Latest / HOTLCAST / [SERMON] The Dragon, the Lamb, and the Lie | Dungeons & Dragons

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[SERMON] The Dragon, the Lamb, and the Lie | Dungeons & Dragons · HOTLCAST

0:05
SPEAKER_00: No, we're today today.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: We're doing Dungeons and Dragons part four.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: We did two Dungeon and Dragon stories from the Old Testament, and now we're into the New Testament.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: We did John the Baptist, who was imprisoned in a dungeon.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: And so we talked about that last week.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: If you missed that, go, you know, go go watch it online.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: You can do that.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: But today we're finishing with a dragon story.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you know this.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: These aren't stories, these are truth.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And I am a person that loves unicorns and dragons because they're in the Bible.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: That's why I like love them.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: So if you, you know, if you wonder why I like unicorns and dragons, they're in God's word and they're real.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: So like a dragon is a real thing.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, it may not be smog from Lord of the Rings, all you Lord of the Rings nerds, but um, because it may look very different than what that was.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: But in a unicorn is in the new the the um the King James Version of the Bible.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: I love it because there's unicorns in it.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: The unicorn was probably a goat that they saw sideways.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Scholars actually say this.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: There's this goat with these really high long dick, and if you see it sideways, they're just one, and it looks like that's that was a unicorn.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: So these pretty white unicorns with the glowing uh horn, that's not, and shoots rainbows, that's probably not it.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Um although that's what we see, and uh, or it was a rhinoceros, and either way, neither of those look like the unicorns that we have in the stores, but uh there was a unicorn uh because a one-horned animal is all it means, and uh so that's it.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: And then there are dragons.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: There's dragons mentioned in both the Old Testament and New Testament, and so we're talking about it.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: So it may not be the dragon that you think, but it is definitely a dragon.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: So here is the 1220 painting of said dragon from the New Testament.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: So this is what it looks like.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: This is the dragon.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is uh one of our historical pictures from time.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of different versions of this over time and painted in paintings and the hanging museums and books.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And so the dragon is real in our story, but he's not the hero of our story.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about revelations.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go, what is in the end of your book, but I don't know if you know this.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Revelation was not the last book written.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: It is at the end of the Bible, but it wasn't the final book written.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: And so people often get that wrong.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to give you a little tidbit of history.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: When they put all the books together, they just put it at the end because it talks about the end, but it's not the end, it's not the one that was written last.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna go to Revelation and we're gonna jump around, but we're gonna really be in Revelation 12, but we're gonna start at Revelation 1 today, and we're gonna talk about this dragon.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And remember, you read the yellow words out loud.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: It says, I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the words that are in Jesus, was on an island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: So John, he is writing about the tribulation.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Like the time he was writing, they were in persecution.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: This is 60 years after Jesus has ascended into heaven, he's died on the cross, he's been crucified.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And so Christianity is spreading, but it is against the religion of the world, which Rome had their own gods and goddesses.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: So having another God that was kind of anti their gods, it was a problem.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And so they're being persecuted.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And the Rome, the Roman gods, they like to mess with people.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen the uh the Odyssey and the whole thing of the Odyssey?
3:20
SPEAKER_00: It was like 20 years before he could get back, and the gods kept messing with him.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Like they like to torture people.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Then we have Jesus, who's a loving God, who takes care of his people and loves them and prepares an eternal afterlife for them.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: That goes against everything that the Roman pantheon had.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And so the Christians were persecuted and they're in tribulation and they're they're struggling.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And so John is writing to those people to say, hey, have patient endurance.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: And he's writing in AD 95 to 96.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: This is the Isle of Patmos.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: It's in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: This is Patmos.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: This is not what it looked like 2,000 years ago, because I have a hard time finding pictures from back then.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, so this is what it looks like today, uh, the Isle of Patmos.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And so, I don't know if you know this, there's no pictures from back then.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyways.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh so but Revelation, the book, it was written to give hope to suffering Christians.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: It was not to make you fear the future.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: It is wielded like a weapon to make people afraid in today's Christianity.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: It's like, let's read Revelations.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: And I have people all the time that come in, when are you gonna preach in Revelations?
