Participants: Atonte Myers, Ivor Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000011
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00:15 Welcome to "Battles of Faith"
00:17 - I'm Atonte Myers 00:18 - And I'm Ivor Myers 00:19 - And today we're continuing our discussion on 00:23 the entertainment industry. 00:24 We've entitled today's program 00:26 "Exodus from the Black Hole". 00:28 Now, if you've seen some of our other programs, 00:30 you know we've been talking about the music industry, 00:34 movies, television, our last program was on 00:37 the martial arts, 00:38 but we want to talk today about how to escape 00:41 from that black hole. 00:42 We call the entertainment industry "the black hole" 00:45 because a black hole is that place in Space where 00:48 no light can escape, but 00:51 with God all things are possible. 00:53 So, for those of you who have made a decision to say: 00:56 "Hey, you know what? This information that I've heard 00:58 on "Battles of Faith", I believe in it 01:01 and I believe it's in the Bible. I want to make a decision 01:03 This program is for you because you're going to learn 01:06 how to escape form the black hole. 01:09 Those things that you want to give up, 01:10 you're going to see today how you can receive 01:11 the power from God to do that. 01:14 So, we're excited about this program. 01:16 - That's right, Atonte. We want to lay out principles 01:19 by which those who are looking to escape 01:22 the black hole, those who have seen the dangers 01:24 of the black hole, those who have seen 01:26 the hidden dragon behind the black hole 01:28 can say: "Alright, this is how I'm going to escape, 01:31 this is what I need to do to make it out", 01:36 because we pointed out before that we cannot do this 01:40 except through the power of Christ. 01:42 So, we want to lay out some of these principles 01:43 on this program. 01:45 We want to begin by reading Revelation chapter 18, 01:49 we invite you to get your Bibles, 01:50 Revelation 18 and we're going to look at verses 1-4. 01:54 [text on the screen] 02:41 Powerful push in the Scripture there. 02:44 God describes this Babylon power and says it is full of 02:50 all the abominations of the Earth. 02:51 And a lot of things that we've been talking about 02:53 in this series, are some of those things 02:57 that are found in Babylon. 02:59 Some of those things that the Devil has been using 03:01 to deceive and to pull people away from Jesus Christ. 03:06 And now, we find here, in this portion of Scripture, 03:08 God is revealing all these abominations, 03:12 every unclean spirit, those thins that 03:15 the entertainment industry is full of, Atonte. 03:17 Than God says: "Come out of her, my people!" 03:21 You know, that let's me know that there are people, 03:26 honest and sincere people who are still in this industry. 03:33 You know, we don't want to seem as though 03:35 coming out and saying: "You're in this industry, 03:37 you are evil." - Right! 03:39 - But God has people who don't see, who have no clue 03:43 and once they begin to see and learn these things, 03:45 they're going to make a decision to follow Jesus 03:48 and come out of Babylon all the way. 03:50 So this not only that pretends false doctrines and 03:54 false teachings, but also an anti-christian lifestyle. 04:00 - That's right. - And so God says: 04:02 "I want you to come out and let you be not partakers 04:06 of her sin." 04:07 So, we see here that God is definitely wanting us, 04:12 He wants to lead us on this exodus out of the black hole. 04:18 And that reminds me of the story of Moses and 04:22 the children of Israel where God delivered them 04:24 out of Egypt, out of bondage. 04:27 We're going to see that there are some parallels 04:29 in that story and this call here for God's people 04:34 to come out of Babylon that are going to help us 04:36 discover just how we can do that. 04:39 - And this program is so exciting because, again, 04:42 when you're trapped or you feel trapped in the black hole 04:46 and you want to escape, but you feel powerless, 04:48 because Satan's made you feel that way 04:50 and he's made you feel that: "You know what? Even though 04:53 you want to give these things up, you can't, there's no way." 04:56 God has promised us that He would give us the power 04:59 to escape. And we have so many wonderful 05:02 testimonies from the Bible of people that He has 05:04 given power. So, we have history there that He can and 05:08 He will do it for us as well. 05:10 - That's right. Let's go ahead and look at 05:11 the book of Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12. 05:19 The Bible says here: 05:22 [text on the screen] 05:35 The Bible point out here, this is principle number one, 05:38 that we must recognize that what we are up against 05:42 is not natural, it is supernatural. 