1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,440 Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located 2 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,680 in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship 3 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:21,920 Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, 4 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:27,300 discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church 5 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:31,600 and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be 6 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:35,880 your host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages 7 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:42,480 are a blessing to you and bring you closer to God. 8 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:52,520 Hello, and welcome back to the Salmon Arm Potter's House podcast. My name again is 9 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:59,960 David Bickford and I am the pastor here. Today's sermon is going to be entitled, 10 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:08,160 What are you subscribing to? The World Wide Web or Wisdom. I like this message. It is 11 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:14,220 ever important for us to look at what we are subscribing to. The text that we will use 12 00:01:14,220 --> 00:01:22,840 as a jumping off point today will be Psalms 106, 36-39. If you have your Bible, Psalms 13 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:28,440 106, 36-39, you can turn there while we jump into this. Recently, I was cleaning out my 14 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:34,240 email and unsubscribing to a number of email lists. To be honest, I have to do that again, 15 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:38,660 so I will probably do it here in the next week or two. I don't know about you guys, 16 00:01:38,660 --> 00:01:44,200 but I subscribe to all sorts of stuff because I am interested in many different things, 17 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:49,640 whether it is music, I am learning to play the piano a little bit, or I play bass guitar 18 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,960 as well, so I have all sorts of music stuff. The military, I have subscriptions to all 19 00:01:53,960 --> 00:02:02,040 sorts of Marine Corps and military kind of things. Another hobby of mine is I do long 20 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:07,160 distance backpacking whenever I can get a chance, which is not very often, but I am 21 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,380 a bit of a gear head, so I have all this crazy camping gear stuff that is coming into my 22 00:02:11,380 --> 00:02:19,080 inbox all the time. Those are just the things that I remember signing up for. Some of these 23 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:24,000 I remember subscribing for, others I don't. Some stuff that comes in there, I am like, 24 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,640 wow, this is really junk. I don't know where this came from. As I was muddling through 25 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:35,360 all these emails, it began to dawn on me that the desire of the world is to block out the 26 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:40,200 things of God. It is to clog our minds and waste our time with the futile things in this 27 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:47,280 world. This is nothing new, and throughout the history of mankind, we have always strived 28 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:52,120 for pleasure and entertainment to distract ourselves from the lives that we are living, 29 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:58,020 and oftentimes to distract ourselves from living a life of purpose. We often will say 30 00:02:58,020 --> 00:03:04,120 to ourselves, we deserve some downtime. Have you ever heard that? The big one for downtime. 31 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:09,040 I deserve a break, or I need a me day. That is a disgusting phrase. I don't even like 32 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:17,340 saying it. But some time to relax and chill out, and how often does that downtime become 33 00:03:17,340 --> 00:03:22,160 all the time, and then we find ourselves with no time for the things of God because we are 34 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:30,280 so busy with the things of man. Last week I preached about the storm and how God is 35 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:35,280 in the storm, and I believe that in nature, storms are used by God as a way to clean the 36 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:41,480 environment and to bring attention to the things that are truly important, that is life. 37 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:46,860 Similarly, the storm we go through in our own lives are meant to clean up our lives 38 00:03:46,860 --> 00:03:51,920 to the point of bringing us back to the Lord, a way of disrupting our endless pursuits of 39 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:59,080 entertainment and pleasure to shake us and refocus us on him, but on those around us 40 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:04,440 so that we can show our love for him by serving others. So we are supposed to be focused in 41 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:08,960 on the things of God and therefore the things that God wants us to do. That makes perfectly 42 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:14,640 clear sense. Why do there have to be all these calamities in the world? Why do there have 43 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:21,400 to be wars and rumors of wars? Why do there have to be ebbs and flows in the economy even? 44 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:25,600 Why are these things having to happen? I believe that God allows a lot of these things to happen 45 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:32,400 so that he can work through them for his purpose and so that he can help us to redirect and 46 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:40,300 focus our life back on him. That's his hope. That's his goal, I believe, with the storm. 