The Church’s Biggest Problem Is Us | Same Demons. Different Day. | Week 2

I'm ready, I'm so ready, all right? So, you came back, I didn't know, I didn't know. So, hey, let's jump in today, I got a lot to cover, I'm gonna talk really fast, that's unusual, but I'm going to, so if you weren't here last week, you should have been here last week, should be here every week, that's all I'll say, all right? Or watch online, I'm gonna give you a quick recap of the purpose of this series where we're opening our eyes and our minds and our Bibles, 'cause we're a Bible church, and we're gonna examine what's going on in the world around us, that we can see with our own eyes, it's broken. It's very, very confusing in our society's decaying, but we're gonna do a deeper dive into the spiritual unseen realm, beneath that, that's driving much of what's happening in our world, our country, our state, our schools, our home, and it's formed spiritually against us, personally, relationally, deceiving us, attacking and battling our minds, emotions, and even in our bodies. So, last week, we looked at this, we have two different, every day, you have two spiritual forces coming at you, and one what's good for you, life for you, that would be Jesus, and the other one, anti-Jesus, what's lost, and death and destruction for you, and the goal of this series is, again, seeing everything going around us through the lens of the Bible,

and using our created in the image of God's mind, we wanna discern which spirit's which, what's the spirit of truth, what's the spirit of error? We looked at this last week, okay? This is first John, you're in John though, just hold your finger there, right? So, first John, say this, by this you'll know the spirit of God. We're gonna tell the spirits apart. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus, not from God, this is the spirit of the anti-Christ, which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already. So, if the spirit really is of God, that spirit and the activities that it is involved in, and leading you to embrace and believe, if it's confessing and pointing you to Jesus, like go with Jesus, Jesus who came in the flesh, if the spirit says follow Jesus, and do what he said and demonstrated, you can trust it, you should get involved with that spirit, if a spirit doesn't do that, or does anything else, all right, not from God, it would actually be the spirit of the anti-Christ, anti-Jesus, don't trust that one, run, right? But the second goal of this series, there's several goals here, but is for us

to come to the realization, and this can be aha for some of us today, there's no middle ground, there's no neutral, there's no, well, that doesn't matter, that's no big deal, that's inconsequential, no, no, no, no, everything you align yourself with all week long is connected to one spirit or the other, spirit of truth or the spirit of error, and even though it might feel or appear like, that error, I mean, it's not perfectly aligned with Jesus, it's not, but it's not that important, 'cause it doesn't feel that evil, it doesn't feel that bad, listen, the evil spiritual world formed against you knows that directionally, you play out that little error, it'll kill you, it'll steal you from you, it will destroy you, probably not by Tuesday, maybe not this week, but eventually, inevitably, this is where it goes, this is the only outcome that this scheme formed against you will end, there's one agenda, steal, kill, and destroy. So last week, I reminded us that in the first 11 chapters of the Bible, Genesis, next week's so good, you gotta come next week, okay, all right, but we're gonna hit this really hard day, but we find in the first 11 chapters of the Bible, God's plans and purposes for creation, specifically for us, all right, we can also find in those first 11 chapters what went wrong, not just once, multiple times, and then in chapter 12, through Abraham, we find God's plan to reconcile and restore us

and all of creation back to his original plan and purpose, which will take the rest of the Bible and Jesus coming before we come to the last two chapters of the Bible for that to be fully realized, which is this, God and his spiritual family, living together with us, his human family, on a redeemed earth, now, not the way I was raised, all right, not in some Disney castle in the sky, floating in outer space, playing harps, and no, all right, God makes his dwelling with us here in a newly created garden, just like Eden. Eden, file this way, Eden by definition is simply this, the place where God meets with and lives with his people and community, his family. That's how the Bible both starts and ends with us living with God in a garden. Now, time out, see if you're listening, all right? I just said something that hopefully you caught it, maybe made you kind of wrinkle up your forehead a little bit, I made reference to two families, God and his spiritual family, living together with us, his human family. So we're gonna unpack some stuff, stuff that it's been in the Bible since forever, all right, since it was written, but has been ignored, because it challenges, it blows up part of our belief system, but we know that we can trust it because it points to Jesus in greater weight, so you can trust it. So a lot of today is gonna sound or feel like a history lesson,

you're gonna go like, this is irrelevant, why are you talking about this? But it will give you context to the world that the authors of the Bible lived in and what they believe to be true, how they saw the world, how they saw God. And then we're gonna take that same truth and apply it to the context of 2026, real-time stuff happening in our world right now. So let's approach this idea of God and His spiritual family and God and His human family living together. So today, I wanna look at three phrases referring to three different categories of the members of God's family, that as you read the Bible, you're gonna encounter, and many of us go, I've read through the Bible, I know that part, some of us, we assume we know what it's talking about, but possibly might've gotten it wrong, so really lean in, or we go, I don't know what that is, so you skipped over it, and in doing that, you missed a major vital backstory that's running cover to cover in the Bible. The phrases that I wanna unpack, so the way we take notes around here is with our phones, all right, so if you wanna do that, or maybe you have a pencil, I don't know. But anyway, here's the three, the children of God, and then we're gonna look at son of God, and then the more confusing phrase, sons of God, plural.