05:46 - So, so many of us think that we can fight it 05:49 within our own power. Just if we are determined 05:53 in our will-power, we can get the victory over it. 05:57 - That's right. You know, will-power has 05:58 a certain place, but against will-power by itself 06:02 is actual powerless when it comes to this spiritual conflict 06:07 So, while we must put our wills on the side of God, 06:11 ultimately it is God's power, not our will-power, 06:15 it is God's power that is going to come in and 06:17 enable us to fight against and to be delivered 06:22 from the supernatural power. 06:24 So, we again, we've been looking at the supernatural 06:29 nature of the entertainment industry. 06:31 Remember, we discussed the word, and I keep going back to this 06:35 word "sorcery" found in Revelation 18:23, 06:38 that the whole world was deceived by her sorceries. 06:42 And the word there is "Pharmakeia" which means 06:45 -you should all know this by now- "anything that 06:49 medicates the mind so that it will not follow the will 06:53 or the law of God". 06:54 We see that the entertainment industry does just that, 06:57 it medicates the mind. 06:58 We are talking about wrestling and warring against sorcery. 07:02 Most people think that if they are not reading 07:06 "Harry Potter" books or if they are not 07:09 directly involved in some witch or witch doctor 07:14 that they have nothing to worry about when it comes 07:16 to sorcery. But, far from that, we are dealing with sorcery 07:21 in a very real sense through the 07:23 entertainment industry. 07:24 - So, Satan has supernatural power and 07:28 he's the one that's behind the secular 07:31 entertainment world and his powers are being 07:35 brought through that industry. 07:36 And than God also has supernatural powers, 07:40 so, if we're going to come out of the black whole, 07:44 if we're going to escape, we have to connect to God. 07:46 - That's right. And that's our second point. 07:47 Once you realize that your enemy is supernatural, 07:53 once you realize that what you're fighting against 07:55 is supernatural, those drugs, the alcohol, the reason why 07:58 the addiction is there is because 08:00 it is the power of the enemy. 08:02 Once you realize that, and once you realize that your 08:05 will-power is only half of the battle, that you must 08:09 connect with someone supernatural, 08:10 than that drives us to ask the Lord, 08:14 to plead for a supernatural connection 08:17 with Jesus Christ. 08:19 - That's exciting. I think 2 Peter 1:4 08:23 sheds a little bit more light on this. It says: 08:25 [text on the screen] 08:39 - That's right. The Bible says there that that's 08:41 how we are going to escape, by partaking of 08:43 the divine nature. 08:45 Now, here's a beautiful thing about the divine nature. 08:47 The divine nature is not natural. 08:50 It is supernatural! 08:53 In other words, God says: "I'm going to come into you 08:56 and supernaturally empower you." 08:58 I know that when I say the word "supernatural", 08:59 most people are thinking: "Is he talking about 09:02 floating around somewhere or some other physical 09:05 manifestations?" 09:06 No! We're talking about supernatural love, 09:08 we're talking about that supernatural gift 09:11 of righteousness where we hate evil and we love good. 09:15 And this is supernatural because it comes 09:18 only from God. 09:20 And God Himself is supernatural. 09:22 - Because Satan can cause us to float across the room 09:25 but he cannot give us victory over sin and over 09:30 the things in our lives that we want victory over. 09:32 It's impossible for him to give us that power. 09:33 - That's right. That's the one thing that the enemy 09:35 cannot counterfeit, he cannot counterfeit the gift 09:38 of righteousness. So, God says that, 09:42 actually, when we realize, if we underestimate 09:45 our enemy and say: "This are just natural things", 09:48 then what kind of power are we going to use to fight 09:50 these natural things? 09:51 We are going to use natural power. 09:53 We're going to say: "I'm going to grip my teeth", 09:56 and we grip our teeth and guess what happens? 09:58 - Nothing. - We stand for a while 10:00 and then we find ourselves falling right back 10:02 because we underestimate the power of the enemy. 10:05 Once we understand that the enemy is supernatural 10:07 we say: "You know, I need a supernatural connection 10:09 with God. I can't have a superficial 'Yes I go 10:13 to church once a week, yes I read my Bible'", 10:18 We've got to go deeper then that because 10:20 now we realize that this battle that we're in, 10:22 this star war that we are in, this galactic conflict 10:27 that we are in, we need more than just will-power 10:32 to fight it, we've got to get supernaturally connected. 