False Spirituality

As human beings, we experience life through our senses. Now, there are actually more than five senses. And doctors argue how many we actually have, but there's five main ones. This is how we take in and experience life. Of course, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

Now, when you begin to lose one of them, you know, you talk to people who lose hearing or lose sight. I remember a woman who thought that she was losing her mind. She thought she was going crazy. She thought she was a demon influence. And I sat down with her, and she told me the problem was. So I did some research on it and told her to talk to her doctor about it, because she would be at night, she'd wake up, and she'd hear the piano playing. And she'd get up and go downstairs, and nobody would be playing the piano. And she thought, I'm losing my mind, or something's happening here. So I said, talk to your doctor. And I explained what I said. I can't diagnose things like this, but I think what it is. And she talked to her doctor, and he told her exact same thing. As you lose your hearing, as your brain tries to adjust, what it does is bring out memories. Because I asked her, I said, what are you hearing on the piano? She said, I'm hearing a child practice the piano. And then she looked at me, and she said, I'm hearing me practice the piano. Yeah? The brain's trying to, losing hearing is going to bring my memories, and trying to bring them out, so that you actually can remember things.

Because of the sinus issues I have, sometimes I lose my smell entirely. I can't smell things. Or almost entirely, I just have a slight sense of smell. And a couple weeks ago, my sinuses problems cleared up, and I wasn't having any allergy problems. And I'm eating this meal, and I'm telling Kim, this chicken is delicious! This is amazing! What did you put on this? She said, pepper. I said, I had no memory of how good pepper is, because you know, pepper is something you smell more than taste. I was amazed how good pepper is, because I couldn't smell it.

And yet, we all know that there's part of us, there's part of our nature, an aspect of our nature, that we're more than physical things. We're much more than animals. We comprehend spiritual concepts. We comprehend all kinds of things, including an ability to have a relationship with God. And that's why we ask the questions.

Is there a reason for me being here? What happens to me when I die? Can I contact the spirits?

Do I have the ability to even interact with angels? And there is a fascination in our country about angels. And it's amazing how many people try to contact angels more than they try to contact God.

Because somehow, we can't reach God, but we can contact angels. It's the whole idea of the worship of saints. I can't get to God, but there are souls up there of people who died. And if I can get to them, if I can get to Mary, or Peter, or Stephen, or someone of the saints, that person can go to Jesus for me, and that person can go to God for me, and that way I can have connection with the spirit world.

We have this desire, this need to contact something that we believe is beyond us. You know, science was supposed to solve this. Science was supposed to solve the problems that we have of spirituality by proving everything is just physical. But it can never prove the how. Or, I mean, it can prove the how, but it couldn't prove the why.

Why things happen. And we don't understand why. There's a new movement where, tonight, at the Young Adults Bible Study, where we've been going through a series of Bible studies on worldview. What constitutes a worldview? And it's very interesting, today, we're going to be talking about, we've been talking about secular humanism, as a worldview.

We're going to be talking about what they call religious humanism. Secular humanism is based on the total belief in evolution, and therefore there are no deities. But they can't get everybody to believe it. They try and try. Three generations of teaching secular humanism in school, and they can't get the average person to believe that there isn't something out there. So now they have what they call religious humanism. Which is, well, we believe in evolution. There may be some spirit things, we don't know.

So what we'll do is we'll take religion and change it, so that you can be an atheist and take the bread and the wine as the body of Jesus, because he was a good guy. A whole new viewpoint of what religion is. Because they can't get people to disconnect from, I have a need and a desire to connect to something beyond myself. And there's a reason for that. It's actually designed in us. And that's why, when you study human history, there's this huge amount of effort.

No matter what civilization you look at, to contact somehow something beyond us. You know, when the time I went to Paris and went into Notre Dame, of course, you know, we part of that just burnt recently. You can't help but feel something when you walk in there. It's designed to make you feel something.

It's designed to do that. And the listening for music being sung, I just sat down and listened. And then I thought, what would it be like to live in the 1400s and walk in here and be illiterate? You would have known God was there. That's what you would have thought. Because it taps into it. It taps into that. We come here because we're searching for some spiritual connection. That's why we come to Sabbath services. It's why people go to séances. It's why people worship Buddha.

There's all this religion in the world because people need it and they desire some connection with the supernatural. This sermon started out as one thing. I was going to give a sermon on where demons came from and the interaction of demons in the world that we live in. I'm just going to barely touch on that today. We'll talk about it a little, but it's nothing. The sermon I was working on gets set aside. I'll give that some time in the future.

I want to talk about that need and how that need, if it is not God-centered, our need and desire for spiritual connection must be God-centered. We believe that God is revealed in this book. It must be God-centered. If it is not, then we can begin to have very dangerous spiritual experiences that seem to be innocent. But they're actually manipulations of something that's designed in us. You and I were designed to have a relationship with God.

So what do I mean? Wait a minute. Spiritual experiences that are not God-centered. What does that mean? Let's go to Psalm 40. The Psalms contain many, many passages or songs, songs, lyrics, poems written by David that deal with his desire and need for God.