And I gotta get this right, 'cause if I'm off just a little bit, I'm a heretic, all right, somebody going, I already think he might be, all right, okay, bless you, all right, so, if you have your Bible, turn to John chapter one, or your app, whatever that is, all right, this is John, he's one of Jesus' first disciples, and you can build a case, he was Jesus' best friend, all right? This is the same John that wrote what we read earlier, first John, he also writes the book of Revelation, which is really important, and you'll see why, right? But here in John one, John is talking about what Jesus makes possible for us, you and me, all right, as he sets up the rest of the book. We're gonna start in verse nine. So John chapter one, verse nine, it says this, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He, Jesus, was in the world, and the world was made through him. We looked at that last week, all right? Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But, this is a good one, all right, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man but of God, born of God. Okay, so John is saying, when you or I,

when we receive Jesus, when we become that point in life, and today it might be that day for you, when we believe in his name, which means, I believe, I have trust in, like, I lean my whole life against who Jesus is and what he has done. When that happens, Jesus makes it possible for you. He gives you, John calls it, he gives you the right, the privilege, the opportunity to move from what James chapter four calls us, enemies of God, to become, to having the right to join God's family, to become children of God. So, if and when you believe in the name of Jesus, and you align yourself with him, you move from being an enemy of God, God's not your enemy, your enemy of God, and you become, you are a son, you are a daughter of God, you're born of God. Now, keep reading, look at verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. So, we just read earlier that when we put our faith in Jesus, we become children, sons and daughters of God, but right there, in John says that the word Jesus became flesh, he is the only son from the father, which sounds contradictory, until you actually know the better way to translate only. It's the same word in the famous verse, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And here, maybe right in the margin of your Bible,

only means one of a kind, unique unlike any other. So, what makes Jesus the son unique is that he is timeless. Jesus wasn't created, right? Everything and everyone else had a beginning. That's not true with Jesus, right? There was a time when it wasn't here, and then God created it, and it was here. Jesus pre-existed creation with the father and the spirit. What makes Jesus unique, unlike any other, that's really important, is that Jesus is God. He's Jehovah, and he took on flesh. We talked about this last week. He wasn't God embodied kind of like a man, like he was in the Old Testament. John is referring to Jesus as God incarnate in the flesh as a man. He became like us. After Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus said this, all authority has been given to me to make possible whatever I choose to make possible. So, I want you to review this, it's important, right? "Under his authority, he has given you the right "to become a child of God." So quick timeout, go with me on something. I'm gonna do a lot of timeouts there, right? If Jesus is fully God and became a flesh and blood person, a man was crucified, he died, he paid the eternal wage of sin, then he rose from the dead on the third day, he sent it back to God the Father, and kept his promise to send us his Holy Spirit.

Would you agree that all of that would qualify as being in the category of that's supernatural, right? Not your head, I mean campuses, not all right? I mean, those things don't just happen like every day, naturally, on their own, right? A supernatural, by definition, above and outside the realm of the natural, a supernatural God got involved, and impossible things became possible. So if you believe any of that, hopefully all of that, then you believe in the supernatural. And if all of what I just described as possible, then you have to believe and admit, there's some other things that have happened and are happening right now in the supernatural world, outside of our ability to naturally, fully explain, understand, if God became flesh, physically died to pay for our sin, then rose again, write this down, everything's on the table, all things are possible. Now I want you to hold onto that supernatural perspective for this next part. See, the Bible also mentions another group of beings, and this is where it's gonna get a little weird for some of you, I've never heard this before, we should go get the kids and leave, don't, okay? God calls these others, I hate to call them divine, except the Bible calls them divine, but definitely supernatural. God calls them sons of God,

in one place sons of the Most High God, part of his spiritual family that he created, we're gonna look at it a minute, right? That predates the creation of the heavens and the earth back in Genesis one. Now time out, right? Jesus isn't one of them. They were created, Jesus wasn't created. He's always eternally existed with the Father and the Spirit, so I don't have enough enemies, so I'm gonna make some more, here we go, right? So this is where the Mormons get it wrong. See, if a Mormon shows up at your door and you ask them, do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? They'll say, yeah, Jesus is a Son of God, one of them, as opposed to Jesus as the one and only unique, non-liking eternal, one with the Father, Son of God, and that changes everything. Spirit of truth, Spirit of error. Sometimes they're off just a little bit, but it's important. Which one points to the real Jesus? Okay, sons of God, right? So we're gonna look at that next week that I've invited you, right, right? But overview, if you go to the Book of Job, don't go there right now, we'll go there next week. We find that these sons of God that God created, predated and witnessed the creation of the world, and they cheered, all right?