10:34 - That's right. And that's why we're so excited about 10:37 this program, because before the end 10:39 of the program we believe that you will have 10:41 the tools that you need to know how to get 10:43 supernaturally connected with God. 10:46 - That's right. We want to go to our 10:47 next point. Next point is burning the magic books. 10:52 We talked about this in another program. 10:54 But we're going to touch it again. 10:55 Burning the magic books... 10:56 Let's look at Acts 19, and we're going to read 11:02 verses 18 and 19, or rather we'll start with verse 17: 11:08 [text on the screen] 11:41 Now, that's beautiful, Atonte. Can you imagine what would 11:42 happen if the whole church took al those "magic books", 11:48 those avenues through which the Devil has entered into 11:53 our homes, 11:55 those video games, those VCR tapes 11:59 that have movies on them, those music CDs, 12:04 took all those things and burn them... 12:08 ...got rid of them. 12:10 - If the whole church did that? - I know it's not going to 12:12 happen, but it would be awesome. 12:16 You know, those who want to escape the black whole 12:19 they've got to cut all ties. 12:22 They've got to get rid of all those strings that 12:26 the Devil has connected to them 12:28 and a way to do that is to make that confession 12:30 of faith, to show their deeds, to say: "I'm not only going to 12:33 confess Christ with my mouth, but I'm going to show my deeds, 12:36 I'm going to take all these things that have allowed Satan 12:40 to get into my heart, into my life and I'm going to 12:42 get rid of them, I'm going to cut them off. 12:45 This is my public statement that I am serious about 12:48 escaping from the black hole." 12:50 Now, does that deliver us from the black hole? 12:52 No. You can burn your CDs, do all those things 12:55 and then go out and buy more. 12:56 What we need is a heart changed! 12:58 And we're going to talk about that as our 13:00 fourth principle, but again, God is saying: 13:03 "I want you to show how serious you are. 13:05 I want you to go take those things and get rid of them." 13:08 - And only God can give us that heart change. 13:11 Only he can do heart surgery, as I call it. 13:15 - That's right. Now, let's go ahead and go to what I believe 13:18 is the most important point, or the most important 13:21 principle in escaping from the black hole, 13:23 and this is found in the story of the exodus, 13:28 being led out my Moses, 13:31 leading the children of Israel out of Egypt 13:32 into the promised land. 13:34 Let's look at Exodus 12 and we'll read verses 6, 7 and 13. 13:41 - Okay. In the Bible we read: 13:43 [text on the screen] 13:53 -Okay, let's pause right here. 13:54 We want to give a little bit of background here. 13:57 God has instructed the children of Israel 14:00 to kill a lamb. And this lamb, they would have 14:04 taken its blood and put it on the door poles 14:08 for particular reasons, so go ahead and read. 14:10 - In verse 7 it says: 14:11 [text on the screen] 14:21 - And verse 13: 14:22 [text on the screen] 14:36 - That's right. So, here we have God saying: 14:38 "When I see this blood upon your door-poles I will pass over, 14:43 I will pass over you". And that pass-over 14:48 was a good thing. 14:50 If you were in that time you would have want God to pass 14:53 over you, to protect you from that plague 14:57 and it was on this night that the children of Israel 15:00 were led out of Egypt, and it all began with 15:03 the application of the blood. 15:05 You see, it all began with applying the blood. 15:09 And that is the most important thing that, if we want to 15:12 escape the black hole, we've got to apply the blood. 15:14 Notice Revelation 12:11. 15:21 And the Bible reads there: 15:24 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, 15:29 and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not 15:32 their lives unto the death." 15:34 The Scripture here points out that the way that God's people 15:38 will overcome in the last days is by the application 15:42 of the blood. 15:44 - Now, I know that there might be viewers out there 15:46 who are saying: "Oh, I've heard this before". 15:48 Of course, yes, there's power in the blood, we sing the song, 15:51 but there's more to it than meets the eye. 15:54 - That's right. If I would've asked somebody 15:57 what does the blood mean? How are we saved by the blood 16:03 of Christ? 16:04 You may get a whole array of answers, 16:07 but I believe that it's important for us to know 16:09 that if there's power in the blood, which there is, 16:11 and if we overcome by the blood, which we must, 16:14 then it is imperative for us to know just what 16:17 the blood is. 16:19 So, let's go ahead and look at John 6:51. 16:25 We're going to read from verse 51 on a little bit. 16:30 John 6:51: 16:34 [text on the screen] 16:55 - Okay. Let's pause right there. 16:56 Here, Christ is speaking and He says that 17:01 He's going to give His flesh to the whole world 17:04 so that they may live. 17:06 And the Jews say: "How can this man give us 17:09 his flesh? What is He talking about?" 17:11 That's cannibalism! 17:13 So, Jesus goes on and says, verse 53: 17:16 [text on the screen] 17:37 In other words, whoever has His blood in him 17:39 and His flesh, He's going to pass over him, 17:41 the destroying plague of the last days is not going to 17:45 follow them. 17:46 So, this is why it is so important to have the blood. 17:49 But verse 55 goes on: 17:50 [text on the screen] 17:59 And now notice verse 58: 18:01 [text on the screen] 18:12 And now, verse 60 says: 18:13 [text on the screen] 18:18 Jesus, how can you go around saying: Except you eat My 18:21 flesh and drink My blood you have no life in you. 18:23 Don't you know that doesn't sound too good? 18:25 And Jesus says to them, in verse 61: 18:30 [text on the screen] 18:38 What we want to know... What does Jesus say here? 18:40 What does the flesh and the blood represent? 18:45 Let's go ahead and look at Matthew 26 18:47 and we're going to find out a very important principle here. 18:52 Matthew 26:26 18:58 [text on the screen] 19:28 So, again we have Jesus here saying: Take here, 19:31 this is My body, this is My blood. 19:32 But He's giving them bread and He's giving them vine, 19:37 grape juice. So, we know that when 19:40 Jesus was speaking here, He was speaking symbolically, 19:43 the bread symbolically represented something, 19:46 the blood symbolically represented something. 19:49 It was not His literal blood that they were drinking, 19:51 not His literal flesh. 19:54 So, again we ask the question: what does the flesh and 19:57 the blood represent? 19:58 Let's go to Matthew 4:4 20:00 - And there we'll find the answer. 20:02 - Matthew 4:4. There we find our answer. 20:09 - In the Bible says: 20:10 [text on the screen] 20:19 - Alright. So, there you have it 20:20 The Bible says that the bread represents 20:22 the Word of God, the Bible. 20:27 Do we have to eat the bread? 20:29 - Yes, we have to eat up the Word everyday. 20:31 - It's important for us to study our Bibles. 20:35 It's important for us to read our Bibles daily. 20:39 It's important for us to understand 20:40 the things in the Word of God. 20:43 But, notice what Jesus said. Jesus said: 20:46 "Except you eat my flesh AND drink my blood, 20:53 you have no life in you." 20:55 Why is that so important to understand? 20:56 Because, when we go to the book of Leviticus 17, 21:02 notice what we find in verses 10 and 11. 21:08 Atonte is going to read that for us: 21:10 [text on the screen] 21:30 Stop right there... "The life of the flesh 21:33 is in the blood"! The life is not in the flesh, 21:36 it's in the blood. And that's why Jesus said: 21:39 "Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood 21:43 you have no life in you." 21:45 Now, if the life of the flesh is in the blood 21:47 we've got to understand that it is the blood that keeps 21:51 a person alive. 21:54 Let's ask a question. What is it that kept Jesus alive? 21:58 What is it that sustained Jesus, spiritually speaking, 22:02 when He was on this earth. 22:04 If we find the answer to that, we than know what 22:06 the blood represents. 22:08 What do you think, Atonte? 22:09 - It was His connection with His Father! 22:11 - It was His connection with His Father. 22:13 It was His communion, it was His prayer 22:16 to and with His Father. 22:20 - Communication! - Communication! 22:21 Notice a quote from the book "Education", page 80. 22:26 It says here: "It was not on the cross only that Christ 22:30 sacrificed Himself for humanity. As He went about doing good, 22:34 His everyday experience was an outpouring 22:37 of His life. In one way only can such a life be sustained" 22:45 Here comes the answer... 22:47 "Jesus lived in dependence upon God and communion with Him." 22:54 He was sustained, it says, by continual communion. 22:59 So, Atonte, if you can imagine, 23:00 and our viewers out there just imagine, 23:02 when Jesus spoke, His words were going up to the Father. 23:08 And then, when the Father would respond to Him, 23:11 the Father's words would come back down. 23:13 You know what you have there? 23:15 You have a cycle. Just like blood flows in the body, 23:19 you've got a cycle going on of communication. 23:22 And it was this continual cycle that kept Jesus alive 23:28 and functioning as a spiritual super-hero. 23:32 - And I think the word "continual" is what we need 23:35 to focus in on, because many of us out there say: 23:38 "Okay, I pray everyday, I communicate with God", 23:40 but Jesus had a continual connection with Him. 23:44 The blood was constantly flowing. 23:46 God was telling Jesus every step of the way: 23:49 "here, turn right, turn left, say this, go here, do that". 23:54 And that's what we need! Because if we try to 23:56 order our own steps and live our life out the way we feel 24:00 how we should do it and say what we should say. 24:03 But God is saying: "No, I want you to be so connected 24:06 to me, so dependent upon Me, that I'd even give you the words 24:11 to say, the places to go and I can give you the power 24:15 to do all these things that I'm asking you to do." 24:17 So, it's the continual communication with Him. 24:20 I can say that the days that I've lived accepting 24:24 the blood, meaning keeping a continual connection 24:27 with God, are the days that I was able to get victory 24:30 and escape from my own black hole. 24:33 - Now I'll tell you what. Satan wants to cut off 24:35 this communication. You know what it's like 24:37 to be numb? You know, you sit on your leg too long, 24:41 you get numb. What's happening? 24:42 The blood flow has stopped. 24:44 Satan is trying to numb God's people. 24:46 Listen to this. The Bible says in Amos 8:11 and 12: 24:50 [text on the screen] 25:02 There's a famine in the land because people are not hearing 25:04 God speak because their minds have been bombarded 25:07 by the entertainment industry. 25:09 And God says: "I want you to step back 25:11 from that, go into the quite and I want you to begin to have 25:13 that blood flow, on again, a continuous cycle. 25:16 It's interesting Atonte. 25:18 You remember that when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane 25:22 and He began to pray, the Bible says, 25:25 in Luke 22:44 that He began to sweat as if it were great 25:30 drops of blood. Blood began to flow from His body 25:34 and you know why? 25:35 Because the communication between He and His Father 25:39 was beginning to break up. 25:42 And that breaking up was so stressful to Jesus Christ 25:52 that He began to sweat blood. 25:54 On the cross, when He said: "My God, My God, why has thou 25:58 forsaken me?", that's what killed Jesus. 26:00 The blood flow had been cut off. 26:02 The Father was no more communicating, the cycle 26:05 had been broken and the cycle killed Jesus Christ. 26:08 He died of a broken heart. 26:10 We have to ask ourselves a question. 26:12 Do we have the blood of Jesus Christ? 26:14 Do we have that spirit? You know, when we say: 26:16 "football is in his blood", what we're saying 26:20 is that it's something he loves so much that 26:21 he couldn't live without it. We've got to get to the place 26:24 where we have the blood of the Lamb, 26:27 where, if we don't pray to Christ is like we're dying. 26:30 We've got to be so in love with the Father and 26:33 in love with the Son that we've His blood 26:35 and it's our habit to just be continually in communion 26:40 with Him in a supernatural way. 26:42 - And the only purpose of the secular entertainment industry, 26:45 the whole reason why he has produced it is to stop 26:50 the blood from flowing. It's to stop the communion. 26:53 We constantly have the radio going, the TV going and 26:56 these two things, if you're watching TV 26:59 that doesn't have anything to do with God, 27:00 or listening to music that doesn't have anything to do 27:02 with God, or going to movies that don't have anything 27:05 to do with God, the connection is broken, 27:07 the blood is not flowing, and we need the blood to have 27:10 that supernatural connection and to have victory. 27:12 - That's right. Because Satan knows that verse, 27:15 Revelation 12:11 real well: "They overcame him 27:17 by the blood". 27:18 Okay guys, we need to get out there and stop 27:20 the blood flow. Bombard their minds. Attack, attack, attack, 27:25 give them no time to recuperate, give them no time to defend 27:30 themselves, give them no time to counter. 27:32 Satan knows what he's doing. 27:34 And it's time that we know what we're doing, 27:36 because we've got the battle plans of Jesus Christ, 27:40 right here, in His Word. 27:41 - And you may be thinking out there: 27:43 "Okay, I haven't had this supernatural connection, 27:46 I have not had this communion with God continually, 27:49 everyday, but you desire that, it can start today for you. 27:54 You don't have to wait any longer. 27:56 God is waiting, and these are prayers that if you pray them, 27:59 He will answer right away. Just be still and be quiet 28:02 and know that He is God and He will speak to you, 28:06 and you will hear His voice. 28:07 Thank you for joining us. 28:09 Until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17