Episode 18

[00:00:09] Speaker A: Good evening. My name's Pastor Peter Yanada. This is my wife Sherry, and we are recording a teaching tonight at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. We are going to continue our discussion in the book of Revelation, Christ's Jesus Christ, Seven letters to the churches. And I would encourage everybody to go back to chapter one and look, because a lot of people get discouraged when they try to read the book of Revelation and fear sets in. And yet before we started with these seven letters, we were talking about the catching up of the church and the day of the Lord. And we're going to continue with that in each of the upcoming discussions because we are in the last of the last days of perilous times. And when we really look at the Scriptures rightly divided, we can clearly see that the catching up of the church and the second coming of Christ are two separate events. And I know people argue that. They say, how can there be two different phases of the second coming of Christ? Well, Jesus was born, the Word of God was born. He came in the flesh. He was crucified, died and was buried, ascended to heaven. And then he came back for 40 days and spoke to his disciples at some point before the ascension. And so there's phases that can happen during different dispensations. And we're also going to just briefly touch on two doctrines that have ripped the church apart and which prevent the church from working together. All of this tied in to the church at Pergamos, because I call this the Compromising Church. And when we get to the doctrine of Balaam, I'm sure my wife Sherry will have some things to say about that, but I will open in prayer. Father, we thank you that we have the truth, the Word of God. The Word came in the flesh and Jesus came and brought grace and truth. And what a wonderful thing that grace is. We are saved by grace through faith. We'll talk a little bit about that this evening, Father, but we thank you that when we speak the Word of God, the Holy Spirit can move on the truth. He's the Spirit of truth. And that as we go through the Holy Scriptures tonight, I thank you that your words will not return empty. They will accomplish that which you send them forth to accomplish for, for your pleasure as we speak about Christ's church in Jesus name. Amen. So if you have your Bible open to the Book of Revelation, it's the last book in the Bible and it begins in chapter one with the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to, to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John. So this book is about Christ. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ, who bore record. John bore record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw in. And then verse three, blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein. For the time is at hand. The time is at hand. So also, if you have some markers, mark in your Bible, second Peter, chapter three, and also two Thessalonians, chapter four, because we're gonna see two sectional headings in the Bible that speak about the day of the Lord. So we know the scripture. If you've been around the church at any length of time, you've heard. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. The very next verse says, christ did not come to condemn, to judge, he came to save. That was his first advent, the second coming of Christ, the day of the Lord. You will see phrases like the wrath of God. And in the book of Revelation, you'll see the wrath of the Lamb. This is where God is going to pour his wrath out upon the unbelievers that are here on the earth. So there will be a judgment. God's judgment will be poured out on the unbelievers, those that would not receive Christ at that point in time. And at some point in the near future, we'll talk about the seven seals and what those represent, what's going to happen and who that's happening with. So what you need to know is you can divide the book of Revelation into the seven letters, and then the church is not mentioned in the book anymore until, I think, chapter 19 or 20. We're not called to wrath. There's a catching up. And we'll be forever with the Lord. So the church is gone, and then you're going to see how God deals with Israel. So let's take a look at the message to the church at Pergamos and to the angel of the church in Pergamos. Write now. He's telling John, Apostle John, to write these things down. These things says he which has the sharp sword with two edges. So Christ is talking, I know your works and where you dwell, even where Satan's seat is. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. And you hold fast my name and have not Denied my faith. Now I want you to underline or highlight or take a piece of paper and write my faith. Because there's a falling away of the faith that will happen one day. It's called the great falling away. And I would just say for tonight, you have to be falling away from something to have the phrase falling away from. And in the book of Hebrews, the author is specifically speaking to a certain group of people. And there's warnings even in the days where Antipas, who was my faith? This person, he was martyred for the faith who was slain among you where Satan dwells. So there's typical of these letters where Christ commends them for what they're doing. Good. And now, beginning in verse 14, he's going to tell them the challenges that he has. So this is Christ telling John, Apostle John, to write these things in a book. But I have a few things against you because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, and we're going to talk about that in a minute. Who taught Balak to cast the stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. So there's two sins here, idolatry and immorality. Sexual immorality. So has you. Have you also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate, repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. This is not going to go well. This is a warning from Christ. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him that overcomes, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will I give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows except he that receives it. So if there's a church that is persisting in idolatry and immorality, sexual immorality, Remember Jesus said, I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He never abolished the moral and ethical laws of God. And just to set the record straight, so to speak, our faith is what got. We were saved by grace through faith. I'll give you that scripture in a minute and it's important for you to see the second verse, the verse after that. So what you had to do was believe Christ is who he is. Those that call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Bible says, now that was your salvation. And now there's a process called sanctification that needs to happen and how quickly you submit yourself to Christ at that point is, I'll just say the level of your spiritual maturity in Christ. So if you have taken notes, just write in Christ because you'll see that over and over again in the Bible. If you want to know what that means, look in the gospel of John 15, 1:11, Jesus is speaking clearly. What will happen in what that phrase means. There's promises and there's consequences of that. And we'll get to that in a couple minutes. So what is happening if we are to love the Lord thy God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and love our neighbor as. As ourself. And as Matthew said, on these two commandments lie all the profit and the law. And there is a doctrine called the law of liberty, the law of love. We're not gonna get into that tonight. But what does that mean to love God with all your heart? And if we're children of God. The Bible also talks about children of disobedience, those that their father would be the devil. Jesus had to address people with that term, which is one of the reasons they wanted to kill him. But there is a passage in the Bible where Jesus is in a room full of people and his mother Mary and his brothers and sister are trying to get to him. And they can't get to him for the crowd. And somebody says to him, master or teacher, whatever, depending on the version you're using, your family, your mother and your brothers and sister are here. Jesus raises his arm, waves it over the crowd. The Bible says. And he says, who is my mother and my brother and my sisters? In other words, who is my family? But those that hear my words and keep them or do them, as some versions say, remember the first three verses in this book said. And those that keep them. So we have blessings, we have promises in the Bible. I'll talk about some of them in a little bit before we close tonight. And there's also many of them have conditions. In other words, God says, if, it's an if, then thing. And there's also warnings given. And I'm gonna give you the name of two doctrines that are splitting the church on opposite spectrums of what the church believes. And one day, not now, cause it's not the time. I'm going to lay out all the Scriptures for the one side and all the Scriptures for the other side. And I'll show you that depending, it does matter. But you cannot discount and throw away the warnings in the Bible. If the eternal resting place. Is everlasting, eternal, why would you Take a chance. My belief is I'm going to preach the whole counsel of God. And if somebody wants to use a phrase and ask me a question using a phrase that's not written in the Bible, then I'll deal with that. But if I'm preaching by the Holy Spirit and there's conviction, there's several things that should happen. There should be conviction of sin, the salvation message. Paul said, I did not come with the words of man. I came with power and the Holy Spirit, power and the Holy Spirit. So there should be conviction of sin, there should be deliverance from demonic strongholds or presence, and there also should be miracles and healings that occur. So if Jesus is speaking to this church and he has this against them, they've compromised the message of salvation that they were originally given. So that's why I say Pergamos, the church of compromise. So what is the doctrine of Balaam? First, I want to drop back because we looked at this when we looked at the message to the church at Smyrna, we talked about Satan's seed a little bit. This may be where Satan's influence is. It could be a phrase for that. And also we talked about the second death, the second death that's mentioned to the Church of Smyrna that is referring to eternal punishment, the lake of fire which only the faithful overcomers will escape. So that's something to think about as far as Christ's warnings that he's given here again, the last, the last book of the Bible. So the doctrine of Balaam, or do you, do you have information on that or do you want me to go through my notes here? [00:17:45] Speaker B: Well, you can go through your notes, but I mean, it's, it's, we're seeing the doctrine of Balaam everywhere, especially in the prophetic, where people, you know, we're all born with gifts that God has given us. You know, sometimes we have certain giftings that we're not even aware of until God brings them forth. But I've seen a lot, and certainly everybody else, you know, that pays attention to anything that's going on. You know, in the Christian world there's been a lot of false prophets, people that have used their giftings illegally and, you know, for their own personal gain, you know, and it's, this is a time where we have to be very careful who we lend our time and our attention to. You know, just as Paul said, I know nothing except for Christ and Christ crucified. But we, you know, these things, you know, the prophetic is there to edify the Church. And it's not supposed to be an individual thing where that's all