1 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,240 Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:13,960 Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,400 live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this 4 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:23,000 message. If you are new to Riverbend, 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,480 thank you so much for choosing to be with us. 6 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,120 If we haven't had the chance to meet yet. 7 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:29,800 My name is Ben get to serve as the lead pastor here. 8 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,160 We are in the midst of a series called The Unseen World. 9 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,800 And here's the here's the overall gist of this series is 10 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,080 there is a world, there is a spiritual world, a spiritual 11 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:45,960 realm that we cannot see that is impacting and affecting 12 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:49,960 everything that we can see. And if you grew up in church and 13 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,360 you, you, you're familiar with this term or the terminology 14 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,640 spiritual warfare or the spiritual world, it'll kind of 15 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,520 sound familiar to you. So my hope and my prayer and my 16 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,680 desire for you, if you're familiar with this concept of 17 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,360 the spiritual world, of the spiritual realm, is that there's 18 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,440 clarification that there's truth that's going to undergird the 19 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:13,200 equipping that is going to be taking place next week. 20 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,920 If you are new to this whole concept of the spiritual world, 21 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,000 or maybe you're you find yourself this morning, you're 22 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,320 just really skeptical. You're really, you're highly 23 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:25,200 skeptical that there is a world behind the physical world in 24 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:27,880 which we see. Then first of all, I would tell 25 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:30,320 you, thank you so much for being with us. 26 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:32,760 Whether you're in the room or whether you're with us online. 27 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,560 Thank you so much for being with us. 28 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:40,400 And my hope and my prayer, my desire for you is that is that 29 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,920 over this time, and not just this week, but the weeks to 30 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:48,520 come, that you would be open enough to the truth to realize 31 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:52,040 that just because you may not be able to see it, it doesn't mean 32 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,840 that it's not there. And just because you may not 33 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,960 right now acknowledge it, it doesn't mean that it's not 34 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:01,720 affecting your life. Or probably a more concise way 35 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:03,800 of that. We've been communicating that 36 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,400 truth throughout this series, something that we've called The 37 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,880 Big Idea throughout this series. And if you have your note sheet 38 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:14,200 with us, here it is. The unseen world is just as real 39 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:18,080 as the one I can see, and it's shaping my life every day. 40 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,160 The unseen world is just as real as the one I can see, and it's 41 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:27,160 shaping my life every day. This is week 4 of this series, 42 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:29,840 and if you've been with us throughout this series, want to 43 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,360 kind of give us a kind of a refresher. 44 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,360 If you're new to the series or maybe new to Riverbend, kind of 45 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:37,480 just bring you up to speed. Make sure that we're all on the 46 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,760 same page. Week 1 we talked about just the 47 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:45,840 reality of the spiritual realm, the the unseen world, the 48 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,680 overall reality of it. Week 2 we talked about how 49 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:50,960 everything where everything went wrong. 50 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:52,360 You ever, you ever wondered that? 51 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,600 Like you're watching the news, like you get a notification on 52 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,720 your phone and it's one more tragedy, it's one more huge 53 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:02,000 event. And, and you sit there and go, 54 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,800 man, what in the world is going on? 55 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,040 And you, you have to kind of walk that back a little bit and 56 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:10,800 you, you, you're left wondering like, where did it all go wrong? 57 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,840 Week 2 we talked about like where it all went wrong, like 58 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,440 the origin of rebellion, the, the, the, the war in heaven, 59 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,760 cosmic rebellion last week. If if you were here with us, we 60 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:28,320 did a 30,000 foot fly over of three key elements of the 61 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,200 spiritual world and it was God and angels and and heaven. 62 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,080 And this morning where we're going to be going this morning 63 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:41,680 is a similar 30,000 foot view of three essential elements of the 64 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,200 spiritual world. And, and the reason that these 65 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,920 past two weeks, that last week and this week or so essential 66 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,400 for us is we have to make sure that we have a biblical 67 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:55,520 understanding, the Bible says about these key elements. 68 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,480 Remember, if you were with us in week one, we talked about how 69 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:02,280 this series is 9 weeks long. And I would say that the first 70 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,160 five weeks or especially the first four weeks is going to be 71 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,280 much more informing. The last four weeks and maybe 72 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,120 the last five weeks starting next week would be that that 73 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,200 that pivot, that hinge is going to be much more equipping. 74 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,800 You see, we have to be properly informed or the more informed we 75 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:23,480 are, the better equipped we can be to to encounter this 76 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:28,480 spiritual world or to to affect and to live life with this 77 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,760 spiritual reality in mind. This morning we're going to do a 78 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,160 similar fly over of three essential elements like we did 79 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:38,360 last week. What we're going to be talking 80 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,400 about Satan, demons, and hell. It's by no means meant to be 81 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:45,920 exhausted. By no means whatsoever are we 82 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,080 going to be covering everything that there is to cover about 83 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,680 these three elements. The purposes of our time this 84 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:57,120 morning is to give us core essential foundations of Satan, 85 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:01,600 demons, and hell that are going to inform us of how we can 86 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:05,560 better be equipped for where we go next week, which is when we 87 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:09,400 talk about spiritual warfare. Like what is spiritual warfare? 88 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:10,680 How does it play out in our lives? 89 00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:14,360 How can I be equipped to encounter spiritual warfare? 90 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:19,040 So like last week, you can notice on your bulletin sheet or 91 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:22,160 the note sheet on the back of your bulletin, there are 92 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,680 scriptural references out beside each one of those bullet points 93 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:27,840 or sermon notes. And we're not going to have time 94 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:30,280 to go through all of those at all this morning. 