Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbut
Series Code: TKS
Program Code: TKS000010
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00:30 Hello, I'm Lance Wilbur. And I'm Dwayne Lemon.
00:33 And we like to welcome you to another episode of TKS, 00:35 the True Knowledge of Self, 00:37 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective. 00:41 We're continuing a subject here 00:43 and dealing with Israel's transition 00:47 from the Promised Land to a exile in a foreign land, 00:51 the foreign land of Babylon. 00:52 How did they go from God's favor 00:55 to absolute confusion? 00:58 We went through several verses 01:01 and several places in scriptures 01:02 and show that God doesn't just arbitrarily punish. 01:08 When we talk about the curses 01:10 if you will that come upon God's people there 01:13 because of our decisions. 01:16 Sometimes God allows or all the time 01:18 God allows the natural result of our decisions 01:22 to bear fruit if you will, so yield the natural outcome. 01:26 And we saw a kind of a step by step way 01:30 in which God's people continued to rebel against the Lord. 01:35 They asked for a king, 01:36 a man to rule over them instead of God 01:39 and this rebellion became institutionalized. 01:43 And we have to understand that as sin translated 01:46 from heaven to the earth and now from the earth 01:51 and through humanity, now it's God's people Israel 01:53 taken out of confusion in Egypt 01:55 and sin and bondage delivered 01:57 into a Promised Land given all the benefits in-- 02:00 given almost a new start on existence. 02:04 They still chose Satan. 02:07 They still choose the trappings of the surrounding nations 02:11 and desired to be like the nations around them 02:14 rather than the way that God designed. 02:17 God designed us for His glory and for His purpose. 02:19 God designed us to represent Him 02:22 and God designed us not only as individuals 02:23 and families and communities 02:25 but as entire nations that represent Him. 02:27 And His chosen nation Israel had now gone astray. 02:32 So we want to look further into 02:34 and investigate further 02:35 and see what the Bible has to say about 02:37 not only how ancient Israel came into this predicament, 02:42 but we saw that ancient Israel's experience 02:45 was for our benefit now nearing the end of the world. 02:48 So what are we looking at today 02:50 in society in the urban community, 02:53 in the urban culture? 02:56 What are the trappings that 02:57 are pulling people away from the ways of God 03:00 and into the ways of Babylon? 03:03 And, Dwayne, I want you to kind of expound on that 03:06 and show us from scripture, 03:09 how God now makes the modern application 03:12 or the application to those who live 03:14 in those end times and those last days. 03:16 What are we to look at as warning signs 03:19 and a clear picture of what was experienced 03:23 in the past by ancient Israel 03:25 and now what we're dealing with today. 03:27 Not a problem, you know, when you look 03:29 at the principle taught in Ecclesiastes 1. 03:32 You know it's a powerful principle given 03:35 by an individual who understood 03:37 the experiences of life. 03:38 Solomon was a man who followed his own will, 03:41 and he saw himself consistently falling 03:44 into the traps of the enemy as a result of it. 03:46 So now that he's beginning to-- 03:49 I will say sober up. 03:50 You know, he now wants to counsel those 03:52 who have fallen into similar traps like 03:54 he is or may fall into similar traps like he did. 03:57 And you find in Ecclesiastes 1, specifically verse 9, 04:01 the Bible says, "The thing that hath been, 04:04 it is that which shall be, 04:07 and that which is done is that which shall be done: 04:12 and there is no new thing under the sun." 04:17 Now if you just broke down that verse. 04:18 It's very powerful to understand. 04:20 The thing that have been that's the past 04:22 is that which shall be that's the future 04:26 and that which is done. 04:28 That's presently is that which shall be done. 04:31 That's future again. 04:32 There's no new thing under the sun. 04:33 So history has a tendency to repeat itself 04:36 and that's why I mentioned in our previous program. 04:38 We talked about how-- 04:39 when we look at a lot of these decisions 04:42 that were made by Israel. 04:43 We can see ourselves in that story. 04:46 We can see that this is not just a past truth 04:48 but this is present truth. 04:49 This is something that's affecting us today. 04:52 When God brought Israel up, God made Israel for his glory. 04:56 When God brings any human being up in this world 05:00 and we are privileged to be born in this world. 05:02 God's purpose and design for us 05:05 is that we might give him glory. 05:07 Israel's mistake was that they could not appreciate that. 05:10 They were blind sighted to that fact 05:12 and as a result of that, 05:14 they found themselves going into the path of culture, 05:17 their surroundings what was around them. 05:20 And they were not content with God, 05:22 so therefore they wanted to go ahead 05:23 and be like those around them. 05:24 Today in the urban communities you see the same things. 05:28 Many of them have not been privileged to learn about God 05:30 or they might have been given a foul picture of God 05:33 or they have actually heard the truths of God, 05:36 but they don't want it, 05:37 because they are looking at 05:38 their surroundings and you see this. 05:39 This is one of the reasons why you and I 05:41 ended up in hip-hop culture. 05:42 We didn't choose, it chose us. 05:44 We were around it, 05:46 it was soliciting us on a regular basis. 05:49 We didn't really have much options to pull, 05:51 so therefore we said, you know what? 05:53 Let's go ahead and take this thing. 05:54 And then even when God and His truth 05:56 would want to come in our lives. 05:58 There's now a natural gravitation 05:59 towards those things that were surrounding us 06:02 and influencing us, providing something to us 06:04 that's very consistent in the heart of men 06:07 that God spoke about 06:08 in the Book of Second Timothy 3. 06:10 I want us to turn there because you're gonna find 06:12 a 2 Timothy the third chapter that it gives a picture 06:15 of what's going on in the last days. 06:17 And I believe it's very much applicable 06:19 to what we see happening 06:21 in the hip-hop and R&B culture today. 06:23 Beyond the hip hop and R&B culture 06:25 because again there's new age, 06:26 there's all these different influences-- 06:28 But I want us to look at this 06:30 because it's very, very powerful to see 06:32 how God reveled the condition of mankind 06:35 and even of religious influence in the last days. 06:39 It says in 2 Timothy 3 and I'm looking at verses 1-5 06:43 it says," This know also, 06:46 that in the last days perilous times shall come. 06:50 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, 06:52 covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, 06:56 disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 07:01 without natural affection, trucebreakers, 07:05 false accusers, incontinent, fierce, 07:07 despisers of those that are good, 07:10 traitors, heady, highminded, 07:13 lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 07:18 I like to stop right here 07:19 actually before we go to verse 5. 07:22 Paul is presenting a picture. 07:26 He's showing us that an issue 07:28 that was going to exist in the last days. 07:30 Now that we're living in those times right now. 07:33 And one of things that Paul sees is that 07:35 they're gonna be people 07:36 who are overwhelming discontented 07:39 with the things of God. 07:40 They don't want to do the things of God. 07:42 The last thing on their mind is God. 07:44 What's on their mind is their selves 07:46 and therefore we find that 07:47 selfishness is really the issue. 07:50 Selfishness about self exaltations all about me 07:53 and what I want, when I want, how I want. 07:54 Right, so if you had to summarize 07:56 all of those descriptions 07:57 in a different heady highminded, 08:00 boasters, all those things, 08:01 you summarize it with that one word. 08:03 Selfishness and that's the issue 08:05 is that individuals are focused more on themselves 08:08 and again, my heart goes out because there are many people 08:11 who never had a true picture of God. 08:13 They've never seen God in His truth 08:15 and His loveliness and His character 08:16 because I've learned that God is so beautiful 08:19 and so wonderful and He is truly 08:22 as the Book of Song of Solomon says, 08:24 all together lovely that 08:26 when you behold Christ in His beauty 08:28 and majesty He's magnetic. 08:30 It's very difficult to pull away 08:31 and say I don't want that. 08:32 You can say I don't want that 08:33 but it's difficult 08:34 because the beauty of God is magnetic. 08:36 But some people never beheld that beauty. 08:38 Some people have never seen that loveliness of Christ 08:40 and His character And His image and His grace. 08:42 So therefore it's easy to default 08:45 to the things that are around us 08:47 and therefore we become lovers of pleasure 08:50 more than lovers of God. 08:52 Now in verse 5, it tells us something that we should do. 08:56 It says, "Having a form of godliness, 09:00 but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 09:05 Now, we see this unfolding in two different ways. 09:09 We can turn away meaning we who recognize good 09:13 can see back and turn away from it. 09:15 That's an option for you, that's an option for me, 09:17 that's an option for our viewers. 09:19 Everyone one has an opportunity to know right from wrong 09:22 and then to make a decision 09:24 a choice to say, you know what? 09:26 I'm gonna choose to follow these straight narrow path 09:29 rather than this wide and broad path. 09:30 So therefore we can choose to turn away 09:33 but you'll find that some people negatively, 09:35 they're seeing hypocrisy, they're seeing things 09:37 that are going on even in religious realms 09:39 and as a result of that they are turning away, 09:42 meaning I don't want any part of this hypocrisy. 09:44 I don't want any part of these contradictions. 09:46 I want to go ahead and do what I want to do, 09:47 when I want to do. 09:48 Because what's the point? 09:50 So we see that 09:51 this is a very unfortunate reality 09:53 and this is why we're in the condition, 09:55 in the world today that we're in. 09:57 It's affected and infected our urban communities. 10:00 We are at a point now where, you know, the same people 10:04 who profess to know God 10:06 and to be a God are the same individuals 10:09 that will gladly for the sake of money 10:11 put their faces on a billboard and they will go ahead 10:15 and advertise an alcoholic beverage like 10:18 Hennessey or Guinness Stout or something like that. 10:21 These same individuals who claim to love 10:23 the young people in the urban youth. 10:24 These same individuals who are in hip-hop culture 10:26 and will advertise a Clarence--books 10:30 and everything else about knowledge of self 10:32 and righteousness and we are God. 10:33 Would God put his face on a billboard 10:36 and encourage people to drink a poison 10:38 that is debilitating the mind, destroying brain cells 10:41 and it's one of the great 'causes of crime and murder 10:43 and all these things in a community. 10:45 Would God do that? That's an ugly picture of God. 10:47 So lot of these folks, 10:49 if they're willing to be honest with themselves, 10:51 it's the same principle that 10:52 1 Corinthian-- 1 Timothy 6 tells us. 10:55 The love of money is the root of all evil. 10:57 Individuals love money more than 10:58 they even love their fellow man. 11:00 And as a result of that, if the dollars is right, 11:02 I'll even sell out on my own people. 11:04 So that I can go ahead and make my money 11:06 while I can go ahead and advertise something 11:07 that I know is destroying my people. 11:10 But yet I'm calling my self God. 11:11 Right, it's like it, like you said, 11:13 calling yourself God and then selling drugs. 11:16 Or going to a group of young men 11:18 and saying, well, you need true knowledge of self 11:20 but let me smoke weed with you 11:21 and roll dice and gamble with you. 11:23 And you know maybe beat this person up 11:25 and do this and do that, 11:27 but we're gonna go into a higher level. 11:28 You know, I'm gonna take you to a higher level. 11:30 You got another true signs and all these things. 11:32 It is the grosses of contradictions, 11:35 when you have individuals 11:36 who claim to give money to charity. 11:39 They give millions of dollars to charity, 11:40 they go and help starving children here 11:42 or they have food drives and this and that 11:45 but then like you said, they're selling alcohol, 11:46 they're selling vodka in there, you know, it's corruption. 11:49 Exactly and-- it's what makes 11:52 it worse is his glorify corruption. 11:54 It's something that individuals 11:55 are trying to make it seem like it's all right, 11:58 when it's all wrong. 11:59 In fact that was one of the major issues 12:01 with a church in the Bible in Revelation Chapter 3 12:05 and starting at verse 14 and I want to read that to you 12:07 because the same problem that you see 12:10 that was happening with this church, 12:11 we see that is happening in our world today. 12:13 It's happening in the religious world as well. 12:16 It says in Revelation 3:14, 12:18 "And unto the angel of the church 12:19 of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, 12:23 the faithful and true witness, 12:25 the beginning of the creation of God." 12:27 Verse 15, "I know thy works, 12:30 that thou art neither cold nor hot: 12:32 I would thou wert cold or hot. 12:34 So then because thou art lukewarm, 12:37 and neither cold nor hot, 12:39 I will spue thee out of my mouth." 12:41 Verse 17, "Because thou sayest, 12:44 I am rich, and increased with goods, 12:45 and have need of nothing, 12:46 and knowest not that thou art wretched, 12:48 and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" 12:52 God is helping us to get a true knowledge of self. 12:55 God is saying while we are professing 12:57 to be all right, we're really all wrong. 13:00 And neutrality is not a safe place to remain. 13:02 Neutrality is a death position. 13:05 It's a position literally of self destruction, 13:07 and therefore God wants us 13:09 to embrace the reality to say look. 13:11 We are not gods, 13:12 we do not have control as we think we do. 13:14 And our control is not mentioned 13:16 or known by the pigmentation of our skin, 13:19 whether it'd be dark or light or any other another shade, 13:21 God wants us to understand that 13:22 as a result of having a sinful nature. 13:25 You've mentioned about KRS-One and the gentlemen here 13:31 who works with him that 13:32 was talking about the bloodline. 13:34 Oh, Afrika Bambaataa. 13:35 Thank you Afrika bambaataa, you know as we talk about 13:38 this could God be within our bloodline? 13:41 Right, well, I mean that's the idea, 13:42 that's the same confusion that existed 13:44 in Israel in the time of Christ. 13:47 And, you know, after the gospel 13:48 is beginning to decrease after the crucifixion 13:51 is they got to the point where they thought membership 13:55 in their culture or their heritage and lineage 13:59 is what made them holy or not. 14:02 And we know that's completely highlighted 14:06 and kind of destroy that concept in Galatians 3:29 14:13 it says, "If we be Christ's then are we Abraham's seed 14:18 and heirs according to the promise." 14:20 So it's not my genetic make up. It's not my bloodline. 14:24 It's not my lineage that makes me righteous 14:26 or not or gives me an advantage or disadvantage. 14:30 It's my relation to God and my acceptance of his offer 14:37 to restore me to my original existence, 14:41 the place that he wanted me to be 14:42 and that he still wants me to be. 14:43 That's right. So therefore-- 14:45 There's a position now 14:47 that we have to see ourselves in. 14:49 God says, his counsel is that we are wretched, 14:53 we are miserable, we are poor, we are blind, we are naked, 14:56 the more that we can understand that. 14:58 You see when a man is wretched 14:59 miserable, poor, blind, and naked, 15:01 he's gonna seek help because he knows, 15:03 he's in a destitute situation. 15:04 But when a man doesn't think he needs help 15:06 and he's not gonna go to one who can help. 15:07 So this is why God is on this mission 15:10 to give us a true knowledge of self. 15:11 To recognize listen, we are not all right, 15:14 even though we think we are. 15:16 We're in fact all wrong. 15:18 The Bible actually shows what happens 15:20 when we refuse to receive this counsel. 15:23 It testifies to us that here's what can happen, 15:27 if we don't recognize it. 15:28 And it's found in verse 21 of Revelation 3 it says, 15:31 "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit 15:34 with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, 15:36 and am set down with my Father in his throne." 15:41 Now he makes a promise that this is what can happen 15:43 but the condition is overcoming, right? 15:45 But now verse 20, look at what he says, 15:47 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: 15:51 if any man hear my voice, and open the door, 15:54 I will come in to him, 15:55 and will sup with him, and he with me." 15:58 This verse presents both a reality but also hope. 16:02 The hope is built on the fact that God says, I want you. 16:08 And the reason why I say it's a statement of hope 16:10 is because the reality is, he's not with us. 16:13 If God is standing at the door of our hearts 16:14 and knocking to get in, that means that he's out. 16:18 And that means that more likely, 16:19 probably got kicked out. 16:20 So therefore when we indulge in selfishness, 16:23 when we indulge in sin, 16:25 we can remove the presence of God. 16:27 When selfishness become that 16:29 all in all thing about me and my character, 16:32 it can literally remove his presence 16:34 but thank the Lord that even when we kick God 16:38 out of our hearts and out of our lives. 16:39 He loves us so much that He's willing to say, 16:41 you know what, I'm gonna knock on the door of your heart. 16:43 And I'm gonna ask you to let me back in. 16:46 And I praise God for that. Right. 16:47 So the one reality is that if we indulge in sin, 16:52 we can remove God's presence from us. 16:54 God will leave us but it gets-- 16:56 And just to interject. Yes. 16:57 It's not necessarily God leaving us. 17:00 It's us leaving God. 17:01 Yes, yes, but here's where it gets even deeper. 17:05 If we refuse to let God in 17:08 and therefore or if God wasn't but we remove-- 17:10 if we no, I don't want this anymore. 17:13 Not only do we remove ourselves from God 17:16 and God has separated from us. 17:17 But the Bible shows something else that happens 17:20 and this is very important for people to understand. 17:22 It says in 1 Samuel 16, I want you to watch this now 17:26 because in 1 Samuel the 16th chapter, 17:29 it's not enough that when we reject God, 17:33 when we reject the mercy and grace 17:35 that He offers to us that it separates us from God 17:39 but it does something else 17:40 and this is gonna be through the example 17:42 of none other than King Saul. 17:43 In our last program, 17:44 you were talking about King Saul and Israel. 17:46 Well, look at what it says here, 17:48 this is in 1 Samuel 16 17:50 and we're gonna consider verse 13 and 14, it says, 17:55 "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, 17:58 and anointed him in the midst of his brethren..." 18:00 This is talking about David. 18:01 "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David 18:03 from that day forward. 18:05 So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah." 18:08 Verse 14, "But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, 18:14 and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." 18:19 When God is seeking to commune with us 18:22 to reach our hearts and to say, will you accept me? 18:25 And when we choose to indulge in sin 18:28 and say I don't want this. 18:30 What happens is not only that we become separated from God, 18:34 but we also become united with evil forces 18:37 and we see this through the example of King Saul. 18:40 As the spirit of the Lord left him, 18:42 an evil spirit came upon him. 18:45 And this is very important because in hip-hop culture 18:49 we're taught or it has been taught, do your will. 18:53 Do what you want. 18:54 In rock and roll. Do what thou wilt and so on. 18:57 And this is prevalent throughout 18:58 all sorts of different movements. 19:00 Right, there's even like terms, you know, those slang, 19:02 do you or you know, do what you got to do. 19:04 Exactly. Yeah, I'm the boss of me. 19:06 You know, these type of statements 19:08 but the problem is, is that what we don't realize 19:11 is there's no such thing 19:12 as God's will, Satan's will, my will. 19:16 The Bible shows that whenever God presents His will to us, 19:20 if we don't follow His will, 19:22 by default we fulfill Satan's will. 19:26 And therefore this becomes 19:27 a very solemn thought to us to realize 19:29 that this is the condition that we can fall in. 19:32 And this is exactly what happened to Israel of old. 19:35 By beholding what was around them, 19:38 by beholding the things that were against God and His truth. 19:42 Israel found themselves in a place now 19:44 where they are so entrenched like you said, 19:46 institutionalized in rebellion that God saw that 19:49 there is a certain kind of discipline 19:52 that I need to let happen to Israel 19:53 and that discipline was none other than allowing them 19:56 to go into the natural connection 19:58 of the practice of sin bondage. 20:00 Bondage, so essentially like we highlighted in Roman 6:16 20:04 and you know Jesus highlights in John 8 20:07 that sin is equated to slavery. 20:09 Yes. 20:10 So you know, 20:11 while in the knowledge side of hip-hop 20:13 I was talking about mental slavery and talking about 20:15 going into all of these false religions. 20:17 The real mental slavery is self indulgence, 20:21 selfishness, self exaltation, that is the real bondage 20:25 and it's the bondage that God desires to free us from. 20:28 That's right and therefore 20:29 when an individual really gets a chance to scale back, 20:32 listen to the music you're listening to. 20:34 Think about it. 20:35 What are you hearing? Are you hearing? 20:36 Submit your will to God. 20:38 Are you hearing? 20:40 Recognize that you are not your own. 20:42 You've been bought with a price. 20:43 Is that what they're hearing? 20:45 No, they're hearing you are God. 20:47 You are the boss. You make the decisions. 20:49 You go out and get the "bling bling." 20:51 You go ahead and live whatever lifestyle you want 20:54 and live it to the fullest because at the end of the day, 20:56 you are God, you are the one that calls the shots. 20:59 It's a most incredible deception, 21:01 gave reflection of the very character 21:05 not of Lucifer but of Satan himself. 21:07 Now just to take a side bar, 21:09 when we're talking about this idea 21:12 that the message coming through the hip-hop 21:14 or coming through even just a music 21:16 or what's the visual stimulation. 21:18 What hip-hop is presenting itself 21:20 as is-- it's pretty much all negative. 21:24 You know, we can agree on that. 21:26 To some degree or another, everybody is highlighting 21:28 something that is destructive 21:31 either to yourself or to somebody else 21:32 or to society in general. 21:34 And when we talk about Babylon and confusion 21:37 and we talk about desiring 21:38 the things of the nations around you. 21:40 There's gonna be people that argue oh, well, 21:43 what about hip-hop that speaks, you know, Christian hip-hop. 21:48 They sometimes they call it holy hip-hop 21:50 and we're gonna spend, you know, 21:51 some time dealing with the fact that well, 21:56 if it's of the world and that we'll just put this out 21:59 as a postulation, as just the thought to consider. 22:02 If it's of the world by nature, can I adopt it 22:08 and just drop a certain element of righteousness on it 22:11 and it all becomes righteous. 22:13 Can I anoint something that is profane to God? 22:16 Can I make something holy? 22:18 Do I have the power to sanctify 22:20 or is God the one that sanctifies 22:21 because if God is the one that makes things holy, 22:24 then I can only do things that God authorizes. 22:26 And anything I authorize in and of myself 22:29 and think that I'm doing a good work 22:31 because I'm going to make certain compromises 22:33 just to reach a certain slice of humanity. 22:37 Well, did God authorize it? 22:39 And if He didn't, then I have a problem. 22:41 And God doesn't have to change, 22:42 I'm the one that's gonna have to change. 22:44 So I just wanted to, you know, make that point, 22:45 we'll get into all of that 22:47 but it's interesting that you said that 22:49 'cause people are gonna come from the other side. 22:50 Because I know even when I came 22:53 and I think you also in your story. 22:54 When I came into the church, 22:58 I still I met people in the church 23:01 that were around and emceeing. 23:03 So I thought oh, well, all you have to do 23:06 is change the words, no problem. 23:08 Oh, yeah, definitely. 23:09 If I just change the words 23:11 then I can do God's will and still be an emcee. 23:17 I had to learn the hard way. 23:19 I went literally a few years of flip flopping 23:21 back and forth. 23:23 I mean, doing shows still as a Christian, 23:26 doing shows and emceeing. 23:29 And I wasn't thought my lyrics were in my mind truth 23:32 and I'm preaching the truth 23:34 and I'm helping to save individuals. 23:35 I was out doing a show once, 23:37 you know the final straw for me if you will. 23:40 I'm doing a show and you know I excuse myself 23:44 to those that there was time to go on and set 23:46 because I didn't want to go and just hang out in the club. 23:48 So I waited we prayed before we go went in-- 23:52 we went in, we got our wrist band 23:53 but we only wanted water at the bar. 23:55 We go up and do our set, like a 15 minutes set 23:58 and eventually as in the midst of the set. 24:02 I'm going through, I'm going and I'm-- 24:05 you know scanning the area, 24:06 you have people talking, people drinking, 24:08 people dancing and then you have the-- 24:10 you know, the crew in the front and center 24:12 listening and involving with the show. 24:15 And as I look off in the distance past 24:18 the crowd in the front. 24:20 I see a girl dancing, you know dancing just like the world, 24:24 just as if a worldly song was playing 24:27 and as I'm rounding, God spoke to my head and said, 24:30 what you're saying makes absolutely 24:32 no difference right now. 24:34 That's right. This is not my will. 24:36 You can't mix truth and error, 24:38 righteousness and unrighteousness. 24:40 So I was trying to mingle the world 24:42 and deliver the truth to the world's medium 24:44 and God showed me and told me in my mind, 24:47 you can't do it and I had to walk away at that point. 24:49 But it took me a while. Oh, yeah. 24:50 So there's people out there that are living 24:52 their lifestyle and living in that confusion. 24:55 That's right. 24:57 And this is-- I mean, 24:58 you get tempted in, brother. 24:59 Because I mean, I would love to jump into this right now. 25:02 Right. You know, we're gonna dedicate sometime to it. 25:05 But by the grace of God, 25:06 we're gonna address this thing very forcefully. 25:08 We're gonna talk about what is the world. 25:10 'Cause when you hear the word world 25:11 and I'm sure lot of people, you know, 25:13 in the world have heard the word world. 25:15 What do you mean by world? 25:16 So we-- we gonna have to break that down. 25:17 Yes. 25:19 And of course we gonna have to deal with the mixtures. 25:21 Because if ever we're living in the time in earth's history, 25:24 where there is a mixture of things that normally 25:26 would be at variance with each other, it's now. 25:28 So no question about it. We gonna have to address that. 25:30 Yeah. 25:31 But you know, we're making these points to connect it back 25:35 to the fact that these were the mistakes of Israel. 25:38 They were tired of what God had. 25:40 They were tired of what God offered 25:42 and thereforethey wanted to do their own thing. 25:44 As result of this following their own selfish ways, 25:48 loving pleasures more than loving God, 25:50 they found themselves now in bondage 25:52 and here they are in Babylon. 25:53 And there were some things that Babylon 25:55 wanted to introduce to the minds 25:57 of Israel to unfit them. 26:00 That I believe Babylon is trying to do today, 26:03 spiritually speaking. 26:04 And therefore I'm gonna ask you to highlight 26:06 one of these three things that Babylon was trying to introduce 26:10 to Israel to make these changes 26:12 and then we'll gonna pick up from there in our next program, 26:14 where we can kind of build off of these 26:15 and how God gave protection back then 26:17 and how He gives it to us now. 26:19 Well, it's very clear and we'll be going into it. 26:22 And when you go into Daniel in Chapter 1 26:23 that kind of introduce-- it doesn't introduce 26:25 but it gives us an experience of God's people 26:29 going in to Babylon and almost immediately 26:33 when they get there, there's some changes 26:36 that are demanded of them, that are required of them. 26:38 That's right. 26:39 They changed their names 26:41 to reflect the gods of Babylon versus the God of Israel. 26:45 They changed their diet. 26:47 They offered them the king's food, 26:50 the king's food and drink. 26:52 They changed their dress and their appearance. 26:56 They make them eunuchs. 26:58 They changed their entire physiology. 27:02 They changed their being and we also understand 27:06 that their language now has to be changed. 27:08 They put in the school of Babylon 27:10 to become an advisor for the king of Babylon 27:13 and remove from their royalty in Israel. 27:16 Yeah, so we see that Satan has put together 27:20 an amazing trap in this bondage situation 27:23 and we're gonna see the parallels 27:25 in our next program when we talk about 27:26 how the same way Satan was trying to trip Israel up 27:29 in times past, he's doing the same things today. 27:34 We want to thank you all for joining with us. 27:36 We believe that by the grace of God, 27:39 we are learning not only about the past 27:41 but we're also learning about today. 27:43 We're understand how Satan even through the cultures of life, 27:47 even through hip-hop and R&B culture 27:49 how these things are trying to be 27:51 deceptive forces to take us down. 27:53 Until next time; 27:54 we just want to remind you of Proverbs 2:6 that 27:57 "Let's just know the Lord gives us wisdom, 27:58 and out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. 28:01 God bless you. |
Revised 2015-05-28