people are seeking is to get a word, you know, for themselves or something like this. There's, you know, you'll find somebody who's willing to give it, and that's where, you know, you might have a downfall. But discernment is, you know, we're not to despise the prophetic. I actually am prophetic, and I love prophecy. We're not supposed to despise it, but you have to be very discerning. And it's not something that you run after. It's something that God, you know, when God wants to use me prophetically, then he uses me prophetically. It's not something that I'm seeking after, but I think it's a pitfall for a lot of people. [00:19:46] Speaker A: It has become. I believe [00:19:48] Speaker B: it has. [00:19:48] Speaker A: It always was. I'll say that. [00:19:51] Speaker B: And it wounds my heart when I see people that have been uncovered that have, you know, for example, a person that finds out about another person that might be in the crowd at a church or something, he finds out all about them, you know, from their social media media page or something, and they're calling them out and they're, they're, you know, because they can see he bought a ticket to the event or whatever, so they're doing things underhandedly and it's not coming up from the Lord. And you can greatly affect a person's life one way or another if you're standing in a position of falsehood. And I just, I just want to warn people, you know, be, be careful who you follow, who you trust. You know, we're supposed to be discerning of these things. And, you know, I just. There's, there's one scripture that hoist creasing, and it's the one where Jesus says, you know, not everybody that calls on my name, everyone that says, lord, Lord will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Did we not prophesy in your name? They were doing it for their own gain. They weren't, they weren't operating, you know, in the Spirit, where the Spirit is wanting to present somebody with some things directly from, from the Lord that would be uplifting or enlightening or, you know, some. A word that they need to hear. And so I just, I just, I worry about, you know, these false prophets, prophets damaging people's faith. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Well, if we look at First Corinthians, chapter 12, where Paul talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it starts out, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant and then he uses that phrase, and he clearly says that as the Spirit wills. [00:22:04] Speaker B: Yes. [00:22:04] Speaker A: And so that gift of prophecy is a divine message from heaven. It's not somebody prophesying over a previous message or anything else or doing what you said. And it also says the reason for these gifts are for the benefit of the church. They're also there for us to witness effectively for Christ. And towards the end of that chapter, he says, but there is a more excellent way. And that's when he goes into chapter 13 and defines love, because those gifts need to happen in love. So if somebody's doing what you just said, are they loving their neighbor as they're violating the first commandment? A bunch, along with a lot of other things. And it is a very damaging thing because there are a lot of people in the church that probably don't read their Bible every day or spend the time to be able to discern if they're hearing right, let alone how to hear the voice of God. And I've seen a lot of people that they chase after somebody that they believe is operating in the prophetic, for a word, for themselves, because they don't realize they can get that directly from the Lord. But a lot of what you just said is what I have in my notes for this doctrine of Balaam. And I'll add to what Sherry just said, that Balaam was a false prophet. And she just spoke about that. Who sold his services to a heathen king and advised him to tempt Israel to compromise their faith by idolatry and immorality, which are both written in many places in the Bible, but especially in chapter five of the Book of Galatians, Paul wrote the Walk in the Spirit, and then he defines the works of the flesh. And idolatry and fornication are two of them. And he clearly says, and I'll give you the Scriptures in a little bit. Those that practice these or do these will not enter or will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's a strict warning. And you can. This is what I'm talking about. You could argue all you want about certain doctrines in the church. And I've had people ask me what I believed about some of them, and when I talk about them, they will disagree. And when I give them both Scriptures and say, how can you explain that? The answer typically is, I can't. But let's go over here and look at the Scriptures that say that, what their belief is. [00:25:22] Speaker B: What their belief is. Yes. You should never go to the Bible to prove a point that you believe in you go to the Bible to get the truth, not your truth. [00:25:34] Speaker A: Exactly the truth, [00:25:36] Speaker B: the truth, [00:25:36] Speaker A: the word of God. So if you look at numbers 22:5, 7, chapter 25, verses 1 and 2, chapter 31, verse 16, you'll see where God's talking about this in the Old Testament. And then we're going to look at second Peter 2:15 in a minute for a New Testament, because Peter is going to say things, almost quoting word for word or vice verse what Apostle Paul says. And both of them are talking about the second coming of Christ or the day of the Lord and the day of the Lord. Biblically, the great tribulation falls within that day of the Lord and prayer prior to that, there is the catching up of the church. So if you understand that you should be preparing yourself so that you don't miss this next prophetic event, because it looks like all of the prophetic events spoken in the Bible that have already taken place. And if you look at the ones that haven't, the very next event