Today with Jeff Vines

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The reason it's important to do this series is to
remind us that in our time demonic activity has gone
to warp speed.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
In the West.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
You are seeing the absence of everything that is pure
and good. With the return of demonic forces. You are
seeing a rise at a rapid pace of evil. What
the Bible calls evil, what Jesus says is evil.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Today Today, Today, Today with Jeff Finds, pasta apologist and
Bible teach. Hey there, welcome back to Today with Jeff Finds.
My name is Aaron. This week Pastor Jeff started a
new series about being under the influence, under the influence

(00:46):
of culture and the influence of evil. In this message,
he continues looking at Ephesians chapter six and explaining some
of the deeper meaning found in the original language and
the time it was written. Let's finish this first message
in series now with Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I want to read to you something that Jesus taught
in Matthew twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Here's what he said in verse forty three.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it
goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Then it says, I will return to the house I
left when it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept
clean and put in order.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Then it goes and takes with it seven.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Other spirits, more wicked than itself, and they go in
and live there. And the final condition of that person
is worse than the first. That is how it will
be with this wicked generation. So if you see what
Jesus is saying, and this is Jesus talking, it is
not enough to cast out the spirits, the house, the vessel,

(01:54):
the nation, the generation must be occupied by something else.
And two thousand years ago, oh Jesus leaves his home
in heaven. He overpowers the demonic forces, defeats sin and
death once and for all.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
The Roman Empire and.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Western civilization comprised of the House of spirits. My goodness,
if you know anything about Greek mythology, going all the
way back down even to the when the Israelites came
into the Promised Land, you've got all these false gods,
these demonic forces that are tolerated. But when Jesus comes,
he impacts the Roman Empire, the Western world, and suddenly

(02:32):
into that house where demonic forces are now swept clean,
the spirit of God, the Gospel comes into the lives
and begins to transform one person after the next, and
the gospel spread like wildfire, and everything in the West
changed again. This is historically verifiable. Because of the Jesus Movement,
people stop sacrificing their children on molten altars. Not in say, everyone,

(02:55):
but there was a great movement in the Jesus Movement
to protect the lives of the innocent. Something that you
will not see before the Jesus Movement. People began treating
women equally because Jesus said, there's neither male nor female, Jew,
nor Greek bond or slave.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
We're all won in Christ.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Men and women stopped throwing to form children into the rivers,
consider them to be waste because it was decided because
of the Jesus Movement that we are creating the image
of God, and all life needs to be respected because
it's a gift from God. Families began respecting one another
and living not merely for themselves, but for the family unit,

(03:32):
because the Jesus Movement taught us that the family union
and the strength of the family is the key to
culture and to success. The sick were no longer discarded
because they were ill. The disease were no longer put
out of the city. Hospitals, places almost out of the
earth began to rise up and to rather than to
discard people who were ill, who had disease, even if

(03:54):
it was terminal, even it was contagious. Suddenly, because of
the Jesus movement, you had groups of people Christ followers
taking care of the sick, even at the cost of
their own lives. The Ten Commandments actually began to govern
most societies in the West, either indirectly by influence or
directly because of belief. Now did society always get it right,

(04:16):
no where They're still sinful, perverted, debaucherous people in the West,
of course, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
But the Jesus movement.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Pushed back the immorality and began transforming culture from the
inside out. So Jesus came, he drove out spirits. It
became possible for Jesus to live within the hearts of
men and women.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
That is the message of the gospel. But listen carefully.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
In matthew Ade, on one particular occasion, we're told that
when Jesus arrived at the other side in the region
of Guardenas, two demon possessed men coming from the tombs
met him. They were so violent, and no one could
pass that way. What do you want with us?

