Participants:
Series Code: DID
Program Code: DID210006S
|
00:18 Welcome again to Digital Disconnect.
00:21 I'm your host Scott Ritsema for this series of 13 programs 00:24 on the dangers and effects of the media of this digital age. 00:28 How it's causing a disconnect in our relationships 00:31 with each other, our relation- ship with God most of all. 00:34 In fact, this is not a series about media. 00:37 Everything we do is and ought to be about Jesus. 00:40 He is the One in whom we live and move and have our being. 00:42 So when we think about a disconnect from some of this 00:45 excessive media it's really a re-connect 00:48 with Jesus Christ, with family, with friends, 00:51 with the church, with the lost, with the hurting. 00:53 And there are an awful lot of hurting people out there. 00:55 You've heard in the first five episodes a catastrophic 00:59 epidemic of mental health problems and addiction 01:03 and attention span and family disruptions. 01:05 We won't repeat everything from the first five. 01:08 You want to go back and view those if you missed them. 01:09 And I hope you're sharing this information. 01:11 'Cause you might say: "Well, I don't really 01:14 have a problem with these things myself" 01:16 BUT there are people in your life who do. 01:19 And so please: be an emissary for freeing 01:22 the captives to media addiction. 01:26 And we're transitioning a bit in this particular session 01:28 as we think not just about Smartphone use and social media 01:33 and the digital revolution that took us by storm 01:36 and video game addiction and child development and... 01:39 We're going to look a little bit more specifically 01:42 at entertainment types of media. 01:44 I did a survey a little while back 01:46 just to see how the Christian young people are doing 01:49 with their media exposure. 01:51 And specifically - I was a teacher at the time - 01:53 I was teaching in a Christian academy. 01:56 And I wanted to know: "OK now, I know these students 01:59 want to love God and have a higher standard 02:02 than that of the world, but I started to catch wind of 02:04 pretty deep exposure and immer- sion in Hollywood entertainment 02:09 and violent video games and worldly music. 02:11 So I was curious to try to quantify that. 02:13 I did a little survey. Asked them, you know, how many hours 02:17 a day over the past week did you spend on Hollywood entertainment 02:21 and violent video games? Anonymous survey. 02:23 It wasn't judgment; it wasn't witch hunting. 02:24 Nothing of that nature. But I also wanted to know 02:27 how much time are you spending in the Word? 02:28 How much time are you spending in devotions? 02:30 Seeking the Living God? And that could be in spiritual 02:33 books. That could be in going for a walk and singing 02:36 hymns and listening to birds sing 02:38 or whatever it is that connects you with your Savior. 02:40 And I wanted to compare the two. 02:42 How much time are we spending in the Word versus the world? 02:44 The numbers were absolutely shocking to me. 02:47 When I got the results back and quantified them and added up 02:51 all the data, the average for these high-school age 02:54 Christian young people was 4 hours per day 02:57 just in Hollywood entertainment and violent video games 03:00 and only 10 minutes a day on average in spiritual pursuits. 03:04 Four hours versus 10 minutes is quite an imbalance. 03:07 And by the way, this didn't include worldly music 03:11 and what we're doing online on the Internet. 03:14 This was just movies and violent video games. 03:17 It was a 25 to 1 ratio if you're interested in 03:20 some mathematically nerdy stuff there. 03:22 Four hours to 10 minutes is a 25 to 1 ratio 03:25 which interestingly is the exact same ratio 03:28 of the Standard American Diet when you add up all the calories 03:31 we get from unhealthy sources versus healthy sources. 03:35 And if we identify healthy as, you know, whole food 03:38 plant-based sources of nutrition 03:40 for every one calorie that we are consuming of that 03:44 we're consuming 25 calories of everything else. 03:47 Twenty-five to 1 ratio of that Standard American Diet 03:51 which SAD: Standard American Diet 03:54 spells SAD. And it's a sad diet indeed! 03:56 It's a junk food diet. It's increasing diabetes 03:59 and heart disease and all these lifestyle diseases and death. 04:02 And in fact, 94% of the people who died from COVID-19 04:05 in 2020 were comorbid with these other lifestyle diseases. 04:09 And so you might say we had a pandemic already waiting 04:14 looking for a cause and a catalyst. 04:16 It's a pandemic of choice... a pandemic of unhealthy living 04:20 and lifestyle. Now this is not a seminar on how we eat. 04:24 But really, I'll tell you something: 04:26 just to put in a little mention for healthy living 04:31 not just to mitigate the risk for lifestyle diseases 04:36 but did you know that for every additional serving 04:38 of fruit and vegetables that you add to your diet 04:40 you get a measurable boost of happiness? 04:43 Studies have shown it! 04:45 You add one more you get a measurable boost of happiness. 04:49 Add another serving of fruit or vegetables 04:52 you get another... up to 8 additional servings 04:54 of fruits and vegetables add 8 additional boosts of happiness 04:58 that are measurable in the subjects of the study. 05:02 Well that's encouraging, so wait: does God actually 05:04 want me to be happy? Oh yeah, we're going to get into that 05:07 in the session when we talk about how to escape 05:09 the pleasure trap. We're going to look at boredom 05:11 and the Bible and all of these things in an upcoming session 05:14 in episode #12. But when we think about the issue of 05:18 this diet killing us physically, 05:22 the Standard American Diet, 05:24 is our media use, if we're exposed to the same ratio 05:28 25 to 1 entertainment vs. spiritual food 05:33 the analogy fits, doesn't it? 05:35 We're dying spiritually if we're consuming 05:38 the things of the world. The Bible says: "Do not love 05:41 the world or anything in the world. " It says: 05:43 "If any man loves the world, the love of the Father 05:45 is not in him. " So we can't love, we can't 05:48 serve two masters. We can't love both the world 05:50 and the Father. In fact, the Bible gives us 05:54 some encouragement about that. 05:55 It says that we can "come apart and be separate 05:58 saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing 06:01 and He will receive us. " 06:03 Is that encouraging? We don't want the unclean thing. 06:05 We want Philippians 4 verse 8. 06:09 "Whatsoever things are true 06:11 and noble and right and excellent and praiseworthy 06:14 these are the things we are to think upon. " 06:17 This session is called Transformed by the Renewing 06:20 of our Minds. It says in Romans 12 verse 2 06:24 you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 06:27 Not conformed to this world. Oh, the devil's got a program 06:30 to conform the mass mind to the standard of his kingdom 06:34 and his principles of darkness which we will talk about. 06:37 But I want to see what's going on in the mind 06:40 and what is this thing called the frontal lobe. 06:42 Take a look at this graphic about the frontal lobe. 06:44 Scientists have shown that this area of the brain 06:47 is where our spirituality is, our morality, 06:49 the exercise of the will. 06:51 Reason and conscience are also housed in the frontal lobe. 07:02 All of these things that define basically what it is to live 07:06 the Christian life are happening right there. 07:09 It's interesting. In Revelation chapter 7 the seal of God is 07:12 placed on the foreheads of the believers in the last days. 07:16 We'll get back to that in just a minute. 07:19 But I like talking about the frontal lobe. 07:21 We discussed it earlier in some of the opening sessions 07:24 when we looked at the prefrontal cortex 07:26 and how when our attention span is dropping 07:28 and our emotional self-regulation is dropping 07:31 and self-control is dropping 07:33 it's because the frontal lobe is weakening 07:36 in its ability to gain the mastery, 07:39 to exercise the will. Those things we were just seeing 07:42 on the screen. Having the prayer, having the discernment 07:45 between right and wrong, between truth and error. 07:49 This is a critical part of our spiritual being: 07:53 the circuits to the frontal lobe. 07:54 The Bible says: "Come now; let us reason together" 07:58 and says: "The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. " 08:02 It says: "Love God with all your heart; love your neighbor. " 08:05 Altruism: doing good deeds for others 08:08 even if we get no benefit from ourselves. 08:10 People are willing to lay down their lives for the cause 08:12 of the gospel. These are the ways that God's people 08:16 have been able to live the Christian life Biblically: 08:18 through the frontal lobe circuits. 08:20 Now there's another area of the brain I want to show you 08:22 on the screen here. It's the Limbic System. 08:25 This scientists refer to as "the lizard brain. " 08:27 It's where your lower nature, your base passions are housed. 08:31 It is where you find the fight or flight mechanism. 08:34 The appetites and the lusts of the flesh 08:38 and a whole list and litany of emotional impulses. 08:48 And I'll tell you something: for most people 08:50 it's a trade-off: limbic system and frontal lobe. 08:53 When frontal lobe is coming down limbic system is coming up 08:56 and its mastery over you. And you're dominated by 08:59 these impulses and lusts and emotional outbursts 09:02 and struggles. But if we can enhance this area 09:06 by God's grace and His strength in practical things we can do 09:09 in our lives then we will have a greater experience with Jesus 09:13 and a more joyful life. 09:15 I'll tell you something: remember the thing about stress. 09:17 The media exposure that we do with the fast pace, 09:22 with the social media, with all of the intensity 09:24 and the over stimulation that's happening is increasing cortisol 09:28 release in our body. That increases the risk for disease 09:30 and it also reduces prefrontal cortex function. 09:33 Video game exposure in child- hood; excessive entertainment. 09:37 Our entertainment use; excessive social media use 09:39 for the wrong types of pre- dispositions and personalities 09:43 and what it's like when you're on there 09:45 is also reducing prefrontal cortex. 09:47 Smartphone use and addictions; when we have the habitual 09:50 and compulsive methods of using these media where 09:54 we're being used by them like the guy... the phone holding 09:58 the man instead of the man holding the phone. 10:00 You remember the graphic from episode 5. 10:03 But the limbic system is ac- tually referred to in the Bible. 10:07 It doesn't say limbic system; it doesn't say frontal lobe. 10:10 It says forehead and it does say 10:12 "Love the Lord your God" and it says 10:14 "Come let us reason together" 10:15 and "the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. " 10:17 But the limbic system is perhaps hinted at 10:19 when the apostle Paul talks about the carnal mind 10:22 which is at enmity against God. 10:24 So there's an element within our fallen human nature 10:27 that wars against the spiritual man 10:30 that we gain the mastery over... 10:31 that we want to gain the victory over. 10:33 And I'll tell you that when the Bible says to not be 10:36 carnally minded 'cause that is death 10:39 but to be heavenly minded 10:41 then we want to know the desires of the flesh 10:43 that come out of that limbic system that are excessively 10:46 dominated and enhanced by these media use. 10:50 'Cause I want you to imagine like you have a switch 10:52 on the front of your frontal lobe right now. 10:54 Right now it's in the on position. 10:56 You're listening; you're engaged; you're thinking. 10:59 Now if you were to sit down to watch something other 11:02 than an informational program that is enhancing to the frontal 11:05 lobe like this, you're going to watch theatrical-style 11:08 entertainment television or you're going to get into 11:10 some high stimulating entertainment of some kind. 11:13 The frontal lobe begins to be reduced 11:16 and - guess what? the limbic system enhanced. 11:19 'Cause I want you to take a look at this graphic. 11:28 There's a whole list: 11:34 You want to know what that word means? 11:36 Oh, that's an interesting etymology there! 11:39 To muse means to think; 11:41 a means not; 11:44 so amuse means to not think. 11:48 So when we're in a state of amusement... 11:50 I'll tell you something: I believe in recreation. 11:52 As a father of children, we like to have fun together. 11:55 We want to have a good time doing healthy and holy 11:59 and happy things together as a family. 12:01 Getting outdoors; playing; hiking; 12:04 building... all sorts of things. 12:06 Well, there's a contrast between recreation 12:11 on the one hand and amusement. 12:13 We'll take that up in a following episode. 12:16 But when we're engaged in viewing theatrical-style 12:20 entertainment television... "Oh, it's only PG rated. " 12:23 But you know what's happening? The frontal lobe is being 12:25 reduced and all of those impulses and emotions are 12:28 are enhanced by the theatrical dramatic elements of the program 12:32 and they get you in that state of that feeling 12:34 and it's designed for that exact purpose. 12:38 So... there will be some long-term effects. 12:40 When we exercise the circuits of our limbic system 12:44 and we turn off the circuits of our frontal lobe 12:47 what is going to happen over time? 12:49 Well this is going to become weaker and this is going to 12:50 become stronger. We will live more out of the limbic system: 12:54 fear, stress, lust, anxiety, anger, irritability, 12:57 negativity, and aggression. 12:59 We will have less of the strength of the will 13:02 and the "Come now let us reason together" 13:04 and the ability to overrule and regulate those impulses. 13:08 The spirituality, the morality will be weakened. 13:10 And that's the devil's idea: how to get Christians 13:13 who are not going to be viewing the demonic and worldly 13:16 entertainment but they: "Well we'll have a good standard 13:19 but we're still going to be into entertainment. " 13:21 It still affects the frontal lobe. 13:23 So the Bible says in Galatians 6 verse 8 13:27 that if we "sow to the flesh" - 13:29 we could say to the limbic system - we exercise and enhance 13:33 that - we will: "from the flesh reap corruption. " 13:38 Going to corrupt our very nature. 13:39 "but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit 13:44 reap eternal life. " Do you want to sow to the spiritual 13:47 man where we gain victory? I do. I want to receive the seal 13:51 of God. You know, there's a lot of people have thought about 13:53 the brain circuits and the brain regions as being analogous 13:56 to a muscle. If you don't use it you lose it. 13:59 You exercise it you strengthen it. 14:00 And so you've got two arms. You've got two things 14:03 we're talking about here: limbic system, frontal lobe. 14:05 What happens when you exercise one arm 14:07 multiple times a day every day? You're going hard core with 14:10 that arm. You get a big muscle there, but if you put this one 14:13 in a sling and do nothing with it for hours a day every day, 14:17 well over time this one's going to become emaciated 14:20 and atrophied and useless and you'll do everything 14:23 with this arm. You will revert to this arm; this one is 14:25 largely useless. Same thing with the brain circuitry. 14:28 It changes our very character when we are enhancing that 14:32 limbic system to the detriment of the frontal lobe. 14:34 So the arm analogy helps us think through that a bit. 14:38 But we did address the question of this entertainment 14:42 even if it's morally acceptable, morally innocuous. 14:46 But most of it is not as you're aware. 14:49 Take a look at the graphic about how many 14:51 acts of violence young people are viewing by the age of 18. 15:14 THAT is an awful lot, isn't it? 15:17 You heard about product placements there as well. 15:20 It's all the commercials but then they're advertising to you 15:23 during the program. I mean they're throwing ads at you 15:26 by product placements and showing the alcohol label 15:28 or logo or mention of it verbally 15:31 or even subliminally. We'll talk a little bit about 15:34 advertising industry manipulation and propaganda 15:37 in a coming episode. But when I used to hear those numbers 15:40 when I was a young person... You know, I would hear messages 15:43 from preachers saying: "You shouldn't be consuming 15:45 worldly entertainment. " "Oh, " I would say, "it's not 15:47 affecting me. I can watch these things 15:50 and I can listen to these things and I can play these things 15:53 in the video games and you know it's not affecting me. " 15:57 "I'm not going out and killing anybody, see? 15:59 So I can play violent video games. " 16:01 "I'm not going out engaging in these acts 16:03 so that's proof that it is not affecting me. " 16:07 Now I wish I could go back to my 15-year-old self 16:09 and like shake me by the shoulders. 16:11 "Wake up there, young fella! 16:13 Have you read the Bible? " We know something from Matthew 5 16:17 that I'll get to in just a second, but there was 16:18 an interesting scientific study that was done in Italy 16:22 where they looked at the brain of monkeys. 16:24 And they wanted to see what goes inside the brain... 