In a minute, we're gonna find out that some of these sons of God form what? Psalm 82, you might wanna go ahead and turn there, right? Psalm 82 calls a divine counsel, and they serve as advisors to God on how God runs the universe. And so immediately when I hear, advise God, here's the question, why would God need advisors? Why would God need anyone to help him do anything, rule and make decisions, and here's the answer, right? God doesn't need any help doing anything. He's God, but apparently by his nature, God enjoys and chooses to share his reign and rule with his creation. The Bible starts and ends with God creating man and woman and saying, let's live together, let's reign together, let's have dominion over everything together. The mandate that was given to Adam and Eve was to take Eden and spread it to the rest of the earth where it wasn't yet. And again, Eden by definition is simply the place where people and God live together in perfect community. Jesus would make reference to, that's why I came. It's the same thing except he called it the kingdom of God, where God and people live together in perfect community. And again, let's time out, why did God need Adam and Eve to work and have dominion and expand Eden, the kingdom of God to the whole earth? Why did he need them? He didn't, he just chose to share his reign. It's what he does.

Why does God need us? Why does he need the church to spread the good news that the kingdom of God is open and available to everyone, to the ends of the earth, all people, all nations, right? He doesn't need us, he could just speak the word and everybody becomes a Christian. But God enjoys working with and through his creation, you and me and the sons of God, that we always find gathered around God's throne working with and for God. But if taking notes, write this down. It is God alone who makes the decision about what's gonna happen. Only God creates, Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created, not the council, God. Again, why does God need to share his reign with anybody? And the answer is he doesn't, he doesn't. image bearers, they and we also come with a risk, a possibility that we or they may choose to take their free will that comes with being an image bearer of God, to take that and rebel. So I want to take you to a chapter in the Bible, Psalm 82, if you want to find that, it's right in the middle of your Bible, right? I've been studying this for like four years and it blew my mind, so I studied everything I could find on it, then I enrolled in two seminary classes around this topic. So Psalm 82, this is, it's been in our Bible a whole time. But look at this, God, the Hebrew words Elohim, has taken his place in the Divine Council, in the midst of lots of them, God's Elohim, he holds judgment. Now I want to leave that verse up there because what do we just read again, okay? Again, it has always been there and we missed it. We just read that God, the Hebrew word is Elohim, God, same word as in the beginning Elohim created, but God has the Divine Council and God in this Divine Council are holding court to judge a group that is made up of like a midst of many small G gods, also called Elohim. Also we see some of these sons are called sons of the Most

High God, Elohim. So apparently what's going on in this chapter, which we're going to hit really hard next week, they're missing that. So anyway, it's in reference to something that has happened in the past and also to a day that is coming but hasn't happened yet, but it's described how it's going to happen in the book of Revelation. When Elohim, capital G God, the Most High Yahweh is going to pass judgment on and destruction of these false lower G gods. And again, this would take a whole sermon to unpack, but basically these Elohim lower case gods were charged and entrusted by God to take care of the nations across the earth, take care of the people, and point them back to Yahweh, the Elohim of Elohims. But instead what we're going to find is they rebelled. They deceived and they abused the people. They caused the people to worship them and not Yahweh, the one true God. They rebelled against God and they hate us because we've been created in His image to live and reign with Him and they want nothing to do with that plan. So the people that they were supposed to take care of and point them to Yahweh, they took Yahweh's role upon themselves and now the people are worse off because of these small G gods than ever. So Yahweh passed his judgment on Him, which hasn't happened yet. But look at verse 6. I said, "Oh, you're God's sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, men you shall die and fall like any prince." So now we have this third use of the phrase "sons of God, sons of the Most High," small G gods who have rebelled against Yahweh and have and are currently actively involved in opposing Yahweh and you and I today. These are the spiritual rulers, the authorities, the powers, the spiritual forces of evil that we looked at last week in Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to hit that again in two weeks. Now this is going to be really important later. These rebellious sons of God will become the false gods of all the other religions and cultures of the world throughout history right up to 2026. The most famous one is Baal, who we're going to look at deeply in a moment. And they are the source of all evil and demonic activity that is formed against you. And while the cross in the resurrection have limited their power because Jesus has all authority but they have not yet been destroyed and they are every day still actively deceiving and leading people away from God, away from Jesus and pointing them to anyone and anything that isn't the one true God and eventually it will steal, kill and destroy them. Anything that doesn't point to Jesus comes from one of these rebellious fallen sons of God, small gee gods, all other false religions. And that's

why Jesus can say the most, if it's not true, it's the most arrogant thing he ever said, but the truth should lean into it, okay? Most divisive thing he ever said, it's pretty exclusive. He said this, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life and no one comes to the Father God unless they go through me. Jesus, listen, I know what culture says and we all should coexist, I get all right. Jesus didn't say he's one of many ways to come to God. Now, Jesus is saying, I'm it. And all the other small gee gods, faith systems, religions, ideologies that claim to lead to God, aren't, won't, can't because they're false gods and their aim is your destruction. Hear me, only Jesus can save. Only Jesus is God, Jesus is alone. I'm preaching better than you're any minute. All right, wake up. All right, here we go. All right, so thank you. I got a whistle. All right, so before I go, I wish I could whistle, but I spit, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. leave early. Okay? Every person, every group that I'm about to talk about mention, God loves them. And God wants them to experience the abundant life that is made possible only through Jesus. God's agenda is that all the people of the world will be saved in the only way anyone can be saved by putting their faith in Jesus. God loves all people, but to be absolutely clear, Jesus is the only way, truth and life that can deliver the one true God to any and all people. There is no other way according to Jesus. So buckle up here we go. So last week I made up a very strong, some of your emails said inflammatory statement. And I believe it's true I wouldn't have said it. But I said this. I said, "Bail of the Old Testament, who is the main opponent and enemy of God's people, and dedicated to the destruction of God's people in the Old Testament, that was Baal. As was Beelzebub, same demon mentioned in the New Testament, the Pharisees called him the prince of demons, and Jesus straight up called Beelzebub Satan." So last week I said this, "Bail of the Bible and Allah of Islam are the same pagan small G God." And I got a lot of questions on that, all right?

So here we go. This is a history lesson, all right? This is important, okay? So this history is taken not from Christian literature, it's from Arabic Muslim history. So Muhammad and the Qur'an, all right? Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born and raised in Mecca. It's located right now in what we call Saudi Arabia. He was part of the Quresh tribe that worshipped Hubal, the chief God of the Qaba, it's still there today. It's right there in the middle of Mecca as their God, their Elah, their Lord. Hubal was also known as the moon God, think crescent moon. So Muhammad grew up worshiping the pagan moon God, Hubal. Now where did Hubal come from, all right? Thanks for asking, right? Many years before Muhammad, a chieftain, a Saudi chieftain on a pilgrimage coming from the land of the Moabites, it's right there in the Bible, it's what we now call Syria, a people made up of many tribes, they all worshipped Beel. The tribes of that area had warred against God's people all the way through the Old Testament. That chieftain asked for an idol from the Moabites, I want an idol to take back to Mecca with me, which they gave him, it was a black stone, it's still there today, most likely a piece of a fallen meteorite, you can Google it and see pictures of it, the chieftain brought the idol back to Mecca and placed it in the Qaba and commanded the people to worship the idol Hubal. Now you're going to have to do math today, okay? So if Hubal was an idol from the Moabites in Syria and the chief God worshipped in Syria is Beel, that means the Qaba became the shrine of the false god Beel, Hubal is simply Arabic for Beel. In fact, some say Hubal either means Hubal, he is Beel or it's the Arabic corruption of the Hebrew word for Beel, you've got to follow me on this, okay? Muhammad was raised in the pagan worship of Hubal, whose real identity is Beel, according

to the Quran, Muhammad was visited by some form of Elohim who gave him the Quran, right? Muhammad was terrified that he thought he was seen a demon, but his wife convinced him that it was Angel Gabriel, bless her heart, right? So Beel, go ahead, Beel is Hubal and Hubal is Allah, so Beel is Allah. Again, in what Jesus said, this on, Beel is Beel's above and Beel's above is Satan and if you do the math, Jesus is saying that Beel is Satan, which means Allah is Satan and now it'll wake us up and I just picked a fight with two billion people. I don't think that most Muslims are aware of Allah and Beel being the same demonic God because when Muhammad later came in and conquered Mecca, he intentionally distanced himself from the historical name of Beel and claimed that Allah, he actually said this because Gabriel told him, all right? Allah was only God who'd ever been worshiped in the Ka'bah, but he pointed to the idol the same black stone located in the Ka'bah where Hubal was worshiped. He's being worshiped today, Hubal becomes Allah and Muhammad claimed by divine revelation from the demon and Allah is the same one through God of the Jews and the Christians. He traced the connection back to Abraham's other older son Ishmael making Islam the true religion of the one true God, Allah and all other religions are false, infidel and must be converted or eliminated until the whole world bows the knee to Allah. One world religion, nothing else will be tolerated. Sharia law and jihad will be the methods to eliminate all resistant Jews and Christians because they, we stand the way. there is no God but Allah. Allah alone is great. This all happened 600 years after the resurrection of Jesus and the launching of his church. Where you're getting this, it's in the Quran. Islam claims connection to Abraham's and Christianity is one true God through Ishmael, Abraham's older son. But if you just read Psalm 82, if you look at Psalm 83, he says that the Ishmaelites had long ago abandoned

the one true God and the Ishmaelites and the other nations listed there, the Moabites, their primary God was Baal. Ishmael's descendants worship Baal, not Jehovah. So Islam falsely claims that they have the same God that we call Jehovah. Abraham's son, Ishmael, abandoned Jehovah a long time ago and worship Baal. Baal is Habah, Habah is Allah, Allah is Baal. Jesus called him Satan. Same demon, present day, same girl, goal. One world religion under Allah, by jihad, against all followers of Jesus, it's in the Quran. And it's prophesied in our own Bible, Book of Revelation. Now here's why that's so important for us to remember. All right? I have so much extra security, you wouldn't believe it. And that's why we have beefed up security around here, because they fight back. I wanna tell you this, all right, I ain't scared, are you scared? You gonna keep going? All right, let's go, all right. Here's Ahamom, for some of you though, Christianity didn't start in Europe. It started in the Middle East. It's an Eastern faith system, right? The Middle East is the birthplace of the church. And at one time, those nations were thriving under the worship of Jesus.