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Of God?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
They shouted, Have you come here to torture us before
the appointed time? Some distance from them, a large herd
of pigs was feeding the demons. Beg Jesus, if you
drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.
Now most of us know this story, but notice in
the first parable in Matthew twelve, if the spirit finds
no rest, they seek to return to a house to

(05:21):
possess it or repossess it. When Jesus cast out demons
in the second story, the spirits pleaded with him to
cast them into the pigs. Now what does that tell you?
It tells you that the spirits are parasitic. They need
a host to possess. So the spirits that were cast
out of Western culture because of the Jesus movement, because

(05:41):
of Jesus coming on the inside to transform us from
the inside out, and of course the Bible says he
causes it to reign.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
On the righteous and the unrighteousness.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Because of the righteous movement, even the unrighteous were affected.
Culture began to thrive, And all of you know that's
our Rocke scides again. When you have the Jesus Movement
teaching you to be honest and to having integrity and character,
and to treat your brother, to love your neighbor as yourself.
Of course, society is going to be better. Of course
it's going to be stronger. So the Jesus movement sweeps

(06:12):
across the Western world. But when Jesus is eradicated according
to what Jesus teaches, the spirits are eradicated to the fringes.
Relegated is a better word, to the fringes. They're still
in the universe, but they don't have the power in
the sway over a nation or a culture or a

(06:34):
movement where Jesus dominates the hearts of men and women. Now,
the question is what happens when Jesus is expelled out
of those hearts of men and women. And the answer,
of course, according to Jesus, would be the demonic forces
see that there's an opportunity return. The house has been
swept clean, and now they think it's their right to
occupy it, so that the possession is deeper and more

(06:56):
intense now than it was in the beginning. Let's be
very clear about what I'm saying here. Jesus crushed the
head of the serpent. The demonic forces are subject to him,
no doubt. His followers took the gospel to the west
and relegated the forces of evil to the fringes or
the secret places. Judaeo Christianity swept the house clean and

(07:16):
invited Jesus, who occupy the hearts and souls of men everywhere. However,
since the turn of the last century, the Jesus movement
has been attacked on every side. The hearts and souls
of men have expelled Christ and his kingdom from their midst.
That Christ himself has been kicked out of the social

(07:36):
and political arena, that he has been ridiculed in places
of higher education. And as a result what I'm saying
to you, according to what Jesus taught, the spirits have
found the house empty and have returned stronger than ever before.
And I know to a lot of people in the
world that will sound insane, even to some people in

(07:57):
our own church. They'll say, boy, pastor Jeff, what happened
to you over the last few weeks. Well, nothing, I'm
simply trying to express to you. This is not new,
and it's important that you understand the message of Ephesian
six twelve, and what Jesus taught about demonic forces. So
when you look out into culture and you see children
killing children, you see mass shootings, you see genocides, you

(08:20):
see sexual immorality, you see Dematri said, Well, pastor Jeff,
we've seen that in every generation.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
I know that. But it seems to me that the more.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
We've eradicated Judeo Christian values, the more these demonic forces
have been able to come in and wreck havoc on humanity.
It's more prevalent, and it's out of the open. What
used to be shameful and hidden is now out in
the open and celebrated. As I take you on this journey,
please hear me, I need to remind you of two

(08:50):
quick things. The first is this, let me use let
me use the Starbucks example. Now, hold on tight here.
Most of you know I don't like Starbuck coffee. So
you're gonna say you're.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Picking on them.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, let me give you an example and a warning.
If you look at a Starbucks cup, you will see
a figure on their branding. Now who is this? Well,
the answer to that is, and you know you can
go Google and get twenty different answers but if you
go to the source, you will discover that this is Lilith. Now,

(09:20):
I'm not talking about Lilith on Frasier on Cheers. Lilith
is a name that represents an entire category of demons
you find in the Old Testament in one reference, but
all through mythology. Lilith is the sex god who is
sexually wanting, and she roams through the night to steal

(09:44):
newborn babies.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
That's who she is.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I find it interesting there's a nonprofit organization dedicated to
raising funds for emergency abortions, and they've decided to name
themselves the Lilith Fund. Interesting, isn't it Lilith who is
sexually wanting, who is a demon who comes in the
night and steals newborn babies? So why then, is Lilith
on the cup of Starbucks?