4:22
SPEAKER_00: You need to be preaching about Revelations.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: We need to be prepared for the end.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: That was not what it was written for.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: That is a modern creation of the modern church, which is not the purpose of why John wrote the book.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: He was writing to his fellow Christians who were in persecution, saying, Hey, let's stand strong and endure because we're all suffering.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Because in that suffering, it ends with Jesus being the victor.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: The whole purpose of the book is Jesus wins.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So no matter what you're going through, no matter how bad your finances, your health, your marriage, whatever, Jesus still wins.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: That is the point of it.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: Not to make us afraid of the end and the battle and the tribulation.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: It was to encourage us that no matter what you're going through, Jesus still wins.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: So that's the context of Revelation for us.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna jump to Revelation 12.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And then it says this, and another sign appeared in heaven.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten hordes are on his head, and on his head, seven diadems.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: So there is a seven-headed dragon, and the dragon looks terrifying because intimidation is one of his weapons.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Like when the enemy is against you, he wants to intimidate you.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the goal.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was a wrestler, and so um, one of the things when you're a wrestler, it's one versus one.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: And so when you're getting ready for your match, you don't want to look like you're the weaker person.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: You want to be intimidating, like you want to be like snarling and mad, right?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: You want to get out of there.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: So the other person's kind of afraid of you.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Like there's an intimidation factor.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: If you can intimidate somebody, they already start with the potential to lose.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And so that the dragon is terrifying because he's intimidating his enemies, which is us.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: He is against us, and he's trying to scare us, and that's that's his weapon.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: And so the seven heads, it's scary.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if you've ever anyone ever seen a seven-headed dragon?
6:07
SPEAKER_00: No, okay, good.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so just check it.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: But seven-headed dragon is often called a hydra.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: And I know that some of us think we're so strong and we can fight against the dragon, we can stand up against the devil because the devil's attacking, and I got this, and I can just pull up my sword and I'll just cut the dragon's heads off.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about a hydra, and I do, because I like fantasy.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: You cut one head off, it grows right back.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it works.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: So you're not gonna win.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And the whole point of Revelation is this scary creature that's intimidating, that's against you, Jesus wins.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Like that's you can't win, but Jesus wins.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: And so as we look at it in Revelation 12, we see the discussion that's going on that John's sharing about this.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: And it says, and the great dragon was thrown down.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: That ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: So this is connecting the old and the new.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: We have the Satan in the Garden of Eden, in paradise, with Adam and Eve and God.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve walked and talked with God.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: And Satan shows up, the deceiver, the serpent, the dragon.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: And his whole goal is to deceive them to get them kicked out of paradise.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: So they're no longer walking with God.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: He still has the same goal and the same job today.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: His whole goal in your life is to deceive you so you get kicked out of relationship with the Lord, essentially.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And you kick yourself out by being deceived.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what's happening.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: And his greatest weapon, it's not his strength, it's his deception.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the dragon may be big and terrifying, but the weapon he uses is to deceive you, like to confuse you, to make you believe things that are not true.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we're seeing in the modern-day world in Christianity with deception.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let me let me let me ask this.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: What what who are Gen Z?
7:59
SPEAKER_00: This is always fun when I ask these questions.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: Who's Gen Z?
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what age, what age is Gen Z?
8:05
unknown: 20 to 30.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, 20 to 30.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Not bad.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: That's closer than last service.
8:10
unknown: 25 to 39.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: No.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
8:13
SPEAKER_00: You guys don't want to guess.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: I'll just tell you, right?
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Last service they all guessed, and we're all wrong.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh so 14 to 29.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: That's one one description of Gen Z.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: 14 to 29.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: So that means middle school, high school, young adults.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: That's Gen Z.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: So my next statistic.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: So there's been a there's been a survey done by the Barner Group, which is a big church survey group.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: So of Gen Z churchgoers, they attend more frequently than any other generation of church goers.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: You old people, you're losing.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Boomers, a lot of you are boomers.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Gen Xers, Zenials, right?
8:51
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you are, Gen Gen Y, millennials, you're all losing.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Gen Z winning.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, in our church they are.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: The Gen Zers are coming to church more regularly than you older folks.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Like you're choosing other things when they're choosing church.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: That is that is happening everywhere in the country right now.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And so people are all getting at churches, they're getting so frustrated because churches are getting younger and the programming is changing because it's getting younger.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Those are the people showing up.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: It's not the other people.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's why church is radically changing at a lot of churches right now.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: We have already kind of changed that many years ago, 10 years ago.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: But other churches, I hear pastors freaking out all the time, and people are getting really upset because our church is changing for the young people.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: They have to.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: There's the ones that are attending.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the problem.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: But just because they're attending church doesn't mean it's all fun and games, right?
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Only one percent of church-going Gen Z adults meet the studies biblical definition of a biblical worldview.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: 1% of Gen Zers that are going to church basically align with a biblical worldview.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: That means all the things the Bible says should be our biblical worldview, our lifestyle, they align with it.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: That's scary.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you are sitting here, well, I'm a boomer and I'm a line, I'm a biblical worldview boomer, but I just don't come to church.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Right?
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, that kind of throws you out of it.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: So just so you know.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes down to it, like the problem is, you know, for these young people, only 53% of Gen Z churchgoers actually believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: They believe the other religions have paths to heaven too.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: And so that's scary.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: And that the culture of the world, we don't have to agree with the Bible and all things because I, the culture says this, and I agree with the culture instead.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: Yet they still go to church.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: And what it's created is a cultural Christianity where I'm a Christian because that's my culture, that's my family.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Catholicism was for a lot of years.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to offend any former Catholics, but um, every church has come from the Catholic Church, even ours, like if you know church history.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: So what it comes down to it, it's this apathy of I am a Christian, I am a Methodist, I'm a Baptist, I'm a United Brother, and I'm a Catholic because my family was, but it actually hasn't changed or influenced my life.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not living it.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's the danger of what's happening in the Gen Z.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Gen Z people go to church, but they don't actually uh live out the Bible the way that they should.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to work on that.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: And so, as a, I don't know if you know this about our large youth group, our lodge youth group has about 10 times the amount of normal activities of all the other youth groups in in the area, in the broad area.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And we we hear about this often.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Why is your why is your youth group doing so much?
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is we're trying to make a difference for the Gen Zers that they're not in that 1%.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: We want them to know the Lord, we want to follow the Lord, and we want to build a church where they want to attend because they're coming.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: And we want them to also follow Jesus and know Jesus and change the world.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And so they're a big part of what we're doing around here, and it's important.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: And see, and the reality is you can sit in church and still let the world disciple you.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of people, and now I know you're thinking, well, them Gen Zers are being discipled by the world.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: We're all being discipled by the world right now.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: It's because of these things, right?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: Instant access to culture and discipleship.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: These are your discipleship devices, whether you like it or not.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: You're being discipled by TikTok, CNN, Fox News, ESPN, right?
12:06
SPEAKER_00: They're discipling you.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, ESPN talked about football.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: They talked about soccer, they talked about basketball.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Now they talk about all kinds of cultural nonsense and politics and all kinds of stuff on there.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: They don't actually talk about the sports.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: That's why I don't like to listen to announcers anymore.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just, they're discipling you.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Everything is discipling you.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: They're discipling your kids.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Snapchat, discipling your kids, whether you like it or not.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And Gen Zers, Instagram, Snapchat, they're the number one and number two things they're on.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: They're discipling your kids and your grandkids.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And they're discipling us because they're influencing us.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And so you can sit in church and not be discipled as much as the world is discipling you.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, your teachers are discipling your kids more than you are.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: That's the scary thing.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: And you have to spend time with your kids to go over that and disciple them for Jesus.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Because the dragon doesn't need to keep you out of church if he can keep the truth out of your life.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: You can go to church.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: But if there's not a truth of God's word changing your heart, it doesn't matter.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Because if if this is what's changing you and all the content on it and all the shows, then the devil wins.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: He deceives you.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: The dragon, the dragon's having victory.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Now it says in Genesis 3:1, I want to go back to the Old Testament, I'll go back to the beginning of the Bible.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to connect the beginning and the end.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: He said to the woman, Did God actually say that?