This summer, we studied the seven churches in Revelation that Jesus addressed. They were all located in what we now call Turkey, the Middle East. But if you go to Turkey today, you're not gonna find any churches. They're gone. You'll find mosque in pirouettes and speakers blasting the Islamic call to prayer five times a day. The spread of Islam historically has always claimed, this is the MO, right? We come in peace, then once established in the community, they have systematically killed out or driven out all the Christians, the infidels. This isn't hypothesis, it's not speculation. We've got 1400 years of history to prove they come only to steal, kill, and destroy. Same demon, different day, same agenda. The only thing standing in Bail's way of total domination is the people of Jesus, the church. Listen, Islam is the fastest growing ideology in the world. I call that because it's more than a religion. It's much darker than that. They're doing what they have historically always done. Just like they have done to the birthplace of Christianity, the Middle East, small as the middle. Like they've done in Northern Africa, which was a birthplace of Christianity, Muslim. Just as they have done and are doing in Europe

and what we are experiencing in the United States right now, and 'cause we're vulnerable. The number one name for newborn baby boys in England for the last three years, Muhammad. Islam's plan is working. And here's why this is important to us. It's gonna, right? Heads up, America is an unstable country that is in moral decay and chaos who politically, socially, and morally. We, including Christians, are at war with one another. We can't or refuse to answer or agree on what's a woman. What is gender? When is a baby human? Statistically, Christians embrace sexual sin, pornography, abortion, financial greed, and political abuse of power in the exact same way of people who claim no allegiance to Jesus who's the King of Kings. Islam's not locked up on focusing on any of that nonsense. They're united. They're just watching and waiting for us to destroy ourselves and they will, they are moving into our communities. Look at Detroit. Where last month a Christian was stoned in the streets for saying Jesus is King and nobody did anything, right? They're taking political office because Christians and both parties are busy fighting with one another over secondary issues, please hear this.

The biggest issue in the upcoming election in November is not the price of gas or groceries. It is this, will we align our lives with God on the sanctity of life, gender, family, and truth? However important any other issue is, and they're important, all right? They're important, I'm not dismissing them. No matter how flawed either candidate may be, and they're both very flawed, all right, right? But hear me for a follower of Jesus, the sanctity of life and identity as being determined by and aligned with the image of God trumps everything else. Everything else, why? Here's why, because throughout the Bible and throughout history, the worship of Baal always includes sexual immorality and the death, mutilation, murder, and sacrifice of babies and children. And it brought God's people to their knees in total captivity and exile. Listen, God cannot bless a nation that does the same. When they have enough seats in government, and they're winning them left and right, they'll enact Sharia law, which is what they have done historically. Then they'll enforce absolute unquestionable power and rule, and the church will be crushed. Again, not speculation. 1,400 years of historical record. Islam does not believe in the separation of religion and state. They are both.

And again, I don't think that most Muslims are aware of the Baal Allah connection, because Satan raised up Muhammad as his prophet who distanced the two names. And I don't think that most Muslims are radicalized terrorists. SMS are like 80% of Muslims are very, very, very peaceful. But that leaves 20% of 2 billion Muslims. That's 400 million. That's more than the population of the United States. And they're not just coming. They're already here, and the other 80% will not oppose the 20% who are chanting in the streets of America, death to America, death to Christians. Why are you teaching us? Can you teach on something happy? No, no. I'm not doing this to scare you to be inflammatory, but to call attention to a bigger issue that needs to be addressed. Oh, I'm going, I'm going, go, go. I'm going to take a turn here, right? Listen closely. Islam's a problem. Not our biggest problem. Politics are a problem. Not our biggest problem. So what is? Listen, judgment always starts with the house of God. It's not like any of this is taking God by surprise.

I didn't see mom, but no, no, no. It's just that we, gods, we're not paying attention to, or listening to the right spirit of truth. Because we're paying attention to what the world says is important over what God says is most important. Look, I'm getting our business, all right? Look, look at this, this is from Peter. It's both a warning and a remedy for what is coming. And he says this, beloved, all right? You remember that, underline that, 'cause we'll come back to that word, beloved. Don't be surprised at this fiery trial, trial when it comes upon you to test you as something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed. Because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer, and here's a list of stuff like the world. I like God as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or as a medler, yeah, if anyone suffers as a Christian, don't be ashamed to let him glorify God in that name. Here it is, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? So make me a mistake here, the world's bad

and getting worse, and the fiery trial is on its way. Pete Pierce says, "Yeah, don't be surprised by it." But he's addressing this too. Remember what the first word was? Beloved. We don't use that term a lot, but it's another term for the church. Let me say it another way. The church's biggest definition, description, that tell if they really follow Jesus is this. How do Christians, followers of Jesus, love the people in the world? So my question is, in this world that is bad and feels like it's getting worse, the question is, where's the church? What are we doing? And for the most part, not much, absent. And our absence and our silence makes us complicit in the decay of our society by our simple participation and our silence. When we do and say nothing, it allows the enemy to march forward unencumbered. Remember this, Josh Howard didn't quote last week. When godly voices are silent, ungodly voices will speak. The reason that what has and is and will happen, the reason it feels like, I didn't see that coming as surprises, we aren't paying attention to what has happened in the past and scripture says Peter just wrote, why are you being surprised it's gonna happen again.