16:26 what goes on inside the brains of monkeys while they did 16:29 various activities. OK... the monkey is eating peanuts. 16:31 "Oh very interesting! This circuit fires off 16:34 and that one. " OK, this never would have made headline news 16:36 just learning what goes on in the monkey's brain while 16:38 he eats the peanuts. BUT when they took a break 16:41 they found something accidentally that was absolutely 16:43 fascinating to them. 16:44 They moved the peanuts to the other side of the room. 16:47 The scientists are on a break. The monkey's sitting there 16:49 in his chair. He's still got his little monitoring cap on 16:52 there. The scientist is eating the peanuts now 16:56 and the monkey is just sitting over there in his seat 16:59 watching peanuts being eaten. 17:02 Just watching... not eating. 17:04 And one of the other scientists notices: "Wow! This is 17:07 fascinating what goes on in the monkey's brain while 17:09 he watches peanuts being... Wait! Wait! 17:11 This looks kind of familiar to the brain scan of the monkey 17:15 when he was eating the peanuts. Let's compare the two. " 17:17 So they took the two brain scans. They compared them 17:19 side by side and they put them together 17:22 seeing that's the same brain scan. They called it 17:25 mirror neurons. They discovered that whatever we see with our 17:29 eyes is interpreted by the brain 17:32 as if we are doing it ourselves not merely seeing it. 17:36 200,000 acts of violence. That's just on TV by the way. 17:39 That doesn't even count acting them out in the video game. 17:42 79,500 scenes of a sexual nature 17:45 and almost all of that is inappropriate, not promoting 17:49 God's vision for Godly marriage and modesty. 17:53 So that kind of debunks the 15-year-old version of myself 17:58 that was saying: "Oh, I'm not affected by it. " 18:01 Jesus already addressed this in Matthew 5. 18:04 I used to say: "Oh, just 'cause I'm not going out 18:06 and doing it... " Did Jesus say all that matters 18:09 is whether you go out and kill somebody or whether 18:11 you go out and commit the act of adultery? 18:13 No! He said: "You have heard that it was said 18:16 'Do not kill. ' You have heard that it was said 18:18 'Do not commit adultery. ' 18:20 And I tell you... " He's raising the bar... 18:23 "if you have lusted after a woman in your heart, 18:25 if you have hatred towards somebody in your heart, 18:28 you've violated the commandments against murder and against 18:32 adultery. " He's taking us to the real heart of things. 18:34 What's going on in here is forming our character. 18:38 We are transformed by the renewing of our mind 18:43 not just our behavior. The behavior will follow. 18:45 We will act in a way out of our mental condition that we foster. 18:51 The way that we develop our character by what we see 18:54 and what we behold and what we think and what we say 18:56 when nobody's around. These things start to impact 18:59 who we are at our very core. 19:02 And that will eventually mani- fest in some types of behaviors 19:05 holy or unholy. 19:06 Are we being transformed or are we being conformed? 19:09 Romans 12 verse 2 asks us to make a choice. 19:12 "Be not conformed to this world 19:14 but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. " 19:17 So it's what happens in here that counts. 19:19 And science has even discovered that. I found that scientific 19:22 study to be very instructive. Jesus was 2,000 years 19:25 ahead of the science, though. 19:26 Now there was an Amish young man 19:28 who left the Amish community - true story - 19:31 and he went out and watched the first movie he had ever seen. 19:34 He grew up not with movies or television or electricity 19:37 and he went and watched an old Western film, OK? 19:40 So he was really excited to watch John Wayne. 19:42 And this was like the old-style in movies. 19:44 Now some of you watching maybe grew up with that. 19:47 I mean that's before my time, but sometimes when I was 19:49 a history teacher I would show my students 19:51 old movies as part of the history program 19:55 as part of the curriculum. 19:56 I wouldn't do that today knowing what I know now. 19:58 But when I was showing those old movies from the 30's & 40's 20:02 and so on... 50's... I would show them clips. 20:05 I would show them movies and they would fall asleep 20:07 like within 20 minutes... within 10 minutes... of 20:09 that movie being on. They were so accustomed to 20:11 a much more shock-value type of movie. 20:14 You know: shoot-em-up type of R-rated movies and whatever 20:16 that were popular at the time. 20:19 The Amish kid, though, did not fall asleep. 20:21 You know my students might laugh at the movie. 20:23 Somebody... It's a gun-fighting scene in the old Western film. 20:28 That's what the Amish kid watched: it's was an old Western 20:30 film in this particular story. 20:31 If my students saw that they'd laugh at that. 20:34 You know, if there was a scary scene... 20:35 shocking they'd laugh. The Amish kid, though, 20:39 did not laugh. He turned white pale 20:42 when he saw somebody shot in that old Western film 20:44 which is very not shocking by today's standards, right? 20:48 But maybe by God's standards this is not good. 20:50 So he's shocked by it 'cause he's never seen it. 20:52 He runs out of the house white pale in his face 20:55 and he throws up because it was a pretty big shocker to him 20:59 to see that. And as I heard that story 21:02 and thought about that the Bible verse that says... 21:04 It says: "Do not have your consciences seared as with 21:08 a hot iron. " That's what came to mind. 21:11 Are we being desensitized? 21:13 Think about the graphic here of the frog in the pot. 21:16 Have you ever heard the analogy of the frog in the pot? 21:20 One frog is thrown into already boiling water. 21:22 He jumps right out. 21:24 The other frog is bathed in lukewarm water 21:26 that's increasing in its tem- perature slowly, incrementally. 21:30 And he doesn't even realize the danger that's happening 21:34 to him. He's: "Oh, there's no big problem here. " 21:37 And it gets a little hotter and a little hotter. 21:40 The increasing temperature is imperceptible to him. 21:43 He's totally oblivious to the fact that he's in danger. 21:46 It's getting hotter; it's getting hotter. 21:47 He passes out. The water rolls to a boil 21:50 and the frog perishes... certain frog species. 21:53 So is that happening to us? 21:55 Are we allowing ourselves to be bathed in worldliness? 22:00 And we think: "Oh, it's not that bad. " 22:02 Is that the kind of phrase that Jesus says? 22:05 He says: "It's not that bad? " 22:07 He says: "No, you've heard don't kill people. I say 22:09 don't even hate people. " 22:10 We want to raise the standard not lower the standard. 22:13 And so the frog in the pot teaches us: do not dally. 22:18 We do not play around with sin, with worldliness, 22:21 because you're in danger of searing the conscience 22:24 as with a hot iron. 22:26 And I'll tell you something: this has last days implications. 22:29 Because when you study in Isaiah chapter 33 22:32 you look at verse 14 and it asks a very important question. 22:36 It says: "Who among us 22:39 is going to be able to dwell 22:41 and live in the consuming fire? " 22:44 And you might say: "Well, who is the consuming fire? " 22:47 "What is the consuming fire? " 22:48 Hebrews 12:29 tells us: "Our God is a consuming fire. " 22:53 So if you get that picture of God IS the consuming fire 22:57 then you go back to Isaiah 33:14 23:00 and it says: "Who among us will dwell? 23:04 Will live? Will survive? in the presence of God? " 23:07 You might think: "Scott, can't everybody 23:08 dwell and live and survive in the presence of God? 23:11 Well Moses actually asked: "Show me Your glory. " 23:14 Do you remember the verse in Exodus chapter 33? 23:17 He asked God to show him His unveiled glory and God said: 23:21 "Hold on! No one can see My face and live. " 23:25 Now there will be some people who DO live though. 23:28 At that time Moses was not ready for that. 23:31 Elijah was. At one point the fire came down 23:33 and took him right back up to heaven, right? Up to heaven. 23:37 And Jesus says there will be some who see God. 23:40 "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. " 23:44 So Isaiah's question that he's asking 23:47 "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? " 23:50 there will be a group who will be able to survive 23:53 in the very presence of a Living God. 23:56 They are called the pure in heart. 23:58 Revelation also refers to this group. 24:01 It says: "In the last days when Jesus is coming on the 24:04 clouds of heaven there will be a group 24:06 of the masses of earth's inhabitants who will be running 24:09 away from Him. They will be saying: 24:13 "Fall on us and hide us rocks and mountains 24:15 from the face of the wrath of the Lamb 24:17 for His great day has come and who shall be able to... 24:21 stand? " Same question Isaiah is asking. 24:24 "Who among us will be able to stand 24:26 and dwell and live in the presence of the Almighty God? " 24:29 They're running away which is kind of ironic 24:32 because it's a Lamb coming. 24:34 A Lamb! The Lamb of God who was slain! 24:37 God doesn't want to hurt anybody. 24:39 He wants to SAVE. 24:40 But some people put themselves in a state so out of harmony 24:44 with the love and self-sacrificing purity 24:47 of the righteous holy God 24:49 that His presence to them is something to flee. 24:52 And He is to them a consuming fire. 24:54 But there is a group that will be able to stand. 24:57 They ask the question when they're running away: 24:59 "Who shall be able to stand? " 25:02 That's the end of the chapter. It's Revelation 6 25:05 if you want to study that out. 25:06 And a lot of people end the reading there and they go: 25:08 "Well, that's the end of the chapter. I guess it's 25:10 a rhetorical question and we don't know who will be able 25:13 to stand. " You can have assurance today 25:15 that you will be in the group that will be able to stand 25:17 'cause you read on into chapter 7 25:19 and it answers the question: "Who shall be able to stand? " 25:23 which is at the end of chapter 6. 25:26 End of chapter 6: "Who shall be able to stand? " 25:28 Read on into 7... Revelation chapter 7 says: 25:31 "The angel was ascending from the East 25:33 with the seal of God to be placed on the foreheads 25:37 of the believers in the last days. " 25:40 So there's the answer to the question: "Who shall be able 25:42 to stand? " People who have by faith 25:46 in the righteousness of Christ who have been so settled 25:49 into the truth both intellectually and spiritually 25:52 that they cannot be moved though the heavens fall. 25:55 And in the last days there will be tribulations. 25:58 There will be trials; there will be deceptions; 26:01 and there will be a group who will testify to the end. 26:04 And I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in. 26:08 That number was numbered as 144,000 symbolically 26:12 meaning the complete totality of God's people in the last days 26:15 to receive the seal of God. 26:18 And I'll tell you that what we do right now 26:21 is determinative regarding which group we will be in: 26:25 the sealed or those who are running away from the Lamb 26:28 seeking the refuge of the rocks 26:29 to fall on them and destroy them. 26:32 There is an answer to Isaiah's question by the way 26:35 in Isaiah 33:14: "Who shall be able to dwell 26:38 in the everlasting burnings? 26:40 Who will be able to stand in the consuming fire? " 26:43 Verse 15 says: 26:45 "He who shuts his eye from looking upon evil 26:49 and who shuts his ears from hearing about evil. " 26:53 He who shuts his eyes from looking upon bloodshed 26:56 and shuts his ears from hearing about evil. 26:58 You might say: "Well, we're not saved by our media choices 27:02 so I can kind of watch what I want and play what I want 27:04 and do what I want. " 27:06 No, we're not saved by our media choices. 27:08 We're saved only by the blood of the Lamb and the righteousness 27:10 of Christ. But if we are be- holding the things of this world 27:13 we will become conformed to this world. 27:15 And if we are beholding those things 27:17 we are not beholding the Lamb in whom we find salvation. 27:21 So we are saved by that Lamb and only by beholding 27:24 can we become transformed into His image 27:26 from glory to glory. 27:28 Who will be able to stand in the consuming fire? 27:31 He who shuts his eyes and ears from the things of this world 27:34 and beholds something better. 27:36 And what is that something better? 27:38 Are you in the Word of God? 27:40 Are you walking with Jesus Christ today? 27:42 That's the ultimate appeal of Digital Disconnect. 27:45 This series is about a whole lot of things 27:47 but when it boils down to it the ultimate essence 27:50 is our relationship with Jesus Christ. 27:52 See Him in prayer and repentance 27:54 if we are dabbling with the world 27:56 to cut that off right now and uproot it by the roots 27:59 and seek Him with all your heart. |
Revised 2021-05-17