13:34
SPEAKER_00: You shall not eat any tree in the garden.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: That was the devil's.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you got a potentially a seven-headed dragon in the garden.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: That's that's weird.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: That's scary, right?
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Um and the and the whole thing was, hey, by the way, what did God say?
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Nah.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Did he actually say that?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, did he really want you to not do that?
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Or did you mishear him, right?
13:53
SPEAKER_00: All right.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Some of us we have that a lot.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, did I mishear you?
13:57
SPEAKER_00: You must have misheard me, right?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, like that's the conversation that's going on.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: You misheard.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Like, go ahead and eat it.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, and that's the first thing the serpent attacked was trusting God's word.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: That's victory.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it might be a scary, intimidating dragon, but his intimidation is used to trick you and deceive you and lie to you to get you to fail.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: That's the danger.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: And we see that all the way in the garden.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: We know what happened.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Eve, she was deceived.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: And then Adam was deceived, and they got kicked out of the garden.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: And now we're dealing with it now, and we're getting deceived.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: We live in the chaos of deception because that is the enemy's constant attack for thousands of years.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Trying to win a battle.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: He can't win, but he's trying to get as much foothold as he can.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: We're all paying attention, probably, to the news.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: There's been a war in Ukraine and with Russia for years now.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: And they're again talking about maybe settling it and finding a peace treaty.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you know this, but the current one they're talking about is that Russia and will and Ukraine will have a peace treaty, and Russia will get 25% of the territory of Ukraine.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: That's now it doesn't matter what your political views are that, but the problem is all of that chaos, all that death, all of that stuff, just to win a little bit of ground.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, that's the same chaos that the enemy's trying to do.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to create chaos in your life to get more and more ground in your heart and in your mind.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: So, and if he does, he wins.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if Russia gets 25% of Ukraine, they don't get the whole thing.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: They still win.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: They still win.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's the danger.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: If the devil gets just a little bit of you, he wins.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: He wins.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: And that's deception.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: So in Revelation 12, we could tell you on the next verse, it says this.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our of your God and the authority of his Christ have come.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: See, the dragon deceives you about God, and then he goes out and accuses you before God.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: So he's like, hey, by the way, I'm gonna lie to you, I'm gonna deceive you, I'm gonna catch, I'm gonna get you caught in all this stuff.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: And then the moment that you do, I'm gonna rant you out to God.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, look, look.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Tammy's messed up.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Tammy told a lie that I told her to tell, right?
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Like, right?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And then Casey, Casey, oh, Casey.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: He messed up too.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: And I got him to do it.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what the devil's doing.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he's doing in our life.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's we all have that friend.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, picture back to this happens a lot in middle school.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: And so my son's a middle school director here.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: I spent a lot of time with middle schoolers.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: This is middle school.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: I lived it.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it in my middle ministry when I was in the youth pastor.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: I watch it happen in my son's ministry.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Middle schoolers, they do this.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: They have you have that friend that encourages you to do something.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: And then the moment the heat comes, oh yeah.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: So-and-so did it.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: But they're like, but you told me to do it.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: No, you did it.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't have nothing to do with it, right?
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Like this happens all the time.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Both, you know, both genders, it happens.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: I see it all the time.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's just kind of comical because that's like growing up and figuring out who you are.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: But that is literally what the devil is doing.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey, by the way, by the way, Shannon, I just want you to do this.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And then she does it and he rats her out.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: And like he wants you to fail so he can tell God you're failing.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And you're you're lost.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: And he wins.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: And he gets a little bit more territory in your life and a little bit more territory in your life, and he brags about it to God.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: How he's winning.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the danger.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: It's the deception.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: And then he's going to flip on you.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And he's using these devices to make you believe the deception.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Because if everybody's doing it, well, then I should do it.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: If everybody believes it, then I should believe it.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Because look, I'm on TikTok and everybody believes this is okay.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Look, I love hearing this.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: I was on TikTok, and this guy was talking, and he was telling me that like this sin is okay.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: And like somebody misread the Old Testament and it's wrong.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's nonsense.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: I went to school and I learned this stuff.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, who is Joe Schmo, right?
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, but he's on TikTok and he's got a following, so it must be real.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: So, like, the problem is that's just deception of the enemy.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Just because someone has a fan base and following doesn't mean they're telling you the truth.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: The only thing telling you the truth is God's word.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: And God's word, here's the great thing.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: God's word's also on here, but how often do you open that?
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And how often do you open the other stuff?
18:23
SPEAKER_00: The next verse says And they conquered him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives even unto death.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: See, the dragon has been defeated already.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' death on the cross, that's the blood of the lamb.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: The blood of the lamb, Jesus is the lamb that was slain.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: This goes back to the Old Testament, all the way when Passover happened, and they had to spread the blood of the lamb on the door to save them from the spirit passing over them, and so they wouldn't, they wouldn't be taken by the spirit and the firstborn die.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: And so now we go 1500 years later, Jesus is the now the new lamb.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: He was slain, his blood is shed for your salvation to save you.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: That's the beauty of it, and that's the defeat.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: The dragon, the deceiver's already lost.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' death on the cross, his resurrection, that's the victory.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: It already says that in scripture.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: We see that in Ephesians, he's already triumphed over the enemy.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: So now what the devil's doing is just trying to fight for territory.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to go out and get more territory, more territory, more territory.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's all to gonna lose.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the world, like, listen, the world's never gonna let Russia have Ukraine.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not gonna happen, right?
19:28
SPEAKER_00: We all, I think we all pretty much know that.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: So the devil's just fighting for scraps in your life.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: And we have to stand against him.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: It goes on in Revelation 12, the next verse, to say, Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Now I like to play board games.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: I play a game called Five Minute Marvel.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: It's about superheroes and supervillains.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And you have four people, and you have five minutes to play the game.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: And you're basically trying to defeat a bunch of enemies to get to a big bad boss and defeat the boss.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: And you all have cards, and you're trying to, and you have to draw cards, you have to play cards as fast as you can, you have to make combos, and so it's frantic, it's chaotic, and you're like your heart starts racing because you got this thumping beat of this five-minute countdown on your phone that's just counting down and has music, and then when it goes to the end, you lose.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: And so you're just throwing cards and flipping cards and just doing all this stuff, and everybody's trying to play, and everybody's trying to play cards with each other, then people taking back cards, it's chaos, it's frantic.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And the time is so short that you just have you deal with the chaos.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Like it's a fun game, but it's stressful while you play.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's play.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: One of you guys won't play.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh that is literally the devil's experience on earth right now.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: He already knows he's lost.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: There's a timer, which we don't know when it's gonna go, but he's frantically, chaotically trying to get everything he can to try to win before the timer ends.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's gonna lose.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: I think with five-minute marvel, there's like a 50% win rate.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna lose most of the time, half the time.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: But it's still fun to try.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: And so for the enemy, he's just trying to try, but he's already lost.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: See, the dragon's fury is great because his time is short.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Like he didn't have a lot of time.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: So he's trying to do anything he can to win you and steal you and deceive you.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: And it's chaos.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna jump a few verses into 1217.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and to hold the testimony of Jesus.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: And he stood in the sand of the sea.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: His job?
21:41
SPEAKER_00: To make war.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like you're in a war, because you are, you're in a battle, you are the adversary of an enemy who is against you.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Your children are the adversary of an enemy.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: You might have a little baby.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: That baby is an enemy of a villain who's trying to destroy its life, destroy its soul.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, just because we have young kids doesn't mean our children in the back.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: We're teaching them the Bible.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Our kids aren't back there playing, they're back there having fun while learning the Bible.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Because they're in the battle, whether we like it or not.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: You have to understand that Satan cannot defeat Christ, so he makes war against you and me.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Phyllis Pittman's in the same war that I am.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Like we're all in the same battle.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And I I feel like this, I feel like this is a better analogy when Michigan is better at football.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: But so just stick with me.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: It's like that team that always loses to Michigan that can't beat it.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: I would have said Minnesota, but they beat, let's not talk about them.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna say Rutgers, Rutgers, okay?