So what's the solution? What is the only hope of holding back evil of the decay of our world and of our country, of the world experiencing the love of God through Jesus? Well, here's where it always starts. Peter says, judge me doesn't start with sinners. Sinners, sinners, they don't know Jesus. It doesn't start with Islam. It doesn't start with those who don't believe. As a matter of fact, through our global partnership with Uncharted, we're learning that Muslims are turning to Christ in record numbers around the world, converting knowing that in Islam, conversion to Christianity is the death penalty. We'll cut your head off. It's God's at work, but God's first question, his judgment first is always to his people, the household of God, the church, flatters. And here's what he commands us to do anytime we lose track of that. He says this, if my people, I'm not talking about those people, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their, what's the word, sin and heal their land. And someone's going like, I ain't wicked, what wicked ways? Yeah, you're our lady, ask your neighbor. Here's what I mean by that, all right? We're no different than the world. We do the same things that people who are far from God do, who don't call Jesus, Lord and Savior.

We actively and passively embrace the same behaviors of those who follow false God. Like, oh, like what, Jim, this is a big three, sex, money, power. We happily, readily, regularly engage in sexual sin, financial greed, and power abusing politics, as if Jesus were irrelevant to the equation. Well, at the same time, we come in here, singing songs about Jesus, you're everything, you're king of my life, you're ruler in my life. Is he? I'll give you an obvious one, 'cause my gift is making you mad. So last week, all right, I miss that some of us are driven by our dislike of personalities, like Trump, over pursuing policies that align closest with the gospel. And I heard back from somebody on that, all right? And you made some, you made some good points. I'm paying attention to some of that, right? Not all of it, some of it, right? But please hear me, right? I wasn't advocating for Donald Trump, or the Republican Party. There are times when Trump does, or says something, I'm like, oh, stop talking, please. Anybody else, all right, all right. And like, don't say that, don't say that, that is not, that's not good, that's not a, no. And a few years ago, when Biden declared Easter Sunday transgender awareness day and flooded the White House with the colors of the Pride flag,

I was mad and vocal in my response and criticism. Please hear me, okay? I'm gonna go on record, make sure you get a shot on this, all right? I think both parties, both sides of the aisle are a cluster. They're bought and paid for by big business and are untrustworthy. (audience applauds) Both. Neither side, you can look at one side of the aisle and go, well, I think they're godly. No, no, they're not, all right? It's all a shameful mess, and it's unstable, and it's crumbling, and the enemy is watching and waiting. But, church, that's the world. And we're, we're, we're set apart. We're supposed to be different. We're God's people. And God's house is to be called a house of prayer, and we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So what, do we wrestle against spiritual powers that only Jesus can overcome? So let me throw this crazy thought out to hit my brain. I got several crazy thoughts coming, all right, right? Now you pay me to have crazy thoughts at my kissing table, so here's one, right? But here's one, all right. Can you imagine if Jesus Christ got a hold of Trump's heart or Governor Polis's heart, and they fell on their knees and repents and cried out for the Lord Jesus Christ

to save them and lead their lives? Can you imagine? Can you imagine if the Holy Spirit moved in such a way that revival broke out in the White House and our State House? Now let me have a, all right, let me ask you a bigger question. Have you ever prayed for that to happen? Anything close, and for me, for us, all right, me rarely crosses my mind, right? Some of us, we hear that, and you go like, "Jim, you're so naive, and you roll your eyes "in your heart at me, all right?" And here's what you're saying, "Jim, wake up. "That's never gonna happen." I promise you, it's never gonna happen if the people of God don't go first, and get involved in our personal repentance and prayer, turn from our same wicked ways of the world, and get involved in what Jesus told us to do and is doing, in being salt of the world, not salt of the church. Get out of the salt shaker, right? Demonstrating the love of God, the light of Jesus to people living in a lost and broken world. And you're right, I'm with you, in the natural world, that's never gonna happen, but let's go back about 10 minutes. We follow a supernatural God who says with man in the natural, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. How many things are possible?

Everything, everything's on the table, right? So you're right saying it's never gonna happen, especially if God's people don't follow God's commands and don't lead the way, including praying for Jesus to recapture our own hearts and minds and capture the hearts of our leaders, whoever it is that's currently leading. So I threw this out, they didn't know I was gonna do this last night, but I need your response whether I just think I should do this or not, okay? I wanna invite both governor candidates to come to Flatlands so we can pray for both of 'em. How do you fail by God? (audience applauds) (audience cheers) Okay, so don't applaud whenever I talk about the original intention of separation in the state. When we haven't applied what we sit in church and claim to be true about Jesus, our faith, we haven't shown that on behalf of the ones leading us, our state. We just get angry and we yell and we criticize, where we stick our heads in the sand and advocate the voice that God has given us to see justice and mercy and goodness begin to heal Colorado and our nation. Church, people who because of what Jesus did for you have been given the right to become children of God. Followers of Jesus, we got to repent of the world posture.

