November 17, 2024 • 29 mins
Who Are You Listening To?
The World Wide Web or Wisdom
Text: Ezekiel 33:30-33
- The World’s Decline
- Virtually Connected but Deaf, Dumb and Blind
- The Web (Entertainment, Pleasure and Self
Podcast Info
PHSA Church (Potter's House Salmon Arm)
#201 231 Trans Canada Hwy.
Salmon Arm, BC, Canada
604-997-8446
Email: pottershousesa@icloud.com
Church Website: https://www.phsachurch.com/
Podcast Website: rss.com/podcasts/phsa
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@PottersHouseSA
Support/ Giving: https://www.phsachurch.com/give
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located
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in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship
Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,
discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church
and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your
host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing
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to you and bring you closer to God.
Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast or the P.H.S.A. podcast.
My name is David Bigford and I am the pastor here at the Potter's House. And so today,
I apologize that I'm a little late for this podcast. I was a little sick the last couple
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days so it slowed me down. And today I wanted to start trying something new. So we're going
to see how this audio works and I might use it or I might not and you might not hear this
at all. But anyway, so today's message is, who are you listening to in the World Wide
Web or wisdom? So this is a rehash of something I've preached in the past, but I think it's
really important, especially given everything that's happened since the last time I talked
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to you all. So with everything that's going on in the world, we've had a tremendous election
cycle down in the United States, a lot of changes happening in the world because of
that, a lot of excitement or worry depending on who you're talking to. But I just want
to always make sure I represent myself and our church clearly in saying that Jesus is
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our King, Jesus is our Lord, and He is in control of everything. And so that is where
we stand. Obviously, we follow the Word of God, we follow the Bible, and certain groups
align more with the Bible than others. But we are first and foremost Christians in service
to Christ looking to grow in our Christ-likeness in moving closer to God. And that's why I
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think it's an important time to talk about who are you listening to and looking at the
World Wide Web for wisdom. And so with that, our text that we're going to be using today
is Ezekiel 33, 33-33.
As for you, son of man, your people walk together about you by the walls at the doors of the
house and say to one another, each to his brother, come and hear that the Word is that
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comes from the Lord, or what the Word is that comes from the Lord. And they come to you
as people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear what you say, but
they will not do it. For with lustful talk in their mouths they act, their heart is set
on their game. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful
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voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not
do it. When this comes and come at will, then they will know that a prophet has been among
them.
So oftentimes, you know, in a small church or in a large church, you can look out and
you can think, I'm talking to people, I'm telling people about Jesus Christ. And a lot
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of times people will hear me playing on the street with my bass guitar and be like, oh,
that sounds really good. Or maybe they say it doesn't sound good. And they're just like,
who would dare do that? I don't know. But the reality is, is that we're not really out
there to try to entertain. We're not out there trying to, you know, show off. We're only
out there to bring the Word of God to people and to try to get them to feel the conviction
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of the Spirit of the Lord so they can make a choice to serve Him. And we run into this
quite a bit where, especially in mega churches, where you'll have tons and tons of people
coming to church because it's entertaining, but they're not taking away from it anything
that they're meant to receive from the service.
So I regularly clean out my emails and unsubscribe. And I just did this again, you know, last
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week to several email lists, to several podcasts or Instagram pages. You know, sometimes I
don't remember why I signed up for them in the first place. Other times I just have lost
interest in what they were all about to begin with. Other times I'll feel convicted and
say, you know what, I shouldn't be spending my time listening to this or looking at that.
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And nothing flagrantly sinful, just that it's not wise as we grow in our love for the Lord.
Sometimes, like I said, I don't remember why I subscribe to these people. And, you know,
one of the key things like right now is I used to have a lot of tent companies because
I'm into backpacking, I'm into camping, not camping per se. I'm into hiking as far into
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the dirt or the bush as I can go so that I'm too far away to get home that day and then
I'll have to sleep outside. So I'm not really into camping as much as hiking to exhaustion.
But I would have all these tent companies that I would be looking at. I'd have all these
tent companies that I'd be following. But really, in the course of my life, I might
buy a handful of tents. Why do I need to follow 20 or 30 tent companies? In fact, in the back
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of my head, I know of one tent company that I'll likely buy my next tent from. And that's
it. I probably won't ever need another tent again outside of that because I've already
got three tents right now. Two of them are really good. So why do I follow all of these
things? Why do I allow it to be a distraction? So throughout the history of mankind, we strive
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to find pleasure or entertainment in order to distract us from our lives and from living
a life of purpose. So I rarely find myself being distracted by all the new things that
are shining, that are coming across, the shiny little baubles that come out. But even more
often, I'll put up like a sonic wall. I'll put my earbuds in. My wife and my kids will
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even pick on me. And I usually tell myself, I'm doing this for you because you don't like
the music I listen to. You don't want to hear the radio that I'm listening to. And you guys
have got all your stuff playing in the background. And I'm just plugged in so that I'm not distracting
you. And that's a bit of a cop-out because the reality is that, yeah, I'm distracting
myself in the form of music or news and not allowing that still quiet voice of the Lord
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to really impact my life. So these are all things that I deal with even as a pastor.
And so it's almost like putting this cocoon of noise around us so that we're shutting
out the Word of God. We're shutting out that voice. The simple question then becomes, who
are we listening to? Have we closed ourselves off from hearing God or hearing those around
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us? So as I filter through my emails and review my podcasts, it becomes evident that we have
a natural desire to block out the world, to block out the things of God. We strive to
clog our minds and fill our ears with the pleasing things of this world. And this is
nothing new. We often will say to ourselves, this is just music or it's just entertainment.
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We'll tell ourselves that we need some time to relax or some time to chill out, some time
to unwind. The problem is that this downtime will usually become all the time. We leave
no time for the things of God because we are so busy with the things of men. We successfully
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cut out the quiet times so that when God wants to speak to us, we can't hear him. The quiet
times when we could comfort those in need or listen to those that are closest to us,
we don't have time for it. There's a cacophony of noise that we surround ourselves with.
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So in the past, I've preached about the storm and how God is in the storm. And I believe
that in nature, the storms are used by God as a way to clean our environment, to bring
attention to something that's truly important, which is life. Similarly, the storms we go
through in our lives are meant to clean up our surroundings or point us back to our Lord
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in our life. A way of disrupting our endless pursuits of entertainment and pleasure to
shake us and refocus us, but to refocus us on those who are around us so that we can
show love and compassion by serving them and serving others. So here's an illustration
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I came across, tried and true. A couple had been married for 50 years and a party was
thrown for their golden anniversary. The husband was moved by the occasion and wanted to tell
his wife how much he thought of her. She was hard of hearing, however, and often misunderstood
what he had said. With family and friends gathered around, he toasted her and said,
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my dear wife, after 50 years, I found you tried and true. Everyone clapped for them,
but his wife was a little irritated and asked, what did you say? He spoke louder. After 50
years, I have found you tried and true. The wife was now visibly upset and shouted back,
well, after 50 years, I'm tired of you too. So if we don't hear right, there's a danger
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of misinterpreting and getting things wrong. Ezekiel 40, verse four, it says, and the man
said to me, son of man, look at your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart
upon all that I shall show you. For you were brought here in order that I might show it
to you, declare that or declare all that you see to the house of Israel. This brings my
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first point, which is the world's decline. We cannot escape the world for we live in
it. And those of us who are called by Christ are called to be emissaries for the kingdom
of heaven. So where does that leave us concerning the call and our place in the world? The easiest
path is to fall in love with this world. In 1 John 2, 15, do not love the world or the
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things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride of
life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along
with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Since the fallen man,
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when sin entered the world, we have lived in a corrupted creation. In the Old Testament,
I'm always amazed how quickly humanity has turned to consumerism and to the pursuit of
pleasure. We like to think that it's only in our day and age that people have become
subjugated or addicted to entertainment. We indeed have more channels and avenues for
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entertainment than they did thousands of years ago, but it's not a new problem. In Psalm
106, 36-39, they worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their
sons and their daughters to false gods. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons
and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated
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by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did, and by their deeds, they prostituted
themselves. There was already, in this period of time, an idea of free love expressionism.
There was rampant sex. There was prostitution in the worship of Asherah. Then with that,
there was also the human sacrifice to the idols of Molech and Baal. These things were
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already involved in this society at the time. Today, we do similar things. We say that you
can have rampant sex. You can do all these things in the name of pursuit of pleasure
and entertainment. Then when it comes time for the responsibility that naturally occurs
from sexual relations, we say you don't need to have that. You can go and absolve yourself
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from that difficulty through the wickedness of abortion.
Those are important things to recognize is that as much as things have changed, they've
stayed the same in our society. We seek entertainment. We also seek exclusion from responsibility.
In Genesis, it only takes until chapter 3 for us to see temptation win out with the
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first battle of wills. In Genesis 3, 1-7, we read about the fall. We read about Adam
and Eve in the garden and then how Eve was deceived by the serpent. Subsequently, Adam
was deceived because nothing happened to Eve, and he partook as well. Then immediately,
their eyes were opened because as the headship of that covenant relationship, Adam was responsible
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to hold the line.
The original sin is now an everyday occurrence. In the world we live in, we are challenged
to make the same decision over and over again. The world calls us in the same manner as the
serpent does. You will surely not die. In verse 5, for God knows even when you eat of
it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. There's this
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contested idea that it doesn't matter if you sin or not, you're just going to be elevated
in your perceptions and your reality. We get that with a lot of the super spiritual mumbo
jumbo that's out there in the day where it's like, oh no, you have a godly spirit and you
will just be elevated in your perceptions, which is a dangerous idea because that's
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exactly what the devil would use when causing Eve and Adam to fall.
In the very next chapter, we see Cain kill his brother Abel out of jealousy. Time goes
on and within two chapters we see the story of Noah and the ark and at this point in history
the world is beyond repair. God judges the earth with a great blood. I only highlight
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these chapters to show how early on in human nature these types of things occurred. It
was almost immediate. The susceptibility to sin because the choice that God gave us with
free will. We all have a choice, but throughout history oftentimes we're pleasure seeking
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and knowledge led us away from God in favor of the world.
This brings me to my next point, which is virtually connected but deaf, dumb and blind.
During the global pandemic, this worldwide pandemic occurred, but maybe not only in the
way that we think. The reality is the pandemic expedited the locking away of people, locked
away from reality, from close family, from the outdoors, from the word of God. Now we
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all look inward towards seeking that entertainment. Blashing light and vibrant colors from TV,
movies, internet. They've enabled us to remain connected like never before, but it's also
destroying our ability to connect in real life.
For many it has become a strong addiction. In Psalm 106, 36-39, they worship their idols
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which became a snare to them. We read this, they sacrificed their sons and daughters to
false gods. They shed innocent blood, the bloods of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed
to idols of Canaan. The land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by
what they did. By their deeds, they prostitute themselves.
This is again highlighting the reality that when you choose this self aggrandizement,
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just giving in to entertainment and pleasure seeking only for yourself, you are sacrificing
not only your life, but the life of your children. We are called to be in the world, but not
of the world. This is something I found when putting this together. It's an article, doing
what's right even when it hurts. Eva lives in the rural part of Germany where almost
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everyone is a Christian, yet few are serious about following Christ. When Eva was 16, she
decided to really live for God. Immediately, she found herself at odds with the culture.
This was a big decision because the culture in a region revolves around weekend parties
and lots of alcohol. This is from that book I was reading about doing hard things. We'll
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go back into Eva's story in a minute. What we have to see here is that we battle with
similar vices in our society today. The question is always, who will you listen to? Are you
going to conform to what society tells you is right? Even then, it is difficult because
society can be very fragmented. At the DNC or the Democrat National Convention earlier
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on in the presidential cycle, you had one of the two major US parties. They came together
to announce their presidential candidate. Now, you might think that there would be some
semblance of connectedness or party cohesion. If so, you'd be mistaken. Here is a list
of the groups within the groups of the DNC. You have the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus,
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the Labor Council meeting, the Interfaith Council, the Ethnic Council, the Youth Council,
the Women's Caucus, the Rural Caucus, the Seniors' Council, the LGBTQ Caucus, the Muslim
Delegates' Assembly, the Small Business Council, the Disability Council, the Jewish American
Community Meeting, the Native American Caucus, the Council on Environmental and Climate Crisis,
Veterans and Military Families Council, Poverty Council. This cacophony of noise almost perfectly
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ensures that no one will be heard and that nothing can be accomplished. They're so fragmented.
They're so disjointed. How are they ever going to come together on a party platform that's
going to win over the masses? And now, as we stand after the election, we know that
they didn't. They weren't able to get a message that was able to penetrate into society because
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of all these fragments, this fragmentation within their own party. But it's all a distraction
from what should be our focus, which is Jesus Christ. When we give ourselves to hearing
all that the world wants us to say, we indelibly hear nothing of what God wants us to say.
So we go back to Eva. Eva knew that she had made the right decision, but she still had
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to face the consequences of taking a stand. Her friends and classmates immediately wondered
why she wasn't attending parties. Even some of the adults in the village couldn't understand.
At school, Eva was suddenly left out of all the gossip conversations because she quit
going to the weekend parties. Her classmates started to consider her a boring outsider
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and a label that was very hard for Eva to take. She says, I have to admit that there
were times when I just wanted to fit back in. She says it was so hard not to be part
of the crowd and not to belong to the cool group, not to have a clique of cool friends.
Taking a stand meant rejection for being misunderstood by her peers, but in other parts of the world,
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the consequences are even more severe. In India, two teens were surrounded and beaten
for distributing Bible tracts. In China, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head for
refusing to spit on the Bible. Christians all over the world are persecuted, tortured,
and killed for their faith.
Fortunately, Eva knew what she was getting into. She had already read the Bible passages
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that warn that some might hate us because we do not join the world in the world's ways.
She knew that she was called to follow Jesus not only when she gets patted on the back
for it, she was called to follow Him even when it hurt. In John 17, 14-17, it says,
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the
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world. Just as I am not of the world, I did not ask that you take them out of the world,
but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not from the world, just as I am
not of the world, to sanctify them in truth. Your word is the truth.
So this is a difficult reality for most, and it seems that it would be far easier just
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to fall in line with what the world has to offer. In today's world, we're not amazed
by the power of God, but rather the creation of man. This addition to entertainment is
building calluses on people's souls. Fiction has become reality. The warping of reality
permeates our understanding of God and our trust in the world. When we look at the parable
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of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we are shown a picture of the fleeting nature of sin. The
desire to seek only entertainment and pleasure can have disastrous results on our lives and
the lives of those whom we care about. In Luke 15, verse 11, it says, and then he said,
there is a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me
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a share of my property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them.
Not many days later, the young son gathered all he had and took a journey to a far country.
And there he squandered his property and reckless living. And when he had spent everything,
a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired
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himself out to the citizen of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.
And when he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more
than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. So how do we find ourselves enraptured
by the worldwide web of entertainment, the noise of this world is a web after all, and
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is meant to be so addictive we're trapped in it like a spider's web or in like a fowler's
snare. Here we have a Jewish child who takes his inheritance and runs off into the hedonistic
world. And now he sees at the end of it, he's eating from the pig's food, which is an unclean
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animal according to his upbringing. So he is in the most dire of straits possible. And
then his senses come back to him and say, even my father's men are treated better than
this. But this brings me to my final point and closer to our close. The web, entertainment,
pleasure and self. The internet, movies, books and theater are not wicked in and of themselves.
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They can be great tools to further the gospel of Jesus Christ. The trouble is not the media,
but rather the fallen nature of man. There's a reason that the Bible tells us not to forsake
the gathering of the brethren or the church. The focus for us as Christians in the gospel
and in the kingdom of God. The problem within a lot of churches and a lot of Christians
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is the lure of the world's entertainment and the world's web. When we do not judge
our entertainment by first washing it in the word of God, we can become watered down by
the false gospel of the world. Eva's decision to skip the parties did provide her many benefits.
She grew closer to her family and over time she won the respect of many classmates. Most
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importantly, Eva feels that God protected her from a lot of the heartache and pain.
I was kept safe and pure for him, she explains. He gave me strength and wisdom and didn't
let me become lonely. Many of the kids that Eva went to school with had to battle horrible
things. They struggled with the consequences of alcohol and drug addiction, broken relationships,
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unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. Sometimes what we think is the hard
decision is actually the easiest decision. When we zoom out a few years it becomes clear,
but unfortunately we have to trust God for that because we have to choose to live in
obedience. Hebrews 10 26 says if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the
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knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sin is left. Later on in Hebrews 11 24-25, by faith
Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose
to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures
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of sin. So the reality is that if you're washing yourself on the world wide web then you are
at risk of being not only being trapped but also having your faith stripped away by the
false teachings of the world. So where do we turn and what hope do we have? Our hope
is always found in Jesus. It was his sacrifice on the cross that has the power to set us
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free. And finally we have wisdom, salvation and a new life in Christ. God's wisdom is
always our way out of a life of sin and pain. We can see stories of God's salvation throughout
the Old and New Testament. We know that Jesus is the word from John 1 1 and with that we
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can infer that the Old Testament draws one continuous line towards Jesus. The purpose
of the law was to draw attention to our need for a savior and our need for sacrifice. So
as we live in a world that is wide open with sin where there are webs of deceit masquerading
as entertainment and pleasure we could shed light on the world and on the word with those
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uh we could shed light the light of the word on those traps right? We can avoid them ourselves
by washing our lives in the word and we could pull others out of the webs with the gospel.
When our Lord hung on the cross two others were hanging with them. One of those men chose
to mock Jesus and the other made a different choice. He chose to repent of his sin and
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ask Jesus's forgiveness. Both these men were trapped by their choices but one man was able
to achieve eternal freedom through Jesus Christ. You too can turn from the world wide web of
entertainment and embrace the wisdom of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then you will be set
free broken out of this world's prison and able to help others and be rescued from the
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same fate. Sinners saved by grace. So if I could have every head bowed every eye closed
just real quick as we bring this to an end wherever you are as long as it's safe you
just close your eyes bow your head but I just want to give a quick invitation we do this
every day every time that if your heart is not right and this message has impacted you
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I want to give you an opportunity to signify that an uplifted hand if you know that your
heart is not right with God you are not in right relationship with him but you want to
be and if you rose that hand and you did that no matter where you are God can see it and
God knows your heart and I want you to just repeat after me dear Lord I know that I'm
a sinner but I know that you sent your son Jesus Christ and that he died and rose from
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the grave for me I repent of my sin which means I turn away from him and I accept Jesus
Christ as my Lord my Savior and my King and Jesus name Amen that simple prayer is what
we colloquially call a sinner's prayer is just a recognition that you're a sinner and
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your need for Christ so you leave from that with with it hopefully like you feel the difference
immediately because I know when I gave my life to Christ I felt it immediately but there
are other steps not for salvation but for sanctification for growing in Christ and that
would be to lock into a local church body if you're in salmon arm then we'd love to
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have you come and to church with us yeah all of the all of the information is in the show
notes but if you're not you can reach out to me we have 3,700 plus churches globally
I'm sure I can find you a Bible believing church for you to lock into get a Bible download
the you version app get get the Word of God start reading it so that you can wash yourself
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in the Word and that you can pray to God because you can do that anytime until the Bible tells
us to pray unceasingly and then I just pray that you know doing those things you will
grow in Christ and you will have the restorative change that you know many of us have enjoyed
as we became Christians and saved by grace so I just want to thank you for listening
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to me today and if you could like share and subscribe to this podcast this YouTube channel
that would be a great help for us to get this word and message out and so I give you give
you back you the rest of your week thank you for listening can't wait for you to come back
next time God bless
Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast be sure to follow
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us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on what we are
doing join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.
Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located
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in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship
Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,
discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church
and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your
host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing
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to you and bring you closer to God.
Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast or the P.H.S.A. podcast.
My name is David Bigford and I am the pastor here at the Potter's House. And so today,
I apologize that I'm a little late for this podcast. I was a little sick the last couple
(01:01):
days so it slowed me down. And today I wanted to start trying something new. So we're going
to see how this audio works and I might use it or I might not and you might not hear this
at all. But anyway, so today's message is, who are you listening to in the World Wide
Web or wisdom? So this is a rehash of something I've preached in the past, but I think it's
really important, especially given everything that's happened since the last time I talked
(01:26):
to you all. So with everything that's going on in the world, we've had a tremendous election
cycle down in the United States, a lot of changes happening in the world because of
that, a lot of excitement or worry depending on who you're talking to. But I just want
to always make sure I represent myself and our church clearly in saying that Jesus is
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our King, Jesus is our Lord, and He is in control of everything. And so that is where
we stand. Obviously, we follow the Word of God, we follow the Bible, and certain groups
align more with the Bible than others. But we are first and foremost Christians in service
to Christ looking to grow in our Christ-likeness in moving closer to God. And that's why I
(02:12):
think it's an important time to talk about who are you listening to and looking at the
World Wide Web for wisdom. And so with that, our text that we're going to be using today
is Ezekiel 33, 33-33.
As for you, son of man, your people walk together about you by the walls at the doors of the
house and say to one another, each to his brother, come and hear that the Word is that
(02:38):
comes from the Lord, or what the Word is that comes from the Lord. And they come to you
as people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear what you say, but
they will not do it. For with lustful talk in their mouths they act, their heart is set
on their game. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful
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voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not
do it. When this comes and come at will, then they will know that a prophet has been among
them.
So oftentimes, you know, in a small church or in a large church, you can look out and
you can think, I'm talking to people, I'm telling people about Jesus Christ. And a lot
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of times people will hear me playing on the street with my bass guitar and be like, oh,
that sounds really good. Or maybe they say it doesn't sound good. And they're just like,
who would dare do that? I don't know. But the reality is, is that we're not really out
there to try to entertain. We're not out there trying to, you know, show off. We're only
out there to bring the Word of God to people and to try to get them to feel the conviction
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of the Spirit of the Lord so they can make a choice to serve Him. And we run into this
quite a bit where, especially in mega churches, where you'll have tons and tons of people
coming to church because it's entertaining, but they're not taking away from it anything
that they're meant to receive from the service.
So I regularly clean out my emails and unsubscribe. And I just did this again, you know, last
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week to several email lists, to several podcasts or Instagram pages. You know, sometimes I
don't remember why I signed up for them in the first place. Other times I just have lost
interest in what they were all about to begin with. Other times I'll feel convicted and
say, you know what, I shouldn't be spending my time listening to this or looking at that.
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And nothing flagrantly sinful, just that it's not wise as we grow in our love for the Lord.
Sometimes, like I said, I don't remember why I subscribe to these people. And, you know,
one of the key things like right now is I used to have a lot of tent companies because
I'm into backpacking, I'm into camping, not camping per se. I'm into hiking as far into
(04:58):
the dirt or the bush as I can go so that I'm too far away to get home that day and then
I'll have to sleep outside. So I'm not really into camping as much as hiking to exhaustion.
But I would have all these tent companies that I would be looking at. I'd have all these
tent companies that I'd be following. But really, in the course of my life, I might
buy a handful of tents. Why do I need to follow 20 or 30 tent companies? In fact, in the back
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of my head, I know of one tent company that I'll likely buy my next tent from. And that's
it. I probably won't ever need another tent again outside of that because I've already
got three tents right now. Two of them are really good. So why do I follow all of these
things? Why do I allow it to be a distraction? So throughout the history of mankind, we strive
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to find pleasure or entertainment in order to distract us from our lives and from living
a life of purpose. So I rarely find myself being distracted by all the new things that
are shining, that are coming across, the shiny little baubles that come out. But even more
often, I'll put up like a sonic wall. I'll put my earbuds in. My wife and my kids will
(06:09):
even pick on me. And I usually tell myself, I'm doing this for you because you don't like
the music I listen to. You don't want to hear the radio that I'm listening to. And you guys
have got all your stuff playing in the background. And I'm just plugged in so that I'm not distracting
you. And that's a bit of a cop-out because the reality is that, yeah, I'm distracting
myself in the form of music or news and not allowing that still quiet voice of the Lord
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to really impact my life. So these are all things that I deal with even as a pastor.
And so it's almost like putting this cocoon of noise around us so that we're shutting
out the Word of God. We're shutting out that voice. The simple question then becomes, who
are we listening to? Have we closed ourselves off from hearing God or hearing those around
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us? So as I filter through my emails and review my podcasts, it becomes evident that we have
a natural desire to block out the world, to block out the things of God. We strive to
clog our minds and fill our ears with the pleasing things of this world. And this is
nothing new. We often will say to ourselves, this is just music or it's just entertainment.
(07:22):
We'll tell ourselves that we need some time to relax or some time to chill out, some time
to unwind. The problem is that this downtime will usually become all the time. We leave
no time for the things of God because we are so busy with the things of men. We successfully
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cut out the quiet times so that when God wants to speak to us, we can't hear him. The quiet
times when we could comfort those in need or listen to those that are closest to us,
we don't have time for it. There's a cacophony of noise that we surround ourselves with.
(08:05):
So in the past, I've preached about the storm and how God is in the storm. And I believe
that in nature, the storms are used by God as a way to clean our environment, to bring
attention to something that's truly important, which is life. Similarly, the storms we go
through in our lives are meant to clean up our surroundings or point us back to our Lord
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in our life. A way of disrupting our endless pursuits of entertainment and pleasure to
shake us and refocus us, but to refocus us on those who are around us so that we can
show love and compassion by serving them and serving others. So here's an illustration
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I came across, tried and true. A couple had been married for 50 years and a party was
thrown for their golden anniversary. The husband was moved by the occasion and wanted to tell
his wife how much he thought of her. She was hard of hearing, however, and often misunderstood
what he had said. With family and friends gathered around, he toasted her and said,
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my dear wife, after 50 years, I found you tried and true. Everyone clapped for them,
but his wife was a little irritated and asked, what did you say? He spoke louder. After 50
years, I have found you tried and true. The wife was now visibly upset and shouted back,
well, after 50 years, I'm tired of you too. So if we don't hear right, there's a danger
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of misinterpreting and getting things wrong. Ezekiel 40, verse four, it says, and the man
said to me, son of man, look at your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart
upon all that I shall show you. For you were brought here in order that I might show it
to you, declare that or declare all that you see to the house of Israel. This brings my
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first point, which is the world's decline. We cannot escape the world for we live in
it. And those of us who are called by Christ are called to be emissaries for the kingdom
of heaven. So where does that leave us concerning the call and our place in the world? The easiest
path is to fall in love with this world. In 1 John 2, 15, do not love the world or the
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things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride of
life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along
with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Since the fallen man,
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when sin entered the world, we have lived in a corrupted creation. In the Old Testament,
I'm always amazed how quickly humanity has turned to consumerism and to the pursuit of
pleasure. We like to think that it's only in our day and age that people have become
subjugated or addicted to entertainment. We indeed have more channels and avenues for
(11:08):
entertainment than they did thousands of years ago, but it's not a new problem. In Psalm
106, 36-39, they worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their
sons and their daughters to false gods. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons
and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated
(11:29):
by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did, and by their deeds, they prostituted
themselves. There was already, in this period of time, an idea of free love expressionism.
There was rampant sex. There was prostitution in the worship of Asherah. Then with that,
there was also the human sacrifice to the idols of Molech and Baal. These things were
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already involved in this society at the time. Today, we do similar things. We say that you
can have rampant sex. You can do all these things in the name of pursuit of pleasure
and entertainment. Then when it comes time for the responsibility that naturally occurs
from sexual relations, we say you don't need to have that. You can go and absolve yourself
(12:16):
from that difficulty through the wickedness of abortion.
Those are important things to recognize is that as much as things have changed, they've
stayed the same in our society. We seek entertainment. We also seek exclusion from responsibility.
In Genesis, it only takes until chapter 3 for us to see temptation win out with the
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first battle of wills. In Genesis 3, 1-7, we read about the fall. We read about Adam
and Eve in the garden and then how Eve was deceived by the serpent. Subsequently, Adam
was deceived because nothing happened to Eve, and he partook as well. Then immediately,
their eyes were opened because as the headship of that covenant relationship, Adam was responsible
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to hold the line.
The original sin is now an everyday occurrence. In the world we live in, we are challenged
to make the same decision over and over again. The world calls us in the same manner as the
serpent does. You will surely not die. In verse 5, for God knows even when you eat of
it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. There's this
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contested idea that it doesn't matter if you sin or not, you're just going to be elevated
in your perceptions and your reality. We get that with a lot of the super spiritual mumbo
jumbo that's out there in the day where it's like, oh no, you have a godly spirit and you
will just be elevated in your perceptions, which is a dangerous idea because that's
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exactly what the devil would use when causing Eve and Adam to fall.
In the very next chapter, we see Cain kill his brother Abel out of jealousy. Time goes
on and within two chapters we see the story of Noah and the ark and at this point in history
the world is beyond repair. God judges the earth with a great blood. I only highlight
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these chapters to show how early on in human nature these types of things occurred. It
was almost immediate. The susceptibility to sin because the choice that God gave us with
free will. We all have a choice, but throughout history oftentimes we're pleasure seeking
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and knowledge led us away from God in favor of the world.
This brings me to my next point, which is virtually connected but deaf, dumb and blind.
During the global pandemic, this worldwide pandemic occurred, but maybe not only in the
way that we think. The reality is the pandemic expedited the locking away of people, locked
away from reality, from close family, from the outdoors, from the word of God. Now we
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all look inward towards seeking that entertainment. Blashing light and vibrant colors from TV,
movies, internet. They've enabled us to remain connected like never before, but it's also
destroying our ability to connect in real life.
For many it has become a strong addiction. In Psalm 106, 36-39, they worship their idols
(15:17):
which became a snare to them. We read this, they sacrificed their sons and daughters to
false gods. They shed innocent blood, the bloods of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed
to idols of Canaan. The land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by
what they did. By their deeds, they prostitute themselves.
This is again highlighting the reality that when you choose this self aggrandizement,
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just giving in to entertainment and pleasure seeking only for yourself, you are sacrificing
not only your life, but the life of your children. We are called to be in the world, but not
of the world. This is something I found when putting this together. It's an article, doing
what's right even when it hurts. Eva lives in the rural part of Germany where almost
(16:10):
everyone is a Christian, yet few are serious about following Christ. When Eva was 16, she
decided to really live for God. Immediately, she found herself at odds with the culture.
This was a big decision because the culture in a region revolves around weekend parties
and lots of alcohol. This is from that book I was reading about doing hard things. We'll
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go back into Eva's story in a minute. What we have to see here is that we battle with
similar vices in our society today. The question is always, who will you listen to? Are you
going to conform to what society tells you is right? Even then, it is difficult because
society can be very fragmented. At the DNC or the Democrat National Convention earlier
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on in the presidential cycle, you had one of the two major US parties. They came together
to announce their presidential candidate. Now, you might think that there would be some
semblance of connectedness or party cohesion. If so, you'd be mistaken. Here is a list
of the groups within the groups of the DNC. You have the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus,
(17:17):
the Labor Council meeting, the Interfaith Council, the Ethnic Council, the Youth Council,
the Women's Caucus, the Rural Caucus, the Seniors' Council, the LGBTQ Caucus, the Muslim
Delegates' Assembly, the Small Business Council, the Disability Council, the Jewish American
Community Meeting, the Native American Caucus, the Council on Environmental and Climate Crisis,
Veterans and Military Families Council, Poverty Council. This cacophony of noise almost perfectly
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ensures that no one will be heard and that nothing can be accomplished. They're so fragmented.
They're so disjointed. How are they ever going to come together on a party platform that's
going to win over the masses? And now, as we stand after the election, we know that
they didn't. They weren't able to get a message that was able to penetrate into society because
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of all these fragments, this fragmentation within their own party. But it's all a distraction
from what should be our focus, which is Jesus Christ. When we give ourselves to hearing
all that the world wants us to say, we indelibly hear nothing of what God wants us to say.
So we go back to Eva. Eva knew that she had made the right decision, but she still had
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to face the consequences of taking a stand. Her friends and classmates immediately wondered
why she wasn't attending parties. Even some of the adults in the village couldn't understand.
At school, Eva was suddenly left out of all the gossip conversations because she quit
going to the weekend parties. Her classmates started to consider her a boring outsider
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and a label that was very hard for Eva to take. She says, I have to admit that there
were times when I just wanted to fit back in. She says it was so hard not to be part
of the crowd and not to belong to the cool group, not to have a clique of cool friends.
Taking a stand meant rejection for being misunderstood by her peers, but in other parts of the world,
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the consequences are even more severe. In India, two teens were surrounded and beaten
for distributing Bible tracts. In China, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head for
refusing to spit on the Bible. Christians all over the world are persecuted, tortured,
and killed for their faith.
Fortunately, Eva knew what she was getting into. She had already read the Bible passages
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that warn that some might hate us because we do not join the world in the world's ways.
She knew that she was called to follow Jesus not only when she gets patted on the back
for it, she was called to follow Him even when it hurt. In John 17, 14-17, it says,
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the
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world. Just as I am not of the world, I did not ask that you take them out of the world,
but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not from the world, just as I am
not of the world, to sanctify them in truth. Your word is the truth.
So this is a difficult reality for most, and it seems that it would be far easier just
(20:18):
to fall in line with what the world has to offer. In today's world, we're not amazed
by the power of God, but rather the creation of man. This addition to entertainment is
building calluses on people's souls. Fiction has become reality. The warping of reality
permeates our understanding of God and our trust in the world. When we look at the parable
(20:39):
of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we are shown a picture of the fleeting nature of sin. The
desire to seek only entertainment and pleasure can have disastrous results on our lives and
the lives of those whom we care about. In Luke 15, verse 11, it says, and then he said,
there is a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me
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a share of my property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them.
Not many days later, the young son gathered all he had and took a journey to a far country.
And there he squandered his property and reckless living. And when he had spent everything,
a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired
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himself out to the citizen of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.
And when he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more
than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. So how do we find ourselves enraptured
by the worldwide web of entertainment, the noise of this world is a web after all, and
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is meant to be so addictive we're trapped in it like a spider's web or in like a fowler's
snare. Here we have a Jewish child who takes his inheritance and runs off into the hedonistic
world. And now he sees at the end of it, he's eating from the pig's food, which is an unclean
(22:07):
animal according to his upbringing. So he is in the most dire of straits possible. And
then his senses come back to him and say, even my father's men are treated better than
this. But this brings me to my final point and closer to our close. The web, entertainment,
pleasure and self. The internet, movies, books and theater are not wicked in and of themselves.
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They can be great tools to further the gospel of Jesus Christ. The trouble is not the media,
but rather the fallen nature of man. There's a reason that the Bible tells us not to forsake
the gathering of the brethren or the church. The focus for us as Christians in the gospel
and in the kingdom of God. The problem within a lot of churches and a lot of Christians
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is the lure of the world's entertainment and the world's web. When we do not judge
our entertainment by first washing it in the word of God, we can become watered down by
the false gospel of the world. Eva's decision to skip the parties did provide her many benefits.
She grew closer to her family and over time she won the respect of many classmates. Most
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importantly, Eva feels that God protected her from a lot of the heartache and pain.
I was kept safe and pure for him, she explains. He gave me strength and wisdom and didn't
let me become lonely. Many of the kids that Eva went to school with had to battle horrible
things. They struggled with the consequences of alcohol and drug addiction, broken relationships,
(23:40):
unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. Sometimes what we think is the hard
decision is actually the easiest decision. When we zoom out a few years it becomes clear,
but unfortunately we have to trust God for that because we have to choose to live in
obedience. Hebrews 10 26 says if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the
(24:04):
knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sin is left. Later on in Hebrews 11 24-25, by faith
Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose
to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures
(24:25):
of sin. So the reality is that if you're washing yourself on the world wide web then you are
at risk of being not only being trapped but also having your faith stripped away by the
false teachings of the world. So where do we turn and what hope do we have? Our hope
is always found in Jesus. It was his sacrifice on the cross that has the power to set us
(24:47):
free. And finally we have wisdom, salvation and a new life in Christ. God's wisdom is
always our way out of a life of sin and pain. We can see stories of God's salvation throughout
the Old and New Testament. We know that Jesus is the word from John 1 1 and with that we
(25:08):
can infer that the Old Testament draws one continuous line towards Jesus. The purpose
of the law was to draw attention to our need for a savior and our need for sacrifice. So
as we live in a world that is wide open with sin where there are webs of deceit masquerading
as entertainment and pleasure we could shed light on the world and on the word with those
(25:33):
uh we could shed light the light of the word on those traps right? We can avoid them ourselves
by washing our lives in the word and we could pull others out of the webs with the gospel.
When our Lord hung on the cross two others were hanging with them. One of those men chose
to mock Jesus and the other made a different choice. He chose to repent of his sin and
(25:59):
ask Jesus's forgiveness. Both these men were trapped by their choices but one man was able
to achieve eternal freedom through Jesus Christ. You too can turn from the world wide web of
entertainment and embrace the wisdom of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then you will be set
free broken out of this world's prison and able to help others and be rescued from the
(26:24):
same fate. Sinners saved by grace. So if I could have every head bowed every eye closed
just real quick as we bring this to an end wherever you are as long as it's safe you
just close your eyes bow your head but I just want to give a quick invitation we do this
every day every time that if your heart is not right and this message has impacted you
(26:46):
I want to give you an opportunity to signify that an uplifted hand if you know that your
heart is not right with God you are not in right relationship with him but you want to
be and if you rose that hand and you did that no matter where you are God can see it and
God knows your heart and I want you to just repeat after me dear Lord I know that I'm
a sinner but I know that you sent your son Jesus Christ and that he died and rose from
(27:11):
the grave for me I repent of my sin which means I turn away from him and I accept Jesus
Christ as my Lord my Savior and my King and Jesus name Amen that simple prayer is what
we colloquially call a sinner's prayer is just a recognition that you're a sinner and
(27:32):
your need for Christ so you leave from that with with it hopefully like you feel the difference
immediately because I know when I gave my life to Christ I felt it immediately but there
are other steps not for salvation but for sanctification for growing in Christ and that
would be to lock into a local church body if you're in salmon arm then we'd love to
(27:54):
have you come and to church with us yeah all of the all of the information is in the show
notes but if you're not you can reach out to me we have 3,700 plus churches globally
I'm sure I can find you a Bible believing church for you to lock into get a Bible download
the you version app get get the Word of God start reading it so that you can wash yourself
(28:15):
in the Word and that you can pray to God because you can do that anytime until the Bible tells
us to pray unceasingly and then I just pray that you know doing those things you will
grow in Christ and you will have the restorative change that you know many of us have enjoyed
as we became Christians and saved by grace so I just want to thank you for listening
(28:36):
to me today and if you could like share and subscribe to this podcast this YouTube channel
that would be a great help for us to get this word and message out and so I give you give
you back you the rest of your week thank you for listening can't wait for you to come back
next time God bless
Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast be sure to follow
(29:02):
us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on what we are
doing join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.
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