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Now? The answer is, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
It would be foolish for me to say that the
owners of Starbucks or research Lilith and that's what they want.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
I think that's very.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Highly unlikely, although possible, but I don't want to say
something that I don't know.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
But that's not my point anyway.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
My point is this that if demonic forces that have
been relegated to the fringes are now making their way
back in. They are going to infiltrate the hearts and
minds of people and use unwilling people for their own purposes.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
I do know.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
What I do know is that Starbucks is a big
supporter of any and all abortion, and that they actually
pay all the travel expenses for abortion and gender affirming
procedures when the services are not available within one hundred miles.
Here is what I do know and what I want
you to understand. The demonic forces that have been relegated

(11:01):
to the fringes are returning, then you would expect to
see a few things.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
You would expect to.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
See Signs and symbols exemplifying the gods of old. Now
hear me what I say. Am I saying you said
all should stop drinking Starbucks? Well, yeah, but just because
it's bad coffee. It has nothing to do with what
I'm trying to say is I don't know the motivations,
but I do know that if these if the spirit world,
the demonic forces, if it's real, and according to Apostle Paul,
it's very real, then signs and symbols exemplifying the return

(11:30):
of these gods would be prevalent all around us. To
think that signs and symbols are not important to the
gods as foolish. From Asher's poles to sacred orders to
demonic signs, these things we should expect to reappear at
an alarming speed back into the Western similations civilization, as
the gods plant their flags in the places they think

(11:51):
belong to them, as they have returned sevenfold. Now this
is not to say that every sign that is chosen
has chosen on purpose by those who want to desis
play it with a direct intent of identifying with what
is evil and corrupt. That's not what I'm saying. But
as we've seen in Ephesian six, the demonic forces work
in and through those who are blinded by the God

(12:13):
of this world and who are not protected by the
spirit of Christ. Remember what we said in Ephesian six.
You have these three tiers, the strata, the rulers of power.
Then you've got these world forces, and he mentions forces
of wickedness. The world forces the cosmokrators has to do
with planet Earth into terrestrial So they need a host,

(12:34):
and sometimes it's an unwilling host that is not protected
by the spirit of the living God. That doesn't mean
that you start to look around think everything's possessed.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Please don't go that far.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
But you do need to understand that these demonic forces,
the Judeo Christian values, having been shoved and pushed out,
believe it as their right now to return from the
fringes into the center stage and direct havoc on Humanity's.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
What you are seeing right now in the West.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
You are seeing the absence of everything that is pure
and good with the return of demonic forces. You are
seeing arise at a rapid pace of evil. What the
Bible calls evil, what Jesus says is evil.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Here's the second thing.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Although this series will wake us up to spiritual realities
previously hidden, it's not designed to bring fear and trepidation.
It's not designed for suddenly all pastor Jef's gone, all
gloom and doom on us. It's the end of the world.
The sky is falling. Well, that's absurd, and this is
not about nostalgia. Here's another middle aged white man talking
about how good the good old days used to be. No,

(13:42):
we had problems then too. We've had problems for the
last one hundred and fifty years and beyond.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
I get that.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
This is not about politics, this is not about nostalgia.
It's about what Jesus said, Watch and be ready. Watch
and be ready. If Christ listen, If Christ in you,
the house is occupied, you don't have anything to fear.
Don't spend your time worrying if a demon has taken

(14:09):
possession of you, Jesus said in Cautions one thirteen, for
he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and
brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. It
is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives
in you. When the devil shows up, he finds the
house occupied, and he doesn't like its occupant. That's why,
James said, resists the devil, and he must flee. That's

(14:33):
not the point of the series. The series is to
show you that it is, however dangerous, to become presumptuous
that you are totally free from any danger, because if
you do that, you'll become weak and lethargic in your
spiritual disciplines. If you think it's life is not a battle,
and you just go with a flow, and there are
no spiritual disciplines in your life, then you can open