22:47
SPEAKER_00: It's like when Rutgers goes to Michigan, they know they're gonna lose.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean they're not gonna do everything they can, pull out every trick for try to create every amount of chaos they can to try to still win.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: But they're gonna lose.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And then oftentimes teams will lose that game, and then they'll go and play like Kent State next week, who's really terrible, like, hey, we lost to Michigan, but we're gonna destroy Kent State.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go run the score up 70 to nothing on them just because we need to feel better about ourselves.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: That's literally what's happening in our life.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: The devil knows he's gonna lose.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: So he's running up the score as much as he can now because he knows he's gonna lose the ultimate game.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: And for some of us, we're we're caught in that fray.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: All of us.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are losing, some of us are Kent State.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: The devil's running the score up on us.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: And you got to recognize that's all he wants to do is just create chaos in your life and your health and your relationships and your and your finances and deceive you about it.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: I want to skip back to the beginning of Revelations in chapter two.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: It says this do not fear what you are about to suffer.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: For ten days you will have tribulation.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: See, John's writing to encourage them.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Hey, stand strong and be faithful, because there's a crown coming.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: If you just hold the line with Jesus and you you fight against the enemy, the deceiver, if you battle the dragon, you don't bite into the chaos, you get the crown of life.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: You win.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus wins.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: But this part you got to go back to, do not fear what you're about to suffer.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna suffer.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, just because you have Jesus doesn't mean you're not gonna suffer.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean it just doesn't mean it's gonna be sunshine and rainbows all the time.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what people think.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've accept Christ, everything will get better in my life.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: My health will get better, my marriage will get better, my life will get better, my finances get better.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna suffer.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: And John's writing to people who are suffering for the Lord in a world, in a culture.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're 2,000 years removed, but if you go visit like Rome and you go see what the Roman Empire was like, it's a it's basically us without technology.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Same kind of culture, same kind of problems, same kind of sins.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: They just didn't have all the stuff and technology we have.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: And they were suffering for their faith, just like we often suffer.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: You see, faithfulness does not guarantee you an easy life, but it does promise an eternal crown.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And you know what an easy life doesn't promise?
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Anything.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Because you die and there's nothing but misery.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: But if you stay with Jesus, you might have you might have good days, you might have great days, you might have an easy life.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: But for some people, they don't.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: They have a rough life and they have tragedy and sorrow and grief and loss and burdens and broken relationship.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you just stick with Jesus through all of that, there's an eternal crown.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: There's a victory because Jesus wins.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: And his allies also win.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: As we jump into Revelation 20 at the ignorant near the end of the book, it says this and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet were.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: You see, the end is coming, and the devil is going to lose.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: He already knows this.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Like it's already, like the devil's, the devil's kind of out time outside of our time and space.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: He already knows he's gonna lose.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Like that's already a known thing.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: It's not like he doesn't know.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: He can read the Bible too.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's all over the world.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: It's the world's most popular book.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: The devil has an awareness he's gonna lose.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean he doesn't fight.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Just like when you go to Rutgers, you know you're gonna lose a lot of games.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: You still try hard, right?
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Like, right?
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Michigan, we thought we were gonna lose that one yesterday.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: We almost won, but we still lost.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Like it just happens.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: So when it comes down to it, you still you still fight and play the game and you still go out against the adversary.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what's happening.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: The devil's just trying to have as much success as he can, but he's ultimately still gonna lose.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: The devil, the the devil, the dragon's defeat is certain, even when the battle feels personal.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Just because you know you're gonna lose doesn't mean it doesn't still sting to lose.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean it hurts, it's not it's not difficult to play the game.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: So, what does this mean for you?
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we need to stop living as though a defeated enemy has the final word.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: The devil does not have the final word in your life.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: You do.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Culture does not have the final word in your life, politicians don't have the final word in your life.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: You do.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be someone who follows Jesus Christ, then you gotta read your Bible and you gotta talk to God and you gotta apply it in your life.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta change you, it's gotta shape you.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: But we gotta stop living as though the enemy's winning.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: The enemy's in control.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: He's not.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: And the dragon may be part of your story, but the lamb has already won the war.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: You you may have lost some territory to the devil, to the dragon.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: His intimidation, his deception, it may have, it may have been successful in your life.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: You may believe things because the devil has gotten you to do that through culture and social media and all these things and other people's influence in your life.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: And he may have won some territory.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: But through the lamb, you can win the war.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And you can win that territory back.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: But you gotta choose him.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: And the lamb is Jesus.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: And all this to say is there is there is an enemy, there is an adversary.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've seen it too many times.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: I've seen people fight through battles, and I've also seen them win when they decide to really seek and follow Jesus.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today and you're like, I've been coming to church, I've been visiting with a friend, I'm here, but I'm like, I'm not all in.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Like you know, maybe you're one of those, you know, people who come to church because it's a cultural thing.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I go to church because that's what you do.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: If you're a good person, you go to church.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: But you're really not all in with a lamb because he's not, you're not making your life decisions based on God's word and the influence of God's word in your life.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's maybe it's time to change and meet the Lamb.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: We, because of the way we do church, it's a little odd at times.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: We know we do we're weird and corny.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: We get it.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: But we have a lot of people who come investigate Jesus here.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: They do.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here investigating Jesus, maybe it's time to meet the Lamb.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's time, maybe you're tired of the fight and the tired of the deception, tired of the lies of the world, and and you're not getting anywhere.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: You're just losing territory, and you're just tired of it.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: You want to you want to just defeat the enemy and move on.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: You only do that through Jesus.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: You only do that through Jesus.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: But you gotta meet Jesus.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: And today might be that day where you just say, hey, I'm I'm ready.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: I want to know Jesus.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: I want to know Jesus like these people.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll also say this: some of you have been coming to church your whole life, and maybe coming here for a long time, and you don't live like you know Jesus.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: And that makes it a lot harder for other people who are really seeking him to want that.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have a culture of honor to try to re-establish how we behave to each other because we gotta act different than the world.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: And maybe for some of you it's time to like reinforce that I follow Jesus and my life needs to be changed by him too.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: It's time to really meet the Lamb.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: And so as we pray, we're gonna pray that maybe today is the day you just say, I'm gonna get serious about my faith.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a Gen Z or maybe you're a boomer, maybe you're a Gen Xer, Y, or Xennial, Millennial, any of them.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: And you're just like, maybe I need to get serious about my faith because I'm lost in deception of the dragon.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Help me, Father, Lord.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: I just pray, Lord, that we can be a church.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: We recognize we have an enemy, but we also have uh an ally in Jesus, and he's the victor and will be the victor as is promised in your word.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: We pray we can we can live for you.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Lord, if anyone is here today and they're just kind of investigating, they're coming to church, just check it out.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today, Lord, right now in this moment, they just say, I'm I'm in.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: I want to know more about this, I want to figure this out.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I want to do it here in Heart Lakes.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: I want to know Jesus.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's people here today who are just like, I've been kind of pretending and playing church for a while, doing that cultural Christianity thing.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's time for me to get serious.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Try to time to win back some territory in my life.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: That the enemy's had some success, creating chaos, deceiving me.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: And I want to get serious about Jesus and really live for him.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: And I pray just I lift those people up.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: I pray that your Holy Spirit encourages them and directs them.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: And Lord gives them opportunities to not only grow, but to learn from your word, um, from talking to you, Lord, through prayer, and ultimately to share with others it's time.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: It's time to get serious about following Jesus Christ in the Lamb.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: We just pray we can be a church where we support each other through the journey and ultimately, Lord, trust that you are going to win because it's promise in your word.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: We just pray this in Jesus' name.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Amen.