47 00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:47,600 So an illustration I came up with is entertainment, culture, and addiction, and this is from an 48 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:54,160 article from Peter Stromberg, and it's about how our way of life promotes addiction. We 49 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,880 have a severe drug abuse problem in our society, and anyone who has struggled with addiction 50 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:05,960 or watched a loved one do so knows the agony that addiction brings to sufferers and their 51 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:11,040 families. For the most part, addiction is understood to be a result of biological factors 52 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:17,000 similar to a disease process. The interaction of a powerful chemical within the human nervous 53 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:23,560 system can create a situation in which a body becomes dependent upon the chemical and withdraw 54 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:28,200 from that chemical leads to great suffering. A number of addiction experts dispute the 55 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:33,720 disease model, however, and they offer some convincing counter arguments. To take a single 56 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:39,360 obvious example, some people develop addictive relationships to activities that don't involve 57 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:44,600 ingesting chemicals, activities such as gambling or playing games on the internet. That's a 58 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:49,840 big one, right? Playing games on the internet? Anybody out there? No? Okay. In fact, we seem 59 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:56,560 to be a nation of people who fall rather easily into being controlled by our desires. Even 60 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:02,960 those who have no addictions often struggle to control their spending or their food intake. 61 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:09,600 Psalms 106, 36-39, we're going to look at our text now, and it says, in verse 36, they 62 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:15,840 worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters 63 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:21,360 to false gods. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they 64 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:27,480 sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled 65 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:33,800 themselves by what they did, by their deeds they prostituted themselves. Now, really quickly 66 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:39,160 with that, you know, that's a pretty powerful verse of scripture from the Psalms. What's 67 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:46,240 he talking about here? Well, we do know in ancient times, and even the ancient Israelites, 68 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:51,160 there were periods where they literally did sacrifice their sons and daughters to the 69 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:58,820 gods Molech and Baal and different things. So these idols, these pagan worship that occurred, 70 00:06:58,820 --> 00:07:06,080 this is something that did happen in that period of time. They allowed these activities 71 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:11,120 that they surrounded themselves with to become something more important than the one God, 72 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:18,640 the God, the Jehovah. So let's look at my first point, which is the world. We cannot 73 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:23,740 escape the world for we live in it, right? Of course not. And those of us that are called 74 00:07:23,740 --> 00:07:28,640 by Christ are called to something different, though. We're called to be emissaries for 75 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:33,560 the kingdom of heaven. So even though we're here, we have to remember that we do have 76 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:40,640 a calling. Every believer has a calling on their life to be an emissary, to be an example 77 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:45,880 of the heavenly kingdom. So where does that leave us in respect to the call or our place 78 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:52,200 in this world? The easiest path for many is to fall in love with this world rather than 79 00:07:52,200 --> 00:08:00,160 the call. And first John 2 15, he says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. 