We have to turn away from wicked ways that we have been involved in and we have to start praying. We have a duty, we have a responsibility, a calling and a command from God to hold back the decay of our state and our country by not just voting for policies that most closely align with what God says He wants for His people, which is good, but then above all, we must stop throwing stones at everybody and living more godly lives and start acting like followers of Jesus, not followers of the world. We must take the lead in leading our children back to Jesus. We can blame the school all you want. You got to lead your children. We must honor Jesus in our marriages. We must point our money and our time and our attention at the things that align with the heart of the Father better than we have been so far. Why can Jesus told us to? So let me tie some of this together, right? When Israel, when Israel in the Old Testament not only tolerated the worshipers of Baal and other pagan gods actually invited them and got in bed with them, all right? They let go of their faith and neglected the worship of the one true God in their daily lives, in their daily worship and they embraced the world's ways, Baal's ungodly behaviors. And when that happened, God allowed, I would say God caused,

God rose up surrounding nations who worship Baal to come against Israel and cause utter destruction of God's people because they wouldn't humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways. Now here's, I read last week, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Why would we not think that Jesus wouldn't hold his church to the same level of accountability? It's not a threat, it's a historical precedent. If we wanna see our country and our state heal, it will not start in the White House or the State House, it must start in this House. This is the House of God, this is you and me. That's what King Jesus requires. What does Jesus want us to do, people of the King? What does he want us to do? All right, so one time Jesus was asked a question by some religious rulers and these religious rulers called the Pharisees, they'd memorized the first five books with the Bible, it's called the Torah. So they asked him, hey, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment in the Torah, in the law, right? And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and you should love your neighbor as yourself, which was the correct answer that day. But then shortly before he was crucified,

Jesus says, he commanded this, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. That's something new, here's the new part. Just as I've loved you, you all started to love one another and by this, love in one another as I love you, by this, all people of the world, will you know, you're my disciple if you have love for one another. So I have a question for you. How has Jesus loved you? When you were a sinner, when you were still his enemy, right? I'll tell you, he demonstrated his love for you in this, the king of the universe died for you so that you could be forgiven and be given the right to be a child of God someday, a part of a kingdom of God. Jesus, listen, Jesus, unlike any other, Jesus loved, he even forgave people before they ask for it or believed in him. The most important, vital, most critical thing that Jesus says that we, his people must do and the only thing that the world is open to or where we respond to, whether they can articulate it or not is this, did we love them like Jesus loved them and us and offer forgiveness before they even asked for it or deserve it and don't start making excuses. Yeah, but what about people who do this and what about this? Stop, love one another as I have loved you.

Do we do that? Do you do that? Do I do that? And I'm just telling you, most of the time, not even close. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount, best week chapters of the Bible, right? He said this, you've heard that it was said, so everybody believes this, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's the word on the street. That's how we live, all right? But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be, here it is, sons of God, children of God, who's in heaven. For he, God makes his son rise on the evil. It's his son. He makes it rise on the evil and the good, since rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collection see that? I mean, the worst people in the world do that. And if you agree only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles, the pagans, they do that. in Jesus love people that love him back that agree with them. I love you if you agree with me. That makes sense, that's easy.

Jesus says, but I tell you, if you're a son or daughter of your father who's in heaven, I command you love differently. So here's my conviction. We are acting and operating and loving or refusing to love the people around us, no different than the pagan world. Like people who aren't followers of Jesus. And what if the world's getting worse, not because Baal found a new higher gear, but because the church is in neutral and followers of Jesus are not demonstrating the love that Jesus has shown us to the very people that Jesus came to save. So here's another record brain thought, I had my kissing table, buckle up. Hopefully it will, hopefully it will wreck you too. You're welcome. Even some of you are just gonna get mad and walk out. Yeah, but what about this, Jim? You don't even talk about it, right? I wanna talk about something that is in the political headlines that may be very possibly maybe more of a spiritual theological issue than a political one, right? I wanna talk about borders and immigration. Take a breath. Can I ask you just for the next five minutes, can you suspend your opinions and your viewpoints on ice or deportation or what a path to citizenship may or may not look like?

All valid things that need to be talked about and addressed. And by the way, I'm sure you're right and they're based wrong. There you go, okay? Don't email me out, I'm not gonna respond 'cause that's not the issue I wanna talk about. I wanna throw something crazy at you like on the scale of with God, only with God, all things are possible. So throughout, I think of the degree of this part, okay? Everybody's like, what are you about to say, all right? Throughout history, God has used and leveraged things that should never have happened, shouldn't have happened, right? Things that were actually bad and evil and wrong, but God has reached into those things and leveraged them for a higher purpose that he has predestined to happen. Romans eight says God uses all things for the good of those who love them. Do we agree on that? Okay, now in the book of Job, all right? We find this, Job is doing great. He loved God, doing great. And God said to Satan, look at him, he's doing great and Satan says, "Yeah, let me out, let me out him. "Let's see if he's faithful to you then." So here's what I wanna do. So picture this is Job and this is God, it has a hand wrapped around him. And God spread his fingers, right? God opened up the borders a little bit.

With limits and Satan bale attacked and Job is faithful and in the story, God is glorified. What if it's true that nothing happens anywhere unless it crosses God's desk? And the only way he would allow it to happen is that he has predestined a way to use it for his glory. So what if God allowed, and see he caused it, but our borders collapsed over the past several years. And again, whether it should have or shouldn't have happened in scripture, God's the one who established the concept of borders and nations, that's what we're talking about. But what if God used what has happened to draw people across the unbelieving world to a place where they would be exposed to the love of Jesus Christ, through his people, his church, and give them an opportunity to be exposed to the gospel, the message, the good news that God loves all people and doesn't want any of them to perish, to be deceived or hurt by the lives of false gods and beliefs, that if they had stayed at home, they never would have heard the name of Jesus, they'd never be able to call in the name of Jesus, the only name that can save. See, on all the political rhetoric, regardless of how they got here, or whether they should stay here, or what should be done on the legal level, right? Have any of us thought about, however they got here, for as long as they're here,

my job, my mission as a follower of Jesus, is to love them like Jesus loved me, right? See, I'm out, right? Jesus loves Muslims and doesn't want any of them to be deceived one more day by the lives of Baal, of Allah, of Satan, because if they do, they'll be lost eternally, and they bear the image of God too. And the only thing that can save them is by grace through faith in the blood of King Jesus, and the only way they will hear it about King Jesus is if the Holy Spirit draws them to Himself to a place where they hear truth, and they're loved by the people who are supposed to remind them and demonstrate to them, this is how Jesus would love you, and this is what God is like. That's not political, because our first love is not America, which I love, but my first love, my first pledge of allegiance is not to a country, a political party, an ideology, or my personal agenda. My first allegiance is to my King Jesus. He is not present, he's King. He's King of Kings, he's Lord over everything, and our King Jesus said this to his people, a new commandment I give you. Love all people like I've loved you. Do I do that, do you? I haven't been, do you?

And you'll have to answer that, but I do know this, if anything is gonna change in this world for the better, It will not happen without. It will not happen until the people of God flattens. Let's start with us. Follows of Jesus. You and I stop acting and loving like the pagans, like the world does and start loving one another, including our enemies. Like Jesus did, it still does for us when we're a long way off. So before I call this church to repentance, I'm telling you, I am cut to the heart. And I'll go first, I repent. I have to rethink how I've been thinking about so much going on in our world and how I have reacted defensively, postured myself. See, if my response, not my emotional reaction, that's volatile. But my response on how I'm gonna choose to live and make choices that I need to make. If it's driven by anything other than love, like Jesus has loved me, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 13, and you're a clanging gong. Your noise, which means to the world, my faith in Jesus, is irrelevant. So what do you do with all that? It's a lot. I don't know, I'm not your Holy Spirit.

But there is a good one. If you will open up your hearts and minds and look at the world, including your enemies, not through your emotions or your politics, and being able to look at everything through the lens of God's word. Let me clarify that. Jesus is the word of God, made flesh. It's not just a book. Jesus will tell you what you need to repent of. You gotta rethink that. You gotta lay that down and you gotta pick this up. So let me leave you with this. Then we're gonna take communion. Beloved, flat arms. People who have been given the right to be called children of God. Not who we are. If so, let us love one another. For love is from God. And if we refuse to love, then we're fooling stuff. We don't know God. By this, all men shall know that you're my disciples. If you love one another as I've loved you, how did Jesus love you while you were still his enemy? He died for you and he forgave you as your sin nailed him to a cross. Remember this? He looked down from that cross. And I believe he looked down,

not just at the people putting nails in him. He looked through history and see you. And here's what he prayed for you. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. But I'm loving them. I'm doing this today so that one day they'll be safe. We're trying to discern what's true and what's not true. And we get mixed up in this world. So Jesus had this great idea. It's called the Lord's Supper. So if you have that, go ahead and get it out. There's a little piece of bread there and he goes, "Hey, I'll remind you. "You didn't pay for sin, you didn't conquer anything." I did. They nailed my flesh to a cross and he poured out wine and he says, "This is the blood of a new covenant, "old covenant's gone, new covenant. "Wash away your sins, reconnect you, "make you a child of God." Jesus did that for you to give you the right to say, "He's my Father." So we're gonna take communion. We're gonna sing this awesome, awesome worship song. We use this time to just reflect and give thanks. It's another time to rehash your sin except you just remember what he brought it from. But where he wants to take you? So I'm gonna pray, we're gonna worship.

Whenever you wanna stand, you can stand up and then go get your kids quickly. I didn't even wear a watch. It's my new mantra. So here we go, "Father God, I get to call you Father." When my whole life, I've just run away from you and played it a pig pen and you waited so patiently. And when I turned my face to you, you said, "There's my son, there's my daughter. "Good is dead and it's now alive." You did that. That's how you love me. That's how you love each one of us. And then you just turn around and go, "Now, I'd love someone else like I've loved you." I'm not worried about the world. I am concerned about your church. But I tell you, Lord, we're your people, we're your children, and we're telling you, you can trust us from now on. We'll follow you. That's my prayer. All made possible because the name that is above every name. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. (gentle music)