would be the catching up of the church. And it's important that we don't discount that. So that's why when we talk about these things, I'm going to bring up in one way, shape or form, the Rapture, the catching up of the church and the second coming or the day of the Lord as we discuss this, because after we get done with the churches, these seven churches, the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation anymore until later on when Christ comes back with the church. And prior to that it says that there was a catching up and we were forever with the Lord. So this teaching of Balaam refers to what Sheri was talking about. These people are corrupt teachers and preachers. They're leading people into a fatal compromise of the faith that they learned that they heard in the Gospel. Immorality, worldliness, false ideologies, these things are running rampant in the church right now, all for the sake of personal advancement or monetary gain. And I was in a church at a time where the gifts of the Spirit started to freely flow. Now remember, as the Spirit wills, with some of the people in there, a few people, I would say maybe three at most, and the other people that were there would seek those out for prayer above other people just because they recognized that this was the Spirit of God. And these were messages, divine messages from heaven, whether they were words of knowledge, words of prophecy, words of wisdom, that's what they are. They're divine messages from the Spirit of God. And other people would begin to imitate that. And that's where the false and the corruption comes in. For whatever reason, those people need to repent. They need to examine themselves, preferably ask the Holy Spirit, ask Christ to examine you and reveal, what is it in me that's causing me to want to do this? So this church at Pergamos evidently had teachers who taught that saving faith, you were saved by grace through faith and a lifestyle of immorality were compatible. And that's what they were leading these people into. Believe. If you go back in chapter two to verse six, that's where Jesus is talking. And he says, but you have. But this. Thou hast. Thou hast the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. We talked a little bit about that. There's a lot of different theories about what that is. But the bottom line is, and I would encourage you to look up that word hate, what that really means in the Bible. So we have this doctrine of Balaam. And also if we jump down to verse 16, where Jesus says, repent, change, come back, you're prodigal. Prodigal, that word means in excess of something. So the prodigal son had to come back to God. God waited for him. Come back to God, change your mind. And it should be evidence from a change of behavior as well, which has to come from your heart. Your heart needs to be changed, your desires, or I will come quickly. Now, as a side note, I would look at these seven letters to the churches and see how many times Jesus said, I'm coming, I'm coming quickly, I'm coming as a thief in the night in the book of Laodiceans, in the letter to the Laodiceans, the ones that were destitute, wretched and blind and they didn't know it. They thought they had everything they needed. And Jesus said, that's the one church where he says, behold, I'm knocking at your door. He's already there knocking. They're spiritually dead church, and they don't even know it. That can happen over time. You can fall into traditions. And the church needs discernment right now more than anything else. And what you can see if you spend enough time in places are people that defer because they don't have the discernment, they're gonna default back to their traditions. Cause that's the comfortability where they're at. And right then, if you wanna talk about compromise, that's the compromise. The tradition. How we've always done things. Last week we talked about King David fought the Philistines. Same enemy twice at the same valley. But God gave them two different strategies. And the important thing is he inquired unto the Lord. So Jesus says, I will fight against them. That tells me that Jesus opposes any within his churches who promote a tolerant attitude towards sin. We have that in verse 15 with the Nicolaitans. Again in this verse in First Corinthians, I'd encourage you to go look at chapter 5, verse 2, Galatians, chapter 5, verse 21. So he Jesus promises he's going to wage war against immoral professing believers if they don't repent. [00:34:01] Speaker B: That's not a good place to be. [00:34:02] Speaker A: That should put the fear of God into us. And in these days, if the very next prophetic event to happen is the catching up of the church before God. Almighty God, who split the Red Sea, who broke up everything underneath the earth, cause there was no rain and flooded the earth, he's going to pour his wrath right now. The crucifixion of Christ as he took all all of our sins is holding back that wrath. But one day that will end the long suffering and the patience of Christ. And God will end the wrath of God, the wrath of the Lamb. I was listening to a, a pastor who, when I first became a believer and I actually became a disciple, my desire was to be a disciple of Christ. One of the very first. And it was the only book at the time that the Holy Spirit led me outside of the Bible. Cause at that time for several years he said, I don't want you to follow preachers, I don't want you to read any book. I just want you to spend the time in the Bible in my book with me. I'll teach you what you need to know. But the book that he led me to was called the Bait of Satan. And the pastor's name was John Bevere. Now John Bevere in the last several months has been attacking false doctrines in the church he was recently at, in New York City where we used to, at Times Square where we used to drop the New Year's Eve ball. And he was preaching the gospel and he has been very, very