80 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:05,520 If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the 81 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:11,200 world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from 82 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:18,420 the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. 83 00:08:18,420 --> 00:08:24,520 But whoever does the will of God abides forever. I don't know about you, but I read that and 84 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:30,600 that's a challenging portion of scripture. Because it's very clearly telling us that 85 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:34,740 even though the culture wants us to say you can do these things, you can be these things 86 00:08:34,740 --> 00:08:40,120 and still be spiritual, you can still be a Christian and do all these things, this verse 87 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:46,660 of scripture should confound you. Because it says, Do not love the world or the things 88 00:08:46,660 --> 00:08:53,800 in the world. And then he continues to go on and say, If anyone does love the world, 89 00:08:53,800 --> 00:09:00,240 the love of the Father is not in him. So that's a challenging thing for believers because 90 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:04,980 obviously we do, you know, we thank God for the beautiful creation that he's given us 91 00:09:04,980 --> 00:09:10,020 and that to be able to live and abide in him in this world. But what the point of this 92 00:09:10,020 --> 00:09:17,420 scripture clearly is, is that our focus is not meant to be on this fallen world, or the 93 00:09:17,420 --> 00:09:25,580 entertainment that is in this fallen world. We should have our primary focus on the purpose 94 00:09:25,580 --> 00:09:31,720 of the calling of Jesus Christ, the thing that does set us free. So since the fallen 95 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:38,120 man, when sin entered the world, we have lived in a corrupted creation. So that when I read 96 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:45,100 the Old Testament, I was always amazed by how quickly humanity had turned against God. 97 00:09:45,100 --> 00:09:51,300 How you can also see, you know, I had turned to consumerism or the pursuit of pleasure, 98 00:09:51,300 --> 00:09:56,160 even in the Old Testament, right? We like to think that it's only in our day and age 99 00:09:56,160 --> 00:10:01,960 that people have become subjugated or addicted to entertainment. It is true that we have 100 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:08,200 more channels and avenues for entertainment now than they did thousands of years ago, 101 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:15,540 but it is not a new problem. And Genesis, it only takes us to chapter three for us to 102 00:10:15,540 --> 00:10:22,600 see temptation went out in the first battle of wills, right? Genesis 3, 1 through 7, the 103 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:23,600 fall. 104 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:27,640 Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God 105 00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:33,900 had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the 106 00:10:33,900 --> 00:10:39,120 garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree, the fruit 107 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,360 of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree 108 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:48,400 that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent 109 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:53,720 said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your 110 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:59,300 eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw 111 00:10:59,300 --> 00:11:03,880 that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, that the tree was 112 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:09,600 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some 113 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:15,480 to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were open and they knew 114 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:21,000 that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths. 115 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:27,040 This original sin is now an everyday occurrence. In the world we live in, we are challenged 116 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:32,360 to make the same decision over and over and over again. The world calls to us in the same 117 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:37,920 manner as the serpent, you won't die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes 118 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:44,640 will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. In the very next chapter, we 119 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:50,320 see Cain kill his brother Abel out of jealousy. Time goes on and within two chapters we see 120 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:55,280 the story of Noah and the ark and at this point in history, the world is beyond repair 121 00:11:55,280 --> 00:12:01,220 and God judges the earth with the great flood. I only highlight these chapters to show how 122 00:12:01,220 --> 00:12:07,080 early on in human nature we decided that our own way, our own pleasure seeking, our own 123 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:15,880 knowledge led us away from God in favor of the world. How many times in today do you 124 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:22,160 hear people say or talk about rather relative truth? Well my truth is this, well your truth 125 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:28,080 isn't God's truth and you need to be very careful about assuming truth, especially when 126 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:34,220 it's relative truth because then you open the door for everybody to have their own truth 127 00:12:34,220 --> 00:12:40,920 to live by and then morality in a civilization collapses. It just collapses. Society would 128 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:46,320 collapse if everybody believed in relative truth and relative morality and that's part 129 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:50,840 of the reason why we do have wars and rumors of wars and things going on today is because 130 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:58,000 of all the different you know you know basis for morality that are happening in the world. 131 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:05,880 This brings me to my second point which is wide. This is a worldwide epidemic and I found 132 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:12,560 an article titled My Family is Trapped in the Metaverse. This is a pretty interesting 133 00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:18,460 you know article. It's from Adriana So who is a senior associate reviewer or review editor 134 00:13:18,460 --> 00:13:22,720 for the publication Wired which is a tech publication. If you're a techie you probably 135 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:28,200 have heard of it. The subheading for this article is virtual reality isn't great but 136 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:33,440 it's a lot better than dealing with everything else out there. That title alone should scare 137 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:41,000 you. The fact that people are willing to just leave life behind for something fake but that's 138 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:49,800 what the promise of Satan and the devil are is these fake alternatives to living a righteous 139 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:56,880 life and following Christ. So in the article she says after lunch my six-year-old daughter 140 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:03,460 was allowed to spend half an hour in Google's Tilt Brush, a 3D drawing app where she created 141 00:14:03,460 --> 00:14:10,540 a frosty winter scene complete with falling snow and snowmen named Lisa and Tom. My four-year-old 142 00:14:10,540 --> 00:14:16,520 watched enraptured as the headset cast to the screen. After dinner I caught my husband 143 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:21,040 putting the headset on again. I told him to charge it when he was done because I was going 144 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:27,020 to try a few new games with my co-worker in an hour. Being the parent of a still unvaccinated 145 00:14:27,020 --> 00:14:32,040 four-year-old in the middle of a rainy organ winter during the still ongoing global pandemic 146 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:37,920 has sucked. My kids go to school and daycare but to mitigate the risk they have cancelled 147 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:44,120 swimming, gymnastics, classes, play dates. Virtual reality isn't perfect but it has allowed 148 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:51,120 us to extend our lockdown indefinitely until my son can be vaccinated and also I kind of 149 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:57,920 like it. So that article has a lot to be afraid of in my opinion just that first bit of it 150 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:03,040 but you know during the global pandemic there was this worldwide epidemic but maybe not 151 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:07,680 in the way that you think. The pandemic locked people away from reality and in the past they 152 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:14,080 might have turned to their close family or gone outdoors or even the Bible but now we 153 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:20,680 all look inward towards entertainment. Flashing lights and vibrant colors from tv, movies, 154 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:24,920 and the internet has enabled us to remain connected like never before but it is also 155 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:31,360 breaking down our ability to be connected in real life and for many it has become an 156 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:35,480 addiction. That's why even with this podcast, the goal of the podcast isn't just to have 157 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:41,480 a podcast. It is to share sermons clearly but it's also to draw people out. So whether 158 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:46,760 you're in Salmon Armony come to our church and visit with us or you could go to any of 159 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:53,360 the other 3,000 fellowship churches we have in the world or if we don't have one to find 160 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:58,080 a church to lock into where you're at. That's the key. Find a Bible believing church where 161 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:03,160 you can lock into and have fellowship with the brethren with other Christians. That's 162 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:10,280 the goal. But let's dig back in to this article. The first time I downloaded Tilt Brutch was 163 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:14,960 the first time I was able to give my 6 year old a truly new experience in a really long 164 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:20,640 time. Her little mouth dropped open as she turned around and around. I like it too much 165 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:26,000 I'm not getting out she declared. I cast the headset to the tv and could see her waving 166 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:31,960 her hands in the dark making flowers and hearts come to glowing life with her hands. It was 167 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:39,600 amazing. So again in today's world we're not amazed often times by the power of God or 168 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:44,480 the power of his creation but rather the creations of man. It's actually really funny because 169 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:50,200 we try to ignore the creative power of God and what he's created for us in this world 170 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:58,540 and this life but we're all the more willing to dive into and accept the creations of man. 171 00:16:58,540 --> 00:17:04,440 This addition to entertainment is building calluses on people's soul. Fiction has become 172 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:09,520 reality and this warping of reality permeates our understanding of God and our trust in 173 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:16,160 his word. So back to the article again the endless month stretched on and on. I don't 174 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:21,820 know how long it will be until the quest to bores us just as the piano now bores us or 175 00:17:21,820 --> 00:17:26,400 bread making or roller skates or any of the other endless ways we thought we would be 176 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,980 able to make it through what we imagine would be at most a temporary disruption. The sun 177 00:17:30,980 --> 00:17:36,760 goes down and the oasis beckons I just hope by the time we can get out of here we will 178 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:44,640 still want to. What a scary ending to that article is the fact that you know hopefully 179 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:52,320 by the time we're you know the pandemic subsides back when that was a thing you know hopefully 180 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:58,400 we even want to leave the house or maybe we just want to stay plugged in to what they're 181 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:05,360 feeding us in the metaverse. That's a pretty frightening thing so let's look again at Psalms 182 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:12,880 106 36 39 they worship their idols which became a snare to them they sacrificed their sons 183 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:18,000 and their daughters to false gods they shed innocent blood in the blood of their sons 184 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:22,600 and daughters whom they sacrificed to idols of Canaan and the land was desecrated by their 185 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:29,080 blood they defiled themselves by what they did by their deeds they prostituted themselves. 186 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:34,000 These verses scripture become more and more clear to us you know as something that recurs 187 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:38,300 in human history over and over again when we look at the parable of the prodigal son 188 00:18:38,300 --> 00:18:44,320 in Luke 15 we're shown a picture of the fleeting nature of sin the desire to seek only entertainment 189 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:49,520 and pleasure that can have disastrous results on our lives and the lives of those we care 190 00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:57,040 about. So how do we find ourselves so enraptured by the worldwide entertainment it is a web 191 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:02,620 after all and it's meant to be so addictive that we are trapped in it like spiders like 192 00:19:02,620 --> 00:19:09,300 like being in a spider's web or or the fowler's snare right. What is that that we're talking 193 00:19:09,300 --> 00:19:14,260 about then we're talking about the web right now we're in the web we're stuck in the web 194 00:19:14,260 --> 00:19:20,820 entertainment pleasure and self. The internet movies books theater are not wicked in themselves 195 00:19:20,820 --> 00:19:26,020 in fact they can be great tools to further the gospel of Jesus Christ the trouble is 196 00:19:26,020 --> 00:19:31,500 not the media but rather the fallen nature of man. There's a reason the Bible tells us 197 00:19:31,500 --> 00:19:36,460 not to forsake the gathering of the brethren which is the church which I have already kind 198 00:19:36,460 --> 00:19:41,600 of hit on the focus of us as Christians is the gospel and the kingdom of God the problem 199 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:49,980 within a lot of churches and within a lot of Christians is the lure of the world's entertainment 200 00:19:49,980 --> 00:19:55,220 and the web right the world's entertainment web. So when we do not judge our entertainment 201 00:19:55,220 --> 00:19:59,900 by first washing it with the word of God we can become watered down by the false gospel 202 00:19:59,900 --> 00:20:07,140 of the world. A survey you have done by Josh Shepherd found that only nine percent of self-identified 203 00:20:07,140 --> 00:20:13,740 Christians hold to a biblical biblical worldview. Now I might sound crazy here we are we're 204 00:20:13,740 --> 00:20:18,620 Christians we're supposed to you know have given ourselves you know to Christ and accepted 205 00:20:18,620 --> 00:20:24,180 him as our Lord and Savior but now we're going to discount much of the worldview that he 206 00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:34,060 espoused in favor of a new more enlightened worldview. The CRC study which included two 207 00:20:34,060 --> 00:20:39,500 thousand adults classifies American believers on a spectrum of five subgroups from those 208 00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:45,180 who self-identify as Christians to those who are termed integrated disciples and possess 209 00:20:45,180 --> 00:20:50,020 a biblical worldview. On the surface they may all appear to be Christian but the survey 210 00:20:50,020 --> 00:20:55,260 reveals stark differences in their core beliefs. Now this says American but you could probably 211 00:20:55,260 --> 00:21:00,580 extrapolate that to Canadians because there's probably a lot of similarities. For instance 212 00:21:00,580 --> 00:21:06,940 sixty one percent of those who self-identify as Christians affirm that I believe that God 213 00:21:06,940 --> 00:21:12,540 is all-knowing all-powerful perfect and just creator of the universe who still rules the 214 00:21:12,540 --> 00:21:19,500 universe today. Right there right there sixty one percent what are those other 39 percent 215 00:21:19,500 --> 00:21:28,660 believe is self-identified Christians. However large majorities of self-identified Christians 216 00:21:28,660 --> 00:21:34,220 also report many beliefs that aren't in harmony with biblical teaching according to the survey 217 00:21:34,220 --> 00:21:39,700 these include 72 percent argue that people are basically good. The Bible clearly tells 218 00:21:39,700 --> 00:21:46,480 us that the human heart is wicked. Sixty six percent say that having faith matters more 219 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:50,820 than which faith you pursue. There's only one way to heaven and that is through Christ 220 00:21:50,820 --> 00:21:57,100 our Lord. We know that from the word of God. Sixty four percent say that all religious 221 00:21:57,100 --> 00:22:03,100 faiths are of equal value same answers before we're told that you know that narrow is the 222 00:22:03,100 --> 00:22:09,300 is the gate to the path right. Fifty eight percent believe that if a person is good enough 223 00:22:09,300 --> 00:22:14,100 or does enough good things they can earn their way into heaven. This is a works argument 224 00:22:14,100 --> 00:22:19,980 but we know that it's by faith you are saved it's grace that saves us and then if you have 225 00:22:19,980 --> 00:22:25,060 grace and you've been saved you will have fruit you will have works that come because 226 00:22:25,060 --> 00:22:33,980 you've been washed by the blood of the lamb and you've come up as a new creation in Christ. 227 00:22:33,980 --> 00:22:39,980 Here's a good one. Fifty seven percent believe in karma that's a Hinduistic belief and it 228 00:22:39,980 --> 00:22:44,940 goes quite contrary it's very close to fatalism to a certain extent too but anyway we're not 229 00:22:44,940 --> 00:22:51,220 going to digress those are clearly not scriptural ideas. By contrast the survey cohorts termed 230 00:22:51,220 --> 00:22:56,260 an integrated disciple a small subset of those claiming to be Christians are noted as being 231 00:22:56,260 --> 00:23:03,660 consistent in their beliefs and integrating those convictions into their behaviors. So 232 00:23:03,660 --> 00:23:08,500 now we're looking at not just you know cultural Christians is what I like to call the first 233 00:23:08,500 --> 00:23:12,380 group but we're looking at a second group which is integrated disciples because as Christians 234 00:23:12,380 --> 00:23:18,940 we're all called to be disciples we're all called to make that leap into not just accepting 235 00:23:18,940 --> 00:23:25,220 Jesus Christ but letting him have his way in us which is discipleship. Ninety nine percent 236 00:23:25,220 --> 00:23:29,660 or and more believe that God is all-knowing all-powerful a just creator of the universe 237 00:23:29,660 --> 00:23:37,140 who still rules the universe today. More than 99 percent believe the Bible is accurate and 238 00:23:37,140 --> 00:23:44,260 reliable word of God. Ninety six percent claim that every moral choice either honors or dishonors 239 00:23:44,260 --> 00:23:50,820 God. However, Barna's survey finds that even some believers classified as this highly disciple 240 00:23:50,820 --> 00:23:56,660 cohort hold to some views that challenge biblical principles. Those shocking beliefs of integrated 241 00:23:56,660 --> 00:24:02,540 disciples include 52 percent still argue that people are basically good which again is very 242 00:24:02,540 --> 00:24:07,180 very you know clearly against the word of God. Thirty nine percent contend that the 243 00:24:07,180 --> 00:24:12,180 Holy Spirit is not a real living being but is merely a symbol of God's power presence 244 00:24:12,180 --> 00:24:18,820 and purity but if you believe in the Holy Trinity we believe that it's it's the Godhead 245 00:24:18,820 --> 00:24:24,220 right and if you want more on that reach out more than happy to talk about that. Thirty 246 00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:31,820 three percent of this group still believe in karma. You know what do you do with that? 247 00:24:31,820 --> 00:24:36,340 There's a remarkable level of self-deception even among born-again Christians said Barna 248 00:24:36,340 --> 00:24:41,220 commenting on this on his recent worldview research it represents a huge educational 249 00:24:41,220 --> 00:24:49,820 challenge for those responsible for biblical worldview development. In Hebrews 10 26 and 250 00:24:49,820 --> 00:24:56,580 11 24 through 25 it says if we deliberately keep on sinning after we receive the knowledge 251 00:24:56,580 --> 00:25:03,180 of truth no sacrifice is left for sin. And then in 24 by faith Moses when he had grown 252 00:25:03,180 --> 00:25:08,380 up refused to be known as the son of the Pharaoh's daughter he chose to be mistreated along with 253 00:25:08,380 --> 00:25:15,380 the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. So the reality is that if 254 00:25:15,380 --> 00:25:20,220 you're washing yourself in the world wide web then you're at a risk of not only being 255 00:25:20,220 --> 00:25:26,260 trapped but also having your faith stripped away by false teachings of the world. So where 256 00:25:26,260 --> 00:25:34,620 do we turn to and what hope do we have? Our hope is always found in Jesus. It was his 257 00:25:34,620 --> 00:25:40,020 sacrifice on the cross that has the power to set us free. So as we come to a close I 258 00:25:40,020 --> 00:25:45,180 want to look at wisdom, salvation, and a new life in Jesus Christ. God's wisdom is always 259 00:25:45,180 --> 00:25:51,840 our way out of life out of a life of sin and pain. We can see the stories of God's salvation 260 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:57,020 through the Old and New Testament. We know that Jesus is the word from John you know 261 00:25:57,020 --> 00:26:05,900 and one. With that we can infer the Old Testament draws one continuous line towards Jesus. The 262 00:26:05,900 --> 00:26:11,860 purpose of the law was to draw attention to our need for a savior our need for a sacrifice. 263 00:26:11,860 --> 00:26:18,060 So as we live in a world that is wide open with sin where there are webs of deceit masquerading 264 00:26:18,060 --> 00:26:23,060 as entertainment and pleasure we can shed the light of the word on those traps. We can 265 00:26:23,060 --> 00:26:28,140 avoid them ourselves by washing our lives in the word and we can pull others out of 266 00:26:28,140 --> 00:26:35,100 those webs with the gospel. When the Lord hung on the cross there were two others hanging 267 00:26:35,100 --> 00:26:43,460 with him. One of those men chose to mock Jesus but the other made a different choice. He 268 00:26:43,460 --> 00:26:48,220 chose to repent of his sin and ask Jesus for forgiveness. So unless you're driving if you're 269 00:26:48,220 --> 00:26:52,400 driving keep your hands 10 and 2 in the wheel but if not I want every head bowed every eye 270 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:58,860 closed wherever you're listening. Both men were trapped by the choices of their lives 271 00:26:58,860 --> 00:27:05,400 both those men that were hanging next to Jesus on the cross. But one man was able to achieve 272 00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:13,340 eternal freedom through Christ Jesus. He made a different decision. He made a decision to 273 00:27:13,340 --> 00:27:19,820 turn away in his heart from all of the wickedness of this world all of the temptations of this 274 00:27:19,820 --> 00:27:29,060 world. You too can turn from the world wide web of entertainment embrace the wisdom the 275 00:27:29,060 --> 00:27:36,320 gospel of Jesus Christ. Then you too will be set free broken out of this world prison 276 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:43,600 and able to help others and to rescue others. More people just like you and me sinners saved 277 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:49,460 by grace. If this message is resonated with you if this sounds like you where you're at 278 00:27:49,460 --> 00:27:55,900 wherever you are I want you to signify that with an uplifted hand. Because I can't see 279 00:27:55,900 --> 00:28:00,640 this but God can see this and we always do this invitation at the end of every message 280 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:06,900 that I preach after every music scene after everything we do. The reality is is we need 281 00:28:06,900 --> 00:28:11,860 Christ and you can have that. It's a simple prayer. You just repeat after me Dear Lord 282 00:28:11,860 --> 00:28:17,700 God I know that I'm a sinner but I know that your son Jesus Christ came and died for my 283 00:28:17,700 --> 00:28:26,180 sins. I repent I turn away from my sins and I accept you Jesus to be my Lord to come into 284 00:28:26,180 --> 00:28:31,420 my heart to be my Savior to be my King. I give you all the praise and glory for your 285 00:28:31,420 --> 00:28:39,460 grace that sets me free and saves me today. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. So thank you very 286 00:28:39,460 --> 00:28:43,940 much for listening again this week. I pray that this message has impacted you. If you 287 00:28:43,940 --> 00:28:47,520 pray that prayer reach out let me know that's the whole purpose of what we're doing here 288 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:52,580 is to see people saved and then see them locked into churches that are preaching the gospel 289 00:28:52,580 --> 00:28:59,700 so they can be strengthened within the brethren or by the brethren and go out and and see 290 00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:04,740 others set free from the web of the world as well. So again thank you for listening 291 00:29:04,740 --> 00:29:24,700 and I can't wait for you to come back next time. God bless.