95 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,080 Those are really for you to spend some time walking through 96 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:38,560 and your own personal time with God to, for you to see for 97 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:43,640 yourself in your own Bible what the Bible says about Satan and 98 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:46,960 demons and hell. And that's going to like I said, 99 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:49,560 that's going to prepare us for where we're going to be going 100 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,520 over the next 5 weeks. So with that said, let's go 101 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:55,400 ahead and dive in. Let's look at that first key 102 00:05:55,400 --> 00:06:00,080 question at the top. Who exactly is Satan? 103 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,120 Who is Satan number one? Satan was created by God as a 104 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,120 high-ranking guardian cherub Angel. 105 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:12,600 Satan was created by God as a high-ranking guardian cherub 106 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:15,440 Angel. I want to read something to you 107 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:17,880 when this is from the book of Ezekiel. 108 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:23,920 Ezekiel is a prophet and the Old Testament and Ezekiel gets a 109 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:29,160 word from God and this is God describing for Ezekiel basically 110 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:33,200 using the metaphor of another king at that time, but he's 111 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:38,360 actually describing Satan in this in this passage, he says 112 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,760 you talking about Satan. You were the signet of 113 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:45,040 perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 114 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:47,480 You were in Eden, the Garden of God. 115 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:49,400 Every precious stone was your covering. 116 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,200 Sardius, Topaz and diamond, Beryl, Onyx and Jasper, 117 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:58,800 sapphire, emerald, carbuncle, and crafted in gold were your 118 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,240 settings and your engravings on the day that you were created. 119 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:07,000 They were prepared. You were an anointed guardian 120 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,160 cherub I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of 121 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:12,720 God. In the midst of the stones of 122 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:13,840 fire. You walked. 123 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:17,520 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created 124 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:21,280 till unrighteousness was found in you in the abundance of your 125 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:23,280 trades. You were filled with violence in 126 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:27,680 your midst, and you sinned. So I told about God. 127 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:33,000 I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I 128 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,560 destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the 129 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,640 stones of fire. Your heart was proud. 130 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:39,680 Because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom. 131 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:43,120 For the sake of your splendor, I cast you to the ground. 132 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:47,200 I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you. 133 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:51,920 So out of this passage, there's two major things that we can see 134 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:55,160 about Satan. Number one is we can see that 135 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:59,560 Satan, Satan was actually created as a beautiful, 136 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:03,120 beautiful Angel. He was created as a beautiful 137 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:10,280 Angel. This fact that in our culture we 138 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:15,240 have this caricature of Satan or the devil as a red suited 139 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:19,080 pitchfork carrying like with a tail type of figure. 140 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,200 We have like an Angel on one shoulder and A and a devil on 141 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:25,120 the other. Those are really, really bad 142 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:30,480 mischaracterizations of Satan. He was actually a beautiful, He 143 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:35,400 was actually a beautiful Angel. The second thing that we see out 144 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:40,480 of this is he was created. He was created by God. 145 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:44,840 In other words, Satan has a beginning. 146 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:47,960 Unlike God, who is eternal, God has no beginning. 147 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:52,160 And Satan, he also has an end to which we're going to get to 148 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:56,760 later on, unlike God, who is eternal, will live forever and 149 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:00,120 ever and ever. So the point here is a lot of 150 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:03,720 times people think of when they think of God and Satan, they 151 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:05,880 think that it's kind of close, right? 152 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,800 That it's like, you know, I don't know, in your mind, is it 153 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,040 5149? God wins? 154 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,560 Is it, is it 6040? Is it 9010? 155 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:19,320 It's not even close. God created Satan. 156 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:22,040 He created Satan as a guardian cherub Angel. 157 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,160 And if you were with us last week, that does not mean a 158 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:27,600 cherub. Typically we think of a cherub 159 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,520 as a bald headed baby sitting on a cloud playing a harp. 160 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,200 You can read through Ezekiel's prophecy here. 161 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:36,200 That is not at all the description of Satan. 162 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:40,480 Second thing that we see about Satan is this is Satan has 163 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:43,080 limited authority, knowledge, power and presence. 164 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:48,920 Satan has limited authority, knowledge, power and presence. 165 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:53,000 If you're here with us last week we talked about how God, God is 166 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:57,120 all knowing, God is God is all powerful, God is everywhere 167 00:09:57,120 --> 00:09:59,840 present. I think a lot of times we think 168 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:01,800 of Satan kind of as a version of that. 169 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:06,440 And, and the fact of the matter is Satan does have a sense of 170 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,280 authority, but only the authority that is granted to 171 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:13,080 him, that is given to him. He, he does not have all 172 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:16,320 authority. Satan does have knowledge, but 173 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:19,400 only limited knowledge. Satan does not know your 174 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:22,080 thoughts. Satan does not know your future. 175 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:25,200 Satan does not know your intentions. 176 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:27,680 Satan knows kind of your patterns. 177 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:32,400 Satan knows your patterns. But let's face it, like any, any 178 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:34,920 social media algorithm has that figured out. 179 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:36,880 But Satan does not know your thoughts. 180 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,880 Satan does not know your future and Satan does not, does not 181 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:45,920 know your intentions. Also, Satan does have power, but 182 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,520 he is not all powerful. He only has the measure of power 183 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:52,360 that is allowed and granted to him by God. 184 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:56,160 You can read about that in the book of Job, Job chapter 1 and 185 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,400 Job chapter 2. And then here's the last one. 186 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:04,080 A lot of times people think that Satan is, is everywhere present, 187 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:06,080 right? That that he's everywhere. 188 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:08,600 The fact of the matter is that's just not true. 189 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:13,120 Satan is limited in presence. In other words, Satan is only at 190 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,280 one place at one particular point in time. 191 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,960 So if you really want to know, if you, if you really kind of 192 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:23,720 want to know, I wonder where Satan's at right now. 193 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,840 Think of like the deepest, darkest parts of our world that 194 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:31,160 are suffering the major, the the most major atrocities. 195 00:11:31,560 --> 00:11:34,760 Chances are, chances are pretty good he's in the vicinity. 196 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:39,840 That also means that chances are also pretty good that it's not 197 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,040 Satan that's tempting you to eat another Reese's Peanut 198 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,760 Buttercup, right? He's got bigger and badder 199 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:49,800 things on his plate than that. But Satan is limited in 200 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:52,440 authority, limited in power, limited in knowledge, and 201 00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:55,840 limited in presence. Third thing that we see about 202 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,960 Satan, Satan was exiled from heaven due to his rebellion 203 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:03,080 rooted in pride. I want to read to you another 204 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:06,760 passage again staying in the Old Testament kind of that prophet 205 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:09,040 genre there in the book of Isaiah. 206 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:12,840 This is what God tells Isaiah and Isaiah prophesied to the 207 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:15,880 people. Again talking about Satan, how 208 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:20,320 you are falling from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn, how you 209 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:24,400 are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low, if you 210 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,600 said in your heart, I'll ascend to heaven above the stars of 211 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:29,520 God, I will set my throne on high. 212 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,920 I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of 213 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:34,920 the north. I will ascend above the heights 214 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:39,360 of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most 215 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,480 High. You were brought down to shield 216 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:48,760 to the far reaches of the pit. You see, if you were here with 217 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:52,000 us a couple weeks ago, Jared Cagle LED us through in week 218 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,040 two, kind of that war in heaven, that cosmic rebellion, There's a 219 00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:57,960 war behind every war did an incredible job. 220 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:00,600 If you, if you weren't here for that, I would highly encourage 221 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:02,880 you go back. You can go to the church's app 222 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:06,800 or or YouTube channel or, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 223 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:09,640 And I would, I would definitely listen back through that 224 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:11,240 message. He did an incredible job. 225 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:15,200 Listen, God did not expel Satan from heaven because God was 226 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:18,360 insecure. God expelled Satan from heaven 227 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:21,320 because of Satan's pride. Let me kind of unpack that a 228 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:24,160 little bit further. When we talk about Satan's 229 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:29,000 pride, it was Satan's absolute refusal to surrender to the 230 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,080 authority of God. And he thought, I will be my own 231 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:34,920 God. I'll be kind of master and 232 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:37,760 commander of my own ship. I don't need God. 233 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:40,840 I will be my own God. It's pride, right? 234 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,360 Which while we're here, isn't that kind of the basic or pretty 235 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:49,640 much the basic core essential behind all of our sin, that we 236 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:54,160 just refuse to acknowledge God is God and that God's ways are 237 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:56,200 actually best? We kind of think that we know 238 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:01,880 what's best for our lives. But it was Satan's pride that 239 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:07,040 led him to be expelled from heaven, which then leads to this 240 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:11,400 fourth point about Satan. Satan hates God and hates most 241 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:16,640 what God loves most. You see, due to Satan's pride, 242 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:21,520 God expelled Satan from heaven because God expelled Satan from 243 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:23,960 heaven. That led to Satan's seething 244 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:29,080 hatred of God. And one of the things that one 245 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:31,680 of the things that, that I think that we know that if you're a 246 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:36,280 mom or your dad or, or a parent figure in here, that somebody, 247 00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:39,720 they, they, they can do whatever they want to to you, but may 248 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,240 have messed with your kids. They got a whole another problem 249 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:44,880 on their hands, don't they? Why is that true? 250 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:49,560 It's because as loving mothers and fathers, man, we become 251 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:51,280 super protective of our kids, right? 252 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:57,040 So Satan's seething hatred towards God, he exercises that 253 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:01,480 seething hatred towards God by trying to take it out on what 254 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:05,640 God loves the most. And God has made it very clear 255 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,520 through his words and through his actions throughout history 256 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:12,160 that God's most prized and treasured, treasured possession 257 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:18,080 is humanity, is mankind. Let me kind of dial that in a 258 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,880 little bit. God's most treasured and prized 259 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,280 possession and all of creation, it's you. 260 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,720 It's you. Maybe maybe you're here with us 261 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:33,760 in the room or online and you just need to be reminded of that 262 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:37,400 this morning. It doesn't matter who you are, 263 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,240 doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter like where 264 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,440 you've been. God loves you. 265 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,840 God loves you so much. God loves you so much that he 266 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:50,440 sent Jesus into the world for you. 267 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:55,120 And we'll kind of unpack what I just said in just a moment, but 268 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,960 man, God loves you. I don't know whether you came 269 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,600 here this morning thinking that like you were going to get 270 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:06,360 judged or anything like that, but can I just remind you, man, 271 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:10,320 God loves you. And as deeply and as 272 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,040 passionately as God loves you, Satan hates you. 273 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:18,560 Satan hates you, and he seeks to destroy you. 274 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:23,600 Which then brings us to that 5th and final core, central 275 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,000 foundational truth about Satan. Satan is the leader of all 276 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,120 forces of sin and evil. If you were with us in the first 277 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:33,320 week, we talked about that. All goodness that we see and all 278 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:35,160 goodness that we're able to experience. 279 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:38,520 The Bible is very clear that the source of that goodness is God. 280 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,840 The flip side is true all, all evil that we see and all 281 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,760 atrocities and tragedies that we experience, all pain and 282 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:50,160 heartbreak and heartache that we encounter in life. 283 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:57,400 The source of that is, is Satan. Satan is the leader of all sin 284 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:01,600 and all forces of evil. Which then segues into that next 285 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,960 major question, who and what are demons? 286 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,760 Who and what are demons? I want to show you this first 287 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:10,920 one. Demons were angels that followed 288 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:18,880 Satan in rebellion against God. Demons were angels that followed 289 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,400 Satan in rebellion against God. If you were here with us last 290 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:26,000 week, we talked about how angels are supernatural created beings 291 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,720 by God, that he actually created them with a freedom of choice, 292 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:33,840 with the ability to choose to either submit to the authority 293 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,720 of God or to rebel against the authority of God. 294 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,520 You see, when Satan, when he rebelled against the authority 295 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:45,360 of God, he had a whole whole host of angels that followed 296 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:46,840 him. As a matter of fact, I believe 297 00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:51,000 out to the side of of one of your notes and your bulletin, 298 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:52,640 There's a, there's a scriptural reference. 299 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:56,920 Revelation 12. Revelation 12 talks about when 300 00:17:56,920 --> 00:18:01,200 Satan rebelled against God and was expelled from heaven, he 301 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:03,280 took a third of the angels with him. 302 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:09,960 Those angels twisted in their rebellion, became demons. 303 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:12,400 So demons, first thing is you need to know about demons. 304 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,120 Demons were angels that followed Satan in rebellion against God 305 00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:18,840 #2 demons are active in a variety of ways to keep people 306 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,280 far from God. Again, last week we were talking 307 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:28,080 about how angels are created for in a variety of forms, in a 308 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,840 variety of ranks, given a variety of assignments by God 309 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,280 himself. Demons actually are active in a 310 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:37,640 variety of ways to keep people far from God. 311 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:43,480 Some of those ways that they're active most often come in the 312 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,080 form of temptation. They most often come in the form 313 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,760 of temptation. And, and, and there's, there's 314 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:53,520 temptations that, that we all face that they, they kind of 315 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:59,080 appeal to, to our sense of pleasure, to where we're tempted 316 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:02,920 to click on sites that we know that we shouldn't go to or to, 317 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:07,320 to watch movies or, or stream shows that we that, that, that, 318 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:09,440 that we know that we shouldn't watch. 319 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,800 They tap into an ungodly sense of pleasure. 320 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:15,360 There are temptations that are kind of rooted. 321 00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:19,840 They tap into our sense of pride, the, the, the sense of 322 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:24,680 hey, I've got this. I don't need anybody around me. 323 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:26,840 I don't, I don't, I don't need God. 324 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:30,480 I don't need his help. I, I don't need any church or 325 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,480 any pastor or any book to tell me what I should or shouldn't be 326 00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:38,400 doing within my marriage or within my finances or raising my 327 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,880 kids. I don't, I don't need God at 328 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:43,560 all. I think that there's that 329 00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:47,360 there's also temptations that are kind of rooted in, in our 330 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,680 ego. And we see this playing out in 331 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:53,160 our culture. This, this Ubu type of mantra, 332 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,800 like follow your heart. Well, the Bible says that's a 333 00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:00,400 terrible idea because the heart above all things is deceitfully 334 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,720 wicked. That's terrible advice. 335 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:07,400 Like just follow your heart. Or, you know, hey, you stay true 336 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,800 to your own truth. Listen, these, these are, these 337 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:15,920 are all temptations. And what is the goal of these 338 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:20,600 temptations is to keep you far from the heart of God. 339 00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:24,960 They're they're temptations that that tap into a sense. 340 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,360 They they, they, they attack our sense of hope and maybe you're 341 00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:31,400 here with us this morning or with us online to where you're 342 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:34,720 facing an onslaught of temptations of almost the the 343 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,720 these whispers of hey, God's forgotten about you. 344 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,600 God doesn't care about you. It would just be easier if you 345 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:44,120 just gave up. These are all demonic 346 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,920 temptations that are all aimed at the same place to keep you 347 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:53,160 far from the heart of God. They come in a variety of ways. 348 00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:55,840 That's one of the reasons if you've, if you've been at 349 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:58,960 Riverbend at any, for any amount of time, you already know this 350 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:02,160 to be true. We are not a place that is going 351 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:06,560 to compare struggles. In other words, hey, you may 352 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,560 struggle in ways that I don't struggle and I may struggle in 353 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,320 ways that you don't struggle. We're not going to tear those 354 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:14,560 struggles and go, hey, that's acceptable. 355 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:17,040 That's unacceptable. We're not going to tear those 356 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,240 because if we start tearing those, we enter into a mode of 357 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:23,080 being judgmental. What we're going to do is we're 358 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,680 going to look at each other as common strugglers. 359 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,240 We may struggle in different ways, but we're common 360 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:31,280 strugglers but looking at the same savior. 361 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:37,800 But all demons do is in a variety of ways tempt us or try 362 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:41,400 to keep us from the heart of God. 363 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,000 This means a way in which they do this. 364 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,120 Number three, demons can possess, oppress and suppress. 365 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:52,240 In case you didn't know, Riverbend Church, we are 366 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,280 formally a Southern Baptist church. 367 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,680 And if you don't believe me, look at those 3 words right 368 00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:58,080 there. That's some Southern Baptist 369 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,920 preaching right there. Demons can possess, oppress and 370 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,640 suppress. Here's what that means for the 371 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:06,320 unbeliever. For someone who has not 372 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:10,640 surrendered their life to Jesus, a demon can possess that person. 373 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:14,520 Possession. Demonic possession means that a 374 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:20,920 demon, an evil spirit, can actually take bodily control 375 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:25,240 over an individual. You may say, well, Ben, have you 376 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,840 seen that? Yes, I have, but what do you 377 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:30,200 think? It freaks me out. 378 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:36,080 Let me share with you a really quick story. 379 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:40,520 So I grew up in a grew up in a church to where it was very, 380 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,480 very popular on Tuesday nights, our church, people within the 381 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:45,520 church, they would kind of gather together at the church 382 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,560 and they would go out and they would visit, visit people that 383 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,840 have visited the church, right? Like door to door. 384 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,160 Now 2025, some stranger knocks on your door. 385 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,560 You ain't answering the door. Back in the day, people would 386 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,480 answer the door if you're 30 and below. 387 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,440 I know it was a weird time, but anyway, our student pastor, me 388 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,400 and my friend Jason, we, we come on this Tuesday night. 389 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,040 Our student pastor at the time, he was like, hey, there's a girl 390 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:13,240 named Charity. She visited our our student 391 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,520 ministry. Would y'all like to go visit 392 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:17,240 Charity? And we're like, let's pray about 393 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:19,600 it. Yes, we would because we knew 394 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,600 that Charity was a cheerleader at a school across town and she 395 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,480 needed Jesus and we want to be the ones to share Jesus with 396 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,600 Charity. So knock on the door. 397 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:32,880 Charity answers the door, a student pastor introduces 398 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,880 himself, introduces us and we're like, hey, surely she knows who 399 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:40,280 we are already. She didn't and said, hey, do 400 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,360 you, do you have a moment? Could we, could we talk to you? 401 00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:44,480 She goes, yeah, my, my parents, they just ran down the road. 402 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,320 They just ran down the road a little bit to, to grab some 403 00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:49,040 stuff at the store. They'll be right back. 404 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:50,960 But y'all come on into the, into the living room. 405 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,360 So we come in and student pastor, he starts talking about, 406 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:58,320 you know, how, how school's going and you know, starts to 407 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,400 turn the conversation, you know, Charity, do you, do you have a 408 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,040 relationship with God? Tell me, tell me about your 409 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:07,120 relationship with God. And I'll never forget what 410 00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:08,840 happened over the next 5 minutes. 411 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:11,400 She said, Oh yeah, I'm very spiritual. 412 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,080 As a matter of fact, I talk to my guardian Angel every night. 413 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:21,240 Her name's Sarah. She's here with us right now and 414 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,600 our student pastor looks at her the more he starts asking some 415 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:25,480 more questions. And then I'll never forget our 416 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:27,440 student pastor looks at her and said, Charity, there's a very 417 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,000 good chance that's not your guardian Angel. 418 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:30,840 That's that's, that's a demonic spirit. 419 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:35,160 And I'll never forget charity's expression, how it changed. 420 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,200 She said, Sarah said that y'all should leave right now. 421 00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:41,600 And I was like, I think we should listen to Sarah. 422 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:47,800 Let's go listen. Demons, for an unbeliever, 423 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,280 demons can possess. I'm not saying that Charity was 424 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,360 possessed. I could tell you some other 425 00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:57,000 stories of some of true possession we don't have time 426 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,640 for. I'm not saying that that she was 427 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,600 possessed. I would tell you that she was 428 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:05,840 absolutely oppressed and suppressed there. 429 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:08,120 There was a demonic influence in in her life. 430 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,040 You see, for an unbeliever, a demon can possess that person, a 431 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:18,240 demon can oppress that person. It's leading to external, not 432 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:22,680 unlimited, but limited authority, limited power to lead 433 00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,560 external situations and circumstances and temptations 434 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,600 against that person to try to keep them far from the heart of 435 00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,480 God. And suppress is if if oppress is 436 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,720 external, suppress is kind of more internal suppression is 437 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,600 where there's just kind of an overall heaviness over you, a 438 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,280 sense to silence you that that's for the unbeliever. 439 00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:49,120 Now for the believer, if you've surrendered your life to Jesus 440 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:50,720 Christ, here's what I would tell you. 441 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:53,720 Demonic activity can oppress you. 442 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:55,680 And some of you are here with us this morning. 443 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,360 You're like, yeah, I could tell you some stories about how our 444 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:00,480 family is being oppressed right now. 445 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:04,000 There's so many external challenges and external things 446 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,200 that are coming against you, fiery darts that are coming 447 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:08,200 against you. You know that to be true. 448 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:13,320 There's also there can be demonic suppression, demonic 449 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,280 suppression. I believe that demonic 450 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:20,480 suppression happens most often either on Sunday mornings before 451 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,920 we decide to come to church tonight, come to church or not, 452 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,680 or in a worship service. Here's what I mean by that. 453 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,800 If you're a believer in the Holy Spirit of God lives in you. 454 00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:34,240 There still is that sense to where, listen, I don't know 455 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,640 about you, but Sunday mornings I'm just extra tired. 456 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:39,960 Like when that alarm goes off, right? 457 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,040 It would be so easy to kind of stay in bed. 458 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,920 Hey, like let's stay in bed. We can watch online and if we 459 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,360 miss online live, then we can catch up during the week. 460 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:55,680 Or if we do come, there is a sense of suppression to where 461 00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:00,360 God wants to silence your voice from speaking up or God wants to 462 00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:04,520 greatly or or not God, but these demons want to greatly weaken 463 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:08,160 your praise. So it's this sense of I don't 464 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,520 want to sing loud because I don't want the people around me 465 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,720 to hear me. God, I want to lift my voice to 466 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:15,880 you and praise. But there's this, this like 467 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,960 sense of suppression there. That's for the believer. 468 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,720 Just because you've surrendered your life to Jesus Christ does 469 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:25,240 not mean that we are free from demonic attack. 470 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,120 But it does mean if you're a believer that you and I, we 471 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:32,040 cannot experience demonic possession. 472 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:34,520 Why? Because as a believer, we had 473 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:36,680 the Holy Spirit of God in our lives. 474 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,440 And where the Holy Spirit of God is, there's not room or space 475 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:42,680 for a demonic presence to live there. 476 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:49,040 Which then leads us to that third question is what and where 477 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,800 are hell? What and where or hell? 478 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:54,120 Let me get you in your note sheets. 479 00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:56,760 This was this was this was my fault in the note sheets. 480 00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,360 Let me go ahead and get you to flip flop that that first and 481 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:02,000 that second note in your note sheets. 482 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,080 Hell is a real place in the spiritual realm. 483 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,880 Hell is a real place in the spiritual realm. 484 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,360 Isn't it amazing? We're not going to spend all, 485 00:28:11,360 --> 00:28:14,920 all day talking about this? Isn't it amazing how casually we 486 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,760 talk about hell in our, in our culture? 487 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:21,000 We use it as a curse word in, in, in our conversations. 488 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,680 We use it to describe a a really hard or difficult season or, or 489 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:26,680 situation that we're walking through. 490 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,200 And sometimes we use it or it's used so casually that we forget 491 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:36,120 that hell is a real place. And I would go back and kind of 492 00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:38,560 reiterate something I said at the very beginning of our time. 493 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,120 Just because you may not be able to see it doesn't mean that it's 494 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,000 not there. And just because you here this 495 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,720 morning may not acknowledge it, it doesn't mean that it's not 496 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,760 real. You see, Jesus talked more about 497 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,960 hell than he did about heaven. And there's a reason for that is 498 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,840 he wanted to emphasize the realness of hell. 499 00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,360 Second thing that we need to understand about hell, Hell is a 500 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,720 place that was created. Hell is a place that was created 501 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:08,360 for Satan and his demons. Hell is a place that was created 502 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,520 for Satan and his demons. It was a place of punishment. 503 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,920 You know, quite often you we get the question like Ben, I believe 504 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,280 that God is a loving God. And if God is so loving, and I 505 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,200 believe that he is, then why would he create such a terrible 506 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,880 place like hell, Especially when we're able to read in the Bible 507 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,160 that the scriptures of hell. We're able to read the 508 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:35,400 scriptures like eternal fire, eternal torment, a place of of 509 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:39,600 weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of gloomy darkness and 510 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,560 chains. The Book of Revelation refers to 511 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:47,160 hell several times as the lake of fire and sulfur. 512 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,760 And we sit there and go, how in the world could a loving God 513 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,120 create such a terrible place? And I would say that's a great 514 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:58,040 question. But he created it for Satan and 515 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,480 his and his demons. He created as a place of 516 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,280 punishment for Satan and his demons. 517 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,440 But don't miss this last point about Hell. 518 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,400 Hell, it's not only created as a place of punishment for Satan 519 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,640 and his demons. Hell is the eternal confines for 520 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:20,440 all those who rejected Jesus. See, this is when it gets like 521 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:24,200 really, really heavy. Hell is the eternal confines. 522 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,800 You see, Hell was a place create of punishment, created for Satan 523 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:29,440 and his demons. But Satan and his demons won't 524 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,920 be the only only entities in hell. 525 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,680 You see, every person throughout all of time and history who 526 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:43,720 rejected God, who rejected Jesus, will also spend eternity 527 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,320 in this very terrible, very horrible place called hell. 528 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:48,880 You may you may be here with us this morning. 529 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:53,280 You go, whoa, back up. I may not have surrendered my 530 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:57,840 life to Jesus, but that doesn't mean that I've rejected Jesus. 531 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,960 OK, let's let's kind of unpack that for a second. 532 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:07,800 Here's where I would tell you #1 as we'll see more next week, in 533 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:11,520 terms of spiritual warfare, in the spiritual realm, in terms of 534 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:15,200 what we do with Jesus, there is no such thing as neutrality. 535 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,680 You see, spiritually we, some of us, we want to be like 536 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:23,400 Switzerland to where we just want to go about our time and 537 00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,320 eat chocolate and make good watches and, you know, just live 538 00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,640 in peace. There's no such thing as 539 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:34,120 spiritual neutrality. Jesus himself said if you are 540 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:38,360 not with me, you're against me. If you do not gather with me, 541 00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:42,520 you scatter. Jesus was incredibly, incredibly 542 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,080 black and white. You're either with me or you're 543 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:47,960 for me. He was incredibly binary and 544 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,480 that truth. So there is no spiritual 545 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,680 neutrality. The second thing that you and I 546 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:58,800 that we need to understand about this notion of what it means to 547 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:02,640 actually reject Jesus. Here's here's what we mean by 548 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:04,200 this. Remember how I said that God 549 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:06,680 loves you? God so desperately loves you. 550 00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:12,320 He so desperately loves you that he sent Jesus into the world to 551 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,560 die on a cross. And you go, OK, so I don't even 552 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,080 understand, like, why did Jesus have to die on a cross? 553 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,760 Jesus died on a cross because the Bible is very clear that the 554 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,160 wages or the price of our sin is death. 555 00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:26,400 And somebody's got to pay that price. 556 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,960 And I think that, you know, it doesn't matter who you are. 557 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,040 It doesn't matter if you're new to church, new to faith, 558 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:35,320 skeptical, seeking whatever in the room online. 559 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,800 I think that you would at least be honest enough with yourself 560 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,760 about yourself that you that you've sinned. 561 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,800 We've all sinned. The Bible says that we've all 562 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:45,560 sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 563 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,440 But the wages or the price of that sin is death. 564 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:51,720 In other words, somebody's got to pay the price for that sin. 565 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:56,080 God loves you so much that he sent Jesus into the world to die 566 00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:59,200 on a cross to pay the price of your sins for you. 567 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:06,280 But also God loves you so much that He will allow you. 568 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:11,920 He will allow you to pay the price for yourself, and if you 569 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:16,200 choose to pay the price of your sins for yourself, that payment 570 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:22,480 is in hell. So here's really where the 571 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,320 rubber meets the road. What does any of this have to 572 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,320 do? How should any of this impact my 573 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,480 Monday, my Tuesday, my Saturday, my Friday, my Wednesday? 574 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,920 How does any of this? How does an unseen Satan, how do 575 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,120 unseen demons that are unseen hell? 576 00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,840 How does it impact my life? In other words, why does it 577 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:43,880 matter? And like I've shared with you 578 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,200 multiple times throughout this series so far, one of the most 579 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,760 challenging things throughout this series is separating the 580 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:51,760 the the, the fascinating from the useful. 581 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:56,240 So let's put some three useful handles as we turn the corner 582 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:58,480 this morning. How does it impact? 583 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,920 Here's the first thing that you and I need to understand. 584 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:05,680 Satan operates with urgency because he knows his defeat is 585 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:11,400 certain and his time is limited. He knows that his defeat is is 586 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,760 certain and that his time is limited. 587 00:34:15,199 --> 00:34:17,120 Did you know? Here's another like little 588 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,480 caveat about Satan. Satan's not illiterate. 589 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,280 Satan can read the Bible and Satan knows that God's not a 590 00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,880 liar. Guess who knows that that the 591 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,960 words in this book are true? Satan. 592 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:36,960 He knows that his he knows that his defeat is certain. 593 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:40,360 And guess what? With every ticking second, the 594 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,400 clock is ticking down. You want to know why things seem 595 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:45,639 to continue ramping up in our world? 596 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:50,239 Because the closer Satan gets to the end, the louder he roars and 597 00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,920 the more vicious he attacks. So Church, if you want to know 598 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:57,720 why this series is so important right now is because we are one 599 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:02,480 day closer now to Satan's defeat and he knows it. 600 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,880 Second thing that we need to understand is demonic influence 601 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,720 can reveal itself openly or disguise itself subtly. 602 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,840 Listen, I grew up, you know, if you remember, if you were in 603 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:18,520 church culture, evangelical Southern church culture in the 604 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,640 1980s, it seemed like every your favorite cartoon and your 605 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:24,040 favorite action figure had demonic roots to it. 606 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,160 You know, I had AI had a great collection of he man masters of 607 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:31,080 the Universe collection. If y'all don't know what that 608 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,320 is, don't worry about it. If you do know what it is, your 609 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,960 heart's about to break. I come home one day and my mom 610 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,400 had had boxed up all of it and she thrown it away. 611 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,320 We could have become millionaires because there there 612 00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:48,440 was an undercurrent in the 80s of of believing listen like we 613 00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,560 need to be, we need to pay close attention. 614 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:54,280 We need to pay close attention to all things that whether it's 615 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:58,440 toys or cartoons and, and, and, and my mom and man, I, I could 616 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,480 not ask for greater parents. I could not ask for a greater 617 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,720 mom. But my mom had read like, hey, 618 00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:06,200 it was he, man masters of the universe and there's only one 619 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:08,760 master of the universe. So we need to get that out of 620 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:10,680 our house. And we did. 621 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,560 And you can, you can make the argument that maybe that was too 622 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,120 far, but I, I don't think there's any argument to be made 623 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,920 right now that that pendulum has swung all the way in the other 624 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:25,520 direction to where there's overt, overt demonstrations of 625 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:28,800 demonic influence. We can see this going on in TV 626 00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:33,160 shows, syndicated TV shows like Lucifer. 627 00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,320 We see it in the syndicated, the streaming Disney Plus series 628 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:41,960 Agatha all along, which is a straight up cult imagery and 629 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,360 witchcraft. And we just look at it and go, 630 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:48,920 man, that is so entertaining. We can see it in the music 631 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:52,840 industry. You know, back back in the day, 632 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:55,760 the, the, the word was you had to play the records backwards, 633 00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:57,920 back masking to get satanic messages. 634 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,840 Now you just turn on YouTube and you, you see, you see the 635 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:08,240 screens, you see demonic imagery and lyrics, concerts of very 636 00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:14,520 popular artist Lil Nas X or Travis Scott or or Sam Smith and 637 00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:17,000 we can go on and on and on. This is not about like a 638 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,600 cultural purging, but I'm just telling you is there's overt 639 00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,040 demonic influence in our culture. 640 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,360 There's also subtle demonic influence in our culture. 641 00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:31,960 There's a casual curiosity about things like like horoscopes. 642 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:36,240 There's a casual curiosity about things like like like like 643 00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:38,440 witchcraft that's actually taken over. 644 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:45,840 There's that casual curiosity and just remember that Eve took 645 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,120 of the fruit. She disobeyed God as a result of 646 00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:50,840 Satan. Just asking one question. 647 00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:55,640 Did God really say it was just a casual curiosity? 648 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,240 So listen, I'm not here as your pastor to give you some script 649 00:37:59,240 --> 00:38:01,520 of what you should and you shouldn't do and what you should 650 00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:05,880 purge or not or or whatever. I would just say that anything 651 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:10,160 that has any type of demonic undertones to it, run from it, 652 00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:14,640 flee from it. Third thing, this is where we're 653 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,040 going to land the plane this morning. 654 00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,880 God allows people to choose their eternal destination. 655 00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:27,280 God allows people to choose their eternal destination. 656 00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,080 Did you know that God allows people to choose their eternal 657 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,040 destination? And that choice, whichever path 658 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,200 people choose, it's actually rooted in love. 659 00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:39,080 It's actually rooted in love. Let me kind of explain that we 660 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,920 talked a moment ago about how God loves us so much that he 661 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:43,880 sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins. 662 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,200 That is, that's the ultimate act of love, giving everything that 663 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:52,280 he could, all that he could. He gave his only Son to die on 664 00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:54,880 across from my sins and your sins to pay that price for us. 665 00:38:55,040 --> 00:39:00,320 That's that's rooted in love. But God will actually allow you 666 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:05,520 to reject him because love always requires choice. 667 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,240 He will never force a coerce you to be with him. 668 00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,960 So because God's never going to force or coerce you all rooted 669 00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,640 in love, He won't force you to to choose to be with him. 670 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:23,480 He'll, he'll allow you to spend eternity without him, again, 671 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:28,520 rooted in love. So this is my question for you. 672 00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:35,640 Actually, a couple questions as we, as we come to an end #1 if 673 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:40,000 you were to die right now, do you know that you've surrendered 674 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:44,200 your life to Jesus? You see, this is not about like 675 00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:48,440 it's not a scare tactic. It's just about the full counsel 676 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:54,560 of the Word of God. Do you know like today can be 677 00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:56,880 the day of salvation for you? Maybe you came in here this 678 00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:59,720 morning and you, you have thought for the longest time 679 00:39:59,720 --> 00:40:01,040 that you could just ride the fence. 680 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,240 Maybe you've been a part of the church for a long part of time 681 00:40:04,240 --> 00:40:07,200 and and you're really good at playing the church game. 682 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:10,400 Putting on the small, putting out the hand. 683 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,880 I serve, I teach whatever. You're really good at playing 684 00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,760 the church game. But in the deep parts of you, 685 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:19,840 when you're really honest with yourself, you know that there's 686 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:22,040 never, there's never been a point in time that you 687 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:26,520 surrendered your life to Jesus. This morning can be your moment 688 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,000 of freedom. This morning can be your moment 689 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,600 of freedom. In just a moment. 690 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:34,800 We're going to pray and a couple of our pastors will be down 691 00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:37,160 here. We would love to pray with you. 692 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:39,920 If you want to bring somebody to pray with you, we would love to 693 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,280 pray with them too. Or, you know, you can spend some 694 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:46,000 time just praying at this altar. But here's the second question. 695 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,920 If you know that your eternity is secure, that you have 696 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,920 surrendered your life to Jesus, ma'am, praise God. 697 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:57,480 And as we have been doing throughout this series, I'm 698 00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:01,360 going to encourage you to pray for somebody that you are fairly 699 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:03,560 certain does not have that security. 700 00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,280 Lift them up by name. Lift them up by name. 701 00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:12,680 There's something powerful about praying for a person that is 702 00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:16,920 near and dear to us by name, and they're probably not even here, 703 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:21,080 but the Holy Spirit can go. It is a prayer that launches the 704 00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:26,200 Holy Spirit to track that person down, to go to the deepest parts 705 00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:31,240 of him or her and to show them that they that they are loved by 706 00:41:31,240 --> 00:41:35,160 God, that there can be hope and there can be peace, but there 707 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:37,600 has to be a point of surrender there. 708 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,520 So I'm going to encourage you as we pray and as we're about to 709 00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,120 pray and as we're about to stand and sing, I'm going to encourage 710 00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,640 you to just step out and come down and pray for the people in 711 00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:49,160 your life. Maybe it's a family member, 712 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:52,040 maybe it's a Co worker, maybe it's a friend, maybe is is 713 00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:53,600 somebody that you're in class with. 714 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:56,880 I'm just going to encourage you to come down and pray by name. 715 00:41:57,160 --> 00:41:59,520 God, we love you and we thank you for who you are. 716 00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:06,040 God, we thank You for Your word that tells us about Satan and it 717 00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:09,560 tells us about his demons and it tells us about hell. 718 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:15,680 God, not in a way that is looking to scare us, but in a 719 00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:17,600 way that is looking to inform us. 720 00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:21,640 God, you are a God that doesn't want any of us to be ignorant. 721 00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,320 God, as a matter of fact, you would be unmerciful and unloving 722 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,400 if you did not tell us through Your Word who our enemy and who 723 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:33,000 our adversary really is and what the plans are for us. 724 00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:39,080 God, if there's anyone in here this morning, God, I pray that 725 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:43,280 if they are not sure about whether or not they can go back 726 00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:45,280 to a time and a place to where they've give, they've 727 00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:49,600 surrendered their life to you. God, I pray that the voice of 728 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,240 the Holy Spirit would be louder than the voices of the demons in 729 00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:56,640 their minds. God that they would get over 730 00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:00,280 themselves, overcome a sense of pride, step out and come down 731 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,080 and talk to a pastor. God, for those of us that we 732 00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:06,960 have that security, God, thank you. 733 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:11,960 That is a peace that surpasses all understanding of knowing 734 00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:19,000 that whatever may come, come what may, when we die, we will 735 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,880 be present with you in heaven for all of eternity. 736 00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:28,040 And God, as much as we just glory in that hope. 737 00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:34,320 God, our hearts are heavy for some people that are very dear 738 00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:39,160 to us, that are very close to us that we just don't know that 739 00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,640 they have that hope. And God, we just want to come 740 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:47,680 down and we want to lift them up to you by name during this time. 741 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:51,240 So God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would have his will in 742 00:43:51,240 --> 00:43:54,560 his way, move in power and strength this morning. 743 00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:57,280 Got to pray that you would give freedom this morning. 744 00:43:57,760 --> 00:43:59,360 And it's in Jesus name that we pray. 745 00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:04,720 Amen. Thank you for listening to the 746 00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:07,760 Riverbend Church Podcast. Learn more about who we are as a 747 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:09,880 church and how to connect. You can head over to our 748 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,040 website, Riverbend Church dot Life.