vocal right now because God has put a burden on him. And what he just said this past week was the church needs to be preaching and teaching on repentance. And I don't hear people do it. And not long ago I remember I was being inspired maybe six months ago to do a five week teaching on repentance. And one of the people said, this is a very deep teaching, but it's for new believers. And what prompted me and inspired me to do that was surveys like Pew Research and some other reputable survey companies or organizations. They surveyed the church and the majority of people in the body of Christ could not define repentance. I was at a church once where the word repentance and forgiveness were used interchangeably. So they actually said, ask God for repentance. So they didn't have an understanding of what repentance is or forgiveness. And Jesus is saying throughout these letters, repent. So verse 17. And I need somebody to. I did not bring my phone with me because somebody was blowing it up. So somebody needs to. [00:37:56] Speaker B: And it wasn't me. [00:37:58] Speaker A: I'll be, I'll be. I'll be keeping my. My brother in Christ, Sean here, as the Son comes up speaking. If somebody doesn't stop me when we get to the appointment, [00:38:09] Speaker B: it is now 4:55. [00:38:11] Speaker A: Okay, I have five minutes. So verse 17. Hear what the Spirit says. This is the last thing that Jesus says. So we must take heed. We must heed the warnings of the Holy Spirit. Today we have promises from God. God promised those that call upon the Lord shall be saved. We have conditions that go with those promises. But we have to heed the warnings. We cannot discount the warnings. He continues to speak the same words. The Holy Spirit continues to speak the whole words that Jesus Christ spoke to the seven churches in Asia, Asia Minor, commanding them and us to overcome sin, be an overcomer, and not to tolerate immorality. If we fail to overcome in this important area, we lose God's favor and God's presence. We lose the Spirit's power. And in the end, we become enemies of the kingdom of God because Jesus is going to wage war against us, those people. That's not my opinion. It's not my philosophy. It's not my personal doctrine. Those are the words of Christ himself. If, on the other hand, we overcome, we receive hidden manna. Now, I don't have time to get into it, and this is my own personal belief that I'm going to look at in the Bible. I believe the hidden manna is our spiritual life, the everlasting life and the white stone. And again, this is just me. I don't have the scriptures or the backup to give it to you, but I, I believe that white stone is signifying a triumph of our faith, the white stone. And maybe, just maybe, it's signifying our white wedding gown righteousness that we overcame. It's a triumph of faith over all that sought to destroy our devotion to Christ. Now, just really quickly, and I'm going to ask for forgiveness When I go over here, because I got late start, but the lateness was my fault anyway. I can't stand on that. So I'm pleading for mercy. Just a couple topics. Two doctrines in the church. One is called eternal security and the other one is called conditional security. This is the division in the church right now. Eternal security says the phrase that's not in the Bible, that you can't lose your salvation once saved, always saved. That's eternal security. That's the number one scriptural verse people are going to stand on when they say that they believe in that doctrine. And again, one day I'm going to go back and I'm going to list all the verses that say this and all the ones that say conditional. And at the end of the day I'm going to say, take a hold of God's promises. And they're conditional, many of them, and do not discount the warnings in the Bible. And if you go beyond that and you want to tell people one thing or the other, then you start dabbling in looking at their heart and who's saved and who's not at that point. And I've heard every kind of argument, I've read about this, and it's grievous. I can tell you it grieves the Holy Spirit that the church can't be united. And it's only going to be united in its knowledge of Christ. And this is eternal life, Father, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent. So really quickly healing and restoration of a land. The condition. Humble yourselves, pray, seek God's face and turn from your wicked ways. That's God's condition. 2 Chronicles 7:14. And now here's the promise. I will hear from heaven and forgive your sins and heal your land. So there's a promise with conditions. We have to do something to apprehend that guidance and direction. There's a condition. Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge God in all your ways, and he shall direct your steps. The promise is, God will direct your steps, your paths. That's Proverbs 3, 6. The condition is, you've got to trust him with all your heart. [00:44:04] Speaker B: Deuteronomy 28 is huge. [00:44:07] Speaker A: Yes, [00:44:08] Speaker B: huge, conditional. [00:44:12] Speaker A: Now here's the last one that I'm going to throw out there. Defeating temptation. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Submit to God [00:44:20] Speaker A: and spiritual resistance. The condition is, submit yourselves therefore to God and resist the devil. Submit yourself to God and resist the devil. God's promise is, the devil will flee from you. How does the devil flee, Submit to God and resist them, Resist the temptation. So there are conditions that go along with God's promises. And there's a list of probably 50 of them that I could give you, but for time's sake, they. These are just three. So I would be very careful about telling somebody anything beyond a promise and a condition that God gives. And do not, do not say, I can't explain that, but. And go back to the scriptures that will lead one way or the other into either eternal security or conditional security. So in closing, I will ask my lovely wife here if she has anything else to say, since I have. [00:45:43] Speaker B: You know, Jonathan Cahn came out recently with a teaching on pergamum. [00:45:53] Speaker A: Yes. [00:45:54] Speaker B: And he talks about it being the throne of Satan. Now, pergamum at the time was the reason, he says it's the throne of Satan. From what I've. They had so many altars, thrones to various gods. You had Asclepios, who was the one of medicine. You know, actually it's the snakes, you know, that you will see in, you know, the medical symbol. And it's come all the way down and we're using it now. And people would actually go into those temples and they would stay in the dark and there was like snakes there that weren't poisonous. And supposedly, you know, if one of the snakes crawled over them that they would get healed or something of that nature. But you also had. It was just a huge cultural place, but it was, it was just loaded with all, you know, temples and actual, you know, like thrones, you know, up to Zeus and a number of other of the demon gods, you know, and he says, I know your works, where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. So apparently it's just a very demonic, you know, that's the only word I'm going to use for it. But. So [00:47:22] Speaker A: there is a physical throne. [00:47:24] Speaker B: Yes, it is. And Jonathan Cahn talks about it. It's a very, very compelling teaching about this. It was. So you had all of these different. I had a whole. There was a whole list of them here. But anyway, when, you know, you have to be able extrapolate, you know, a throne, what a throne is. A throne is a place, you know, where something is lifted high, you know, and things are worshiped. And when I just really feel that the thing of repentance is where people have to take a look at the thrones in their life. Okay. What has. It's idolatry is what it is. I mean, like idol worship and things of that nature. And you Know, when you, when you speak about idolatry, idol worship, things, you know, our minds just, just go to things like idols, you know, the statues and. No, that's, you know, when we're talking about repentance, we're talking about the things in your life that you've lifted higher than God. You know, there someone once said, you know, they talk about the sports arenas and stuff, and you see the football and the people just screaming and hollering and cheering, and then you look down and they're, they're cheering. Can you imagine if those people were doing that over God, you know, instead of a football game? And, you know, so what has taken. Taken, you know, front and center, you know, in your life, you know, whether it's, you know, these people in Hollywood, you know, that, you know, people just adore, you know, the Kardashians and things of this nature. And, you know, whether it's sports, certain influencers, you know, you know, an influencer, it just, it gives. It kind of like goes against the grain of my skin, you know, he's an influencer. Like, maybe I should back up, you know, only because the only person I want in my life to be influencing me is Jesus. You know, it's just, you know, your phone, you know, these are the things, you know, so when he speaks, you know, where people live, where the throne of Satan is, where is the throne? Where are the thrones in your life? And those are the things that you have to get before the Lord to find out, the things that. That needs to be taken out of your life so that God can have front seat. And that, that's. That to me, that's repentance right there, you know, so. And I know that discussion of repentance is like that person said, that's a deep subject, but it's only for beginners. No, it is something that we consistently have to do throughout our entire lives, you know, is. Is check in with God to see, you know, where you may have put your foot where it doesn't belong, or you stepped outside of, you know, that circle that you should be in. [00:50:45] Speaker A: If, if the Bible says, meditate on the words of God day and night, and Jesus is the word, [00:50:53] Speaker B: Jesus is the word. [00:50:55] Speaker A: What in my life do I spend more time with other than him? And that's it. That becomes an idol to me. And we should understand, if we understand that salvation is a gift. Repentance is God's gift. We had to repent and acknowledge to receive salvation. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to bring us into the image of Christ. So how much are we resisting that and what does God want us to do along the way? And we're running out of time. We are on our biblical timeline. [00:51:35] Speaker B: Yes. So here are the gods that were there. Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, Zeus. They also had, you know, the Roman emperors, you know, three temple temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman emperors. And yeah. So I mean it, your attention can be vast and varied where, you know, it's still a distraction. [00:52:04] Speaker A: Paul wrote, casting down all imaginations that exalt themselves above Christ, the knowledge of God. So, [00:52:13] Speaker B: and I'm preaching to myself [00:52:14] Speaker A: anyway, I'm going to let my wife close us in prayer. [00:52:21] Speaker B: Father, I thank you for this time together with you to let your gospel go forth. Father, I and I'm asking that there has been revelation where people's eyes have been opened to some truths of your word and that there's just a deepening of relationship with you. For those that were listening, God and I bless this community media and I thank, I thank you Lord, for this opportunity to be able to spend this time with people here, to be able to bring your truth forward. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. [00:53:09] Speaker A: Amen. [00:53:11] Speaker C: Holy, holy, holy. Lord God almighty.