(14:56):
up your life. You can open up your life to
demonic influences that seek to take compartments in your spiritual house.
You may not be possessed totally by them, but you
can be under the influence.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
This is what I've been trying to tell you for
some time.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
I got to visit my hospital basketball coach not too
long ago, and in one of those moments when everything
got quiet, he looked over and said, Jeff, I'm proud
of you. And now you know, when you have a
coach or a mentor or somebody your respect say that,
it's words of affirmation. Who doesn't want to hear that?
He said, let me tell you why. I'm proud of you,
because you're successful. I thought, oh boy, where's he going

(15:35):
with this? But Jeff, I'm not proud of the success.
I'm proud because I know you've prepared to be successful.
I'm prayed that you have the intestinal fortitude and the
discipline in your life to go where you believe God's
calling you. And I started thinking about that. You know what,
I've had that all my life, even playing sports, so
It started out when I was young. I practiced, I practiced,

(15:56):
I went to the gym, I trained.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Sometimes.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
It was a bit difficult, but I knew if I
was going to get to where I needed to go,
I had to have these disciplines in my life. When
I wanted to put on weight, a college coach said,
if you're going to play for us, you're going to
have to put on some weight. You have to get strong.
During the summer, I spent the whole summer drinking protein
shakes and working out. I mean, I was working out,
trying to build bulk, do whatever it takes, and it

(16:19):
was hard. I would have rather been out with my
friends doing other things, but I knew this is what
it took to be successful. Now here's what I'm saying
to you. What area of our lives impacts all the others?
And the answer is discipleship. What does your spiritual workout
look like? Because you're in a battle, man, and if
you want to win this battle, there's going to be

(16:40):
a posture of prayer in your life, a posture of
scripture in your life, a posture of accountability in your life,
and a posture of community.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
They have to be there.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
And that's why Paul says, do not give the devil
a foothold to the church at ephesis. You know what
foothold is. You know, you know the word scabbard. You
know what a scabbard is. A scabbard is is the
thing is called a sheath, the thing you put the
sword in when it's resting, So your sword resides in
a scabbard. He says, do not give the devil a scabbard.
Do not give the devil any place on your body

(17:13):
in your life to reside, to rest, to enter. Don't
give him that space or place. What does that mean?
It means that your spiritual house has compartments to it.
It means don't be segmentable. Don't say I'm gonna give
Christ's these compartments, but this one is off limits.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
This belongs to me.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
In doing that, basically, you're saying or inviting Satan to
come in and live.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
He said.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
When I'm a good Christian, I just struggle with sex. Okay,
that's the area he's gonna attack. I'm a good Christian.
I just struggle with money. Okay, that's the area I'm
a good Christian. I just struggle with anger. I'm a
good Christian. I just struggle with bitters, I struggle with language.
Whatever it is, the Bible says, whatever you do, don't
give him a foothold, because if you're angry today, you'll
kill tomorrow. If you're stealing small things today, tomorrow you'll

(17:57):
be entitled. If you're using foul language to day, tomorrow
you'll be filled with profanity. If you're gossiping today, tomorrow,
you'll be slandering in any area of your life.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
That you give the devil a.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Foothold, tomorrow, he's gonna take up residence. And we have
to start the series this way because you're gonna learn
how the demonic forces have returned from the fringes. And
the only way you will survive it, survive is if
you stand firm. You have to resist spiritual atrophy, exercise

(18:30):
the disciplines of the spirit. Paul puts it like this,
put on the full armor of God so that you
can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
And the way answer in the original.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Language is put on the armor and keep on putting
on the armor, and keep on putting on the armor
every day.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
One more time.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
If the totality of your spiritual exertion is one hour
a week on Sunday. You will not make it. I
don't know how much more clear I can be. The
battle is constant and requires your full attention, and those
who will survive will see the war as it is
a daily battle for survival, a posture of life, constantly

(19:08):
setting your mind on the truth of scripture. Remember what
we talked about just quickly.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
We talk about it at.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Least once a year, and that's James one thirteen through fifteen.
When tempted, no one can say God is tempting me.
God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt
anyone but ease. Person is tempted when they are dragged
away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after
desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin,
when it's full grown, gives birth to death. The point