We're going to talk about this over and over again. We have a need for God, but we have a desire for God. Sometimes what we do is we center on that need so much that we don't desire Him. You can desire a friendship with another person. You can desire to have a close intimate relationship with your husband or wife.

You can desire to spend time with your children. But do we have that kind of desire for relationship with God? Or do we just approach God with the need? We have to understand there's a need for God that's built in you. God made it in you. And there's a desire for God that we're supposed to have for Him.

Let's look at David's experience in Psalm 40, verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord. That's a remarkable statement right there. He said, when it comes to God, I have to wait. Because as much as we need and desire God, we are still physical. And the connection between us and God, this bonding between us and God, is difficult. It's difficult. He says, I waited patiently for the Lord. And He inclined me, and He heard my cry.

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet on a rock and established my steps. He's put a new song in my mouth. He said, God connected with me. I had to wait for God. He understood that our connection with God is through the grace of God. He connects to us. You and I cannot force a relationship, a force, a bonding with God.

He comes and He does it with us. And He said, because of this, I wrote down a whole new song. Of course, I imagine Psalm 40 is the new song. I created a whole new song of praising God because I waited patiently and He pulled me up. He says, praise to our God.

Many will see it in fear and will trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord His trust and does not respect the proud. There are such as turn-aside the lies. Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

Give down to verse 11. Do not withhold Your tender mercies from Me, O Lord. Notice the need, but there's not just the need. There's a desire to be connected to God. Let Your loving-kindness and Your truth continually preserve Me. For innumerable evils have surrounded Me. My iniquities have overtaken Me, and I am not able to look up. There are more than the hairs of My head.

Therefore My heart fails Me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver Me, O Lord, and make haste to help Me. Then verse 16. I'm just skipping through this because this is a powerful song about need and desire. Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. Let such as love Your salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Focus. I need to focus on God. Too much of the time we're focused on us.

We're focused on our issues, our feelings, our thoughts, our desires, our agendas. Instead of focused on God. But I am poor and needy. Now, He was poor and needy. As King, He had all the food He wanted. He had a palace. He was a poor and needy in terms of physical. Yet the Lord thinks upon Me, You are My help and My deliverance. Do not delay, O My God.

Here's a perfect summation of what I'm talking about when I say we have a need and a desire for God. Now, that need and desire was designed in us, and it is incredibly powerful. God designed us to have a relationship with Him. He wants us to have a relationship with Him. So here's what He did. He designed in us a need to be drawn towards that relationship. What happens when that relationship isn't fulfilled? The need and desire for a spiritual connection doesn't go away if we don't know God. It doesn't go away if we're a pagan. It doesn't go away if we simply come to the Sabbath services and do what we're supposed to do, but we are not daily dealing with our need and desire for God.

We will be drawn towards other ways to fulfill that. Other ways to fulfill the need and desire we have for God. We're going to talk about that and how we can do that. Let's start with a very basic concept. That is, there is another spiritual force in this world. That other spiritual force is conscious and powerful and knows you personally and desires to pervert and destroy your relationship with God. In our modern scientific world, we all know Satan exists, but we don't understand how he manipulates us.

He does it all the time. Let's go back to Ezekiel 28. Let's establish here what we know and remember who this being really is. Ezekiel 28. Sometimes these basic things we don't cover, we've got so many other things to cover. And if we forget some of these things, we are in danger of having our spiritual needs, our spiritual desires drawn towards something else.

Sometimes we can ignore our spiritual need and desire for God and expect our husband or wife to fulfill a need or desire that actually only God can fulfill. See, there are certain things in a marriage that the other person can fulfill in us. There are certain things they cannot. And I've watched marriages be destroyed because the person is trying to get their mate to fulfill something that only God can. Because this isn't the only relationship in your life. In fact, it can't even be the number one relationship in your life if you want it to work.

So we have to realize how easily we can be pulled towards all kinds of things because we have this inherent central designed need and desire. The first part of Ezekiel 28 is talking about Tyre, which was a major city of the day. Verse 1 says, The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, Son of man, say this to the prince of Tyre. Thus says the Lord God, because your heart is lifted up and you say, I am a God. I sit in the seat of the gods. And so he's talking about the prince, the physical leader of the city state of Tyre.

He believes he's a God. Now, of course, this is not unusual. In the ancient world, in the pagan world, most leaders claimed divinity. Whether you were the emperor of Persia or the emperor of Rome or a king of Tyre, you claimed divinity, that the gods lived in you, that you were actually divine yourself. Upon your death, you went to join the gods. That's one of the things that made Israel so different. Their king was not divine. He was just a man who had to lead everybody in the worship of the one true God. But he was not divine. Now, let's get down to verse 11. Because here's where this story changes.

And it's interesting how some commentators will not accept this. They simply say that this is all talking about this physical leader of Tyre. But it's not. He says, The word of the Lord came and he's saying, Set a man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre. Okay, this is the prince of Tyre. This is the king. Normally what we're looking at here is the power behind the power. There is a power in this world that is behind all human activities. Now, it doesn't mean everybody's possessed by Satan. It doesn't mean everybody is being predestined and guided by Satan.

But there is another spiritual force in this world that interacts with human beings and has a power that we must be aware of. You are the seat of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden. This isn't the prince of Tyre. This is the power behind the throne. You were in Eden, the garden of God. And then it describes what he looked like as all different kinds of precious stones. You know, people like a diamond. Why do people like diamonds and precious stones? Because when the light hits them, there's a beauty to the way the light reflects off of it. And the only way here that this being, and I say he's called Lucifer, it can be described as light coming off of all different kinds of beautiful precious stones.

Shiny! Now, actually I can visualize that because I've seen a few sci-fi movies, right? Can you imagine back then, in Ezekiel's time, people trying to visualize this? And then it talks about how he was an expert in music. Now, that's very important. Lucifer was very emotional. You know, music is an emotional expression. Have you ever met somebody who can play an instrument that has no emotional... The music doesn't mean much to them? They can be technically correct. And at the end it's like, well, that was nice. But then you see someone who puts their emotion into the music, and they may not be as technically correct, and when they're done you're like, wow!

There's a different experience. He's a very emotional being. Verse 14 says, You were the anointed carob who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till the nitty was found in you. Carob is a classification of angels. So here we have Lucifer, who's one of the great angels. There's only three of them, mentioned by name, in the entire Bible.

And he says, Of all the angels, these angels were the absolute perfection of God's creation. But they had free will. And he decided the old man doesn't know what he's doing.

He decided that God doesn't know what he's doing. And there's a better way.

Verse 16 says, By the abundance of your trading, you know, he was good at, I guess, in modern terms, he was buying and selling. He was good at using things and rewards and getting people on board to his agendas, or other angels, I mean, on board to his agendas. And you became filled with violence within. Inside himself became an anger and a violence, a violence towards God, and a violence towards God's creation. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O covering terror from the mists and the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your squander. And I cast you to the ground, and I laid you before the kings, and they might gaze upon you.

This being still exists, and according to the Apostle Paul, he is the God of this world. Understand something. I mean, we've seen this over and over again, and we have to go back to these basics sometimes to really understand what's happening in our lives. When Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden, God said, you want to listen to him, go ahead. I'll let him be your God for a while. Now, Adam and Eve still had a relationship with God. He sacrificed to him. It talks about they knew who he was. I mean, they talked to him. They knew who God was. But their sons, one of them kills the other one. What happens here?

What happens that one generation after leaving Eden, you have the most vicious, ugly, violent actions that a human being can do, the killing of a brother, the murder of a brother? Where does that come from? Because there was another spiritual influence upon them.

There was another spiritual influence. You never see in Genesis where Satan appears again in an animalistic form. He didn't, but he influenced them. You don't see them having a conversation with him, but he influenced them.

And this is what we understand, the subtly of what Satan does to human beings.

It has to do with understanding him, his emotions, his violence, his belief that God doesn't know what he's doing, his absolute selfishness, and who he is.

Why is it that God hates paganism?

You know, a statue of Buddha is nothing, right?

When I went into Notre Dame, I did not feel a compulsion to go bow before the statues of Mary, like other people were doing. I found it quite repulsive.

And yet I understood what was happening. I understood for human beings searching to fulfill that need, that desire, that somehow, for a short period of time, made them feel that way.

Religious, and somehow in connection with God.

Why is it that God hates that so much? 1 Corinthians 10 I was reading a book today, or this week, on the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In the 600s, the Eastern Orthodox Church threw out, now the Eastern Orthodox Church, of course, is in Poland and Hungary and Romania, Russia, Greece, they threw out all their statues and all their pictures. Because they said it was idolatry and breaking the second of the Ten Commandments. And the church was poured a part over it, for about a hundred years.

And finally, they changed it. They went back and said, No, we should have statues. We should have pictures. And it was interesting the reasons why. And the reasons why is, the reason we went to statues and pictures like the Catholic Church, they never gave up their. But the Eastern Orthodox did for a while, was because it makes us feel like we're connected to God. It makes us feel like we're connected to God.

It helps us in our religious, emotional experience. Isn't that interesting? And therefore, we think God wants us to do it, because of it. So therefore, the Second Commandment no longer applies. Because we're not worshipping a statue of Zeus. When we bow down before a statue of Mary, she really exists in Heaven. So we just realize this is a representation of her, and now we feel a connection to her. When we fall down before a crucifix, or a picture of Jesus, and they really have a lot of pictures of Jesus.

When we fall down before a picture of Jesus, or we kiss it, they would kiss the pictures, even today. We feel a connection. We know that's just a picture, but we're connecting to the real Jesus. The subtle manipulation in that. I feel connected to Jesus because I kissed a picture of him today. So the Second Commandment no longer applies. Where does that come from? 1 Corinthians 10.

I'm going to read a few verses here. To set up the story, you know this story. This is a common passage. We read this all the time, especially before the spring holy days. He says, therefore, my beloved flee from idolatry. Now he's speaking to a church. We've been going through 1 Corinthians now for a year. Idolatry was such a core problem there. These people come out of rank idolatry. They worship the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. They weren't mainly from a Jewish background. And he says, you have to get away from this. You have to run away from it.

I speak as to wise men. Judge me yourselves when I say. He says, okay, let me explain this to you. You should be able to figure this out. Let's go back to the Passover. He says, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

For we through many are one bread and one body, though many are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. He says, we all do the same thing and there's a unity in this, because we're all now part of the body of Christ. Observe, Israel after the flesh, are those who eat of the sacrifice for takers of the altar. He says, you know, when they did a sacrifice in ancient Israel, there were some of the sacrifices the priest ate, some of the sacrifices the people who brought it ate, depending on the sacrifice they were doing. He says, in other words, when you, in ancient Israel, when they participated in the rituals of the temple, and the people ate the food, it was all part of a worship of God.

Just like when we take bread and wine at the Passover, it's all a vital, important aspect of our worship of God. So that's his argument. He says, what am I saying? That an idol is anything, or what is awkward to an idol is anything? So am I trying to say, okay, there's some magic in the idol. Actually, the Eastern Orthodox believe that there are miraculous... They don't use the word magic, but there's magic in the idols. So, Catholic's explaining that to me. There's actually something spiritual in the idol that connects you to the person and back.

But then they'll say, but it's not in the idol, it's coming from the person that you're talking to. So, if I before say, Catherine, you know, her headless body, and Catherine, two diocese argued over her body. So her head is in one place in Italy, and her body's in another. So depending on where you go, when you go into the little room, the knee will be forward, and one place you're kneeling before her head, and the other place you're kneeling before her headless body.

And in doing so, saying, Catherine, there's nothing spiritual here, but there's a miracle that takes place because by bowing before the body, say, Catherine, listen to you. That's idolatry. But why? Why do people do that? Because for a few seconds or a few minutes, it fulfills a spiritual thing inside of them that God designed. And the manipulation here is enormous. Any of you here were Eastern Orthodox or Catholic? You know, John Kowalczyk, he was in Nashville. He was Eastern Orthodox, and he was telling me one time about the emotional experience of going into an Eastern Orthodox Church as a child.

He's just overwhelming. Why? He says, rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table or the table of demons.

Paul is saying the same thing that we're getting in Ezekiel. The physical leader of Tyre was just a man, like any other man, except he claimed to be a God, which was common for anyone who was a leader at that time. But he says there's something else behind this that we have to be aware of. The prince of Tyre was aware of it. He was just a guy with lots of power and light power and abused it. Now, what is the spirit behind all this? What is the spirit behind paganism? According to the Apostle Paul, it's demons.

Now, we know that the third of the angels followed Satan, according to the book of Revelation. And they are what who demons are. They're angels that rejected God and followed Satan. They still exist. And it's hard in our scientific rule to accept that they're out there. But that's why the desire for spiritual connection, whichever human being has, is all over the place in all different strange ways.

It's because there are other spiritual forces tapping into that to draw people away from God. So it feels like you're connected to God or to the spirit world. It feels that way. So you wonder, how can people be so deceived or do certain things? It's because it feels like they're connected to God. That's why. Because there's a manipulation of part of their nature that God designed in us. The human brain is different than animal brains. We're the only brain that they, you know, when they dissect the human brain.

There's actually part of our brain that's designed to have what they call spiritual experiences. Our brain is unique. That's only been discovered probably the last 20 years. It's unique. Even our brain is designed to react to God. And it's being manipulated. You see, well, not me. Well, we need to be real careful here. It's a report to remember that everybody is spiritually incomplete. Now, what I want to do is step back some more basic information. How does God, how does God reach us to begin to help us deal with the need and desire we have for Him?

And I just have to keep emphasizing it's for Him. So much of the time we look at religious experience as something only for us. And we have to get to the understanding that the need and desire is ours. The object of our spirituality is God. That's the object. It's that relationship that this is all about. And so there is this need to desire something or to connect to something mysterious. Mysteries. I'd like to give a series of sermons today. The mystery religions of the ancient world, we don't know much about them. And there's a reason why. They were mystery religions. Only the adherents could know what went on.

So sometimes we have all kinds of writers telling us what went on in history religions. We don't know if they're true or not. You know, it's like the sani, logics today. What really goes on? We don't know. Because, well, there you can't tell. Although I had some masons tell me, actually it's just business meetings. At certain levels, at the local level, it's just the way businessmen get together and do business. But at the upper levels, it's more than that. Masonic Lodge is a religion.

If you've ever seen a Masonic funeral, you would know it is. What it is, it's ancient Gnosticism. It's an ancient Gnostic religion at the highest levels. But like all religions, usually when you break it down to the lowest levels, people don't really know what they believe. They have different reasons for doing it. How many people go to church? How many people go to Easter or Christmas and you ask them why? It's because, I don't know, it's just what we do. It's what my family does. Do you know Christ wasn't born on Christmas or Jesus wasn't born on Christmas?

Yeah. But it's just what we do. Well, that's sort of the way religion is for a lot of people. But I feel good about it. You know, I think Jesus would like us to acknowledge Him. I think Jesus would like us to acknowledge Him. There isn't a question, what does Jesus want of me? He isn't really the focus of the worship. It's the experience of the person that's the focus of the worship. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2.

I was talking about mysteries. I actually want to talk about mystery religions, and then I want to go through. There's about six different places. There actually may be more, but there's six different basic subjects. Paul says in the New Testament, these are mysteries. These are the real mysteries. Let's look at one of the real mysteries here. Let me get to Colossians. I'm in Ephesians. I'll come back there later. Colossians 2 verse 1. I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea.

When he wrote the letter to Colossae, he said this letter should also go to Laodicea. He said the Laodicean letter should come to Colossae. God did not choose to keep the Laodicean letter, but we do have the Colossae letter. He says, For as many as not seen my face in the flesh, That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, And attaining to all riches the full assurance, Understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God.

Okay? So, I mean, this is a long sentence here, but... He says, I want you all to come together in the knowledge of the mystery of God. So, what's the mystery of God? He's going to tell us part of it right here. Both of the Father and of Christ, But whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now, Colossae had been influenced by Gnosticism, the church there. It's a creature brought that out in the sermon. And in this Gnostic ideas, there was a mystery to it. Because Gnosticism is a mystery of religion, too. Now, this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with pervasive words, For though I am absent in the flesh, and I am with you in spirit, Rejoicing to see your good order, and the steadfastness of their faith in Christ.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in Him. Now, we're going to see what the mystery is. The mystery is that there's a Father and a Christ. And we walk in Christ. This is a lifestyle. Christianity is more than belief. It is a lifestyle. You walk in Him. He in you and you in Him. This relationship creates a lifestyle, not just a belief or a series of doctrines.

He says, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in Him. Rooted and build up in Him and established in the faith. As you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Now, notice verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty defeat. According to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, And not according to Christ.

He says, be careful here. Because there's a basic principle, basic concepts that are in the world, That are not God-centered. But, in their deceitfulness, they will believe, they will make us believe, Through our emotional experience that we are connected to God. Now, remember, being connected to God is an emotional experience. It's both emotion and reason.

We're supposed to have an emotional reaction and response to God. That's why it's not only a need, it's a desire. How much is our desire to God? That's a really important question. How much do we desire that personal relationship with God and with Christ?

This is the mystery revealed that, in that we were designed to have a relationship with God and with Christ.

Good. Now, how do you do that?

Well, I could pray for her. Yeah. I could... maybe if we had some more rituals, Or maybe if we did, like, an hour of music before church, Which sometimes I think would be sort of neat, but that's not... You know, the point I'm making is, we think that would solve our spiritual problems. Well, that would be a help to an emotional experience. Remember, not all emotional experiences are wrong. We're supposed to have an emotional connection with God. But if that's all it is, we're missing the relationship.

Oh, good. I had an emotional experience. My desire was fulfilled. No, your desire is for God.

And for Christ. So how does that happen?

Another basic concept. Romans chapter 5. As part of this mystery. Romans chapter 5.

There's a lot packed in the next few verses we're going to read.

Paul says, therefore... And this is the sort of end of chapter 4. There's a whole lot he said in chapter 4, and he sort of sums it up here. He says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we're justified. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're back to the mystery that you wrote about, that we just read about a few minutes ago. Through whom also we have access by faith into the grace by which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Wow! That's a lot of good things, isn't it?

It says here, all these benefits of justification, in other words, the ability and the right to have a relationship with God, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have access to His grace, His favor, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

It's a positive approach to Christianity, isn't it?

Okay, I want a relationship with God, I want a relationship with Christ, I want this, I desire to have this, I try really hard, but it seems like all you have are moments, sort of, an emotional high that are back down.

And everybody does that at times, which is sort of drift off, we come back, we drift off.

He says, verse 3, And not only that, we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope.

Now hope does not disappoint.

Now I don't know about you, in my life, I've had a lot of hope for a lot of things at this point.

He's saying this hope won't disappoint, so you hold on to this hope, because of all these positive things that are happening here, and the character that's developing you, and you persevere through hard times, because God is in your life.

But how does that work?

What's the ten steps for doing this?

Verse 5 again, Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. You and I are connected to God through God's Spirit.

And God then, as we submit to Him, remember I gave a sermon here, not too long ago, and the difference between submission and surrender. We actually surrender to Him. As that happens in us, He helps us do this. The bonding isn't something we do by simply creating a ritual.

You can take the bread and the wine and pass over your whole life and never be connected to God, because you're not connected to God through the bread and the wine. The bread and the wine are reminders, because we need physical reminders. That's why people are drawn towards statues.

And it's not wrong to have a picture of Moses. It's wrong that if you've been to the Sistine Chapel, it's beautiful.

And there's lots of neat pictures about creation and Biblical people, but then you see what's supposed to be God touching Adam and bringing him to life. And it's very dramatic. The problem is, God says, don't do that. But you can't help but look at it and say, wow!

And then you realize, for a lot of people, it's, wow, I feel a connection to God. And God says, nope, can't draw that picture of me.

Can't do that.

You can't have me in a grave image. You can't have any form of me.

But, Adam's second commandments have been done away with because we're not worshipping it. We're just using it to help us have a connection to God. We're just using it.

You know, the ancient Greeks did not believe that Zeus was the statue.

They believed the statue was a representation of Zeus who lived on Mount Olympus. They would have said, of course, that's not Zeus. But there's special power in that because it connects us to Zeus. That's what paganism was. Those idols had special importance because it connected you to the God or the gods. So to say, that picture, that statue of God, it's really God. We know that. So we're not worshipping idols. It connects us to God as the same argument of pagans.

And it is what? According to Paul. It's a religion of demons. So it's easy for us to say, oh, yes, wow, look at this. These people do this. How stupid of them. But you and I are manipulated too. We're manipulated by Satan too. It's just more subtle.

The bottom line is, nobody can be bonded to God through anything but His Spirit. We can have a relationship with Him, but it's a surface relationship. To have the need that we have for God reach some kind of fulfillment in this life takes God's Spirit in us. Two, have our desire for God. I desire you. I am what we just read in Psalms. I am a needy, poor person who needs you, who desires you, who wants you to interact with me. To have that kind of desire takes God's Spirit to fulfill that. Without it, we get sort of temporary connection, either because we do have a relationship with God, but it's surface, or through fake means that aren't real. We can't do this without God in us. That's why you have the need and desire in you. God said, I must come within you. You and I must be bonded together. That's what eternity is. Eternity is to have such a relationship with God that we're bonded with God the Father and Jesus Christ forever. That's why there won't be any sin. We will be in that kind of relationship that our need and desire for God is fulfilled.

It's fulfilled. Our purpose will be fulfilled, and we will be happy beings, and happy with each other, and not abusing each other or hurting each other. Because why? Because the need for God and the desire for God is fulfilled. And He will be living in us and guiding us through His Spirit forever and ever. We will be bonded with Him. That's what we want. You and I can't obtain that entirely in this life. We can't. And it drives us to do a lot of different things. Because it's only through the indwelling of God's Spirit. Now, my original sermon, what I started to cover here originally, was these subjects. But I'm going to list these things. We'll cover them in another time. And I want you to think about how human beings could believe they have a connection to the spiritual through these things. Witchcraft. So that's the weirdo way to switchcraft. Yeah, there's only... Last time I heard of red, an actual figure, this was probably ten years ago. There were a quarter of a million people in the United States that claimed to be witches or wiccans. A quarter of a million. I'm sure that number's up. Much larger now. Because they wish to connect to something. They don't quite believe in this God thing of Christianity, but they know there's something out there. Sorcery. Magic. The occult. Spiritualism. You know, trying to talk and connect to the dead. Channeling. Channeling is huge in this country.

A while back, I was at a hotel. We were actually doing a... What is BT... Beyond Today, where we go out and meet people. Public appearance campaigns. And it was really strange. We walked into the hall, and the women first started singing. This one of the women said, she's out of nowhere, because we were all going to have lunch. We were starting to set up.

And she said, I don't know why, but I just felt comfortable here. I don't know why. I always come to these just excited. I just don't. I have a feeling this is something bad's going to happen. We looked at her, and the other one said, I feel the same way. Well, I went back into the room where they were setting up, and the guys were sort of at each other's throats. I mean, these guys get along, and our crew gets along and works together. They were just like snapping at each other. And I said, what's wrong with you guys? And they said, we don't know. The equipment doesn't work. They said, what's wrong? Let's fix it. And they said, no, understand. There's nothing wrong with our equipment. It doesn't work. And I said, well, why are you all mad at each other? So everybody went to lunch, and I happened to be the last one to leave. And as I walked out, I noticed across the hall another group was setting up. And they were trying to set up their tables in front of us to sell their books. As people would come into our group, they would sell their books. So I picked up one of their books. And it was a group that teaches channeling.

Now, we were excited to have 150 people show up. They must have 300 people show up.

And they were selling books. And I started to read through the books. I started looking at the books.

And Peter kicked out and said, you guys can't put your tables here. Move over to your side, to the room.

And walking, I walked into the place and was looking at everybody, looking at their books. And then I realized, I understand what this is when we're talking about. This is a bad place.

There's a spirit here. It's not a God. But those people felt like they were connecting to the spirit.

And they believed it. And actually they were. Now, I'm not saying they're all demon possessed. I'm saying they were fulfilling, for a short period of time, through a wrong way, a spiritual need.

What the book, I thought, was really interesting was how to connect to raw, which is the ancient Egyptian sun god.

And this guy channeled him. And you could buy his book, and he would tell you how to live your life by channeling these spirits.

Astrology, mysticism. People even do it in strange ways, like by watching movies about demon possession.

People get a strange sort of fascination of connecting somehow. There are really demons. People ask me, have you ever watched movies about demon possession? I say, no. Why? Because I've actually had conversations with demon possessed people. No, I'm not going to watch a movie about demon possession. No. We're not going there. These are sort of the most obvious ones. But you know they can be very subtle, too. How many of you... Now, these books are out there for about ten years. They're more than books. They're websites. They're videos. I mean, these are huge things. How many of you know what or heard of the secret? A handful. A handful. How about the law of attraction? Debbie, you're the only pagan in the group. Oprah. Oprah. Okay. How many of you have heard of Oprah? Oprah is an anti-Christian pagan. She claims to be a Christian, but she's not. She's part of the New Age movement. Technically, Joel seems to. He's just not as out front as she is. There's been a whole change in... You know, sociologists no longer call this the Christian Age. They call it the Post-Christian Age. It started in the 1960s. You know, you have the industrial age. You have different ages of humanity. The Western world is no longer called the Christian Age. It's called the Post-Christian Age. Because the new Christianity that's forming has nothing to do with the old Christianity, except words and a few connections. But it is frighteningly different. And it's all based on one thing. An emotional reaction that makes you feel like somehow... I've connected to God. And I will say this about Oprah. Oprah, whoever. She does amazingly nice things for people. She does. I mean, I'll give credit what credit's due. But her belief is, that's God doing that. And yet when you listen to her teach her religion, it's frightening. And she has her own religion. A number of years ago, I think it was USA Today, did a poll on who would you like to give the next 10 commandments. You know, God's words are sort of outdated. And she was voted as the person that they would like to give the 10 commandments.

This is the subtle way. This is the subtle way in which Satan is taking our need and desire for God and moving it in a different direction. He's not going to get any of us to go to some seminar and, you know, to study how to channel raw, okay? We're not going to go to that. Although the truth, when I saw everybody go in, I'm standing there and I looked at Darris and Stephen and said, come on, let's go in. He said, why? I don't know. Let's just go in. See what happens. And they wisely explained to me, this is not a good idea. No, no, let's go in.

Sometimes I get riled up. It's best that I think about my next action. But I was about to go in there just to see what would happen, okay? Come on. This is not of God, folks.

The secret, the law of attraction are big movements. You know, you've all heard of Dan Brown, right? He wrote a novel, a series of novels that came as series of movies. The one novel was about, you know, how Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had children. Now, that book came out, what, 15 years ago? Within a few years after that book, 40% of everyone in the United States under the age of 40 that was questioned believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had children. 40%.

That's 15 years ago, or whatever, 12 years ago.

And that was a novel! It was just made up so you could make some money!

I haven't read it. I did see the movie just because I wonder what it was about. Tom Hanks was in.

How many have seen it? It's not worth watching. Come on, how many have seen it? Okay, there's a few piggies in the box.

This is why nobody raises their hand when I ask questions, because they're afraid what I'm going to say. So I have to raise mine. I've seen it, because I haven't, okay, I want to see what the culture's about. What is this the big thing? I watched it.

It's just an action movie.

It was just an action movie, you know.

Anyway, Ephesians 2. Let's get Ephesians 2 here. Our last scripture.

There's a subtle...

I was looking at a book I have on my shelf the other day.

That... about marriage counseling.

And it was a popular book a number of years ago.

And I looked up the author's name, because I thought, who is this guy?

He's a New Age guru. Actually, well, he's not a guru. He did spend ten years in a monastery studying under a Buddhist guru.

And yet he's written a Christian book on marriage, and he's not even a Christian. Well, he's a New Age Christian.

Little Hinduism, little Buddhism, little Catholicism, little Protestantism. All sort of mixed together. And that's who he is. I thought, wow! That wasn't a bad book, but he's not Christian. So now I look at the book in a little different viewpoint. Is there another message in here? Does he have another message in here that's subtle?

Ephesians 2, verse 1.

And you he made alive, he's talking to the church, who are dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. This is Satan.

And Paul here says, it's like he's in the air.

He's influencing us. How does he do that?

Through emotions.

Once again, he's not going to try to get you to go channel-raw, okay? That's not going to happen.

But he's going to do it through emotions, because if you read Ezekiel, it explains that he is an emotional being who is also brilliant. And he's filled with envy and jealousy and greed while you're trading, okay?

And what he does, he takes and plays on those emotions.

The more we let certain thoughts and emotions germinate in our minds, the more we open up to this influence. Once again, he's not possessing us, he doesn't take away our free will, but he can feed it.

He feeds the emotions.

So he feeds the fact when you feel like, nobody appreciates me, because I tell you what, he just can't stand it that God doesn't appreciate him.

Greed, envy, jealousy, loneliness.

He was connected to God, and he's a stranger to God. He must be a very lonely being.

And so there's a subtlety that happens to us, and it can even break down into our physical lives. You know, I've never yet counseled someone who committed adultery who said, Oh yeah, I just did this because, man, you know, my wife and I were fine. We were really close. Then one day I walked into a bar, saw this girl, and just had to have her. I've never had that. No, no, no one's ever said it to me. What I do get, yeah, I did this because my husband doesn't understand me, or I did this because my wife doesn't understand me, and I was lonely. And it usually takes a long time. There's a subtlety to how we deteriorate. Because, you know, let's face it, we're not going to be confronted usually. You know, somebody in your work is going to walk up to you and say, Hey, take me home tonight. Okay, that's not going to happen.

But the subtlety of a relationship that forms over time is something different. Because of the basic need we have. And if we're having our need and desire for God, if we're working on having that fulfilled, we will be less apt to fall into these other traps.

Less apt to do so.

It's our emotions that he plays, and our thoughts. Yeah, that's right. I should be. I should have more authority in my job. Yeah, that's right. My wife just doesn't understand me. And then one day, you find yourself sitting with that girl after work at a bar, having a beer, saying, Yeah, my wife just doesn't understand me. And you started down a road.

It's not good.

And if we're right with God, we will be less apt to fall into that.

Verse 4. Well, let's go back. We didn't finish verse 3 here. Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves, in the lesson of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, or by nature children of wrath, just as the others. By nature, we have absorbed some of Satan's nature, and you and I still have some of that.

And he's a prideful being. One of the reasons we don't accept that is because of our own pride. Well, not me. But I can look at the other people of the congregation, and they should measure us of Satan's nature, but not me.

Our pride, which he is a prideful being, can be fed to where it's easy for a Christian to become very, very self-righteous. We condemn everybody else, we don't deal with ourselves. He says, But God, who was rich in mercy because of his great love, with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. So we're back to the mystery. For at grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he may show the exceedingly rich, riches of his grace, and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. Now, unfortunately, this, you stop here, you get the idea of irresistible grace. God just forgave me, and I get grace no matter what I do. No, this is part of the mystery. Remember, we started with, you must walk in Christ. To believe in the Father, the Son, isn't enough. To have rituals and worship isn't enough. To keep the Ten Commandments isn't enough. We must have God's Spirit in us, and that he does something that we must submit to. Verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God works in us because our need for him, our desire for him keeps motivating us and driving us back to him, and he works, and he works, and he works. He works to create in us this relationship as children, so that we surrender to what he does and what he's doing. You must guard your mind and the minds of your children, whether... You know, everything in our society is designed to draw us away from God, in one way or another. We have to guard our minds and the minds of our children. I guess I was surprised how many people don't know what the law of attraction is, because it's been so big for 10-15 years. I mean, the law of attraction is that you sort of manipulate the universe to do what you want. So if you want a parking spot, you just think about it. You think about it that you want it, that it's yours, you deserve it, and you drive around the block a couple of times, and it'll open up, because that person will move for you. They don't know they're moving for you. If you want the better job, somehow, through this law of attraction, you just think it. You think about money enough, and you get money. I think, yeah, you become a dope dealer. There you go. I got money. I'm always wondering about the law of attraction. What if there's another person who wants the same job, and you're both doing the law of attraction? What if you can get it? Or maybe you create an alternate universe where you get the job, and they get the job. You just don't know it, because you're... I mean, it's just bizarre. The secret is the same way. It's sort of science fiction.

And it's huge in our society. I've seen people in the church get into it. Of course, they leave. They leave?

You and I, until Christ returns, lives in Satan's world, and we haven't given God spirit. We've been shown our purpose to be his children. We've been shown what he wants from us.

And we are to dedicate our lives because we desire him.

You know, the result of our spiritual bonding with God is love, and joy, and peace, and long-suffering, and mercy, and gentleness, and faith. That's what it produces. This obedience that we have towards him. But Satan's real, and he wants to pervert that relationship. You and I live in a world that's so different. I'm going to mention this last thing just because it has nothing to do with this, but to show you how much our world is changing.

About 68 weeks ago, the Methodist Church, now the Methodist Church 200 years ago, was one of the most, in conduct, most conservative Protestant churches. Extremely conservative. John Wesley was, you know, he fasted twice a week and said everybody should do that. He was very spiritually minded in some ways, personally. The Methodist Church just pulled in all their pastors and voted whether they should accept homosexual and lesbian ministers, and accept entirely homosexuality, lesbianism, and transgenderism. And it didn't pass. But it didn't pass because of one thing. Their ministers in Africa and the Philippines voted against it.

The ones in the United States voted for it. So now there is an attempt by the ministers, majority of ministers, Methodist ministers in the United States, to drive out the African and Philippine churches. They either want to split the church or create a new church. And what's happening is, in the United States, they've already driven out so many of their members. You'll see now the Wesleyan Church. The Wesleyan Church is just the old Methodist Church, taking on John Wesley's name, where the few people who still stand against those things are fleeing to. But the overwhelming majority of the United States, and now they're trying to kick out. I mean, they spent hundreds of years creating Methodist churches in Africa and the Philippines, and now they're trying to get rid of them. Because once they get rid of them, they know they have the majority to vote it in, in the United States. And we pretend that we still live in the same Protestant world that we had 40 years ago, and it's not even remotely the same. It's not the same religion.

And so people are looking more and more for spiritual connection, spiritual connection, because it's gone. And you know the people who buy into the homosexual transgender whole movement?

They believe it's a spiritual thing. They believe they are showing pure love, the love of God. And anybody who is truly spiritual and has the love of God would think of transgender, because they were born that way. It's a righteous thing.

See how it's manipulated? See how Satan manipulates it? And people who don't can't be true Christians, they don't have the love of Jesus, because they don't love these people who are mutilating themselves and destroying themselves from the way that God made them.

You've been called to come out of this confusion. You've been called by God the Father, through our elder brother Jesus Christ, to receive the Holy Spirit. This is what God wants for you, and this is why He has called you.

Every day strive for that personal relationship with God, that connection and that bonding with God, come out of the confusion. And you will have, as Paul said, a hope that never disappoints.

Thank you.