problem starting with the Golden Calf all throughout Israel's history the mixture of worship having false understand who God is also worship main prayers going through the motions but not really having the face of Abraham James 5:15 3:18 Susan the prayer of faith will save the sick the prayer of faith the prayer of faith what is faith belief believing in who God is believing in what the word says he is leaving the testimonies of God that is faith and it's superb faith it is effective let's say all prayers are effective does the prayer faith is effective you pray all day and all night and not amount to anything her faith is what's important okay so for if things are working our faith what does the enemy done he is crippled you is taking away your weapons because prayer faith is powerful affected Bible says the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven confess your trespasses to one another pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly they would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit how many of you guys believe that Elijah prayed and there was no rain for three years three half years because of it and because do you really believe that really do you think you could do that you James says you can James says Elijah was a man just like you they prayed and the rain stopped for three and half years we prayed again and it rain the same guy we read about earlier who poured water on the altar three times and said okay God light it up that's the same guy James says you got the same nature as him you're just like him you have the same capacity to touch God that Elijah did that is fantastic you have the same capacity to have effective prayers like Elijah but where's your faith which side are you on the side that Elijah was on you sailor on the side with the prophets of bail false religion is all throughout the history of Israel what did you shoe a deal with Pharisees Pharisees and Sadducees what were they there were the religious leaders of their day they're the guys who are supposed to know they know the scriptures they know God they're the leaders they're the teachers they're the great men of faith they're the rabbis Yeshua said their sons a Satan because their faith you so your sons of your father the devil he's a liar they were believin lives teaching lies why is that matter because if you lie about God and you're leading people away from your leading people into idolatry is showing them a false god we can't do that why do you think why do you think the world is in such a shape it's in right now why do you think we're in such a condition we're in right now I think we all have a warped view of who God is one way or another and if we all need to get back to what does the Bible tell me about him I don't care what they told me in school I don't care what they say on TV I don't care what my parents said I don't care what my preacher said I want to know what the word says who is God I want to know him intimately and personally I want my prayers to be heard by a God who answers stop letting the enemy mix distort your view of God through your eyes and your ears stop eating the sacrifices of demons Bible says we are at war we are constantly in a spiritual battle doesn't end every day you were a battle every day you are a war and it may look different every day but you're a war the enemy is constantly trying to defeat you is trying to come against you is trying to lead you away from God in one way or another it's trying to steal your soul he's trying to lie to you just trying to get you away from God he's trying to stop you from worshiping stop you from praying what I said last week by dancing right about worship singing and dancing if you're afraid to dance a few if you feel hesitation about singing what is that a Santa me trying to stop you from worshiping why because he doesn't want you to worship God you're a spiritual battle right there so what do you do you said on your butt but do you get up and sing and dance say Satan you know what get behind me I worship the Lord my God and him only shall I serve that should be a response we're in a spiritual battle even though we may not always be aware of that battle it's going on and we need to think seriously about our own involvement in this war what role am i playing in this battle listen what 2nd Timothy says about being a good soldier Rhea schewe 2nd Timothy 2:3 through forces you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this light that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier your soldier for your shoe then stop getting entangled with the affairs of this life he says what is entangled tied up trapped the cares of this life the cares of this world was the parable that Yeshua said about the seed which one the cares of this world so that they choked it out right didn't produce the good fruit is the cares of this world a warrior tears down strongholds destroys high places it smashes idols and read their judges I challenge you look at look at he hood look at Gideon because some of these people who went through tearing down idols destroying the enemy smashing idols this is what we got to do in our life oh there's an idol let's tear that thing down you know the best way to know if something is in idle when you decide to get rid of it and you say I can't do that I can't give that up I should tell you right there oh there's an idol I can't give it up it must be an idol right can't do without my cellphone are you crazy the mini Idol in your pocket you I'm just saying st. Corinthians 10:3 through six but though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled I'm almost done hang in there seriously like one two three or four sentences bullet points you know I might expand on them a little bit hang in there we're almost done I know of being I know it's long I know it's long it's important it's important tearing down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God what are the things in your life that are exalting themselves against the knowledge of God the first thing that pops in my head is TV and movies music video games sports work okay are the people relationships and gums okay there's a lot of things in our life that could be exalting itself against the knowledge of God those are idols those are strongholds and they need to come down don't give the enemy access to your life balaam to lead you into the worship of a false god it's the same strategy saying it's still working on you can't curse you when you're in God's palm when you're in the palm of his hand under his shelter when you're in his secure place so you can't touch so what does he do I can't curse them so send in the Moabite women let's lead him into sexual morality and idolatry let them eat of the sacrifices of the pagan gods and they'll curse themself the hole right out of his grip a saying strategy numero uno is number one strategy and destroying your life and he's gonna keep on trying until he gets this success that is what he wants to do to you cast down your idols and put your faith in the true God of the Bible believing his word without doubt remember 8:8 powerful prayer that does not waver between two opinions or without doubt they're down the strongholds you buy us with me Heavenly Father we love you so much we thank you for your word we thank you for your Holy Spirit in the conviction that you were bringing into our hearts and lives but help us to follow you help us to do what is right and pleasing to you help us to hear your voice and obey help us to know you truly intimately or help us to hear your voice or help us not to serve any false gods or idols that was not to be led astray by those things those things are so easily entangles us and lead us away from you help us not to do that but please forgive us for the times that we have forgive us for our idolatry forgive us for our worship of false gods forgive us for our faltering faith you but afraid that you would strengthen our faith and you strengthen our knowledge of who you are offers to have face like Elijah face like Abraham faith like Moses like David you help us to believe your word serve you follow you to not our hearts to any other or cleanse our hearts cleanse our minds or strengthen our faith help us to stand against the enemy to stand firm on your word to stand firm in your might your string you but if your spirit does not go with us do not send us up from here how will anyone know that we are your people and that we have pleased you unless your spear goes with us praise you thank you we may be sure told you is a hard one I was right when I said a hard one you you versus [Music] I don't know [Music] ye-yeah [Music] I don't know Phyllis the who named you Sedona another there they are simplify the shallow made or bless you keep you made Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you my little if this kind of onion beauty peace dismissed thank you guys Oh Cory hang on Cory says he wants to take that mic I'm sorry I know we've been here already along but I'm feeling like I need to repent and if any of you feel the same way right now take a minute find a place sit in your chair lay on the floor whatever you need to do but repent now don't wait and say oh I'll do it when I get home or I'll do it tomorrow because the cares of this world and you'll forget so I'm just going to say for me I'm gonna take a moment and I'm gonna kneel and I'm gonna repent to my God because I have worshipped idols and I would urge you you can go I know everybody's tired and the kids are probably ready to go but I would just urge you to take a minute kneel pray sit prayed or whatever and if if any of this hit you tonight to repent to your king don't sit don't let this go okay thank you you you you you you you you

Channel: The Grafted Church

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Keywords: Grafted Church, sermon, church online, sabbath service, live sabbath service, preacher, bible teaching, Lex Meyer, Torah Portion, Yeshua, Jesus, Bible, spiritual warfare, idolatry, prayer of faith, tearing down high places, tv idol, hollywood idol, entertainment idols, television idol, idols television, end times, spiritual authorities in high places, Church service

Id: w9zyC8fEGds

Length: 101min 50sec (6110 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020