(19:35):
of the passage is that Satan has the goods on
all of us. The devil knows what compartment that you
have kicked Christ out of in your life, and you're
living an impure, unholy life. Now you say, wait a minute,
passage of how does he know? You said he was
an omniscient, He's not knowing he's just been watching you
for a long long time. He's not omnipresent, but he

(19:59):
has a lot of scouts, and those scouts report back
to the general. They know your weakness, roaring, lack of
line seeking, whom he made devire? Now, what's up with that?
What does a lion do? Who does he look for?
He looks for the weak link. He wants a fight,
but not a not a heavy one, So he looks

(20:20):
for the weak one. He looks for the isolated one,
and that's whom he chooses. He prays on the isolated.
I'm telling you, according to the scripture, his forces are
always watching you. And if you don't have these spiritual
disciplines in your life, and if you isolate yourself from accountability,
from community, you're the weakly and he's after you. And

(20:40):
the sad thing is when he attacks, you won't see
it coming, and sometimes you'll still think you're safe. Think
about the scenarios. Quickly you start to have your devotions.
Isn't it uncanny how many distractions will come at that
moment you think that's accidental. Your phone will ring, there'll
be a knock on the door, one of your children
will misbehave, you'll have a brain. You think that's incidental.

(21:02):
Temptation comes and it just so happens to come in
your most weak area, and it's a full on attack.
You think that's coincidental. It's Sunday morning. Isn't it amazing?
How if you were going to Vegas, if you were
going on vacation, you'd be up and about, your mind
would be sharp, you're ready to go. But because it's
Sunday morning, in time for church. Isn't it amazing? How

(21:22):
many lies your brain tells you, Oh, just stay in bed, Oh,
you don't need to go, You don't really need this.
The traffic's gonna be bad, the parking lot is gonna
be hard to get into.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Is it you think that's coincident?

Speaker 1 (21:33):
You don't think that there is an unseen world trying
to get into your head revenge? Isn't it amazing how
angry you can become, almost wanting to really harm somebody.
Where do you think that comes from? It doesn't come
from God. Don't give the devil a foothold, don't give
them a place to reside. You better determine now before
we begin this series, or as we begin it, you

(21:54):
better determine now that you're in because the enemy is
smarter than you, more or organized than you, outnumbers you
apart from Christ, more conniving than you, and does not
underestimate you the way you do him. And unless you
know who the enemy is, where he is, how he
manifests himself, and what he can do, you'll have a
difficult time defeeding him.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
So as we go into the series.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
I'm asking you to pray, to get on your knees
and pray God. I want to wake up, I want
to repent, rededicate, restore my devotion to you. Look, they
say there are no atheists in foxholes. Why well, because
there's a battle. The reason you and I are weak
a prayer is because we really don't think we're in

(22:37):
a war. If we knew what was just over the
next hill coming after us, we would be people of
prayer and Bible study and worship and reading because we'd
fear for our lives. I'm asking you make a decision
today and pray. This is my prayer for this weekend.
Pray that you would become spiritually awake, that God would
open your eyes to areas in your life where you're

(22:59):
already away from him and then give you the courage
to repent and come home, so that together, as we
go into the future, we can fight this battle together
and be victorious. Father, I praise your name and thank
you for the power of Ephesian six, especially verse twelve.
I pray that although some of this may seem so

(23:22):
different or far out to some people, like can I
really get my head around this, that through the power
of your spirit would overcome demonic forces who want to
make us believe this is not real. We have nothing
to worry about, there's no real battle. That the power
in the spirit of God would open our eyes to
the things in our lives that have to go, that

(23:42):
you may take full possession, and that we would be
victorious in this ultimate battle against the forces once relegated
to the fringes, who have now marched in to our
culture and our country. In Christ's name.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Amen, you've been listening to Today with Jeff Finds. Next
time we'll bring you a new message from pastor Jeff.
You can listen to more messages like this. Just search
for Today with Jeff Finds. Wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
You make me a bay with every single friend won't
bring this Up Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines,